I'm not sure why people are calling this a freak partnership between Hussey and Haddin. One enduring characteristic of all Australian sides, whether they have been great ones or just good ones, is that when they are in trouble, somebody usually comes to the party and digs in. Usually it is one of the specialist batsmen, plus somebody from lower down the order supporting them. Back when I started watching cricket it would be Border with Healy or a bowler like Lawson or Hughes digging in in support, then in the later era it would be Steve Waugh and Gilchrist or Warne / Gillespie.

This happened when we won at Lords last year when Clarke got in and Haddin supported him and what should have been an easy victory turned into a nervous final day because they put on about 200. In fact even in the last Test which won us the Ashes I remember Hussey and Haddin doing this to make us sweat a bit.

I am sure we will see some more of these partnerships through the series, that said I wouldn't be surprised if you get something like this from England at some point as well, when the Aussies think they have got us on the ropes and then Broad, Swann and Anderson put on 120 or so between them.

I think these sides are fairly evenly matched and there will be times when the Aussies are on top (like now) and times when we are on top, to win the Ashes we have to make sure the times the Aussies are on top we frustrate them and get away with a draw, we got out of tight spots in Pretoria and Cape Town last year and escaped with draws which really should have been defeats, and we did it at Cardiff against the Aussies which ultimately was crucial. We need to try and bat through tomorrow for the loss of only 4 or 5 wickets, if we finish tomorrow on say 350/5 then that will mean the Aussies are going to start the final day under pressure because we can take the game away from them in a session or so.

Yes, gritty partnerships have been a trademark of recent Aussie sides, but this latest one was over 300, which by any standard is pretty much a rarity.....It was a fine effort, but freakish in the manner that its unlikely to be matched again in this series and also came at a time when this looked like being a bowler dominated match.

It'll be freakish until tonight, when Strauss and Cook put on 350 in three sessions

Barry McKenzie has been having trouble sleeping recently so I might tune into this test match.

Forget the Diazepam... if there is one thing guaranteed to send a bloke to sleep its a good old cricket test match.


For anyone that doesnt fancy staying up all night here is the score card for the first 10 overs. Simply copy and paste it over and over and bingo.. there are the highlights.


...... / ...... / ...1.. /...... / ....W. /....../ ...... /.1.... /...wd.../..1...



Sweet dreams


zzzzz

Well Barry most of the population of your country thinks that the Ashes is the most exciting/important thing happening in Australia/the world at the moment

100 partnership for the openers and 50 for Strauss.

Decent start but that's all it is right now a start!

He`s an Aussie( ) thats knows they will lose, so he doesn`t care ( )

Excellent morning session, just hope they can go on to make big scores.

Great day for England. Hope we now realise that there is nothing to fear form this Aussie bowling attack.

Yep a great day, just about ensures the draw providing there is no major collapse in the morning. I liked the fact that they just did not defend either, both of them looked to play shots and score runs as did Trott when he came in too.

Excellent day. Hopefully we'll continue in the same manner tomorrow. Just need to avoid a collaose in the morning session. Not enough time to set a serious target but if we can get a lead of say 260 with 35 overs left we might cause them a bit of embarrassment.

Just wonder how much longer the press will continue floggiong a dead horse with their ashes coverage. There are pages and pages of coverage of day 3 in todays press which seems as relevant as coverage of the Cardiff test.

A fantastic fightback and England will go into the next test in great mentle shape if they get the draw from this game. I think we can consider ourselves unlucky not to be right in the box seat for this game after the way Anderson bowled in the first session on day 3. If he had got Hussey(as he should have done) early we'd have won this game imo.

If we collapse tomorrow we need shooting because this Aussie attack is useless.

This is Alastair Cook's moment, he is 132 not out and now can bat as selfishly as he likes for a full day of Test cricket as it's not like we're going to win, so if we're playing for the draw we may as well just make them stay out in the field all day. He can just do risk free accumulation of runs to get a Test double hundred in Australia which will go down as a legendary match saving innings. Trott as well can just bed down and get a 150+ if he wants.

.....and after 4 days I see you have yet to post How very Australian of you