The Ashes – Third Test, Final Day:

Australia 263 (Watson 62, Anderson 5-80, Onions 4-58) and 375 for 5 (Watson 53, Hussey 64, Clarke 103*, North 96) drew with England 376 (Strauss 69, Bell 53, Flintoff 74, Broad 55, Hilfenhaus 4-109)

The ‘day of the series’ began with Onions and Flintoff bowling to the overnight pair of Watson and Hussey. Hussey got a painful knock from Freddie between his thighs, but batted on freely. The duo were inseparable when Onions was replaced by Swann. Shortly Australia went into the lead. Anderson came into the attack, and Watson fell to a faint edge just after reaching his half century. He had played admirably with Hussey, who also reached his 50 the very next ball. Clarke joined Hussey, and Hussey played some of his trademark drives, signs of his regaining form.

But Broad came into the attack, and had Hussey caught behind in his second over of the day, the Australian stalwart departed for 64. England began to sniff chances of a victory but Clarke and North staved them off till lunch, Australia were 59 ahead and the match poised for a draw. If only the rains had not poured on Saturday! Clarke and North played out the second session, getting some useful batting practice ahead of the next test.

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Australia 263 and 88 for 2 (Watson 34*, Hussey 18*) trail England 376 (Strauss 69, Bell 53, Flintoff 74, Broad 55, Hilfenhaus 4-109) by 25 runs

As we look forward to Day 5 of the third test, there seems little doubt that the result will have to be a draw. What an unfortunate situation, as this pitch has for once provided a really fair chance for the bowlers. With all the pitches that are tailor-made for batsmen these days, it is great to be reminded of just how exciting a seaming, swinging deck is.

That said, I don’t imagine that England were particularly enjoying proceedings early on Day 4 as they lost Strauss, Collingwood and Bell all within about 20 runs. It was an impressive opening spell from predominantly Hilfenhaus, but also Mitch Johnson. There were certainly some signs that his radar, and his self-belief are coming back. At times he was unplayable, and he hit the body of the batsmen on numerous occasions.

However, as they must surely be saying over in England, cometh the moment, cometh the Freddie; and boy did he deliver. Flintoff (74) and Prior (41) put on a blistering display of calculated attacking batting, which was great to watch. A part of this was perhaps the most uninspiring spell of bowling for Australia’s late inclusion Shane Watson. At one point the usually reserved Michael Atherton referred to his bowling as ‘utter rubbish’, and I felt the former England captain was being kind. Watson just wasn’t up to it.

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Rain, Rain, f@#king Rain . . . A famous philosopher once said that you can’t have a rainbow without the rain, Dolly Parton I think it was.

That may very well be the case, but it’s crap for cricket. And that was the story of day 3 at Edgbaston. After a series of inspections Umpires Rudi Koertzen and Aleem Dar finally called it a day at 2.40pm.

So what does this mean for the rest of this match or the rest of this series?

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