Posted by randfish

Since 2006, SEOmoz has offered a summer training event in Seattle, WA. This year, our 6th, that event is becoming something truly unique - the search marketing industry's first customer conference.

Mozcon tickets are now on sale (though quite a few have already sold to those on the waiting list) for July 27-29 - if you're in the organic web marketing field, you should pull every string possible to attend. I promise something truly exceptional on every front - content, speakers, facilities, networking, parties, food/accomodations and attention to detail in every aspect of the show.

The Top 10 Reasons you Have to Come to MozCon:

#1: Incredible Speakers

Here's a list of the folks currently on the agenda over the 3 days of MozCon:

• Adam Audette, CEO, Audette Media
• Alex Schultz, Director of Growth, Facebook
• Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist at Google + Co-Founder of Market Motive
• Bill Leake, CEO, Apogee Results
• Bob Rains, Partner, Tandler Doerje
• Bryan Zmijewski, Founder + CEO, Zurb
• Daivd Mihm, Cofounder, GetListed
• Eytan Seidman, Cofounder, Oyster Hotels
• Hannah Smith, Search Marketing Consultant, Distilled
• Ian Lurie, CEO, Portent Interactive
• Jamie Steven, VP Marketing, SEOmoz
• Jen Lopez, Community Manager, SEOmoz
• Joanna Lord, Director of Acquisition, SEOmoz
• Kate Morris, Search Marketing Consultant, Distilled
• Martin MacDonald, Head of SEO, Omnicom Media Group
• Matthew Brown, Cofounder, AudienceWise
• Melanie Mitchell, SVP Search Marketing, Digitas
• Merry Morud, Online Marketing Manager, Aimclear
• Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz
• Richard Baxter, CEO, SEOGadget
• Stefan Weitz, Director, Bing Search
• Stephen Pavlovich, CEO, Conversion Factory
• Tony Wright, Founder, Startup Front End
• Wil Reynolds, CEO, SEER Interactive
• Will Critchlow, Cofounder, Distilled

These aren't just some of the industry's best and brightest, but some of the best speakers in the web marketing field around the world. I've personally seen everyone above give a presentation (usually many), and I can promise the quality of their presentations will be exceptional.

#2: Actionable, Expert-Level Content

Here's a portion of the email I recently sent to every speaker for MozCon:

...Every speaking spot at MozCon is a "keynote"-like format. We recruit only the best of the best that we've seen deliver exceptional quality presentations in the past - that's YOU!...

...The audience is tough. Really, really tough. They have high demands, high expectations and in the past 5 years, despite our best efforts, we've never had 100% satisfaction on three factors - level of content (they want more advanced), freshness of material (they want tips/info they've never heard before) and actionability of recommendations (they want takeaways they can use tomorrow).

This year, we're going to push even harder. With every slide you craft and every topic you bring up, please ask yourself, "is this this material likely to be new to this audience, useful, actionable and expert-level?" Content that doesn't fit those four criteria should be excluded. Case studies, specific examples, results of experiments, research data, rarely mentioned tools/resources and detailed processes are great. Broad discussions of a topic (e.g. "you need to engage with your customers!") or broad recommendations (e.g. "track what your visitors do on your site!"), slides with nothing but bullet points+text and stuff we've all heard before... not so much. :-)

The content quality and takeaways from MozCon will be the most useful, valuable, advanced material you receive from any event this year (yes, really). I attend and speak at dozens of events in the marketing world, and every year, we've been able to make the level of MozCon stand out from the crowd. This year, our aim is to exceed that expectation even more dramatically.

#3: Return on Investment

Until May 6th (this Friday), Mozcon is just $799 for SEOmoz PRO members. If you add a roundtrip flight from most US cities and hotel for 3 nights (we are working on a special deal with the Seattle Westin, where the event is hosted, that should be available soon), your total outlay will be ~$2,000, the price of many major marketing conference tickets alone.

Given the actionable advice and remarkable networking opportunities, this event will "pay for itself" by the end of the first day. Nowhere else can you find the level of speakers, content, amenities and 

Being fully transparent, the reason why is simple: SEOmoz does not optimize to make a profit on this conference. We, instead, are focused on providing the most exceptional experience possible, through content, speakers, venue and after-hours events (and merely covering costs with ticket sales). Our software business is where our investors/shareholders expect revenue growth. This event is purely to give back to our customers and show our appreciation to our community - you! 

#4: Location

Seattle is a drizzly, cloudy town for 9 months out of the year. But in July... It's magic:

The sun stays out until nearly 10pm, the temperature is in the upper 70s - low 80s. Outdoor cafes, rooftop barbecues, sidewalk stands and lots of pale skin all come out to enjoy the few days a year that make living in the Northwest all worthwhile. As many visitors often remark, "Seattle has the best summer in the country." 

Many thanks to Rudy Lopez for the amazing photos. 

#5: After-Hours Events

SEOmoz has long been known for throwing great parties, but in 2011, we're planning to top them all. Of course, we'll have our traditional night of drinks, food, bowling, pool and networking at the Garage (a summer tradition for Mozzers since 2007).

This year's Garage party will take place Thursday night, July 28th

But, this year, we're also planning some very unique events on the nights of Wednesday the 27th and Friday the 29th, too. Bring your cameras :-)

#6: Meet & Give Feedback to the Moz Product/Engineering Teams 

For the first time this year, they'll be a table (perhaps a group of tables) in the halls outside the MozCon auditorium with members of our product + engineering teams actively working on new products, features and software.

Stop in, say hi, and give them your feedback on what you want to see, what annoys you, what you love and what direction you'd like to see us take. Our team can't wait to hear from you (and they might even have a gift to share if you do swing by).

#7: No Sponsors, No Sales Pitches, No Advertising

Unlike other events, MozCon has no paid advertisers, no vendor booths, no salespeople and no sales pitches. Every session is all about the content, and off-stage, our obligation is making sure you're getting the most from your MozCon experience, not trying to push additional products, services or companies.

#8: No Panels; Every Session is Keynote-Quality 

I can't remember a conference I've attended in the last several years where attendees didn't complain about the panel format. There's not enough time for a good speaker to go deep, but there's a need for lots of speakers, meaning quality necessarily suffers. We don't accept pitches from speakers, meaning we only invite those folks who we've already seen deliver amazing talks. It's up to them to bring their A-game and present on an advanced topic in a format that lets them truly cover the material.

We don't have a formal "keynote," but we do have many, many speakers who regularly keynote other shows. They won't speak in broad generalizations or give 10 minute overviews; their job is giving tips, examples and case studies you can use. And, we use the rating feedback data from our attendees every year and invite back only the top few speakers in subsequent years. You're going to see great stuff - we promise.

#9: Fantastic Meals, Seating + Amenities

Every seat at MozCon has power, wifi, a desk, water bottles and, this year, something extra-special (an idea we stole from Distilled's conference series that we love).

We splurge on meals, coffee breaks, ice cream socials, full breakfasts and lunches, drinks and amenities. Your MozCon experience will be the most comfortable and smile-inducing experience you'll have at a professional event this year, even outside the sessions.

#10: We Have a Huge, Surprise Unveiling on Day 1

MozCon attendees will be the first to see something amazing we're releasing July 27th and will get early access to... this... amazing thing (sorry, the transparent part of me is dying to tell you what it is, but I promised it would stay secret until MozCon). Trust me when I say you won't want to miss it!

And don't ask Jen about it on Twitter, because she's not telling! :-)

As of today, approximately 400 seats are available. In the prior 5 years, we've sold out ahead of the event EVERY YEAR. I'd highly recommend getting tickets early:

If you absolutely can't make it to MozCon, come anyway. Barring that, you should come see us at:

• The Free SEOmoz Meetup in New York City, May 12th
• Distilled's Boston Conference, May 15th + 16th
• SMX Paris, June 6th + 7th
• SMX Advanced Seattle, June 7th + 8th

Event photos in this post are from our August, 2010 PRO Training event in Seattle.

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The story of the season so far has been the offense. I know, newsflash, right? There have been countless articles written about how the Rays will score runs this year. I'll take a slightly different look: How will the Rays score runs next year, and the year after that, and the year after that?

The Rays should be fine with the pitching; there's enough at the major-league level and a ton of depth in the minors for the forseeable future. But what about the hitting? Even if Manny and Damon had worked out, they were one-year band-aids for an offense whose 2010 runs scored total was a tad over-inflated thanks to some GTMI luck.

The two areas a small-market team needs to build from within are quality starting pitching (check) and impact bats (...). Bullpens can be creatively (and cheaply) built, nice complementary players can be shrewdly signed or traded for, but stars need to be developed. Whereas the Red Sox and Yankees lineups are, roughly speaking, three or four stars and some nice pieces, the Rays' current offensive make-up is one star and almost all nice pieces. Is that enough? Let's look at when the hitting prospects in the system might realistically arrive in the majors:

Catcher
Robinson Chirinos has gotten off to a slow start with Durham, but hit well in the spring and could reasonably be expected to hold his own in the majors if forced up today. Turning 27 in June, he's pretty much done developing in the traditional sense, but with only 174 games behind the plate (having just recently switched from shortstop to catcher), is still working working on the finer points of catching. Because of his age, there aren't any concerns about service time or his arbitration clock and he should make it to St. Pete this summer (especially if the Rays can find a taker for Kelly Shoppach).

After Chirinos, there's no immediate help on the way. Nevin Ashley and Jose Lobaton are on the 40-man roster but are known for their defensive acumen. Stephen Vogt led the Florida State League in OPS last season, but he was quite old for the league and has only been a part-time catcher in the minors because of his defense.

The next great hope would be Luke Bailey, the fourth-round pick in 2009. Projected as a first-rounder before Tommy John surgery put him on the shelf, Bailey impressed enough to jump from the GCL (where he hit .182) to full-season ball. He has good raw power and has shown he can work a walk, but still needs to tighten his strike zone and cut down on his swings and misses to help that power show up in games. He's hit well in the enormous sample size of five games, but unless he keeps up the 1.276 OPS, he'll spend the entire year with Bowling Green. He's athletic but like all young catchers will be moved along slowly so that his glove doesn't become a liability. The realistic best-case scenario that he moves one level at a time and would be ready in September of 2014.

The Rays invested heavily in a catcher again in 2010, selecting Justin O'Conner at the end of the first round with the compensation pick they got for not signing Levon Washington. O'Conner is sort of a boom-or-bust guy, even accounting for the built-in unpredictability of projecting short-season catchers. He's got two tools in his power and arm that are potential plus-plus assets, but there are questions about his pure hitting ability. He's never going to be a .300-type guy, but can he hit .260-.280 to make the power usable? He showed he had a decent idea at the plate in his debut (.090 IsoD) but struck out roughly once per game. He figures to trail Bailey by a level through the system, so Bowling Green in 2012 and on the cusp of the majors in late 2015/early 2016.

First Base
The traditional big-bat position, it's a spot the Rays are really hurting at in-house. Cuban Leslie Anderson's skills are much better suited to the outfield, though even then he doesn't project to hit the power expected from a corner outfielder. He was removed from the 40-man roster and cleared waivers, so he didn't exactly get a vote of confidence.

Matt Sweeney's prospect stock took a bigger hit than anybody's last season after hitting .196 in 46 games with Montgomery. He lost some weight in the off-season and moved across the diamond to first base (which was only a matter of time with his sub-par third base defense) for the Biscuits this year. He hasn't played a full season since 2007, so anything more than just playing in 120+ games this year could be considered a bonus. He has two home runs on the young season, but is just 3-18 overall with seven strikeouts in five games. Already 23 years old, his bat will need to develop in a hurry to project as an impact guy.

Down the system, there isn't much to be optimistic about. Mike Sheridan is a contact specialist who offers little in the way of walks or power (and his batting average hasn't been very good either) and Phil Wunderlich packs some good raw power but not much else. Jeff Malm got a nice of bonus in the 2009 draft on the premise that he could flat hit (he led the state of Nevada in home runs his senior year, beating out Bryce Harper), but he's put up a .222/.296/.302 line as a pro. Luke Bailey and Todd Glaesmann, also of the 2009 draft class, made it to Bowling Green this year while Malm hasn't, and that should tell you something.

So outside of a 2011 draft pick moving quickly (and it's a not a great year for first baseman in the draft) or sticking with Dan Johnson, the Rays will almost certainly have to go outside the organization for their first baseman of 2012 and beyond. So here are some fun trade candidates, even if they're pipe dreams:

Yonder Alonso is blocked by Joey Votto, though his numbers don't exactly have the NL MVP sweating. He's got a good eye at the plate but doesn't hit for ideal power from a first baseman, and hit just .207 in a late-season cameo with Cincinnati. A hammate injury could be blamed for some of his power issues, but even taking that into account it's a concern. If the Rays acquired Alonso, he'd be ready for the majors right now.

