2009 - yet another 2005?

Not much work these days at office.. what i'm doing right now was a distant dream some 6 months back.. Yup you guessed it right - drafting a blog while at work.

It's been quite boring all day so far at work but not so for the English supporters. Memorable day for all of 'em. Freddie Flintoff is the man for the day. Go to London now. You will get to know how much does an ASHES test victory means to them. I knew it. A month back when i was there, there was no talk about World T20. Its all Ashes. And this victory came from Lord's - which ended 75 year drought - is like icing in the cake.

After a 'Ordinary' test at Cardiff, England arrived at Lord's with a major injury - Freddie's test retirement. Punter added insult to injury by terming it "Circus". As Warne & Hussey predicted, it spurred Fred, who indeed delivered the killer punch to knock down the aussies on the final day. Truly inspirational spell of fast bowling. Atherton's question summed it up during post match presentation.

Atherton : Was there any chance Strauss could get the ball out of your hand this morning?
Fred : "Mate, there was no chance."

I'm thinking about how crucial was Strauss's innings of 161 on a bowling friendly seeming conditions? Invaluable. He setup the match for the rest and i believe he deserves to get great applause. It was hugely disappointing to see KP's dodgy 2nd innings largely marred by his achilles problem. Hope he gets fit and firing at Birmingham.

And Bopara - hard to understand how good he is at international level. Three back to back ducks against Srilanka & three back to back hundreds against West Indies prior to this series and nothing significant in this series so far. It convinced me to agree on Warne's comments "he's too much style, not enough substance, and sure enough, his Test record is beginning to look alarmingly skew-whiff". I won't be surprised if Bell replaces him at Birmingham and may be Harmison for Onions.

Plenty of headaches for Ricky though. Mitch arrived as spearhead and i'm sure he will be in fear now. They might be tempted to avail Stuart Clark's service. Performance wise johnson needs to give way. But reputation wise, i feel sorry for Siddle who might lose the battle.

Its too early to say the outcome of the series. But mouthwatering contest ahead in the weeks to come.