I do hope everyone had a lovely day. I, myself, had a super time with the famile - we ate a lot and played silly games and opened lots of presents. I got a poodle and a hamster and have called them Sassy LeClassy and Ralphy. They are with me right now, actually. Sassy is from Hong Kong and Ralphy is from England. They are toys.
The best Christmas present, however, was the one the England cricket team gave me in the small hours and into Boxing day. First day of the Melbourne Test (the penultimate of the series) and England, fresh off a crushing defeat, need to put on a strong display in order to put them back in the ascendency to regain the Ashes and win Down Under for the first time since the mid-eighties. Bresnan was in for Finn but otherwise England put up an unchanged team. There were two dropped catches before Tremlett made the first break through and Watson had to walk for just 5 runs. Bresnan struck next just a few overs later that saw Hughes leave for 16. Not a good start for the Aussies but a great start for us. And it just kept getting better as wicket after wicket fell. Ponting fell for 10, 'Mr Cricket' Hussey for 8 (YES PLEASE), Smith for 6, Clarke for 20 (top scorer...), Haddin for 5 (after this wicket Australia found themselves at 77-7. Delightful.), Johnson for a duck, Sidde for 11, and finally Hilfenhaus for a duck.
This, dear readers, meant that England had bowled Australia out for 98. Ninety eight. 98. 98 all out. I'm sorry, but I can't type that enough. 98 ALL OUT. Merry Merry Merry Christmas. That was Australia's lowest Test score at the MCG against England. What a great time for that statistic. England then came into bat and Strauss and Cook constructed a beautiful, clean and controlled 157-0 by the days end of play. That's already a lead of 59 and no English wickets have fallen. Merry Christmas everyone.
I'll keep you blogged...
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