Jonathan Singleton with the Phillies would certainly be a dream come true. Rated the 39th-best prospect in the game by BaseballAmerica, Singleton hit .290/.393/.479 as an 18-year-old in low-A last season. He's giving it a shot in left field with Ryan Howard's Contact blocking him at 1B in Philadelphia, but let's just say his best defensive tool is his hitting ability. You'll give yourself rosterbation blue balls thinking about getting him, especially since the Phillies don't match up well as a trade partner. They obviously having major-league pitching (so Shields wouldn't do much for them), and they have a ton of lower-level minor league depth on the mound as well (so guys like Alex Colome and Enny Romero may not excite them as much). The best fit might be B.J. Upton if he hits well and they're starved for some offense, though his defensive ability is negated by the unlikelihood of them moving Shane Victorino to a corner. Singleton would figure to be ready for the big leagues as soon as early as mid-2013 if he continues to hit.

Quite frankly, the rest of the 1B prospects around the minors either aren't going to happen (Eric Hosmer, Freddie Freeman, Brandon Belt) or aren't very appealing. I'll go as far as to say that the first base position is my biggest concern in taking a long-term look at the Rays future.

Second Base
This is one position where the Rays don't really need to look for a 2012-2015 answer (I'll give you three guesses as to what the other one is) with Ben Zobrist inked to a long-term deal -- through 2013 with club options for '14 and '15. While they lack any super-prospects at the position, it's one of very good depth.

They acquired Cole Figueroa in the Jason Bartlett deal, and he's coming off a season in which he hit .303 and drew 81 walks (albeit in the offensive paradise of the Cal League). His range is decent and he's very sure-handed, but likely won't hit enough to start every day, and wouldn't be an "impact bat" if he did. Figuring a full year in both Montgomery and Durham, he'd be ready for the majors (perhaps in a utility role) at the end of 2012.

Tyler Bortnick was an unheralded 16th-round pick in 2009 out of Coastal Carolina, but he's hit quite well as a pro. He hit .300 and .295 his first two seasons, upping his on-base percentage to over .400 last year. He plays quality defense and has 20-30 SB potential at the major-league level. Lacking the high draft pedigree, Bortnick will have to hit at each level as he moves along. He's done that so far in the first week of the minor-league season, starting 9 for his first 21 at Charlotte. He wouldn't be a true impact bat, but how many second baseman are? If he maintains his production as he moves into the upper levels, you can project him as an everyday starter. Figuring the customary level per year, Bortnick would be ready for the majors in 2014.

Hector Guevara tore up the Venezuelan Summer League in 2009 before a more mild stateside debut in 2010. As a low-strikeout, low-walk type hitter, his ultimate future value hinges a lot on how his power develops and whether or not he can translate "consistent contact" into "consistent quality contact." He was rough defensively as a shortstop in the VSL, but has made improvements as he switched positions and is considered at least average in the field at second base. He made Bowling Green as a teenager and it's likely the Rays slow him down at some point unless he absolutely rakes (he's 1 for his first 14 with the Hot Rods). He has the potential to make an impact, but he's a long ways away from reaching his ceiling.

Ryan Brett, last year's third-round pick, has top-of-the-order potential with his speed and hitting ability. He has a short, quick swing and stings the ball pretty well for his size (5-9/180), but power shouldn't really be his game. He hit .303 in the Gulf Coast League (where pitching rules the day) in his debut. He has work to do defensively and may eventually wind up in the outfield. Whatever the case, he's quite a ways away from the majors, headed to short-season ball this year.

Shortstop
Reid Brignac has never been able to live up to the hype that was created after his big 2006 season, which was a combination of the Cal League Effect and some over-achieving. He's turned him into a quality defensive shortstop, but ideally the Rays would get some more in the way of offense from the position. He'll get the opportunity to provide that offense with no prospects yet knocking on the door.

Tim Beckham is in double-A, but he's only 21 years old and I'd imagine the Rays will slow down his rise through the system, perhaps not unlike how Brignac spent a few seasons at Durham. He's yet to have that "I was the #1 pick" season at the plate, with a career .263/.333/.371 line. There have been well-documented debates about his defense, but he's obviously going to get every chance to succeed at shortstop. He's off to a nice start with Montgomery, hitting .316/.381/.421 in his first five games.

Complicating matters is the fact that Hak-Ju Lee is right behind Beckham (so they wouldn't be able to just park Beckham at triple-A if Lee is ready for that level). Assuming Lee doesn't bomb in Charlotte this year, and assuming the Rays don't move Beckham off the position, Lee will be in double-A and presumably Beckham in triple-A in 2012. Lee offers more typical shortstop skills, projecting to hit for a decent average with little power, a high stolen base total, and quality defense. Both Beckham and Lee have suffered consistency problems in the field, racking up high-ish error totals. Lee is considered to have the better range, and when it comes down to it, you'd take him in the field over Beckham.

As obvious as it sounds, how they handle this sort-of logjam comes down to how they perform. If Brignac realizes his offensive potential, then he should be able to hold off the prospects. If Beckham breaks out, he won't be pushed off by Lee. And if Lee sparkles, they'll find a way to move him past Beckham. Further down the system, the only SS with a chance to make a splash is Derek Dietrich. He might have the best bat of the four, but he's probably not long for the position. As he moves through the system, especially as he catches up to Beckham and Lee (whom he is older than), he'll switch off the position, likely to third base.

Third Base
Evan Longoria. We good here?

Outfield
Well, let's start at the major-league level. There's a decent chance B.J. Upton isn't back in 2012 as his cost begins to rise through the arbitration process. Matt Joyce should, in my humble opinion, be in left field every day this season to see how he handles LHP. Left field is wide open as Sam Fuld is more of an ideal fourth outfielder than a day-in, day-out starter.

Assuming Upton isn't back, Desmond Jennings is the obvious choice in center field. He's off to a hot start in Durham (.348/.483/.522) and will be up before the 2011 season is through. R.J. Anderson took a longer look at Jennings' 2011 prospects here (http://theprocessreport.com/2011/04/11/when-will-desmond-jennings-be-promoted/). The leading candidate for the LF job (again, assuming no Upton)? That would be Brandon Guyer, acquired in the Matt Garza trade. He played three non-descript seasons in the Cubs organization after being selected in the fifth round out of the University of Virginia before breaking out at double-A last year, hitting .344/.398/.588. He's an aggressive hitter, and needs to keep his batting average up to offset a low walk total, but he has the tools to make it work. He has solid all-around tools, though he's not going to hit for big power (he hit 13 HR and stole 30 bases in 2010). He's not going to be a star, but he won't kill you as long as his batting average doesn't go in the tank.

The players with the chance of making the biggest impact are also the furthest away. Josh Sale and Drew Vettleson, a pair of high draft picks from this past year, are in extended spring training and probably won't make their full-season debut until 2012. Sale has game-changing power, and I think he'll be a very productive major-leaguer, but we're taking 2014 at the earliest for him in the bigs. 2015 is more realistic for Sale, and is Vettleson's realistic best-case. If you want to talk about someone REALLY far away, Yoel Araujo signed for $800,000 and should make his U.S. debut in 2012.

---

So where do we stand? Looking over the system, I only see two potential middle-of-the-order bats, and that's Sale and O'Conner. We know how foolish it is to count on prospects five years away, so we could be looking at some tough offensive times coming up. Do the Rays have enough of a pitching edge over Boston and New York (and Baltimore/Toronto) to off-set the offensive disadvantage it seems they might be at? It's possible, I suppose, but another big bopper sure would be nice.

I'll end with a thought and a question. Thought: The reason there's this lack of bats at the upper levels? That would be a product of the way the team drafted from 2005-2007. In the first four rounds those years (12 picks), the Rays selected one hitter: Evan Longoria.

Question: Is there any (realistic) scenario you would consider trading David Price away for some offensive help?

Surrey and England fast bowler

Peter Loader, who has died aged 81, was tall, slim, narrow of shoulder, and affable, specifications not readily associated with the mean fast bowler. But when he had a cricket ball in his hand, he was not a pleasant proposition. He ran to the crease in slightly cramped fashion, but when he released the ball off a lavish final stride, it travelled fast. His bouncer was nasty, and there were constant rumbles about the legality of his action as that short ball whistled through.

Loader is remembered more for his service to Surrey than to England, since in his 1950s heyday there was a profusion of high-class fast men in the county game. Only 13 Test caps came his way: Pakistan 1954 (one), South Africa 1955 (one), West Indies 1957 (two), New Zealand 1958 (three), and overseas in South Africa 1956-57 (four) and Australia 1958-59 (two). The Headingley Test against the West Indies brought him a sliver of immortality when he dismissed John Goddard and tailenders Sonny Ramadhin and Roy Gilchrist with consecutive balls, thus registering England's seventh Test hat-trick. He finished with six for 36, having taken the prize wickets of Gary Sobers (opening), Frank Worrell and Everton Weekes early in the innings. This was to remain the high point of Loader's Test career. It was also his best season statistically, with 133 first-class wickets at 15.47.

On his first England tour, when Len Hutton's side beat Australia 3-1, Frank Tyson, Brian Statham and Trevor Bailey were the Test fast bowlers and Loader missed out. "Scrubs" (his crinkly hair was cut short) was incensed at being told by his captain on the voyage south that he was among a group of youngsters (including Colin Cowdrey and Tyson) who would almost certainly not play in the Tests. On the tour he took 41 wickets at 19.92, six for 22 against Tasmania being his best return.

Four years later, when England were beaten in four of the five Ashes Tests of 1958-59, Loader did play in the first two, taking seven good wickets. He thus finished as something of an England nearly man, with 39 wickets in his 13 Tests at a respectable 22.51. By way of consolation his popularity as a tourist led to invitations to take part in Commonwealth XI tours of India and Rhodesia. For his county he had numerous rewarding days as part of the team that crushed all in its path, as Stuart Surridge and then Peter May led the "Browncaps" to seven consecutive county championships from 1952.

Loader, born in Wallington, Surrey, and educated at the local grammar school, played club cricket with Beddington, and when he began at Surrey, as possible understudy to Alec Bedser, he was a trainee dental mechanic. He soon earned a regular place, and batsmen needed to worry about their teeth when Loader made the ball fly. In winter he chopped willow trees at the Surridge cricket-bat factory. In the five Surridge years of that memorable championship run, Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock and Loader took 1,787 wickets between them at a collective average of 15.42. This formidable bowling attack and sharp fielding were the main factors in the Browncaps' astounding run of success.

Loader's most spectacular bowling for Surrey came at Blackheath in 1953, when he rolled Kent over with nine for 28 (last man Doug Wright run out). He bettered these figures five years later at home at the Oval: nine for 17 against a timid Warwickshire. The second hat-trick of his career came in 1963, against Leicestershire at the Oval. In any other era, he would surely have won more than those 13 Test caps – he was a thinking bowler, employing a range of variations and capable of cutting the ball and also of imparting lethal late swing. At a time of unprotected pitches, when only policemen, firemen and miners wore helmets, it was often a daunting prospect facing bowlers as fiery as Loader. He had a certain sparkiness. After his relegation to understudy on that first tour of Australia, it gave him inordinate pleasure to dismiss tour captain Len Hutton for nought and one at the Oval a few weeks later. In all first-class matches, Loader took 1,326 wickets at 19.04. As a batsman he was of little account, although he did once crack 81 against Yorkshire at Headingley.

His benefit year, 1963, was his last with Surrey. He then followed his team-mate Lock in emigrating to Perth, Western Australia, where he ran a transport business, did radio commentaries and umpiring, and greatly enjoyed meeting successive England touring teams. He also played one match for Western Australia – and wished he hadn't. Peter Burge hammered a double century and Loader took nought for 85. But he had plenty of richer memories, and leaves a wife, two sons and a daughter.

• Peter James Loader, cricketer, born 25 October 1929; died 15 March 2011

Last 10 overs of a one-day innings can be a batting run-fest, but top teams make it the time to unleash their meanest bowlers

A pattern has emerged among the best sides. In the field they regard the last 10 overs of the innings, when the opposition batsmen are obliged to open their shoulders and go for quick runs, as an opportunity to win the game. Ordinary teams dread this period of play, fearing batting mayhem, runs galore, bowling figures ruined, defeat more or less guaranteed.

