2006 - November

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Well sorry you lost your money there Andy. Obviously your guys are good enough, and if they'd batted as well in the first innings as they did in the second, you would have had your draw and money in the bank.

So what England need to do now is simple - for the Adelaide test replace Harmi with Parmesan, I mean Panesar, and you have a real chance of winning that one.

Positives for Ingerlund are several:

* 370 is a massive 4th innings total on the Gabba pitch (on any pitch really, but especially the Gabba).
* Bell (despite his 2nd innings duck) is clearly a vastly improved player from last year.
* Giles has recovered brilliantly from his operation and I thought bowled really quite well.
* Collingwood and Pietersen both clearly have the goods and Cook showed considerable promise.
* Jones has improved considerably as a keeper since last year.
* Your team is relatively young and injury-free.

Take two spinners to Adelaide and you're in with a chance... remember this is how the series started last year as well. The only real worry is that your pace bowlers lacked penetration - even Flintoff struggled in the second innings. But if Harmison could get over the yips, that would change things considerably.

I still think this is going to be a difficult, and interesting series