Catch it!

No, not swine flu. The last day of the cricket's on and I'm not there - my sister just texted me to say there are seats but here I am at work and it looks like rain may be on the way. (If you don't know the area, Wolverhampton is twenty minutes away from Birmingham on the train and Edgbaston's a suburb of Brum). So I'm stuck with the OBO.

After three terrible, rain-ruined days, it's a real battle. I thought the Aussies would pull back into contention after chucking their first innings away for 203, but they're now on 171-4: better than before but still not much of a challenge for England. I wonder what's happened to the Australians. They used to be a) winners, b) hugely competitive and c) charming/amusing with it. Now they're none of these things and the world's slightly poorer for it.

(Oh yes, a note for our American readers).

Cricket's like baseball, only better. A match can last 5 days and still end in a draw. Breaks are taken for drinks, lunch and tea. The US and Canada had a regular test match well into the twentieth-century and I gather the tradition has been revived. The only cricket match in American literature is in Little Women, which makes sense as the game hung on in Pennsylvania longer than elsewhere - baseball took over during the Civil War because it was easier to carry all that stuff around. American cricket now centres on Indian computing experts in California and Caribbean immigrants in NY, rather than sad old English expats trying to show off…

Nightwatchman

I'm so bored with this educational theory essay, exacerbated by the knowledge that I've got to get it done by tomorrow - no chance for bunking off.

I've had the cricket on in the background (the Guardian's wonderful OBO coverage: one day they'll print one of my puns) and it's been a humdinger. England started brilliantly, then relied on their legends to arse things up - big collapse in the middle order, led by Pietersen throwing his wicket away, Bopara and Collingwood doing likewise, then Flintoff marking his final Test with a magnificent 4 runs. After bowling uselessly all day, Australia must be jubilant with 364-6 (Strauss 161no)

Irish eyes aren't smiling

So Ireland go out to New Zealand, comprehensively beaten - but then very few of Ireland's team are professional cricketers (or Irish, come to think of it). It was fun mixing it with the big boys though, and getting further than Australia in a sport a long way down the national pecking order (football, hurling, rugby, soccer, horse-racing, golf - yuck) is very funny.

I'm still not convinced by Twenty20 - it's the equivalent of table football. Give me the slow, thoughtful strategy of a Test match, occasionally enlivened by a wicked spell of fast bowling or the deviousness of a good spinner.