England sadly didn’t have a scooby doo in the 4th Test.

Some dismal reading  Top 10 England Collapses. Congratulations to the Australians – a fine performance and a side that seems to be gelling at the right time. Johnson and Siddle, who took pelters from all corners, both got five-fors. Would our players when criticised ram it down journalists throats? The idiots booing Ponting should be booing the England top 5.

Hayden talks some sense here. England shouldn’t panic and restructure the entire side for the Final Test that would be madness. We will go into The Oval Test 1-1 and we should remember that in two of the four Tests England have dominated even though the likes of Bopara haven’t been firing. We should also remember that this is a good Australian bowling attack but it is not a great one.

That said, I think Bopara has to be dropped in my opinion. He has been unlucky twice but at the same time he doesn’t look like a Test Cricketer. One minute he’ll be smashing a cover drive so beautiful that you think Michael Vaughan is back at the crease and then, for an over or two, he is scratching around slowly looking like a club batsman who has been dropped into the England team by mistake. I think the Australian bowlers have him in their sights and they would be delighted to see him on the teamsheet for The Oval.

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After a hapless display yesterday which saw England slump from 58-0 to 82-5 at close and brought English supporters crashing back to the bad old days, England resumed this morning 261 runs away from avoiding an innings defeat and 36 runs away from avoiding the heaviest home defeat in English cricket history.

James Anderson, who was needlessly sent in as nightwatchman yesterday evening, lasted all of 3 balls. His first scoring shot was a four from the 2nd ball to take his run of innings without a duck to 54, but was gone next ball edging Hilfenhaus to Ponting at 2nd slip. Six overs later, shortly after 11.30am, the last of the recognised batsmen was out with Matt Prior falling victim to a stunning one handed diving catch from the keeper Haddin. Four wickets in the innings for Hilfenhaus.

Stuart Broad, England’s leading bowler in the match having taken 6 wickets in the Australia soon became England’s leading batsman in the match, or at least in the innings, scoring a hugely entertaining 50 from just 43 balls. Swann was doing his bit at the other end passing 30 to get England, against all odds, up to 200 and beyond. Stuart Clark in particular took a fearful hammering from the pair, conceding 16 from 2 consecutive overs sandwiching a 17 run over from Siddle.

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England 102 and 82 for 5 (Anderson 0*, Prior 4*) trail Australia 445 (North 110, Clarke 93, Ponting 78 Broad 6-91) by 261 runs

The day started on a muted note for England with Clarke and North bent on consolidating the lead and batting England out of the game. Clarke played some lovely shots and was poised for a well deserved century but fell on 93 to Onions, but he had taken Australia to nearly thrice what England managed to score. North had been patient, and continued in the same vein after Clarke was dismissed. The second new ball saw Haddin fall to Harmison for 14, but the score had steadily moved up to 323 for 6 by then.

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Fourth Test, Headingly 7th August – 11th August 2009

Day One.

Phew, here we go again it feels like there’s been no respite this summer. No wonder Freddie is knackered and the early breaking news today was that he would be ruled out and indeed that was confirmed at around 9.30am.

There was another injury scare during the warm up when Matt Prior was thought to have done himself a mischief playing football, but after panic and chaos and requests to delay the toss and wicketkeepers up and down the country frantically checking their phones, Prior was passed fit to play. It was some morning for England which had been going on for some time after being evacuated from their team hotel due to a fire alarm at 5am. News at the toss was that Harmison was in for Flintoff, for Australia Stuart Clark replaced Nathan Hauritz, Strauss won and chose to bat.

And what a mistake that was! Were it not for Billy Bowden, Strauss would have been out first ball to an inswinger which was cleaning out middle stump but not out was the reply.  The Australians weren’t made to pay for the let off though as Strauss walking back to changing room in the 4th over, Marcus North holding onto a screamer in the slips one handed high above his head. England 11-1 and the skipper gone for 3 with Bopara in next and in desperate need of a score.

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