I couldn’t agree more, Emma.

Fletcher was openly critical of our batting yesterday. It’s the Oval, we should be doing better. I’m consoling myself with county cricket - come on you Bears!

Which, considering how Warwickshire have (not) performed this season, is an irony in itself. Maybe having to work tomorrow wont be a bad thing…

Hampshire have to follow on - not all is wrong with the world. And we’ve - mon dieu - we’ve got another wicket. I was under the impression we were going to finish the day some 300 behind with only the one extra wicket to show for it. Not that this is presently much better. Still - another hour or so for improvement…

Good luck for your game tomorrow Wraye - and to be fair to Monty, he isn’t *that* bad. Was quite a sharp chance for someone who hasn’t had the ball fly anywhere near him all test.

Sky have now gone to reshowing Thursday’s lowlights so I’m relying on TMS for more information. Warwickshire seem to have given up for the day too, so I’m going to have to find other kind of amusement. TMS, it seems, are desperate to find something to talk about…

I’ve now seen them win three times this season, but I can’t admit to being a regularly attending member for County Championships - though I got narked off by some stewards on the gate who didn’t believe I was a member when I took some of the university girls to the Hampshire match. Admittedly, they just wanted to see Shane Warne… I tend to just follow championship via scorecard.

As for irritating chants, yeah, my Dad pulls it out occasionally when he wants to annoy me. Though, if we’re having a late season surge and manage to avoid relegation in these last two competitions, he can do it as much as he likes!

I’m afraid you’ll have to do without my disconsolate moaning tomorrow - part time job calls and all that. As I said before, it looks like one of the better days to miss. Ashes last year were much worse. And in regards to the primary club - my personal batting record is hardly beautiful, but my ducks have taken at least 3 balls, to date

Sorry Will - it seems that in order to survive the second test, we had to swap subjects a little. Kudos for managing to stay on topic on your ball-to-ball commentary.

Moin Khan?

Sounds fammilliar….

I’m a Lancs fan, looks like it’ll be our year at last.

The youngsters have really done the team proud this year, Newby, Smith and Kyle Hogg have been fantastic and i’m glad we only have one overseas player.

That has been about the most abject two days of England test cricket since the ashes of 2001. Lazy, complacent batting, abysmal bowling and an utter lack of energy. Let’s hope it’s classic dead rubber syndrome.

Does anyone know the latest on Jones? Any whispers on the county circuit?

If there is going to be no swing out in Oz then we might need to reconsider Hoggy - he had fairly limited success(with the exception of Hayden) last year. It was Fred and Jonesy that done the damage.

Let’s not even think about what might happen if Fred didn’t make it. Christ.

Assuming you mean Simon Jones rather than Geraint (who seems to be performing fine, and made what might well have been a match-winning cameo against Leicestershire in the Pro40) then the news isn’t good. Not really realistic for the Ashes, might just about be fit for one of the middle/end tests, but wont have played cricket in almost a year. So, well, not good.

I’d be interested to know if a lot of Harmison’s problems come from a lack of Troy Cooley. Whilst Mahmood has been quite open in his praise of Kevin Shine, and I haven’t heard any commentators make any open remarks about him, Harmison was, well, damning with faint praise. But as a girl who struggles with line and length at the snail pace I bowl at… though I haven’t managed to hit second slip in a while, either. Not that they tend to give me a slip.

Ha! you fair weather friends! Emma and I kept up the day on the Test (snooze, doze, grieve) and you lot chip in at the end with County stuff.

Harrumph!

Anyway, I’m a Leicestershire fan. Anyone for more T20?