When you get hurt in a relationship, it’s tempting to close yourself off to prevent future pain. Similarly, the human reaction for any Australian fan given the state of the 2009 Ashes is to give up hope that we can somehow chase a further 466 runs over the next two days without losing ten wickets. It would be a world record run chase on a wicket that already looked like a 5th day pitch on day 2.

The 4th Test was hailed as the 2009 Ashes decider. Of course it wasn’t – it never was going to be barring an English victory. But now, we come to the 5th Test which most definitely is the decider

Over the last week, a dossier on the English cricket team by Justin Langer was leaked to the press. Here are some of the highlights: “England players work very hard on shining the ball after the lacquer is gone. They use Murray mints religiously to get it to shine up.” “Because they play so much cricket, as soon as it gets a bit hard you just have to watch their body language to see how flat and lazy they get…

It’s hard to recall England ever having a worse day of Test cricket. Maybe Adelaide Day 5 in 2006 .

It’s hard to recall England ever having a worse day of Test cricket. Maybe Adelaide Day 5 in 2006

Peter Siddle or Stuart Clark? Nathan Hauritz or Brett Lee