Well that was an all together much more pleasing days cricket as far as England supporters go. The first session was pedestrian and, I must confess, I dozed off sometime during the lunch break and woke up with a sore back at some point during the afternoons play so have only just caught the highlights on Sky.

Collingwood looks solid and Pieterson looks like he fancies getting a few runs so the first session of tomorrows play will certainly be exciting.

Now I know that all the players were wearing a red ribbon to mark World AIDS day and this is a very good cause and what have you but I have to say that Brett Lee looked, quite frankly, gay running in to bowl with his little ribbon fluttering in the afternoon breeze. I’ve got a feeling that the England batsman probably felt the same looking at him mincing running in. Sure he can bowl at 95mph but somehow the impact would have been lost along the way. You can hardly be intimidated by a man with a poofy ribbon on his sleeve can you?

Also, as one of my readers Steve points out, did anyone else think Old Man McGrath looked absolutely cream crackered when going for that catch in the last over? He looked as if his incontinence pants were full when he flailed around trying to take an absolute sitter. Could be good news for tomorrow.

Tags : Cricket, The Ashes, England, Australia, Second Test