Sri Lanka, under the calm, shrewd guidance of Kumar Sangakkara, have excelled in this phase of the game. Their bowlers appear to relish the challenge of bowling "at the death" and we are no longer talking only of Muttiah Muralitharan, who bows out of international cricket after this World Cup.

Occasionally the great players can tinker with fate; they can orchestrate their exit in the grand manner, but only occasionally. In 1983 Clive Lloyd in his World Cup swansong at Lord's promoted himself up the batting order to No4 in the final against India, so meagre was the West Indies' target. It was so tempting to end his career centre stage, but most of us can recall how that particular drama came to an end (West Indies were sensationally bowled out for 140 by India).

In Mumbai Today tomorrow it is just possible that it will boil down to a famous duel between two giants of their generation, Sachin Tendulkar and Muralitharan, to decide the destination of the World Cup. But cricket rarely delivers the cosy, eagerly anticipated climax that sends the sentimentalists into ecstasy. Who knows? It may well be the prosaic Gautam Gambhir or Munaf Patel, who step forward as India's match-winners while there is every chance that someone other than Muralitharan will be Sri Lanka's ace.

In the past Muralitharan has been burdened, albeit happily, with the tag of Sri Lanka's sole bowling match-winner, the role that Richard Hadlee performed for New Zealand for a decade. But now they have at least two other match-winners, which is probably just as well since Muralitharan is currently hopping up to the stumps on one leg and, as many legendary bowlers do at the end of their careers, relying more on bluff than fizz.

Sangakkara has other trumps to play, although he has lost the option of the injured Angelo Mathews. First, there is the amazing Lasith Malinga, a testament to the Sri Lanka coaching regime, which had the wit not to interfere when he came along.

Provided the batsman can locate the ball upon release Malinga is not so much of a threat with the new ball, which is why Sangakkara uses him so sparingly at the start. But at the end of the innings with the batsmen in a hurry and the ball reverse-swinging, Malinga can be devastating. He varies his pace, he bowls cutters and the odd bouncer, but his speciality is that in-swinging yorker. Malinga's yorker may even be more deadly than Joel Garner's, who mastered that delivery for one-day cricket more than two decades ago. It certainly comes from a different trajectory. Garner bowled the ball from a height of at least 10 feet; Malinga delivers from about five feet and this might be to his advantage.

Think of trying to slide the ball underneath a crack at the bottom of a door; the margin for error has to be greater, the lower the height from which the ball is released. Not that Malinga needs too much of a margin, even though he delivers in a manner that looks more likely to endanger the umpire's left ear than the toes of the batsman at the other end.

Malinga is a wonderful, one-off cricketer and Ajantha Mendis is pretty unusual as well. He bowls at a rapid pace for a spinner, flicking the ball mysteriously out of his hand and capable of spinning it either way. He delivers more off-breaks than leg-breaks and batsmen have started to play him, as they did Anil Kumble, like an off-cutter/inswinger bowler. But he can go the other way. Thus Mendis can pick up wickets rapidly when batsmen start swinging. Witness the way he polished off the Kiwi tail in the semi-final. It is hard to swing with conviction when you are not sure which way the ball is going to bounce.

This is why fortunate captains have kept Saeed Ajmal, Harbhajan Singh and Murali (all possessors of the doosra) as well as Imran Tahir and Mendis (often categorised as leg-spinners) at their disposal for some of those late overs. The wondrous ability of these bowlers to deceive explains why the so-called "happy hour" at the end of the innings has often been a miserable experience for so many batsmen in this tournament.

With his stunning evisceration of Australia's top order, Tim Bresnan justified the decision to remove Steven Finn

When England have been good on this tour, they have been very, very good in thought, word and, Perth excepted, deed. After the grand, tension-free escape in Brisbane, there was the textbook victory in Adelaide, a well-nigh perfect performance.

At the Waca they batted poorly but at least the think-tank was operating with a clinical, clear-sighted logic, which has been consistently absent from the Australian quarter. There Chris Tremlett was chosen to replace Stuart Broad, patently the correct decision.

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England were never going to overhaul the team after that defeat in Perth. All the batsmen survived, but they did make one change for Melbourne: they dropped the leading wicket-taker in the series, Steven Finn. Not many teams do that. It is so easy to be swayed by statistics rather than the evidence of your own eyes.

Out went Finn. In came Tim Bresnan and the logic is now indisputable. Finn, despite his 14 wickets in the series, was looking weary by the end of the Perth Test; his body was starting to rebel. Moreover England knew that whichever of the drop-in pitches were used in Melbourne there would not be the steep bounce of the Waca, but there might be seam movement off a tacky surface and the possibilities of reverse swing. Conditions would be not so different to those experienced at Headingley (in fact for two days at the MCG it was as cold as Leeds) so who better to bring in to the team than the Tyke?

As has been the case whenever this England side has been on the eastern side of this country, whatever decision they have taken, has worked a treat. In the first innings Bresnan played the anticipated role. He was the self-effacing support bowler - even if it goes against the grain of most Yorkshiremen, Bresnan most definitely included, to embrace self-effacement.

Phil Hughes swished in his second over of the match and was caught in the gully. Perhaps the young Australian had underestimated him as well. For a dozen overs Hughes had been tested by Jimmy Anderson and Tremlett, the obvious and identifiable threats in the England attack; maybe young Bresnan, fifth-choice seamer, would provide some easy pickings for a batsman, who has to dominate to survive.

Brad Haddin also seemed to take him too lightly as he drove airily outside the off-stump and edged to Matt Prior. Bresnan had yielded nothing as England's latest pace trio hunted in a pack; in fact he had been the most economical of them all. Sunday was probably his second-best day as an England bowler. He has had some success in Bangladesh on those soul-destroying surfaces, but this was Australia, the MCG and the Ashes and he had slotted seamlessly (or is it seamfully?) into the side.

But Tuesday, the third day, must have been his best for England. Now Bresnan was the leader of the pack. That began to become evident in his first spell even though it was wicketless. The ball had been flying all around the MCG; the Australian 50 had come inside 10 overs. England's "bowling dry" policy had gone awry.

Enter Bresnan for seven overs and five maidens. The brakes were applied. Shane Watson was briefly becalmed and called Hughes for a wildly inappropriate single. Then Andrew Strauss sensibly strengthened his slip cordon. Bresnan was not only on target, stemming the flow of runs, he was passing the outside edge now and again.

In this Test Bresnan has booted the charge that he looks a bland trundler at this level into the River Yarra. The speed gun can be misleading - all the Australians have been at the top of the table in this game but what good has it done them? - but it has also told us that Bresnan has been the quickest of the English bowlers in this match.

If Bresnan's first spell stalled the Australians, his second stunned them. First there was Watson, wanton Watto, who promises so much, who delivers a fair bit, but who should produce much more given the number of starts he gets as an opening batsman, padding up to another delivery with a hint of reverse swing. Ricky Ponting looked on as the review system continued to do his side no favours. The decision of umpire Tony Hill was upheld.

Then Ponting himself was undermined by a little movement off the pitch, a little extra pace and the prospect of a task that was ever more monumental. An inside edge cannoned on to the stumps. Ponting's wicket has been the totemic one throughout the series, Mike Hussey's has been the hardest to procure, but here the suddenly mortal Mr Cricket hit a crisp drive into the hands of Ian Bell at short extra cover.

As Bresnan rocked down to the boundary at the end of another successful over he received rapturous applause, acknowledged with a perky wave of the hand. He looked like a Yorkshireman as he did so, the sort of Yorkshireman that all those living within a stone's throw of Pontefract would be proud to be: no-nonsense, bluff, cheerful, with a heart the size of a cabbage.

There may have been doubts before this match that Bresnan would have the penetration to have an impact against Test-standard batsmen, but there were no worries that he would be overawed by the occasion and the size of the crowd. It was a game of cricket, for heaven's sake, and that's what they are reared on up there.

Bresnan may only be 25 but he has been playing first-class cricket on a regular basis since he was 18. He has long been a Yorkshire stalwart, filling in manfully, even as a teenager, when the glamour boys - if that is how we can describe Darren Gough and Matthew Hoggard - were off playing for England.

Yorkshire may not see quite so much of Bresnan in the years to come. He is now an ink-in regular in the one-day side and after this performance he is clamouring for a more regular place in the Test team. Down in St Johns's Wood they now recognise what has been common knowledge up north for years: that Bresnan will never let you down.

(All stats provided are against the top 8 ranked sides of the world.)

With the last two Tests of the year taking place simultaneously in the southern hemisphere, one would suppose we have enough information with us about who the best batsmen, bowlers and wicket keepers are for the bygone year. So without further ado, let's dive into it.

The first step to picking any XI is to decide on what combination of batsmen, bowlers and all-rounders one wishes to have at their disposal. Ideally having your top five as specialists, your number 6 as the batting all rounder, followed by the wicket keeper batsman, and then a bowling all rounder, plus three specialist bowlers would do the trick.

But with batting all rounders, like Jacques Kallis batting at number four, and wicketkeeping batsmen like Kumar Sangakkara batting at number three, the batting order may differ depending on the players selected.

The Openers

In the 21st century, selecting a good opening pair is probably the easiest task for a selector. With such few quality openers going around, it doesn't exactly pose a selection quandary.

For 2010, there were only a handful of batsmen who turned in, what one might label, world class performances. They were, in order of most runs scored against the top eight ranked sides, Virender Sehwag, Graeme Smith, Alastair Cook and Tamim Iqbal.

Shane Watson scored more runs for Australia than Iqbal did for Bangladesh, but his tendency to throw starts away has resulted in a mediocre average of 42, which effectively rules him out of contention.

Sehwag is an automatic choice for the team. For the last six years, the Nawab of Najafgarh, as he was proclaimed by Sunil Gavaskar himself, has been the premier opener in the world.

He has gotten runs on all kinds of surfaces, treating Dale Steyn and Muttiah Muralitharan with equal disdain. In 2010, he has continued in the same rich vein of form. With 1,237 runs so far in 20 innings and a mind boggling strike rate of over 90, comfortably the highest among all batsmen, Sehwag walks into almost any XI.

Choosing a partner for the erstwhile Sachin Tendulkar-clone is a tough task indeed. In Smith and Cook one would have ideal foils for Sehwag, just like his India and Delhi opening partner Gautam Gambhir provides.

Yet, Cook's early season failures effective put paid to his chances in the World XI. Of the 886 runs scored by Cook in the year, over 500 have come in his last five innings.

Smith is one of the classiest openers of all time, and would have walked into this XI with his impressive stats, had it not been for one Tamim Iqbal.

The dashing left hander from Bangladesh smashed an impressive 837 runs in the year, with some outstanding performances against England, both home and away, and a very memorable 150 against India in a fourth innings effort.

His striker rate, too, compares favorably with that of his partner. He strikers at a mind boggling 80 per 100 balls, 10 worse off than his partner, but still miles ahead of any other opener out there. The fact that he hails from a cricketing lightweight team only makes all his numbers look even more impressive.

Whether having two destructive batsmen as openers is a sound decision or not is up for debate. But in our fantasies, all practicality can go out the window, and we can just close our eyes and imagine these two stroke makers go hammer and tonks from the word go.

The Middle Order (Numbers 3, 4, 5)

Sangakkara would count himself unlucky on this one. With nearly seven hundred runs in just nine innings and an average of 99.28, you would think he would walk into the side.

But when you have a batsman in the middle of dream run, like Hashim Amla is at the moment, even Bradman would struggle to make it. The classy South African has pulverized bowling all over the world from his own back yard of South Africa to his ancestral home of the sub continent.

Amla started 2010 in AB de Villiers' shadow. But 16 innings and 1138 runs later, there is no doubt in an SA supporter's mind who the premier batsman in the side is. At number 3, Amla occupies a spot that is more crucial than most batting positions. He is the shield between the new ball bowlers and the middle order in case of an early wicket.

He is also the first line of attack if the openers are successful in laying a solid platform. While his strike rate of 51 might suggest a stoic batsman, having Sehwag and Iqbal as openers should give him some cushion to take his time.

The selection for the number four slot is as easy as it gets for a selector. Kallis may edge Tendulkar out when it comes to the performances particularly from the fourth slot, but taking into consideration Tendulkar's crucial knocks from number 5, due to India's policy of introducing night watchmen upon the fall of a wicket late in the day, Tendulkar gets the spot for yet another vintage year.

