The Daily Cartoon

Tonight is without a doubt the most important night of the series.  England can get back in it, or lose it completely in a few hours.

If you are thinking of staying up to listen/watch a night of cricket, make it tonight!

So the 2nd test matcj in this Ashes campaign was a disaster - but only in the final result.  The first innings saw some fine work and Collingwood’s average shows his contributions are worth having. Sure the Aussies are two nil up, but we only need one draw - which is more than likely - and two victories. That sounds a lot, but again one victory is more than likely, which leaves only one match to fret over.
The joy of already holding the Ashes is we only have to draw the series and we retain them, where as Australia have to beat us.

Alternatively, once we had the ashes we should have refused to ever play Australia again…

We might be doing badly in the Ashes, but atleast we can enjoy the situation - an Aussie supporter has some English cricket jokes and even an England supporter can smile at the truth of some of them. The whole joke list is here, but a couple of ones that are painful are:
Q. What would Glen McGrath be if he was an Englishman?
A. An allrounder.

Q. What is the height of optimism?
A. An English batsman applying sunscreen.
Of course the next test is where we will show the Australians who is boss…

What happened in the cricket last night? We were robbed of our draw and now we’re two nil down in the Ashes. Umpires, please! I think we all need another Whinging Pom T shirt!

Hoggard was a star, but he needs support - come on lads!

Did we really know that we would lose the Ashes after the first ball of the first test? If we do we will all look back at that delivery and say it was obvious. But Vaughan is going to be back before Christmas, the shock of the size of the defeat will galvanise the team - we will return at Brisbane much stronger. The pitch is usually more suited to the English game, it will seam and swing.

England can easily pull back to one all, and then the series is back in the balance, with England holding the momentum (Can momentum be held? - Ed)

The message for England supporters everywhere is don’t give up hope. There is easily enough talent in this team to fight back - and remember England only need to draw the series to retain the Ashes.

England must be bluffing, that is all there is to it. They must be trying to lull the Aussies into thinking they have the series sewn up, at which point they will stop concentrating and England will win the Test match. I believe W G Grace (more…)