Dean Jones may have it right when he says that people thought the Titanic unsinkable, the four minute mile unobtainable and that you think you can never win the lottery but there is absolutely no chance of Australia escaping the Fifth Test without defeat. Is this a sign of the pessimism within Australian minds or realism based on the fact that 546 has never before been chased down in the history of the first-class game? With Wisden on England’s side you would have thought that the odds on an Australian win would have been more generous than the 10/3 on offer. I’m sure that your local sub-continental bookmaker would give you better value on this great escape.
The star from an England perspective on the third day was the latest player off the conveyor belt marked South African talent; Jonathan Trott. The England selectors ignored the calls to resuscitate Mark Ramprakash’s international career, bring Rob Key back in from the poker table or Marcus Trescothick from the peace that he has found in Taunton. Instead they went for the next cab off the rank and have been richly rewarded. Demonstrating a level of composure and technique completely absent in the hapless Bopara’s efforts Trott should have batted both Australia out of the game and himself on to the plane for England’s tour to South Africa over the winter. It is there that he will play against the man that his game partly resembles; Jacques Kallis. If Trott can be half the player that Kallis is, and as he doesn’t bowl that’s the most he can be, then England will be happy. He has displayed the touch of a veteran in his two innings to date.
One man who didn’t enjoy the third day at the Test was Ricky Ponting. When he planned this campaign at Cricket Australia’s headquarters he did it with the singular goal of returning with the Ashes. Never in his worst nightmare would Ponting have envisaged being the only Australian captain to lose two overseas Ashes series. He stood in the outfield yesterday watching as the cafeteria bowling served up by his attack was tucked in to by the England lower order. If the mental anguish wasn’t enough then it was accompanied by physical pain too as Matt Prior drove a ball that Ponting fielded with his unguarded face only yards from the bat - http://www.cricketcrowd.com/Play_Video-23-2520-1418.html. As he left the pitch spitting blood it was another unwelcome reminder of 2005 when Steve Harmison drew blood and scarred Ponting under his right eye. A tough man, Ponting beat the count with ease and will be drawing on all his expertise to ensure that Australia make England sweat for the win.
If Trott dominated proceedings in the middle then the star of the show off the pitch was singer/song-writer Lily Allen who proved herself an occasionally knowledgeable but always entertaining guest for Jonathan Agnew to interview on TMS. Arriving without entourage, makeup or ego lunch was cancelled for the likes of Tuffers, CMJ and the rest of the crew as Allen confirmed herself as a cricketing purist. She stated a preference for Test cricket over Twenty20 and made calls for a return to the traditional cream cricket whites and even the introduction of a ‘baggy blue’ for the England players. Everyone apart from Ponting was smiling in London town.
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