Five centuries, nearly 1300 runs, all at an average of 76 puts this right at the top of Tendulkar's year on year pile. The fact that the man is fast approaching is 38th birthday only makes his numbers seem even more insane.

For the final middle order slot, we have a fight on our hands. It's de Villiers versus Venkata Sai Laxman. Where de Villiers is destructive, Laxman is poetry in motion. Laxman is all wrist and fine angles, de Villiers all about the punchy drives and clearing mid wicket.

The two couldn't be more dissimilar, except for the common love of scoring runs. De Villiers boasts the superior run aggregate and conversion rate, whereas Laxman epitomizes the grit and fighting spirit required at this position. Laxman's two back to back fourth innings specials, 103, unbeaten, against Sri Lanka in Colombo, followed by 73* at Mohali epitomized Laxman's mastery over pressure situations.

This is the man who scripted what is perhaps the greatest modern day innings, 281 against Australia after following on. Both innings came at blistering strike rates, the one at Mohali especially so.

Where he batted with newbie Suresh Raina at the P Sara Oval to finish a fantastic win, his effort at Mohali was even more surreal, putting on 81 for the ninth wicket with Ishant Sharma and guiding India home from a stage where the game looked sealed for Australia.

De Velliers' case is perhaps not as straight forward. He constantly threw away starts against England at home, failed to make a major impression in India, and barring the utter destruction of a weak West Indies and highly under strength Pakistani attacks, de Villers' only remaining stand out innings is his better than a run a ball 129 in the first Test against India in South Africa at Centurion.

All things considered, Laxman gets my vote of confidence.

All-rounders and Wicket-keepers

There really is very little to argue when it comes to selecting the batting all rounder. Watson with 843 runs at 42.15 and 19 wickets at 26.52 over shadows even Kallis. There really is no debate with this one.

M.S. Dhoni leads the way for the wicket keepers. While Matt Prior, Brad Haddin and Kamran Akmal boast higher dismissals-per-innings rates, Dhoni seals the deal with his batting ability, and the fact that he is probably the best captain going around at the moment.

The likes of Smith and Andrew Strauss have very good bowling at their disposal, but to marshal a mediocre bowling unit to the number one slot and keeping them there requires more effort than topping dismissal charts at 35 for the year. A lot more, which also earns him the captain's position.

The bowling all rounder's slot is an interesting deal. Harbhajan Singh lies sixth on the wicket takers' list for 2010 with 35 sticks at a horrendous average of 44.2. But an economy rate of 2.9 coupled with over 420 runs and two centuries establish Singh as the best batsmen among the top ten wicket takers for the year, giving the much hyped spinner the number 8 slot.

The Bowling Attack

2010 could very well be marked down, in years to come, as the year which marked the resurgence of fast bowling in Test match cricket. From Steyn to Zaheer Khan, James Anderson to Morne Morkel, Mohammed Amir to Mitchell Johnson, fast bowlers have ruled the roost this year as they seldom have in the past decade. Where in bygone years he Warnes, the Muralis and the Kumbles would top wicket taking charts, they have made way for a new wave of wicket taking fast men.

Yet, at least one berth must be made available for a spinner. And that is what we will do first, before picking a new ball opening pair. If you thought picking the middle order was a cake walk, this will seem like… I really don't know what could be easier than that, so I will leave it to the reader's discretion.

But anyway, the spinner's slot in the World XI for 2010 goes to the one and only Graeme Swann. The English off spinner has been a breath of fresh air. At a time when Singh has made spin bowling look like climbing Mt. Everest with half a shoe lace, Swann has used his attacking instincts, well complemented by a captain who has shown faith in his abilities to pick up 40 wickets at just under 25. His economy and strike rates are impressive too for a spinner. All in all, the complete spin bowling package.

And now, the final piece, or pieces, of the jigsaw. The real question is who should partner Steyn, as , just as with Sehwag, he has simply blown competition away.

He takes wickets at a regularity, which most batsmen would rotate strike. His strike rate of 39.5 is simply stunning, with only Steven Finn and Ryan Harris coming close to matching the figure among all bowlers with 20 or more wickets.

Steyn also has nine more wickets than his nearest competitor, Anderson, with three five-fors and a ten wicket match haul. Easily the best fast bowler on the planet.

To partner him, we primarily have two contenders. England's Anderson, and India's Khan. With likes of Amir and Mohammad Asif ruling themselves out with accusations of match fixing against them, the Anglo-Indian pair come closest to providing Steyn with any competition for his throne.

Khan has been the lone work horse for his side. Complemented by huge underachievers, such as Singh and Ishant Sharma, Khan is often relied upon by Dhoni to not just pick wickets, but also bowl with frugality.

It's a balance Khan has achieved masterfully. He is probably the greatest exponent of the reverse swing ever produced outside of Pakistan. It has been his primary weapon on the dead sub continental tracks, the only place he has bowled in so far this season. He is yet to bowl in South Africa, with the Indian batting still in progress in the Boxing Day Test, but expect him to do well in conditions which complement him for a change.

Anderson has been a different proposition altogether. Flanked by fantastic support from the likes of Swann, Broad and new boy Finn, Anderson has lead his attack with distinction, finally fulfilling the promise with which he burst on to the scene just before the 2003 World Cup.

As mentioned, he is second highest wicket taker for the year, 47 wickets at an average just marginally better than Steyn. His ability to swing the new ball accurately and getting openers playing sets him apart as a fine new ball bowler.

If Khan has played more cricket and been less affected by injuries, the second fast bowlers spot could have been his for the taking, but Anderson, with his consistent displays all through the year get him the coveted position of Steyn's new ball partner.

The Final XI

1. V. Sehwag (IND)
   
2. T. Iqbal (BAN)
   
3. H.M. Amla (SA)
   
4. S.R. Tendulkar (IND)
   
5. V.V.S. Laxman (IND)
   
6. S.R. Watson (AUS)
   
7. M.S. Dhoni (IND) (C)
   
8. H. Singh (IND)
   
9. G.P. Swann (ENG)
   
10. D.W. Steyn (SA)
    
11. J.M. Anderson (ENG)

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1st over: Australia 0-0 (Watson 0, Hughes 0) Anderson opens to Watson, and immediately there's a hint of swing. And from his fifth delivery, Watson nervously paws it towards Collingwood ... who drops it at third slip! It was a difficult chance, low to his left, but Collingwood would take that nine times out of ten. "Would it be fair to say that Ricky Ponting now thinks that there isn't a spinner in Australia worth picking?" says Chris Langmead. "The Waca is one thing, but surely a spinner is needed in Melbourne and Sydney?" It certainly looks that way ...

11.25pm: A knee-trembling version of God Save The Queen - rather out of place at 10am Melbourne time - is impeccably observed and applauded afterwards, as is Advance Australia Fair. "Beard of the Year is not simply about how magnificent the beard is [we'll leave that to the hirsute topiarists of the World Beard & Moustache Championships]," splutters Keith Flett, "but whether it is making a positive impact in the public arena." If KP scores the winning runs off his five-o-clock shadow I'll vote for him myself Keith.

11.20pm GMT: So, your thoughts on the Bresnan decision? Gary Naylor, for one, is strongly in favour: "I like Straussy's decision. There's a reason the bowlers are called an attack (unlike in baseball where pitchers defend) and this means that we can get at Hughes early and then at Punter and Clarke too with any luck. Bresnan is quite sharp, matches up Harris well with the ball and is a proper No8 (Swanny is a nine-and-a-half these days)." I'm not as confident as you are Gary, but it clearly helps that England have won the toss - they should have the best of the conditions to bowl in. However Bresnan's record in Tests against Bangladesh and West Indies is steady-as-she-goes: 14 wickets for 492 runs at an average of 35.14. Agree that he will strengthen the batting, mind.

11.15pm GMT: While we wait for play to begin, Kevin Pietersen is talking about how he's changed his mentality and wants to be less carefree and more clinical - so he converts 80s and 90s into big scores. Speaking of KP, an important message from Keith Flett of the Beard Liberation Front. "Kevin Pietersen's performance in the 4th Ashes Test from Boxing Day will be crucial to his chances in one of the year's most coveted trophies, the Annual Beard of the Year award," he writes. "The winner is announced on Wednesday and with Pietersen on the shortlist his performance during the Test could sway, or otherwise, crucial last minute votes. The Award is designed to highlight those who have given beards a positive image in the public eye during the year." I'd hardly call KP's half-moustache and three days of growth a beard but happy to be persuaded otherwise ...

11.04pm GMT: Australia's team is unchanged by the way. Meanwhile, spare a thought for Tim Hill. "My mate Neil and I had tickets for today and also the Sydney Test match," he writes. "After four days of being messed around by our airline at Heathrow due to the bad weather we were not able to make our trip. Instead of shrimps on the barbie and the MCG I am now seeking legal advice and spending Christmas in -6 degree England. There must be other people out there who have suffered the same fate - we met three lads at the airport who were going to miss out on eight days worth of tickets. Real tragedy aside, I have never been more gutted about anything."

11.02pm GMT: Ponting confirms he would have "had a bowl", but he's not too concerned about batting as it was such a difficult decision, and that his finger is OK. "I've been pulling a bit sore after training, but I'll be fine," he claims.

The toss: Ponting flicks, Strauss calls heads - correctly - and England will bowl. Moments later England's captain confirms that Bresnan is in for Finn, as broken by the Guardian last Tuesday. That's a huge call ...

10.45pm GMT: Still no official news on the teams, although many commentators - including Jonathan Agnew - are predicting that Bresnan is in for Finn. Meanwhile lots of you are emailing in about Christmas presents. I hope you got everything you wanted - and that some of you were given Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket by Chris Ryan, formerly of this parish. A lovely bloke and a very nice writer too.

10.40pm GMT The word from the Guardian's cricket correspondent Mike Selvey is that Australia are unchanged. "Nothing witty to say, but I'd guess I reflect a majority of England fans when I say I'm now as nervous again as I was at the beginning of the series," says Indy Neogy. "All the old questions are back. Are we going to get mullered? Was all the optimism just a mirage? Will we be watching another England batting collapse? Should Finn really be playing in this game, or is he going to run out of steam after 5 overs? Will Tremlett be any use on this pitch?" No. I hope not. No. Yes. Yes.

The pitch: Paul Collingwood has looked at it four or five times already and England are unsure whether to bowl or bat if they win the toss. However Shane Warne reckons we shouldn't be fooled by the grass on the wicket; he believes it looks a pretty good wicket and he wants Australia to play a spinner. No team news yet.

A few pointers: According to David Saker, England's bowling coach, the MCG is "more of an English-type pitch. It is harder to drive, especially on day one and two. You need success with the new ball. Then once the shine goes off you need to get it to reverse because if you don't it's really not a bad place to bat ... It's not a big spinners pitch but they have had reasonable success. It may be harder to score as quickly there as other grounds because the pitch is a bit slower Once the shine goes it is hard work for the bowlers."

* However the first match-innings average in the last 10 Tests is 360, which suggests the MCG is not quite the belter many assume. And there may be something in the pitch for everyone: when Australia beat Pakistan last year, for instance, both Mohammad Aamir and Nathan Hauritz got five wicket hauls.
* Australia's recent record at Melbourne is excellent: in the last 15 Tests they have only been bowled out twice on three occasions.
* Ricky Ponting's Test batting average at the MCG. Only four players have scored more than his 1,186 runs at this venue.

Preamble: And so this is Christmas. And what, England must be asking themselves, have we done? A fortnight ago, before their batting collapsed like skittles under a wrecking ball, they were 1-0 up and dominant - and the retaining the Ashes looked a matter of five days and twenty wickets away. Then came Perth. Suddenly Andrew Strauss's men arrive at the MCG with the series all-square, the team as underdogs, and with 90,000 (mostly) Australians crowing, braying and smelling blood. But, just as most people over-reacted to Adelaide, have we all over-reacted to Perth? We'll soon find out.

Andrew Strauss is expected to lead the same damaged men into the fourth Test on Boxing Day in front of a record crowd

So we come to the climax. First Australia, then emphatically England and, just as emphatically, Australia once more. This series has tottered this way and that like a Christmas Eve drunk on his way home. On Sunday 90,000 people will journey to the MCG to see what may well prove to be the defining match. The forecast for the match is set fair but not so for the Sydney Test in the new year. It may well be that whoever comes off better in Melbourne will take the spoils.

Simplistic it may be, and clichéd, to say that the defeat in Perth was a jolt to the system, a wake-up call for the England players, but in any sport it never pays to go through the victory speech before the deed is done. There are no two more grounded individuals than the Andys, Flower and Strauss, but ultimately cricketers have to think for themselves and some players may have got a little ahead of the game. For this match normal service will be resumed.

