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The front page of last Saturday’s paper had an enlarged photo of a day four ticket for the Sydney test. Underneath the picture the following headline was printed, pondering the question – Is this the most worthless piece of paper in Australia ? The impact of such a journalistic dig was not lost on me.
After my despair and anger due to the lack of a true contest in the first and third tests of the series I had begun my Christmas holiday in a bit of a decline. Although thrilled at our boys having reclaimed the Ashes, my pride was tinged with anger due to the fact that the contest was effectively over. As I’ve stated previously, it was silly and selfish but I couldn’t help it. In retrospect I had become a cricket addict and was staring down the barrel of a long period without a proper fix!
Despite the fact that the real contest was over, I began to look forward to the fourth test. I had faith in the fact that the English have traditionally played very well in the Victorian capital. I still had childhood memories of watching Ian Botham’s solo brilliance against Australia in the Boxing Day test of 1987. Perhaps the Poms could finally provide some sort of proper opposition?
Alas, my positive (perhaps completely stupid) attitude was crushed as soon as the human battle axe, Andrew Symonds, began his 156 run assault on a fragile English bowling attack. It was during this magnificent display by one of the most exciting big hitters to recently grace the field that I thought it was time to ditch my unpatriotic despair and turn full circle. The hour had come to fully support my team in their bid to achieve a 5-0 clean sweep in the series. I dusted off the green and gold shirt, lathered my face up with coloured zinc, grabbed a slab of beer from the bottle shop and settled in to watch another England implosion.
There are hundreds of adjectives we could throw around with reference to Ponting’s boys in the fourth test and the series so far and all of them would be glowing. Timing, tenacity, flair, drive - the list goes on! The way that Australia has managed to apply pressure at critical times; their ability to stifle the Poms whenever they look like getting into a scoring mood; the number of times we have formed century partnerships and amassed runs when it looked like England had the upper hand. Whew! It’s really been the Aussie show for four tests now.
So now we have arrived at the fifth test and perhaps England ’s best opportunity to notch up a win, or at least a draw. At least they could put up a bit of a fight? At the end of day two it is pretty evenly balanced. Freddy Flintoff has finally scored some runs and there seems to be a bit of fire in the English belly. Strangely the Sydney weather has been more tropical than that of a city in the grip of drought. If it continues pouring like it has been this week we may see a draw due to rain affected play. Could it be that finally the Poms will come away with something other than a loss this week? Time will tell.
by Aussie
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