Speaking too soon..

The current Ashes series was widely predicted to be an England white wash with the Australians being the worst side ever sent to these shores. Just two days ago, no less a bowler than Wasim Akram was hailing James Anderson as the best bowler in the world.

After two days of the Old Trafford test, the test is firmly in the hands of the Australians. The best England can hope for is a draw with the Australians having batted the game out of sight. Put simply, England can't win. Australia can and England must now seek to prevent them. The Australians batted beautifully having been ably led by their captain Michael Clarke with another big hundred to add to his already burgeoning collection. The last two days have exposed the folly of going in to any test match with just four front line bowlers - unless all four are genuine world class, it is a very risky ploy. On his day Anderson shows glimpses of world class as does Swann but the same could not be claimed for Broad and Bresnan.

Yet again, England have pursued this silly tactic of sending in a nightwatchman to "protect" their batsmen. If the top order were good enough, they wouldn't need protecting and especially not from a bowling attack which has thus far performed at a little over county level. That the nightwatchman was summarily dismissed is just desserts. They now face a Herculean task tomorrow to try and stay in the match. If Cook departs during the morning, it is not easy to see who will stick around and put up a fight. The Australians appear to be gaining momentum as England lose theirs. Their bowling attack appears to show more variety than ours and their batsmen seem to be on a mission.

Given the endless renditions of "Jerusalem", "God Save The Queen" and the like, I am only surprised that they haven't added "There'll always be an England " to the jingoistic guff. Time was when two batsmen walked down the steps just before eleven o clock ready to bat. In our media dominated age though, we must first have all this patriotic nonsense just to try and glean some form of advantage. Far better to just let your cricket do the talking. 

The decision to schedule back to back Ashes series means that an Australian win is almost necessary now to avoid diluting one of the oldest contests in the whole of sport. The England captain assured the journalists before the match that there was no talk of a whitewash in his dressing room. Their performance thus far would appear to suggest otherwise..

It was Mark Twain who famously proclaimed that "rumours of my death are somewhat premature" upon reading his obituary in a newspaper. I rather think there exists the spirit of Twain in the Australian camp tonight!