Bring on the world champions

13 April 2012

Thank heavens that's over. I'm not sure the old fingernails could have taken much more chewing but after all the tension it was the right result for England. This idea of winning being a habit really seems to be rubbing off on the boys.

So where were you when this great day of cricket was unfolding? With my reputation, it's probably no surprise to hear that I was up and about at two in the morning. But whereas normally I am contemplating heading home at this time, I was in fact on my way out!

At 2am on Saturday morning I was leaping out of bed, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, jumping in a car and being whisked off to Sky's studios for the best six hours of Test cricket that I have ever seen. It was just fantastic stuff. I tried to be a 'Cool Cat', but it was more a case of being on a hot tin roof, as the game went first one way and then the other.

So who were the stars? The stock answer - "It was a team effort" - is understandable, coming from Nasser Hussain or Duncan Fletcher, but there are always one or two stars.

Personally, I thought Graham Thorpe was the difference. But for his unbeaten hundred, England could have been 50 or 60 runs down after the first innings, which could have meant us chasing nearer 150 for victory, and that may have been beyond us.

Once again Darren Gough and Andy Caddick managed to rip into the top order in the second innings, leaving the door wide open for Robert Croft and Ashley Giles to wrap up the innings. Then it was a case of counting down the runs one by one until the victory total of 74 was achieved.

Throughout this series, it seemed there was some drama or other just waiting to happen. Whether it was Mike Atherton going toe-to-toe with that nice chap Kumar Sangakkarra or all the cock-ups by the umpires. Actually, I grew to love the men in the white coats and their little 'lapses'. I found myself playing a new game of 'Armchair Umpire'. I was firing people out left, right and centre - well, I am a bowler.

In truth, it really brought home to me how tough a job it must be. I don't go out and bowl a bad ball on purpose, it just happens very occasionally! Likewise, these guys were surely just trying their best.

The other big talking point was all this rubbish about the 'spirit of the game'.

What is this all about? This idea of everyone being very nice to each other and playing by the rules has never happened other than in people's rose-tinted dreams.

By all accounts a certain WG Grace was as big a cheat as they come. After all, it was he who put the bails back on after being bowled and justified this by telling anyone who dared to challenge him that people had come to see him bat!

So, well done England on all accounts, you showed that when necessary, you could give as good as anyone, which perhaps indirectly led to this superb series victory and also might just have a bearing on this summer's Ashes series.

Four series victories on the bounce really has shown that our good old country has discovered the knack of winning, which the Aussies seemed to think they owned by right. Well that was until they got a good stuffing by the Indians the other day.

Talking about the Aussies, what of the future and the Ashes?

They will be here in just over two months and, while we have not beaten any of the big boys, we have managed to beat all that has been put in front of us.

I reckon the momentum is with England for what could be a momentous summer - bring on the world champions.

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