OK, so not quite the live blog I promised, I had too many guests to entertain but instead, a taste of what it felt like to be a Scottish England fan watching the Test match through the night with his teammates. It's really not as dull as it sounds!
I was pretty convinced things couldn't have got much worse after being made to suffer the Rangers vs Man United match in the Champions League. Arriving back from Domino's (or indeed any other pizza takeaway chain) just in time for the toss, the optimism felt by every England fan for the last few weeks was palpable. Mainly because any Edinburgh University cricketer is a posh Englishman. Except me, it seems! We all felt it was a good toss to lose. So England promptly won it and batted. The first over has meant so much in recent times. The first ball was uneventfully left by Strauss, as was the second. Then Ben Hilfenhaus pitched one short and wide and the England skipper's eyes lit up as he unfurled his favourite cut shot. And whacked it straight to gully. "That's huge" said one of the lads. And he was right. After their meticulous preparation, England were instantly on the back foot in the main event.
The first session was fairly uneventful. Jonathan Trott came out and was uncharacteristically willing to play his shots. Which is why he wafted at a Shane Watson delivery, one of the few he bowled at the stumps, leaving a massive gate through which he was cleaned up. Fortunately we had homemade Snakebite to go with our pizzas and 20 packets of Monster Munch so 86-2 at the lunch interval didn't seem as bad as it could have done. At which point I realised that any more alcohol would make the tea break an impossibility. So I started on the Tunnock's Teacakes and cuppas as our numbers began to dwindle until five hardcore lads remained at around 3:45am. Pietersen, having looked in great touch and having taken the left-arm debutant spinner Xavier Doherty to town, he got out in the 40s, with Collingwood following soon after.
At tea, a couple of the lads decided a power nap was the best way forward. The rest of us thought the widespread distribution of a photo taken earlier in the night of our latent homosexual member, doctored by wonderful iPhone technology to make him look obese. The response has largely been positive thus far. The evening session started with the Aussie bowlers sticking to a strategy of bowling wide of off-stump so Cook and Bell wouldn't bother to engage with it. Until Ricky Ponting brought back birthday boy Peter Siddle. Who promptly pitched the ball up and lo and behold had taken the first Test hat-trick in three years. Caught slip, bowled, lbw (the latter of which I predicted in advance). It doesn't get much better than that. Unless it's 5:50 am and England have just collapsed to 197-7. So I went to bed, unable to stomach any more disappointment.
The other lads toughed it out until the end, but, having seen ITV 4's surprisingly good highlights package, I missed nothing save for a superb Jimmy Anderson reverse sweep.
I had England losing this first test and then going on to claim the series 3-1. So things are going to plan thus far. Well played lads... NAT!
RM
I was pretty convinced things couldn't have got much worse after being made to suffer the Rangers vs Man United match in the Champions League. Arriving back from Domino's (or indeed any other pizza takeaway chain) just in time for the toss, the optimism felt by every England fan for the last few weeks was palpable. Mainly because any Edinburgh University cricketer is a posh Englishman. Except me, it seems! We all felt it was a good toss to lose. So England promptly won it and batted. The first over has meant so much in recent times. The first ball was uneventfully left by Strauss, as was the second. Then Ben Hilfenhaus pitched one short and wide and the England skipper's eyes lit up as he unfurled his favourite cut shot. And whacked it straight to gully. "That's huge" said one of the lads. And he was right. After their meticulous preparation, England were instantly on the back foot in the main event.
The first session was fairly uneventful. Jonathan Trott came out and was uncharacteristically willing to play his shots. Which is why he wafted at a Shane Watson delivery, one of the few he bowled at the stumps, leaving a massive gate through which he was cleaned up. Fortunately we had homemade Snakebite to go with our pizzas and 20 packets of Monster Munch so 86-2 at the lunch interval didn't seem as bad as it could have done. At which point I realised that any more alcohol would make the tea break an impossibility. So I started on the Tunnock's Teacakes and cuppas as our numbers began to dwindle until five hardcore lads remained at around 3:45am. Pietersen, having looked in great touch and having taken the left-arm debutant spinner Xavier Doherty to town, he got out in the 40s, with Collingwood following soon after.
At tea, a couple of the lads decided a power nap was the best way forward. The rest of us thought the widespread distribution of a photo taken earlier in the night of our latent homosexual member, doctored by wonderful iPhone technology to make him look obese. The response has largely been positive thus far. The evening session started with the Aussie bowlers sticking to a strategy of bowling wide of off-stump so Cook and Bell wouldn't bother to engage with it. Until Ricky Ponting brought back birthday boy Peter Siddle. Who promptly pitched the ball up and lo and behold had taken the first Test hat-trick in three years. Caught slip, bowled, lbw (the latter of which I predicted in advance). It doesn't get much better than that. Unless it's 5:50 am and England have just collapsed to 197-7. So I went to bed, unable to stomach any more disappointment.
The other lads toughed it out until the end, but, having seen ITV 4's surprisingly good highlights package, I missed nothing save for a superb Jimmy Anderson reverse sweep.
I had England losing this first test and then going on to claim the series 3-1. So things are going to plan thus far. Well played lads... NAT!
RM
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