The consistency that makes champions, and that Flower sees as his biggest challenge, has yet to materialise but rarely do England have two bad games in a row. Australia may be cock-a-hoop after their overwhelming win at the Waca but they understand well enough the potential for a backlash.

For the past few days the centre of attention has been the pitch prepared by Cameron Hodgkins. It suited some to find conspiracy in the fact that what would normally be his first-choice pitch was being discarded in favour of another. Australian groundsmen, the curators as they are called here, are fiercely independent, however, their reputations dependent on the quality of the surface they produce.

The inclement weather that has blighted Melbourne for months so hampered preparation that it was a logical expedient and plain commonsense to prepare several surfaces and then see which one was best developing. Hodgkins had decided on his pitch before the Perth Test began and all the intelligence is that, accordingly, it will play as does a Melbourne Test pitch generally: help for the new ball, off the seam largely, and then little beyond some reverse swing. Early losses can be rectified in later sessions.

Neither side has arrived in Melbourne with any certainty as to what its starting XI will be. England will certainly not be panicked into making wholesale changes and may not make any at all. Central to this is Steven Finn, who is the leading wicket-taker in the series but who also has tended to leak runs at an alarming rate at times – around a run a ball in Perth. With only three seamers, and the reluctant use of Graeme Swann, Strauss was unable to maintain the sort of control that Ben Hilfenhaus, unselfishly, was able to offer Ricky Ponting. So there is sure to be debate.

Finn's virtue is his wicket-taking capacity and there is some mitigation for his figures in Perth, where two lengths were demanded: bouncer and full length. That he was driven too frequently was a direct function of his bouncer, which was not sufficiently short or potent to force the main players, Shane Watson and Mike Hussey, on to the back foot, and which was pulled mercilessly. His full length was no different from that exploited so well by Ryan Harris in particular but, in being allowed to play it from in front of the crease rather than pinned back as England's batsmen were, Watson and Hussey were able to pick him off. When he did go short, he was pulled.

It could, and will, be argued that, if Finn is strong enough (and Flower insists he is), he should play. Certainly, in trying to rough him up, Australians are letting him know he is a concern for them. Already, with the selection of Chris Tremlett in Perth, Strauss and Flower have shown fearlessness when they might have gone for dependability.

The same might apply here. It is feasible, on a pitch that will not have the same high-octane quality as that at the Waca, that Tim Bresnan would do a steady holding job and leave the strike bowling to Jimmy Anderson and Tremlett. It is also feasible that they could take a bolder decision and go for Ajmal Shahzad, who is the most adept reverse-swinger and showed in Hobart that he can bowl effectively to left-handers. The most radical thing, though, would be to show faith in Finn. Often the best decisions are those that would please the opposition least. Finn, the Australians know, can damage them.

Beyond that England could swap Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell in the order but will not. There is a very good chance that this game and the one in Sydney will be Collingwood's last Test matches and that, by the summer – on his own initiative but probably with gentle encouragement – he will have retired from Tests to concentrate on the shorter forms. Simply knowing that the end is in sight may for now be stimulus for this most cussed of cricketers to produce something when it is needed, not just by the team but by himself.

His absence is not an option for Eoin Morgan has much to learn about Test match batting and will get the chance next summer. Collingwood's catching is so potent, not least to Swann, that it is worth runs in itself. Were he not to be there at slip for Swann, it is Anderson who has been earmarked and groomed to take on the role.

Meanwhile despite their win, Australia have more fundamental selection problems. Of course Ponting will play, even with a cracked little finger. But they must now decide whether to continue with the winning format from Perth, which – given it is 52 years since they won an MCG Test with four seamers (and even then had Richie Benaud's leg spin) and have never in 102 matches over 135 years not had a frontline spinner there – would represent a massive deviation from historical precedent. If not, they must play a spinner of no international and little first-class experience in place either of the bowler who lent them control in Perth or of the one who took a hat-trick in Brisbane. An educated guess, on the back of their win, would be for an unchanged XI.

Mitchell Johnson? Australian momentum? England's talisman has no fears ahead of the Boxing Day Test

Kevin Pietersen is cricket's high roller and the stakes could not be higher when a potential world-record Test crowd of more than 90,000 floods into the MCG on Boxing Day. When the stakes are high, Pietersen raises them with a gleam in his eye – and he has placed the lot on Mitchell Johnson.

Johnson went from world cricketer of the year to figure of fun and then took nine wickets to win the third Test for Australia in Perth with a display of fast, left-arm inswing bowling that left England in disarray. No problem, says Pietersen, England are ready for him.

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"It was just a week to forget, and now it's 1-1 going to Melbourne," Pietersen said. "If we'd been offered that at the start of the tour, I'm sure we'd have said: 'OK, let's get going.' We lost the Perth Test within half an hour: five for 20. I can promise you right now, I have no worries about momentum or anything.

"Why not? Because I know I didn't prepare for a swinging ball as much as Mitchell Johnson swung the ball. I didn't realise he could swing it back as much as he did. And none of our batters did. He's a fantastic cricketer. He's been world cricketer of the year. And I've never faced him swinging the ball back into me.

"When I did face him in the second innings and I lined myself up, I felt totally fine against him. We just didn't line him up properly. He's allowed to do that. He's a world-class bowler and he had a wonderful game of cricket. He caught us by surprise. We lost five for 20 and when you lose five for 20 you lose a Test match. Simple."

The MCG will adopt Pietersen as the pantomime villain in the Melbourne Test, an accolade given to few: Jardine, Boycott, Brearley, Botham, all in their own way representatives of the dangerous Pom. The boos will carry across the Melbourne suburbs almost to the Mornington Peninsula. You can taste his excitement.

He is approaching the Boxing Day Test in particularly edgy mood. He had not one but two mobiles by his side, and when one messaged him midway through a sentence he turned both over, instantly, as if battling an addiction. If Pietersen is resisting a tweet then something important must be building. And there were still four days to go to the Test.

"Nervous energy is always good as a sportsman. It's a great feeling. If you're not nervous then you're taking things for granted. You shouldn't be doing your job. With nerves you just want to do well. This Test is one of those where you just look at it and think: can't wait."

Pietersen thinks Johnson will not swing it as much as at the Waca. It is a fair bet because by his own admission he has never swung it as much in his life. A stiff breeze blew across the Waca and his wrist was in decent shape. Pietersen says that England's bowling coach has talked down the chance of a repeat. (The batting coach, Graham Gooch, incidentally, has gone home. Make sense of that it you can. You just can't get the staff to work Christmas.)

"According to David Saker, it doesn't swing as much at the MCG, but I'm going to prepare as though he's going to swing it," Pietersen said. "I hold my hands up and say I didn't prepare for that and I felt really, really dudded. I have to line myself up better in my stance and think he can swing it. It's a mental adjustment."

Johnson versus Pietersen has become the No1 Ashes sideshow. You have to be quite earnest not to be vaguely intrigued about the context of the entirely frivolous story about Pietersen offering Johnson his phone number. A sledge that went wrong? A display of international friendship from a player who likes to ally himself with the best? Pietersen, to his immense credit, cringes, then provides an answer. "Things that happen on the field should stay on the field," he said. "You guys love feeding him lines and he chats. I'm not talking. I was just seeing if I could be his friend. We play this game to make friends. Next question."

He insisted that talk of an Ashes sledging war is a nonsense, a relief to those observers who had imagined that they were going deaf. "The English take is that we didn't hear anything or see anything differently to what normally happens in a Test match," he said. "Having played against Warne and McGrath, the sledging here is nonexistent. You haven't seen any huge battles on the field or any proper abuse. No one's said anything to me after they bowled a ball to me.

"I don't feel intimidated by the Australians. We understand that they are very vulnerable – there are a lot of areas in their team that are very vulnerable. And we just need to do what we do and wipe the slate clean and forget Perth. Think about Adelaide – think about how well we did there, and how well we did in Brisbane. We're absolutely fine."

Pietersen thinks Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, will play with a broken little finger. "I've played in a series with a finger broken. It's not a huge drama. You just numb it so you don't feel the pain. It's obviously dead. Ricky Ponting might bat without gloves, he's so tough."

Pietersen has an ego, Pietersen gushes, Pietersen messes up at the most inappropriate time. Everybody has heard the charges. But there was something impressive about a man who would politely and amusingly answer questions about just why he drove a yellow Lamborghini down the Great Ocean Road after England's win in the second Test in Adelaide and got nicked for speeding. If this is an ego, it is a happy and unabashed one, and better for that.

"I got offered the opportunity to drive a yellow car and as any 30-year-old man would do, I said 'yep'. And I went for a drive and unfortunately got caught 5-6mph over the speed limit, which I'm not proud about, but I wasn't reckless at all. I thought the speed limit was 110kph. To be honest, I hardly even had my foot on the accelerator. I was being overtaken by trucks. Can you imagine that?"

He was asked if he had got carried away by his double hundred in Adelaide. His answer was piercingly honest. "I have a fancy car at home. I live in a lovely house. I didn't sell my Ferrari when I got nought, or didn't sell anything else when I did badly over the last 18 months. Why should that affect what I do? If you look at my tweets to Warney, I was always driving that car whether I got 0 or 220. You guys read too much into things. Just let me be. I'm just enjoying my life. We have such amazing lives – just let us live."

There are times when whatever your philosophy of life you are tempted to run with Pietersen. At those times, as a cricketer, he can be at his most prolific. England's coach, Andy Flower, never misses a chance to challenge him to be the man. If he swings the Melbourne Test England's way, his reputation will be forever assured. The rest will just be gossip.

"I just think we've got a wonderful opportunity to do something that hasn't been done for 25 years," he said. "I think that's driving us all on to do something amazing. We only have to win one more Test match, or draw the next two, and we'll have done that little thing that's amazing."

Amazing is what KP wants to be. Amazing is what we may or may not be about to witness.

Without the wind to assist him at the MCG, Mitchell Johnson may not pose the threat to England that he did in Perth

Imagine a leg‑break bowler who cannot bowl a googly or top‑spinner. Or an off‑break bowler without a drifter. Then contemplate the lot of a left-arm pace bowler whose sole modus operandi is to fire the ball across the bows of the right‑handed batsman and hope he chases one and edges. Think in fact of Alan Mullally. There are few things batsmen like more than a predictable bowler who spins or swings it one way only.

For two years, since he destroyed South Africa in Durban, until he did the same to England at the Waca, that was the fortune of Mitchell Johnson. Fast of course when he got it right, but the more he tried to swing the ball into the right‑hander, the delivery that is fundamental to any left‑arm paceman of ambition, the more it seemed to want to do the opposite.

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So batsmen were able to play him on the line. Anything on the stumps and bat could be put to ball while anything off target could be ignored secure in the knowledge that it was not going to boomerang back and make them look foolish. Then, last Friday, in one inspirational bowling spell, that whole perception changed. From here on in it may not actually matter if Johnson gets another ball from the straight, for the notion has been planted that he might, and the threat is often as potent as the deed.

Quite how Johnson manages to swing the ball at all is a mystery, probably as much to him as anyone. Certainly he does not conform to the normal physical laws of orthodox swing bowling, where the seam is upright and a loose wrist promotes backward rotation on the ball to maintain its stability, like a gyroscope. No teachers of swing would need to look further than the seam position maintained by Jimmy Anderson at his best.

But this is all delivered from a high arm action. Johnson's bowling arm is so low, a round‑arm slingshot, that the umpires will soon be required to wear hard hats. So low indeed that he cannot physically get his wrist into the upright position that can deliver a perfect seam. In fact it was perplexing to see the television super-slow motion, which showed the seam scrambling on the way down, which is to say revolving randomly. Unless very occasionally the seam actually scrambles itself into the correct position by chance, it is hard to understand how the ball then swerves.

Nor is it quite the same as the movement obtained by the Sri Lankan fast bowler Lasith Malinga, with whom Johnson is often compared. However, the difference is considerable, Johnson's bowling arm coming round between 10 and 11 on a clock face, while Malinga "The Slinger" would barely reach 10 o'clock. The swing Malinga gets is more akin to that which might be seen with a Frisbee, a skimming motion, where the rotation on the ball is almost in a horizontal plane: swerve rather than swing in other words.

