Saturday 4 December 2010
Adelaide Day 2: England 317 for 2, 72 runs ahead
Having attempted to write yesterday's blog after consuming unfeasible quantities of beer with the Barmy Army, I decided to take things much easier today. I reasoned that it would be a big advantage if my eyes could actually focus on the screen while writing.
As forecast, a good good night was certainly had by all who celebrated England's successful first day at PJ O'Briens (including singing along raucously to the Black Eyed Peas track with that particular lyric). Why our group then ended up in a Belgian bar is a mystery which will remain forever unsolved - the last thing we needed at that stage was a strong Trappist beer. I blame Jon Neal (who wouldn't?).
Before moving to Day 2 of the cricket, here's some left-over trivia from Day 1: The crowd of over 38,000 was apparently the highest at a cricket match at the Adelaide Oval since 1950 - at least according to an Australian relative of Andy Pye, a member of my old cricket club in London whom I encountered at a set of traffic lights on the way to the ground. I'm not sure whether this is right, but the ground yesterday was certainly full to bursting. And it was certainly the first time I had ever stood up for the whole day at a cricket match. My colleague Steve, watching the first session on TV back in Germany, emailed me for a description of what I was wearing so that he could look out for me in the crowd. I replied that it was so full I couldn't even spot myself.
The second piece of trivia was that yesterday was officially Australia's worst start to a Test match. Ever. Today's local newspaper headline screamed "14 minutes to Ashes disaster". Funny, it had seemed quicker than that to me but I suppose there was a lot of walking to and from the pavilion to take into account.
And so to Day 2: while Northern Europe continues to freeze and parts of New South Wales and Victoria have been hit by severe floods, it was forecast to be 36 degrees in the shade in Adelaide. I wouldn't know. There was no shade in the Barmy Army section.
Once again the day was England's by a country mile. Despite captain Strauss again unwisely electing to leave a straight ball in the first over, Cook, Trott and Pietersen handed out a batting masterclass to the hapless Aussie attack (of whom the spinner Xavier Doherty would have collected the "most hapless" award). England have now scored over 800 runs in their last two innings for the loss of only three wickets. This surely comes as close to complete and humiliating domination by England's batsmen as there has ever been against top-line Test opponents - let alone away from home against Australia in an Ashes series.
My prediction for tomorrow is that England will bat on for another two sessions to reach 550 and with the Australians physically and mentally drained after two hot days in the field, there will be some Aussie wickets to fall before the close.
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