A_S

The 'joke' with him is there is a fucking chasm between his best and worst. His last 2 Ashes Tests at the Gabba sum up his career. Anyway, he has been brilliant in this game and given some English batsmen plenty to think about, especially Trott. Ian Chappell suggested swapping Bell and Trott in the batting order. Makes sense. And Jimmy Anderson can get to fuck. Has plenty to say when things are going his way but cries like a little bitch when it's against him. Fuck off you whiny little cunt, don't give it if you can't take it. Broad has copped plenty but rose above it to have a really good game. I've got a lot of respect for how he's handled himself. Anyway, it's a weird feeling leading in an Ashes series again, only taken nearly 7 years to do again!

Mirallas also got called for handball and also drew blood from Henderson with a raised arm. Both after he was on his joke of a yellow. Fucking hell

Did Kevin Friend send Spearing off that time when he slipped as he cleared the ball? Wow that is horrible, especially when you see Mirallas get away with fucking murder on the same day.

To be fair, the general consensus on here was that he should spend time at 6 to develop his game at Test level to gain experience there before moving up the order a bit later. He's definitely got something but yesterday just got to him. It was a very loose shot, but then he's probably never been in such a situation, given the score, the bowler, the pitch and the crowd noise. It was pretty fucking hostile for even a seasoned batsman, let alone a young lad.

Bat as much of tomorrow as possible which should, even batting slowly, yield a lead of 400+ The English had Australia by the scruff of the neck last night, now Australia has England firmly by the balls. It is now their game to lose. That said, the team that is down doesn't give up easily, while the team in front has seemingly forgotten how to win, so this isn't quite done yet. England will be looking to keep Australia to under a 400 lead, which is still possible, going by the struggles of both teams so far with bat in hand. I'd love to get excited about the state of play now, but can't quite just yet. I also think Swann and Lyon will have a say in this game yet. For me, Swann has bowled really well without the figures to show, while Lyon will hopefully gain some confidence from that 1st innings.

He might want to think about keeping that mo

He's erratic as fuck which can mean many leaked runs. When he is on a fast, bouncy pitch though, it must be a fucking pain to face, given it could end up going anywhere. Also, he can afford to go at 4 rpo when none of the others are going over 2.

He bowls to the right.....

He bowls to the left.....

These innings are nearly mirroring each other. Wait for Root to go out shortly before Prior and Broad rescue shit with a huge partnership. Come on boys.

Though Siddle dropped what he probably should have taken, at least he has dried up the runs from one end, which is never to the liking of a batsman as aggressive as Pietersen. Harris doing the job, as ever, when fit.

The problem with both Clarke and Trott is that the bowler knows they will go for fuck all runs whilst attempting the execution of this plan, given both batsmen try this shite nudge off the hip stroke that may trickle a few runs into the leg side but also create chances. Then look at Warner and Cook. Whilst these two have their own faults, bowlers don't try and bounce them out anywhere near as much as both are aggressive against the short ball. So bowlers know that they'll probably go for plenty of runs in the meantime, which will piss the captain off and most likely cause a less aggressive field change.

It's funny isn't it? The Trott-Johnson set-up is as predictable as the Clarke-Broad one, every fucker watching knows it's going to happen, yet the batsmen just go ahead and play the same shit shots that get them out time and again to the same bowlers. Good batsmen too.

In his defence, the mo is for a good cause (assuming you included that....probably not)

Some twat from a Brisbane newspaper (the one getting into Pietersen on twitter) was on TV a couple of days ago going on about how they were running a campaign to not mention Broad or show his picture for the entire series. He looked very pleased with himself whilst explaining how it's all down to him not walking at Trent Bridge (seriously, are we still talking about this?) and some of his pre-series comments have made him Enemy #1. Fast forward to the end of day 1 and one great parnership from 2 unlikely batsmen is all that is keeping Australia remotely in this game, thanks largely to Broad. If these media wankers haven't worked it out by now, Broad doesn't give two fucks what is said about him. What actually worries me is that he will be in the Steve Waugh/Allan Border mould, ie a guy that you should really leave alone as he uses all this to spur him on and perform even better. Yet this fucking cunthouse of a newspaper are STILL running this bullshit campaign the morning after he has ripped through the Australian batting order. It almost seems like the Australian batsmen and media are actively trying to embarrass the country. Thank fuck for Adam Scott and the bowlers!

England would take Australia making under 300 after electing to bat on a great pitch. That said, it could have been much worse already but for Haddin and Johnson. I'm no Haddin fan, but credit to him, he batted well. He always seems to play his best against England. Johnson also batted very well and hopefully it'll carry over to his bowling. Really interesting day. Broad bowled really well too but the disappointing thing was the number of Aussie batsmen being dismissed off the back foot, ie shorter length bowling. Clarke and Watson should be downright embarrassed by thier dismissals. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how England bat tomorrow. Still game on at this stage.

Rogers never settled, Warner looks very solid, Watson just played a nothing shot there. That session is probably all square, although England will be happy with 2 wickets first up.

Had he been around in 08/09, he'd have only needed to bob up for one or two of his typical right-place-right-time goals in amongst all those draws and the league title would have been Liverpool's.

In work early, taking the day off from 10:15am local time which leaves me just enough time to drive home and get settled on the couch in time for ball 1. That's if there are no typically Queensland storms for this time of year! Come the fuck on!

Tomorrow is ace: - Day 1 of the Ashes series - World Cup of Golf from Melbourne (ie ideal timeslot) - Aussie Rules draft day, so good to see which youngsters your club gets through the youth system. - For shits and giggles, Uruguay is playing against arabs in some random sport I've barely heard of.

So I drove down into town on my lunch break and on my way back, I'm held up behind a car that is sitting stationary in the single lane with its indicator on. Not such a big deal in itself, expect for that fact that: 1) There is actually an extra 'lane' between the angled parking and the single lane road to allow for people to sit and wait for a car pulling out of the parking space without disrupting the flow of traffic. 2) There was a spare parking space on both fucking sides of the reversing car that this car in front of me was waiting for!! Female driver, needless to say.

Fuck, if he scores in the derby, that'll be some sort of week for the lad.

Broad did nothing wrong IMO. A feathered edge that you know you've hit is still an edge you know you've hit. If anything, it's the feathered edge that you should walk on, if you are ever going to, as they are much harder to pick up from an umpire's perspective. The only party that should cop grief from that Broad incident is the umpire.

Tremlett Pietersen Johnson Warner Warner Just to throw a cat amongst the pigeons! Wouldn't surprise me at all to see a couple of those come to fruition though, some real confidence players in there, all of whom should enjoy Australian conditions.

To be honest, I'm finding a lot of the talk from both sides a bit tedious. The series in England was so recent, all the players know what to expect from each other, not many secrets after 2 months away from each other. The only thing is adjusting to the conditions, but most of this England team had little trouble there going by the last series in Australia. Just shut the fuck up and see you all with the whites on in about 24 hours. Cheers.