Instead, leaving aside all the reports of remedial work done since he was dropped from the Adelaide Test (which seem to range from eulogising Troy Cooley's biomechanics to a 10‑minute session with Dennis Lillee) the strongest theory regarding Johnson's performance in Perth relates to nothing more than the wind. From the second day onwards, the wind blew consistently oven-hot from the east, a counterpoint to the prevailing Fremantle Doctor, the cooling south‑westerly sea breeze that comes up the Swan River virtually on a daily basis at some stage in the afternoon. This easterly, say those who know the Waca well, is the wind that promotes swing.

But an understanding of why it happened makes it no easier to play. In fact, it was the arbitrary nature of his spell that contributed to England's downfall, for alert batsmen can look for clues in the bowler, from the way he holds the ball, to spotting the shiny side. Quite clearly Johnson tried to bowl considerably more of the inswinging delivery but succeeded only in pushing the ball wide instead as it refused to change course. Leaving the ball in such circumstance becomes fraught, to which Paul Collingwood would testify, his decision to offer no stroke too far gone to be able to react sufficiently quickly when the ball ducked into his pads.

It will be a surprise if Johnson can repeat his trickery at the MCG. Fully enclosed grounds can create their own micro-climate, but as with the Gabba it is not renowned as a swinging ground but rather one that can seam while the ball is new, and perhaps reverse swings later. The danger for England's batsmen now, though, is that because of the potential, there will be a temptation to want to play deliveries that until now their gameplan has been to avoid. It is a mindset they will do well to avoid although one it will be hard to avoid.

As Andy Flower has said about Perth, although the destructive spell came when the Australians had had a chance to work on the ball, there were indications with the newish ball to England's pair of left‑handed openers that he was just shaping the ball a fraction away from them. Perhaps the biggest clue will come from Ben Hilfenhaus and Ryan Harris, both of whom can swing the new ball. If they fail to get any real movement then the chances are that Johnson will not either.

• Coach happy for 'bounce and a bit in it for the bowlers'
• 'I thought the curator at Perth did a really good job'

England's coach, Andy Flower, has waved aside fears that his side may become fall guys on a spicy Melbourne pitch deliberately designed to help Australia's four fast bowlers and has openly encouraged the groundstaff to produce a Boxing Day pitch lively enough for a good spectacle.

Australia's captain, Ricky Ponting, is eager for another surface to suit his aggressive fast bowlers, and negate England's off-spinner Graeme Swann, after their crushing 267-run win in Perth levelled the Ashes series at 1-1 with two to play.

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Flower is determined to question the notion that England can only defeat Australia on benign surfaces. He repeatedly quotes Old Trafford as a pitch where England have proved they can play pace, and he could also refer to the fact that England beat Pakistan last summer, when the ball swung and seamed throughout, whereas Australia lost to Pakistan at Headingley.

"We won't see similar conditions in Melbourne because it is not as quick and it doesn't bounce as much there," Flower said. "I thought the curator at Perth did a really good job. I thought it was an excellent pitch as I did the Adelaide pitch, which deteriorated nicely. This made for really exciting cricket.

"If they prepare a pitch with bounce and a bit in it for the bowlers that will make it a good contest in Melbourne; that's what they should be doing as it makes for a good spectacle. When we were there for the three-day game they were preparing two pitches. One looked barer than the other and we expected then that they would go with the one with more grass cover."

Although Melbourne's drop-in pitches cannot remotely match the Waca's bounce and pace the MCG groundsman, Cameron Hodgkins, opted last week to abandon his original surface in favour of a back-up.

Greg Shipperd, Victoria's coach, blames the weather. "We've had such an unusual summer this year that the grass has spent a lot of time under covers," he said. "There are different grass types on the wickets and it has certainly affected some grasses more than others.

"The wicket Cameron is targeting has a nice, consistent covering of grass on it. How much grass he leaves on is up to him. The pitch will provide a bit of early assistance if he leaves some leaf on it. It swings, bounces a bit and it usually plays well at the back end of the game. That's a typical MCG wicket. I wouldn't have thought we could replicate the Waca, though. It's well off the pace of a wicket in Perth or Brisbane."

Australia's groundsmen are normally fiercely independent but attitudes might have changed slightly after The Oval groundsman, Bill Gordon, made no secret in 2009 of his delight about a dry, dusty surface on which England won the Ashes and Swann took eight wickets.

England would have preferred Hodgkins to stick to the original Test pitch, which would have suited Swann and might also have encouraged the reverse swing of Ajmal Shahzad, whose confidence when bowling at left-handers makes him a potential selection.

Steady as we go, Tim Bresnan in and Steven Finn out, or a more radical shake-up – the touring side face interesting choices after the heavy defeat in Perth

Conservative

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of this Strauss-Flower England regime is that change generally comes from a position of strength or when there really is no alternative. England's previous Test defeat came against Pakistan at The Oval in June: the same XI won the next game at Lord's by an innings and 225 runs. Looking further back England have won eight of their last 11 Tests with pretty much the same line-up. With Stuart Broad already forced out, the fourth Test of an Ashes series may not be the moment to experiment but instead to persevere with a game plan that has been 18 months in the making

1 Strauss

2 Cook

3 Trott

4 Pietersen

5 Collingwood

6 Bell

7 Prior

8 Swann

9 Anderson

10 Tremlett

11 Finn

Reasonable

A minor rejig may appeal after 24 hard days of cricket out of 45 spent in Australia. A reshuffle would see the in-form Ian Bell moved up to No5, the startlingly out-of-form Paul Collingwood at six and Tim Bresnan bringing his swing bowling, handy batting and general bustle in place of Steven Finn, who struggled with his calf at times in Perth. Tinkering can be a sign of weakness but this might allow England to play to their strengths: Bell's form demands more time in the middle and Bresnan's six wickets in the warm-up against Australia A were testimony to the depth of the fast bowling resources on tour

1 Strauss

2 Cook

3 Trott

4 Pietersen

5 Bell

6 Collingwood

7 Prior

8 Bresnan

9 Swann

10 Anderson

11 Tremlett

Radical

With a historic victory up for grabs now may be the time for Andy Flower to act – as he did after the era-defining early-reign defeat in Barbados in 2009, after which Bell, Monty Panesar and Ryan Sidebottom were cast aside. Paul Collingwood (averaging 16 in his last 11 Test innings) is the obvious candidate for the chop. Bell would then move up to five with Eoin Morgan, the only left-handed batsman outside the opening pair, in at six. Bresnan represents reliability, but if England want to play a joker the slippery, reverse-swinging Ajmal Shahzad could replace Finn and perhaps offer more threat with the old ball

1 Strauss

2 Cook

3 Trott

4 Pietersen

5 Bell

6 Morgan

7 Prior

8 Swann

9 Shahzad

10 Anderson

11 Tremlett

India's Selectors panel, led by former Indian captain Kris Srikanth, named the 30-man probables list for the 2011 World Cup, which is going to be held on the sub-continent. There were some surprise inclusions like that of Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha, while Robin Uthappa and Irfan Pathan were two of the high-profile exclusions from the squad.

India have had a dearth of all-rounders in the past, which has contributed to the imbalance in the team. The current Indian team has some potential all-rounders in Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan. Irfan Pathan was supposed to be India's best all-rounder since the days of Kapil Dev, but he has been rather unfortunate to lose his way and has faded into obscurity in the recent past.

Ravindra Jadeja and Yusuf Pathan are both expected to make the cut for the 15-man squad for the World Cup and the duo will compete for the No. 7 slot in the Indian first team. They both are spinning all-rounders and could be utilised as the fifth bowler.

Jadeja has had his fair share of criticism in the past for not being a good enough batsman at the international level. He was woeful in the T20 World Cup 2009 in England where he was unable to accelerate the scoring rate which ultimately led to the demise of the team in the tournament. He can score quick singles and keep the scoreboard ticking but at No. 7 in sub-continental conditions, it is important to score quickly and Jadeja is not the ideal candidate for that.

Yusuf Pathan has amazing prowess in the field of big hitting, however, he has not had a very successful time for India with the bat. His recent century was one of the best attacking innings in recent history, but he would have to face much stronger bowling attacks than the paltry New Zealand attack. Also, he has a tendency to lose his wicket when the need of the hour is to stick around to rebuild the innings which proved costly in the game against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy 2009, when he had the experienced Rahul Dravid for company.

In my opinion, Irfan Pathan could have provided more options than both of these crickets for Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has admitted in the past that he would like to have all-rounders in his team. Jadeja's left-arm spin does not provide much variation to Yuvraj Singh's effective left-arm orthodox. Yusuf Pathan has not been economical in the 50-over format at 5.66 runs per over and also does not have a good strike rate.

Pathan emerged on the scene as one of the best fast bowlers that India have ever produced and he justified his tag by performing immensely in the start of his career which included good performances against Australia and Pakistan. With the arrival of Greg Chappell as the coach of the Indian team, Irfan was promoted to the No. 3 slot on a number of occasions to provide a surprise hitting option in the powerplays.

As a result, Pathan's batting improved tremendously and he has a very decent average in both One Day Internationals and Test cricket. His bowling took a turn for the worse as he suffered a hge dip in form. A number of niggles and injuries did not help his cause and he had to eventually lose out on his place in the team. 

He made his comeback in the successful T20 campaign in South Africa where the young brigade led the energetic Dhoni won the World Cup final against Pakistan. He was India's third choice fast bowler behind Sreesanth and R P Singh but he impressed with his pace variations and clever bowling in the shortest official version of the game.

He was awarded the Man of the Final for his excellent performance in the Final where he picked 3 important wickets and it was the beginning of a false dawn for the career of Irfan Pathan. The left-armer was subsequently selected for many One Day tournaments where he was the third/fourth choice seamer and the No. 7 batsman for the team. He was also selected for the tour of Australia in which he turned in a superb performance which helped India win at Perth.

However he was not consistent enough and with the emphasis on T20 cricket through the IPL, his form dipped badly. He has lost his pace and has not produced the swing that he was capable of in the past and as a result was smacked all round the park in the IPL editions of 2009 and 2010 where he was the main bowler for Kings XI Punjab. 

He has performed very decently with the bat and has produced some good knocks in the Ranji trophy and the IPL but as far as his bowling is concerned, he has been a pale shadow of himself. He was recognised as a special talent when he broke into the talent and the selectors, BCCI and more importantly, Dhoni must retain his faith in the lad.

At this juncture, I wish to present you an example of Stuart Broad to illustrate why the BCCI has to shoulder a part of the blame for the dip in form of Irfan Pathan. Broad was hit for six sixes by Yuvraj Singh and it would have destroyed his confidence. The ECB decided to rest him and put him through a intense regime to develop his physical fitness which would enable him to increase his pace and at the same time, develop his bowling without the scrutiny of the media.

The BCCI has left Pathan to rot in the Ranji Trophy where it is very difficult for a swing bowler to capture his best form in conditions which do not favour movement. Pathan could be criticised for not stepping up to perform when given the chance but one must understand that the drop in his confidence is massive and it does take time to get over it.

For the World Cup, Pathan could bowl effective Left arm Medium as the fifth bowler while contributing runs at No. 7. He does not have the ability to excel during the powerplay overs but that is the case with Jadeja and Pathan as well. Also, his sensible batting is what is needed at No. 7 and he does have the ability to change the tempo of the game as well.

In my opinion, Irfan Pathan should have been selected in the 30-man squad to give him an incentive to respond with strong performances which could push him to the doors of selection. However this exclusion is only going to destroy him and this special talent might be one of those cricketers who could not fulfill his potential.

• Wicket at MCG changed for crucial fourth Ashes Test
• 'I wouldn't have thought we could replicate the Waca'

Greg Shipperd, Victoria's coach, has blamed an unusually wet Melbourne summer for a switch to a potentially livelier pitch for the crucial Boxing Day Test.

Australia's captain Ricky Ponting is eager for another surface to suit his quartet of aggressive fast bowlers, and negate England's off-spinner Graeme Swann, after their crushing 267-run victory in Perth levelled the Ashes series at 1-1 with two matches to play.

Melbourne's drop-in pitches cannot remotely match the Waca's bounce and pace, but the MCG groundsman, Cameron Hodgkins, opted last week to abandon his original Test surface, in favour of a back-up pitch with more grass cover, which will encourage Ponting to believe that his wishes might be answered.

Shipperd said: "We've had such an unusual summer this year that the grass has spent a lot of time under covers. There are different grass types on the wickets and it has certainly affected some grasses more than others.

"The wicket Cameron is targeting has a nice, consistent covering of grass on it. How much grass he leaves on is up to him. The pitch will provide a bit of early assistance if he leaves some leaf on it. It swings, bounces a bit and it usually plays well at the back end of the game. That's a typical MCG wicket. I wouldn't have thought we could replicate the Waca, though. It's well off the pace of a wicket in Perth or Brisbane."

