I'm not sure which is more traumatic, being in a train wreck, or having to watch a days cricket like todays. Pretty much from the word go it didn't look like being England's day, despite the early wicket of Ponting by Harmison. Lbws not given, catches not quite going to hand, one or two drops, several chinese cuts, etc etc. England got 1 wicket before lunch - with a bit of luck it could have been 3 or 4. The rest of the afternoon proceded in similar fashion - Panesar got 3 wickets, but Hussey went on to another ton, being dropped twice, once by Jones off a skier that he should really have left for the fielder running in, and once by Strauss at wide first slip diving away to his right. Clarke eased to another ton as well, and although Symonds failed, that only brought in Gilchrist. On a pair in the match, his first scoring shot was a catch about a foot out of point's reach. After that he reached a quick 50 and then proceded to assault the bowling violently, hitting Panesar for over 20 in one over, and only failing to beat Viv Richards record for the fastest test hundred by a ball or two. At one stage Flintoff had 7 fielders on the boundary and still Gilchrist hit fours and sixes. Great if you are a neutral. I'm not.
Australia promptly declared leaving England about 30 minutes to bat. Lee's first 3 balls were wide of off stump, which Strauss calmly left. His 4th ball was straight and swung in to Strauss who padded up. Cue huge appeal, and a slow raised finger by Rudi Koetzen. To me it looked far too high, as it hit him above the knee roll, and this was confirmed by both people listening to the radio commentary, and surprisingly by the big screen which showed the replay. Strauss has now had 3 dodgy decisions in 3 knocks - a catch behind in the first innings here and a bat pad in the second innings at Adelaide.
All this was meat and drink to the crowd - you don't exactly get much sympathy from the home supporters here.
Anyway it probably won't go past 4 days. If we bat into day 5 I'll be very surprised.