75 years? No problem.

Three days on from the ‘miracle at Cardiff’ the two teams arrive at Lord’s for the second Test. So what have we learned since Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson blocked out for nearly eleven, gut churning overs, on Sunday evening? First, Ricky ‘Roland’ Ponting is not only a bad loser, he is a pretty bad at taking a draw too. Yes, England may have indulged in a tiny bit of blatant time-wasting, but don’t think for a minute that the Australians would have behaved any better were the roles reversed. They would, however, have been a little more subtle than sending on the world’s largest physio for no reason. And on Wednesday we learnt that Andrew Flintoff will retire from Test match cricket after this current series. Probably for the best, it is no good having a player who cannot be relied upon to play game after game; it is unsettling and upsets the balance of the team.


The second Test promises to be a very different match indeed, and it will be extremely interesting to see how both sets of players respond to the extraordinary events of Sunday. Australia will be smarting, Ponting knows that he blew it, missed a trick, looked a gift horse in the mouth. All the talk of England delaying the game is a smokescreen, erected by the Australian captain to defend himself from the many accusations of poor decision making. Why Marcus North, full time batter, part-time bowler was sending down gentle turners to England’s last pair is anybody’s guess. Siddle and Hilfenhaus must have wondered what they had done to upset Rick, one good length Yorker and Panesar would have been back in the Pavilion, and the Aussies 1-0 up.


Still Ponting’s mistake is Andrew Strauss’s gain and I fully expect a very different England team to take the field today. The personnel will be similar; Harmison for Monty, and Onions for the injured Broad, but the attitude and application should, and hopefully will, be much improved. If England could win at Lord’s, for the first time since 1934, etc, then Australia may find it hard to stomach and recover after that first Test finale. The batters will have to stand up and be counted, do to the Aussies what they did to England last weekend. The bowlers must rediscover their aggression too, don’t let the Aussies settle, don’t give them easy runs, and hit them. Hit them with the nice hard shiny new ball, it excites the crowd, it excites the players and it will ruffle the Australians. I don’t care how good a player you are, getting struck by a cricket ball at 90MPH is both frightening and painful.


Australia will win the toss and bat first, but that will be all they win this week. England are going to come out firing on all cylinders, the crowd will be behind them, and Ponting’s men will be all out for around 200 and bowling by 5 o’clock this evening. I’m off to try and get tickets outside the ground, wish me luck!