Well, I was half wrong. I said in my last posting that I thought few people would have put much faith in the England cricket team doing well enough to make the Australians bat again in Brisbane. In fact the top three batsmen confounded all the Cassandras. They declared their second innings closed at 517 - 1. It turned the match into a fairly convincing draw and even though the Australians made 107 - 1 in their second innings, it will be England who go away from this match with the most encouragement. The Australian bowlers succeeded in taking just one wicket in the best part of two days as England posted their impressive total and how long is it since that happened? The pitch has to be considered the most dead pan of all dead-pan batting surfaces and getting a result here could take several weeks but the England batsmen must be given a lot of credit for destroying the heart on the Australian side. It is widely acknowledge that this Australian side is not the best ever but Aussies do not give in without a fight and this test series will be a struggle for both sides. Unless there is rather more life in the pitches at other grounds the series could be drawn.
Cook and Trott put on 329 for a still untaken second wicket exceeding the previous best on this ground of 307 set one day earlier. It was also the highest partnership by any England batsmen on Australian soil. Further, Cook's 235 NO was the sixth highest score by an England batsman in Ashes tests and exceeds the previous highest test score on this ground by any batsman - previously held by Don Bradman. And so on and on. How often have England scored over 500 runs for the loss of only one wicket? I don't know the answer but I am sure that a simple answer would be "Not very often!"
So now we look forward to the 2nd test with a rather more optimistic feeling. I hope it is not more misguided optimism. Let's just wish them luck.
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