what Flips said.

Could be a tense afternoon.

Can't believe Strauss didn't start with Anderson, and why has he only bowled a few overs today? I know the new ball is almost due, but time is a concern and you really should have your best bowlers on

Wish the rain had of stayed away would have been interested to watch the poms chase 300+.

good start by Australia. Strauss is a big wicket to get.

Strauss was a massive wicket, Bopara is lucky Pietersen is injured or I reckon he'd have been dropped

Bell's really got to step up the plate now, not so promising when he's only ever scored a century for England when someone has already got one in the innings, lets hope Cook does!

***edit***

FUCK, Bell got out just as I pressed submit

Great start by Australia, it's funny what happens when you play your best bowler.

That was quite the collapse by England there. How on earth is Bopara still in this team?

it got worse. elected to bat and at the crease for just 4 hrs or so. this was posted on the text commentary on the BBC site which I thought was funny:


"In your website poll that's just finished, 6% (of the 12,480 individuals that voted) think England will take eight or more wickets before close of play today. Could you please supply me with the email addresses of these halfwits, as I have a Nigerian colleague who would like to offer them a share of an exciting business venture? All they have to do is supply their bank account details."

This one was on there earlier on today as well:

"Bopara reminds me of one of my friends who goes out at three and as a result gets completely smashed, when he'd probably do better to go out later, say about six."

Time to bring in are surprise reserve player, Jozy Altidore.

I think the annoying thing for England fans is how poor England were with both bat and ball.

I've not seen much apart from the wickets, but I've listened to most of it on Test Match Special today, even after our 1st innnings I was still hopefull of us doing something with the ball, because the impression I got from listening to it was that it was mainly due to good bowling, but when we decide to gift the Aussies boundary after boundary defending such a small total.

Clarke seems to have reverted to his old self- completely useless against short pitched bowling.

To be fair, Aussies put in some class balls this morning, it wasn't completely due to piss poor batting. Balls swinging a lot.

Game over.

Loved first day. With any luck we can get a nice little lead of 300+ on day two and push for victory by end of the fourth day.

And yeah, Bopara's a shot duck. So very glad to see Stuey back in the lineup and doing well.

nice lead building up. another funny comment from the BBC site:

"A few games of under-10s kwik cricket took place on the outfield earlier. Some nice full-pitched bowling by a 9-yr-old girl. Give her a spell this afternoon."

Ridiculous and embarassing from England at 78-5 now. Full credit to Hilfenhaus and Johnson this evening - they have been absolutely superb in this last hour.

Has there ever been a worse England performance than these past two days?