m guessin no one made it to the post office by 9am this morning

curse collingwood n his determination his rallying of the tail – hows one to live without sleep. this winter cricket things not easy. when collingwood fell there wasnt all that long to go and one got the sense his incredible work wouldnt go unrewarded. of course panesar n anderson would hold on – panesars collingwoods batting buddy afterall.

throughout the match england had two figures. flintoff for brief moments earlier on in australias innings. collingwood. the figures were individual – they attracted vague satellites and the collingwood force was strongly residual in the final partnership of the match. it was less a partnership than a continuation of collingwood – an effective afterimage. a poltergeist. australia had glimmers of figures from time to time as they bowled but nothing really took over. warno was expected to mark the game but after some promising moments fell short. he tired too easily. too easily absorbed by the pitch. (the pitch endlessly talked up as a vicious competitor n treated warily by commentators all match also remained soft n kind – absorbed violence generally offered little venom.) in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 in 05 gillespie had his bowling mojo taken from him by an as yet unexplained force. yesterday johnson seemed to be battling the same alien. batting australia was massive – the ripples from these partnerships will carry them a long way through this series. to this point the australian batting line up is undoubtedly a people whereas the english is one man. the australian attack is a people but a small beaverish one. the english is barely one man. yet the test match is reduced to nothing. there is little more lovely than a non test – the test with no result. the series starts again at lords on thursday. from the non test to the lords test – the test that ceases to exist to the test that belongs to the lord. its difficult to know what kinds of distances seperate them vast differences or intricacies. sophia gardens is some way from lords

clues to the actual extent of this measurement may be found by counting the number of times we ricky ponting anxiously spit on our hands n rub them together