Australia's curators are normally fiercely independent, but attitudes might have changed slightly after The Oval groundsman, Bill Gordon, made no secret last summer of his delight about a dry, dusty surface on which England won the Ashes and Swann took eight wickets in the match.

England would have preferred Hodgkins to stick to his original Test pitch. It was bare in places, which would have suited Swann and might also have encouraged the reverse swing of Ajmal Shahzad, whose confidence when bowling at left-handers makes him a potential selection as long as Mike Hussey remains in such outstanding form.

England were also unimpressed with a sluggish MCG surface for their drawn tour match against Victoria less than two weeks ago, a pitch that brought no benefits for players or spectators, but Shipperd does not expect a repeat. "It had been under covers for days and had not had the sort of rolling you would want for a Test pitch," he said.

The MCG's drop-in pitches – inserted at the start of every season because the ground is shared with Australian rules football – have received regular criticism for their lack of pace. Victoria are quick to remind critics that surprisingly the MCG was voted the best pitch in the country by captains and umpires last summer.

This England team's problem in Perth was a mental issue rather than a technical one – it was a complacency issue

When I was England's coach, one of the biggest difficulties I had was making sure the team kept their foot to the pedal. Strange as it seems, the occasions when I used to get most nervous about how well England would perform followed on from their best wins. So often, in my early years in charge, they would veer from highs to lows in the space of a match or two. One good result and then, bang, the team would crash. This England side have the same problem. We saw it at Headingley in 2009, at Johannesburg in 2010, and now we have seen it at Perth.

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Australia played well, and Mike Hussey in particular deserves huge credit. His was a display of true Aussie grit. But which team made the bigger turnaround in that match? Was it Australia? They only made 268 and 309. You are not going to win too many Tests with that kind of score in the first innings. Or was it England? They collapsed twice in the space of under 100 overs. For me the answer is obvious. They lost because they were not able to repeat the ruthlessness they showed in the first two Tests. We have known for a long time that England can capsize when they are batting. And not just on faster, bouncier pitches like the ones we saw at Perth and Johannesburg.

The key period of the match was the hour before lunch on the second day, when Mitchell Johnson took four wickets for seven runs in four overs. Johnson's work with Troy Cooley has obviously paid off. He started to swing the ball back in to the right-handed batsmen. But England's middle-order should have had the technique to be able to cope. They face swing bowling all the time in England, and it is often said that one of the reasons their batting averages tend to be lower than those of other Test nations is that they play their home games in conditions that offer bowlers seam and swing.

During his spell late on the first day Johnson was moving the ball away from the two left-handers, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook. As soon as England spotted that, word should have gone around the dressing room: "Hold on boys, this is what he is doing with the ball." The team should have immediately started thinking about how to adjust. But they did not seem to be able to switch to plan B. Instead they got stuck like rabbits in headlights.

This was a mental failure more than a technical one. It was a complacency issue. Which is not to say that they were so naive they that took victory for granted. But after winning so well in the second Test they were not able to stay sharp for the third. They needed to keep their finger on the pulse for every single moment of this match. They did it in Adelaide but not in Perth.

As I say, this is a familiar problem. I used to wonder if England suffered from a "cup final" mentality. They were under such pressure from the media that players would celebrate victories as though they were cup final wins. Do that and it becomes very difficult to isolate the next match from what has come before it. You have to make sure you are entirely focussed on replicating the approach that won you that game in the first place.

A great example of a team who did this well were the All Blacks under Sean Fitzpatrick in the 1990s. If they were playing a top team and they won a penalty in the first 15 minutes, they would put it through the posts. If they won three penalties in the first 15 minutes, they would put them all through the posts. If they were playing a weaker team the next week, they would do exactly the same thing.

Other sides would take those three points in a match against New Zealand but if they found themselves in the same scenario against a weaker team they would suddenly decide to kick for the corner or try to run the ball. That inconsistency meant they might win one week, but they would only scrape home the next.

For two years, between early 2004 and late 2005, the England team got it right. They were almost unbeatable. Michael Vaughan made sure that the team's mind-set stayed the same no matter who we played. But we had a lot of self-driven characters in that side. It is not an easy thing to instil in a team. There is only so much the management can do. They can help provide the glue, but they still need to have the right parts in place.

How did Adelaide's world-beaters turn into such a shambles in Perth and what must they do to re-establish supremacy?

Build pressure with the ball by bowling as a unit

The Australian seamers made sure that the pressure was never off the England batsmen. Although Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris took all but two of the wickets between them, Ben Hilfenhaus conceded barely two runs per over from 31 overs, bowling dry as they call it. After an initial poor spell Jimmy Anderson improved and Chris Tremlett was excellent throughout. But Steve Finn conceded almost a run a ball. England's whole bowling strategy for this series has been based on incisive use of the new ball and disciplined attritional bowling thereafter. For Melbourne they will need to get back to that approach.

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Remember the comebacks

However dominant Australia were at the Waca, England, as Ashes holders, still have the upper hand. The series is level with two to play. England's capacity to recover from defeat or near defeat has been considerable in the four years since the infamous whitewash. It is something Australia learned last year after Cardiff, when England went on to win the next match at Lord's; after the massive defeat at Headingley when they won at The Oval; and after a calamitous start in Brisbane this time, from which they recovered, and then went on to win by an innings at Adelaide. Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss are level-headed individuals and know that fortunes can be turned. England have not become a poor team in the space of a week.

Change the batting order

It is obvious that Ian Bell is now a considerable international batsman and the best technician in the side. As such, England will be asking themselves whether he makes his runs because he bats at six or whether, as a player of real stature, he is not being wasted. The form of Paul Collingwood, who, batting at five, averages around 15 in the dozen innings since he made a hundred in Chittagong, is linked to this for in effect Bell has been batting at five already. A case has even been made for him to move to four with Kevin Pietersen, also suspect early on against a moving ball, dropping one place. Whether or not Collingwood retains his place (and his catching is a huge factor as is the lack of cricket for the reserve batsman, Eoin Morgan), Bell must now be better utilised so that he does not run out of partners as he did in Perth.

Neutralise Mr Cricket but absorb the lesson of his batting

A little more than a month ago Mike Hussey was fighting for his international life, saved only by a second-innings hundred for his state just prior to selection for the first Test. Since then he has made more than 500 runs in the series, including two centuries and three half-centuries, which with his hundred at The Oval last year means he is the only batsman in Ashes history to make six successive scores in excess of 50. He has become the stabilising influence in an otherwise under-performing Australian top order. His batting at the Waca, a ground he knows intimately, was sublime, based on discretion outside off-stump and on the bounce, a punchy cover drive, a voracious pull and the push for a single. England need to bowl tight to him. He is playing England at the game that served them so well in the first two Tests.

Do not go chasing the ball

Did Mitchell Johnson really have a clue when he was going to swing the ball? The indications, from watching the scrambled seam as he delivered, are that it was more down to atmospherics and the condition of the ball. The test will come when he has to repeat it. But it is the uncertain element that will cause problems for England now. Hitherto the batsmen have been able to play him as a bowler who just slants the ball across the right-hander. Now they have been undone by in-swing, there will be a natural tendency to want to play at deliveries that until now have been left. So whether or not he swings another ball in the series, he will have created doubt. England, if they are to prosper, cannot go chasing the ball.

Australia appeared headed for victory in the third Ashes test on Saturday with Mike Hussey scoring 116 and England collapsing to 81 for five wickets in its second innings at stumps on the third day.

With two days left, England is chasing an improbable 391 to win at the WACA ground and retain the Ashes.

Mitchell Johnson, who wrecked the England first innings with 6-38, took 2-28. Ryan Harris removed Paul Collingwood for 11 off the last ball of the day — well caught by Steve Smith at third slip — to finish the day with 2-22.

In the first innings Australia scored 268 and England 187.

Australia resumed the day on 119-3 in its second innings. Hussey's second century of the series and a 113-run stand with Shane Watson (95) dominated play before Australia lost the last five wickets for 33 runs.

England fast bowler Chris Tremlett took 5-87 for his maiden five-wicket haul in a test innings to celebrate his test recall after three years.

The 35-year-old Hussey has scored 517 runs at an average of more than 100 in five test innings, including three half centuries.

Hussey pulled Tremlett to the square leg boundary for his 13th boundary and raced towards the players' dressing room punching the air in celebration.

Under pressure to keep his place in the side before the series opener in Brisbane, Hussey started with 195, and scored 93 and 52 in the second test loss in Adelaide, and 61 here in the first innings.

Earlier, opener Watson was trapped lbw by Tremlett, falling five runs short of his first Ashes hundred. Watson hit 11 fours in his four-hour innings.

Smith, Australia's new No. 6 batsman, contributed 36 runs in a 75-run stand with Hussey as England toiled in the afternoon before Tremlett gave the tourists something to cheer.

Recalled to replace the injured Stuart Broad, Tremlett followed up his first innings 3-63 with his career-best haul in his fourth test.

Any hopes England had of forcing an unlikely win was again undermined by superb Australian swing bowling.

Cook was trapped lbw by Harris for 13.

Three overs later, England captain Strauss followed an out swinger from Johnson and gave Australia captain Ricky Ponting a simple catch at second slip.

Kevin Pieterson struggled for 40 minutes, and then sent Ben Hilfenhaus' delivery to first slip Watson as England struggled to 55 for three.

England lost Jonathan Trott (31) and Collingwood in the space of seven balls.

Two years ago, South Africa successfully chased 414 and won by six wickets here, but history is very much against England.

England won the second test in Adelaide by an innings and 71 runs.

There are five tests in the series which England leads 1-0.

Associated Press

• Andrew Strauss's side finish on 81-5 chasing 391 for victory
• Mike Hussey's 116 moved his series average to 103

The target was always going to be tough even though the required run-rate was always well within England's compass: 391 runs were required for victory from approximately 210 overs and no rain forecast.

The English optimist could look wistfully to recent history. Two years ago at Perth in a match where Mitchell Johnson had run riot in the first innings with eight for 61, South Africa knocked off the small matter of 414 runs for the loss of just four wickets. Cracks may appear at the Waca but the soil seldom disintegrates. But that was where the optimism ran dry.

This pitch has always had more life than the one which left Ricky Ponting so disgusted two years ago after Australia's defeat to South Africa. And by the close of play on Saturday England had stumbled to a wretched 81 for five, 310 runs short of their target. During that final session Australia had imposed themselves upon the English batsmen in a manner that conjured so many echoes of the last 20 years.

For the second time in the game the middle order had been swept away in a session. No, this was not the worst Australian side in living memory. They have scented their chance in this match ever since Johnson caused his devastation yesterday morning. Since then the tourists have been clinging on by their finger-tips. Now they are down to their nails.

This time the spoils were shared by the Australian pacemen. In the sixth over of England's innings Alastair Cook was surprised by the skiddiness of Ryan Harris and given lbw. He opted not to review the decision, which seems like a rarity in this match and by a whisker was correct not to do so.

By now Ricky Ponting had already introduced Johnson and though his first over yielded nine runs, it was evident that the force remained with him. As in the first innings the run-up was smooth and unhurried. There was more pace and less swing than on Friday and he was still a handful. In his third over Johnson found the edge of Andrew Strauss's bat and Ponting took the catch cleanly at second slip.

Kevin Pietersen, in passive mode, then waved at an away-swinger from Ben Hilfenhaus to give the burly Tasmanian only his second wicket of the series. For a while Jonathan Trott and Paul Collingwood hinted that England might be able to reach the close with no further damage, but the Australians were rampant again in the final 10 minutes.

First Trott sparred at a short ball from Johnson. It sped to Ponting, who could not take this catch cleanly. The ball bobbled in the air and Brad Haddin gleefully collected it. Ponting was not smiling quite so broadly since he had to leave the field, in some pain, to have his little finger inspected.

Then in the final over from Harris, Collingwood, still lodged on the crease, edged to third slip, where Steve Smith calmly took the catch. The previous delivery Collingwood had hoped to get off strike, but it was a marginal single, justifiably rejected by the nightwatchman, Jimmy Anderson. So the Australians left the field to rejoin their wounded captain in a jubilant huddle. The series was alive all right now and a few cricketing obituaries were being shelved.

