Saturday 11th July 2009

On a very hot day in London, the Australian team dashed over from the rain in Wales, won the toss and elected to bat - forcing us to face up to several hours in the field in the hottest part of the day.

They played steadily, albeit not spectacularly, until (in the 11th over) Phil made a breakthrough: 27-1.

This brought Ponting in, and an increase in the run-rate - by the end of the 15th over (the halfway stage) they had reached 53-1, and I anticipated being set a target of between 120 and 150.

Fortunately, not long after this Christopher managed to do what had taken the whole England team considerably longer earlier this week, as Mincat held onto a hard shot from Ponting, off his bowling: 60-2.

A brilliant one-handed catch by Mincat, again off Christopher's bowling disposed of the next wicket: 67-3.Christopher got his third wicket, when Ivy held a catch: 68-4.

Carol took a diving catch off my bowling: 76-5.

Rob got the next wicket - a third catch by Mincat: 88-6.

I held the next catch, also off Rob's bowling: 90-7.

In the next over a hat-trick from me finished their innings: 90-10.I feel the BMCC should offer to take over from the current England crowd for the next Test. At least we can bowl Australia out.

The Aussies didn't quite know what to make of the high tea that Z had prepared.

We only needed to score three an over, so I asked for steady, careful batting. As you can imagine, that's exactly not what I got:

Ad was bowled when we had only reached 5-1.

Christopher chipped a catch to third slip: 8-2.

Richard did exactly the same: 15-3.

ILTV was bowled: 26-4.

The rot stopped there, as player-of-the-match Mincat went on to score an unbeaten 52, leaving us on 91-4.We still head the league of course.Next week would have been away in the West Indies, but we have been awarded the trophy as league winners already, so shall instead be playing a Test Match against Australia.