Only Way Back Into The Game Was Early Wickets

Well, we left Edgbaston full of confidence and once we arrived in Leeds not a great deal went right for us.

Day 1

It wasn’t a great start to the day when we were woken by a fire alarm at 4.30am and spent half an hour in our pyjamas on a rainy street in Leeds. Things didn’t get much better at the ground. No Fred due to injury and then we thought we had lost Matt Prior to a back spasm in warm up. It was a pretty hectic morning!

We won the toss and were happy to be batting, knowing it might be a tricky first session but after that it would get easier to bat. During the first session a combination of good bowling and poor batting left us 72 for 6.

The afternoon didn’t get much better and we were bowled out for 102. Only Matt Prior showing some resistance, left stranded on 37 not out.

When it was our turn to bowl we started well picking up an early wicket, but a counter attack from Ricky Ponting and some average bowling took Australia past our score quickly. A good spell from Stuart Broad in the evening managed to claw it back slightly for us, but Australia ended the day 94 runs ahead with six wickets remaining.

Day 2

Our only way back in to the game was early wickets. We didn’t bowl well enough again and they got away from us. Clarke and North played very well and they posted a first innings score of 445.

It was going to be a hard task for us to get anything out of the game but the wicket was good enough and if we batted well we thought we could bat for some time.

A fifty partnership between Strauss and Cook got us off to a good start but then another collapse left us 82 for five at the end of play.

Day 3

All that was left for us to do on day three was to show some fight and try and get a bit of momentum going in to the last test. The two guys that were to do this for us were Graeme Swann and Stuart Broad. Both score fifties in quick time and got our total up to 250. It was not enough to avoid an innings defeat but it did restore some dignity and confidence.

So not the performance or result we were looking for but we have got a week to review and think about how to win at the Oval.

We have still got a great chance of winning the Ashes, we just have to try and find the form we showed at Lord’s and Edgbaston. Some guys are going back to their counties to play this week before the squad for the last test is announce at the weekend.

I think its going to be a close game at the Oval, as the whole series has been, and the team that deals with the pressure the best will come out on top. It’s all to play for!