For a brief hour or so the Barmy Army dared to dream. Freddie Flintoff came out of the blocks like a sprinter. After playing and missing several times in the first over he faced, the shackles fell off when facing Brett Lee, hitting him for 2 fours in an over, then repeating that off the next over from Stuart Clark. Lee was then picked up (just) over the midwicket boundary for six. Pietersen just sat back and watched as Flintoff caught him up. But all good things must end, and as usual it was Warne who crashed this party. His introduction slowed the scoring rate and eventuallythe inevitable occurred. Freddie missed a tossed up legbreak and was bowled. Jones managed to repeat his first innings duck by being run out while waiting for an lbw decision. That was probably his last test innings for a while, maybe ever. The tail lasted no longer. Somehow Panesar managed to face out a few balls before lunch to make the Aussies wait for their moment, but it wasn't long coming afterwards. Pietersen swept a single first ball, and Panesar was bowled by Warne to start mass jubilation among the Aussies. Somehow I managed to photo the exact moment he was bowled thereby catching the precise moment the Ashes left our grasp.
I have managed to put up loads of photos also online and emailled the link to loads of you but if you want the link just leave a comment on here with your email address and I'll send it to you.
The game finished about 2:30pm so we spent the rest of the day having a bit of a wander around Perth. Neither of us are that impressed with Perth to be honest. It's a bit too new and modern, with no real heart. Adelaide was better I think, and I'm looking forward to seeing Melbourne again. Today I'm going to see the Ashes urn at the western Australia museum. I assume that we do get to keep it at Lords still even though we don't hold it anymore, but it'll be good to see it for the first time. If I have time I also plan to visit the Perth mint which deals with all the gold bullion from the mines around here. With a bit of luck the odd gold bar might be lying around..................
Moz has gone off on the ferry down the river to Fremantle, and I'll meet him later for dinner.
Tomorrow we fly to Melbourne