Oh well, 1-1 2 to go.

Time to see how this England team reacts to a setback.

A damn sight longer than it took the Aussies!!

Crap. Merry fooking Christmas.

Normal service resumed

I guess it's a bit like the NZ rugby teams recruiting Samoans etc. Is the level of rugby talent that poor there in NZ?

Beating the number 1 ranked rl team in the world in 2 consecutive finals would suggest otherwise.
The AB's arent looking too bad right now either.
Remind me again how good England are at RU and RL?
Take those South Africans out of your cricket side and you would be 2-0 down in the ashes now by now.

I'd have taken 1-1 with 2 to play before it all kicked off. They have to win one more than us remember. If we get anywhere near half of the luck the aussies have had so far in the last 2 tests then we'll be fine. And if Ponting's finger is busted he could be out too (typical of their luck it went straight in the air to the keeper)

Might even be a good thing to get a kick up the 'Arris.
Remember Headingley in 2009 was followed swiftly with an absolute tw@tting of them at The Oval.

Anyone else mystified by the umpires as well in this test? They couldn't tell Anderson off quick enough yesterday for gobbing off yet the Aussies are all at it all the time. Typical Aussies though, love giving it out but can't take it when someone has the nerve to have a go back at them.

I think we have just found the kid who liked telling on his class mates at school!

We didn't even try in the 2nd innings!

the umpires have favoured england more than the aussies fella.. just look at the last ponting decision.. he didnt touch the ball , but was given out...the luck has been with the poms fella and that is about to change

Shane have you been in a hostel with Aussies in London or something because you are getting tall poppy syndrome mouthing off like an Aussie, when you go home you'll have your attitude knocked out of you.

This is one of the weakest Aussie teams in history but they beat NZ in NZ easily earlier in the year, Bollinger and Johnson ripped through them.

On the South African theme I don't know if you're old enough to remember, but when Graeme Hick started scoring all those runs in county cricket and the TCCB said he would have to wait ten years to quality for England in 1994, New Zealand Cricket offered Hick the chance to qualify to play Tests for them in four years so he signed for Northern Districts and played for them in our winters. We then changed the rules to let him qualify for England in 1991 instead. How successful Hick would have been playing for the Kiwis we will never know, but he would have been a lot better for England if they'd made him wait three years and start his Test career against the mighty pace attack of Heath Davis, Chris Pringle and Gavin Larsen, rather than Ambrose, Marshall and Walsh. The Kiwis ended up using that four year residency rule to get Roger Twose over from England, when Twose realised he wasn't going to get picked by England.