Pollyana

papilon

Just went down to watch the teams practice in the nets at the MCG, Australia were up first, everyone looked very serious and the session seemed quite intense. England looked very relaxed and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Not sure what you can read into that but i would say Australia are very focused
now.
Ponting will definitely play, he was hitting the ball hard and without problem.

Anderson's body language didn't look good but he did put in a full session.

Tremlett is one big unit, looks much more like a rugby player and just dwarfs everyone around him.

Standing next to us was an old english guy in his full MCC regalia chatting with a youngish aussie guy in thongs and shorts and a few face piercings,but having a very friendly chat about all things cricket

Looking forward to boxing day with 90,000 other cricket fans

ProudVIC

Nothing better than the Boxing Day test. One of the biggest days of the world cricket calendar.

BTW, pretty sure you cannot get full strength beer at the MCG, even though the choices are Carlton Draught and Carlton 'mid strength', I reckon the full strength stuff is actually watered down to the same alcohol content as the mid strength stuff. The MCG has a long history of alcohol related problems in the crowd so they cracked down on it really hard. Also the reason why you can't take in torn up paper and stuff like that is because it all gets thrown up in the air during the Mexican wave.

One thing you do seem to get away with though is taking bottles of branded water from the supermarket and filling them with Vodka. You are not supposed to take unsealed bottles in but most of the time they do not check for this.

Alfresco

2 litres of neat Vodka should do most people!

DeadVim

Immediate family festivities over ... <hugh sigh of relief> ... now bring on the action

mr mover

Who gives a shit, a total waste of time and money...i might paint my verandah , and watch it dry, would be far more intresting ,....mm

Pollyana

I turned up for work tonight wearing my Barmy Army shirt - and Channel Nine are in with TV cameras in the morning Maybe this time I will actually volunteer to be filmed

DeadVim

Floucetastic

DeadVim

Happy Days

Vash the Stampede

Can't see us winning with a start like this. Strauss was lucky to win the toss, and did the right thing by electing to field. The Poms will get the best of the pitch today, and will probably rack up a hefty score as batting conditions improve. If Ponting had won the toss, England could be in our position right now.

DeadVim

And that position would be:

Geordie George

I missed most of the morning session, as we've finally been sorting stuff out for Bub (I figured at 38 weeks pregnant, I probably couldn't delay it much longer). But I saw Mr Cricket walk and the rest of the team seem to be doing their best to follow as quickly as possible. Clarke's the highest scoring batter on 20 runs.

Alfresco

England still have to bat on this pitch in about an hour or less.

BadgeIsBack

Yes - as I said ...this is the third top order collapse and maybe Ponting's men will finally not amass 250 or 300 when England did not do so well after their own collapse..so even if we get a repeat of Perth England know what they have to do...as the days progress...

Anything less than a series win will be a loss in my book.

PaulandNic