This has been a proper Test match, the best of the series by far. There were times during the first two matches when it was possible to wander off around the back of the stands for a pie (in Brisbane) or a Pimms (in Adelaide) in the knowledge that nothing of great significance would be missed. In Perth it has been foolhardy to take the eyes away from the action for a minute.

For this we can thank Cam Sutherland, the curator at the Waca, who has produced a strip where the balance between bat and ball has been just right. Wickets keep falling, boundaries struck, and only the spin bowler can possibly feel aggrieved that the odds are stacked against him. There have been livelier surfaces here but the evidence suggests that Sutherland is well on the way to reinstating the Waca as the home of the fastest pitch in the world.

England managed to dismiss Australia for 309 even though the bowling, particularly that of Steven Finn and Graeme Swann, was ragged and in the case of the off-spinner, unusually expensive.

Mike Hussey, yet again, was the rock for Australia. He hit his second century of the series in front of an adoring crowd on his own turf. He now has 517 runs in the series at an average of 103 and here England probably only dismissed him because he was stranded with the last man again.

Hussey remains the antidote to all the calls to give youth a chance. An Australian win in Perth would put those calls on hold will become mute. The immediate rather than the distant future would dictate the selectors' thoughts. Any fancy plans can wait until the destination of the Ashes is decided.

Shane Watson, so strong on the drive through the covers as well as eager for the meaty cut and pull, looked destined for his third Test century. But Watson has a problem in the 90s. Having batted impeccably he not only missed a straight ball from Chris Tremlett, he also convinced himself that he had hit the ball and so wasted a review. Watson would be an even better player if there were no scoreboards.

There was also a flurry from Steve Smith, who took the eye with his wristy back-foot flicks through the covers and his determination to be jauntily aggressive. But otherwise Hussey received scant support.

For England Tremlett deserved the best figures and he will surely be busy for the rest of the tour. James Anderson showed no particular signs of jetlag and was trustworthy if not especially productive. Meanwhile Finn stands tall as England's leading wicket-taker in the series with 14. He is also, by a margin, England's most expensive bowler. He is not guaranteed a place in Melbourne.

Swann was tormented by Hussey just as he was in Brisbane. The parallel between Swann and Shane Warne grows ever stronger. Warne also used to struggle at the Waca.

• Australia captain hurt left little finger trying to take catch
• Ponting x-ray was just 'precautionary', says Peter Siddle

Australia have fitness worries over their captain, Ricky Ponting, who injured himself trying to take the catch that led to Jonathan Trott's dismissal late on day three of the third Test in Perth. Ponting went for an x-ray on his left little finger after the match, prompting fears that he might have hurt himself badly enough to put his remaining participation in the Ashes series in doubt.

The injury happened when he parried the ball from second slip to the wicketkeeper, Brad Haddin, to remove Trott off the bowling of Mitchell Johnson to leave England four wickets down and facing defeat – an outcome that became all the more likely after Paul Collingwood was out from the final ball of the day an over later.

However, the Australia bowler Peter Siddle suggested after the match that the injury would not significantly curtail Ponting's involvement.

"There was a bit of swing after the edge [from Trott] and it's clipped him on the little finger on the left hand,'' Siddle told the Sydney Morning Herald. "He's a little bit sore at the minute. He's gone to get a precautionary x-ray but he's feeling upbeat and feeling good. He just wanted to get it checked out – from all reports it seems all right."

The MCG is likely to be rocking on Boxing Day if Australia win the third Test, but England can recover on friendlier pitches

Lest we forget, the series, as it stood when play ended this morning, was barely beyond the halfway stage, at which point England still held a one-match advantage although Australia were closing in. By the end of this match eight years ago, the outcome of the Ashes had been decided in a mere 11 days while in 2006, a further four days could be added, but the outcome was just the same. Those tens of thousand who then flocked to the MCG on Boxing Day did so not to see a contest but as an audience to humiliation. It was the sort of cricket that might make the Jeremy Kyle Show.

This is different, though. Australia had been repelled in the first Test and themselves humbled in the second. The Australian public, so used to winning ways, was losing faith at a time when Cricket Australia, in hock to India for its existence, was fighting a battle against the behemoth known as the Australian Football League. AFL is stealing the youngsters. Last week, an 18-year-old called Alex Keath made the news not so much for making his first-class debut for Victoria but because in order to play cricket he had turned down an AFL contract with Gold Coast. Why would you do that, they were saying here.

But that is the way it has become. Barely a month ago, on 15 November, in pouring rain and tucked away in a corner of Sydney's Circular Quay, the chairman of the Australian cricket selectors Andrew Hilditch soberly announced a squad of 17 players who might make the team for the first Test. It was nonsensical, a week early with a round of Shield matches and an Australia A game yet to come, but done at the insistence of a spooked CA marketing department who did not wish the publicity given to the impending AFL draft, held three days later, to overshadow the Ashes.

In light of this the prospect of this series being effectively over in Perth once more was too depressing. So for every delivery that Mitchell Johnson thudded into English pads, and every cover drive and pull executed by Mr Bloody Cricket, there was someone in marketing – gelled hair, skinny jeans and pointy shoes – high-fiving round the Melbourne CA offices with a number-crunching bean-counter in his Armani, as prospects for ticket sales in Melbourne and Sydney soared. The great cavernous yuletide MCG will rock now. The two cricketers between them have resurrected a contest that appeared dead in the water.

As Australia began the process of knocking away the England top order for a second time, it was worth remembering that this was a match in which England were most likely to struggle. The groundsman has produced a fantastic surface, producing high-octane cricket. But it is a pitch that is as alien to England batsmen and bowlers, as the swinging, seaming, lower-bounce English surfaces can be, say, to batsmen from the subcontinent. Few come here and prosper when the bounce is strong and the pace fiery, not even the Australian's themselves when they come from the eastern states.

It is significant that it was a born-and-bred Western Australian, Mike Hussey, who brilliantly showed how to bat with a limited but purposeful gameplan (drive through extra cover if full, pull if short, leave otherwise) and a fast-bowling Queenslander transplanted to the state who between them almost singlehandedly transformed fortunes.

England should have known better. They prepared here as the tour began, and although the pitch then was more sluggish they would have had the general idea that wickets come from edges, with good carry, which in turn come from pursuing a full length in search of swing and judicious use of the short ball in order to drive the batsman back. Johnson's spell was of the highest class (although there remains a suspicion that he is oblivious to how, or why, he swung it so prodigiously, and that it had more to do with the preparation of the ball and the easterly wind than any technical changes over the past two weeks) and the most obviously destructive.

But the other Australian seamers understood their lengths: on a bouncy pitch no England batsman, with the exception of Matt Prior, who was unfortunate, was dismissed directly by a short ball rather than as part of a process. And they bowled as a unit.

It was a lesson that was absorbed by Chris Tremlett, who, when they might have chosen a steady but less incisive option in Tim Bresnan, more than justified the faith placed in him by Andy Flower, and claimed seven wickets in the match, with five on day three. England's bowling strategy is built on control, however: decisively, perhaps by getting too caught up in the sledging battle – what should have been nothing but a peripheral sideshow yet transformed into a main event – they broke ranks.

Steven Finn is young and has taken wickets, more than anyone on either side so far, but if England are to go on and win the series, as they most certainly can on friendlier pitches, then they will not be able to afford a bowler who has conceded almost a run a ball through three Tests.

Swing bowler Mitchell Johnson claimed a six-wicket haul Friday to dismiss England for 187, and put Australia in control of the third test to rekindle its hopes in the Ashes series.

Australia was 119 for three in the second innings at stumps, a lead of 200 runs on a greenish pitch offering constant assistance to the swing bowlers.

Shane Watson, 61 not out, and Mike Hussey, 24 not out, will resume their 55-run stand Saturday aiming to lead the home side to a series-levelling win.

Australia was dismissed for 268 runs on the first day after being asked to bat first. In reply, England looked in control at 78-0 before Johnson's inspired spell gave him figures of 6-38 on his home WACA Ground, justifying the selectors' decision to recall him after he was dropped for the second test.

After helping Australia post a competitive first innings with a top score of 62 on the first day, Johnson was even more impressive with the ball, denting England's hopes of a victory that would ensure the tourists retained the Ashes.

England started the day on 29 without loss, and looked like building a third straight imposing total, but instead the visitors' top order collapsed to 98-5.

Ian Bell scored a defiant 53 to stand between England and a meek capitulation, his fourth successive test half-century.

Johnson's recall to the team appeared to signal desperation among the selectors after Australia endured an innings defeat in the second test. However he silenced the critics with a fiery 24-ball spell that broke the back of an England batting order that had looked impregnable over the past two innings.

"As a bowling unit — all quick bowlers — we all bowled well," Johnson said. "It all started with the bat, it gave me a lot of confidence."

Johnson said that the breeze, the famous "Fremantle Doctor," helped the ball swing and claimed it was his best bowling effort in a home test despite taking a career-best 8-61 against South Africa two years ago.

He added that being sledged by England players has fired up Australia.

"When we have played well it has been fiery games. I don't mind getting in a bit of confrontational. We did that very well (today) without overstepping the line. It has definitely worked for us.

"Some of their players like getting under my skin, and I do likewise to some of their players."

England's openers Andrew Strauss (52) and Alastair Cook (32) shared a strong opening stand before left-armer Johnson started England's slide by finding the edge of Cook's bat, with the chance taken by Hussey at gully.

He then followed up by trapping Jonathan Trott (4), Kevin Pietersen (0) and Paul Collingwood (5) lbw with nearly identical late inswingers, as England lost five wickets for 20 runs.

Pietersen challenged his dismissal but the video review upheld umpire Marais Erasmus' decision. Later, Johnson successfully challenged Erasmus' decision to give Collingwood not out, with replays showing the ball straightening to be on track to hit off stump.

England's batsmen had amassed 1,137 runs for the loss of just six wickets over the past two innings, but Johnson and the all-pace Australia attack relished the bowler-friendly conditions.

Johnson returned to the attack just before the tea break, removing Chris Tremlett's off stump and then luring James Anderson into an edge to first slip to claim his seventh five-wicket haul in his 40th test appearance.

Ryan Harris, the other swing bowler, took 3-59 including the scalps of Strauss, Bell and Graeme Swann.

Batting again, Australia lost opener Phil Hughes for 12 and skipper Ricky Ponting was out for 1, having faced just nine balls before a video review found him gloving a catch down leg side off Steve Finn, who finished with figures of 2-48.

Ponting, Australia's leading run scorer, has managed 81 runs in six innings with a high score of 51 not out in the drawn first test in Brisbane.

Bell admitted England was undone by the Australia swing bowling, led by Johnson.

"In terms of aggression it has been the same as the first two tests, except that the ball swung a lot more," said Bell. "Swing bowling plays a big part in test matches here. As a batting unit we have to come out and bat well in the second innings.

"It's an Ashes test match and both teams are desparate to win, and we have a poor record at the WACA and we are deparate to make some history here," Bell added.

England has one victory in 10 tests at the WACA Ground.

Associated Press

• Jimmy Anderson flew to England for birth of daughter
• Australia captain hopes to exploit 'great opportunity'

Ricky Ponting has cast doubt on whether the England fast bowler Jimmy Anderson can be at his best for the third Test after travelling round the world twice in a week to be at the birth of his daughter and arriving back in Perth less than three days before the start of play at the Waca.

"I think there's a great opportunity for us here," the Australia captain said. "Anderson – much as he's talking it up, not really worrying – we've all done those flights in the past, and it takes a couple of days to get over them.

"I honestly feel that the pitch conditions here are as foreign to English players as probably anywhere else in the world, and I hope we can exploit that this week."

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Ponting, who will be 36 on Sunday, may be playing for his future as Test captain over the next five days in Perth. He has already lost the Ashes twice as captain in England but regained them too with a 5-0 whitewash at home four years ago.

He said: "It's a decision that's completely out of my hands. I'll do my best as a player to make sure I score runs, and lead the team in the best way possible – and the powers that be will make those decisions, I guess at the end of the series or after this Test match, whenever that may be."

Ponting needs to return to form with the bat at No3, having made only nine runs in two innings – including a first-ball duck – in the innings defeat in the second Test in Adelaide. "We're all just focused on this game. It's no good looking further ahead, and we can't afford to look further ahead," he said.

"We know we've been deficient in some areas in the first couple of games and if we improve on those we have a great chance of winning. I know a lot of our success revolves around how well our batting does at the top of the order, and so far my input in the series has not been what it's needed to be for us to win games. Purely and simply, I need to stand up; I need to score runs, and we need to play better cricket than we have in the last two Tests."

Australia must also decide on the make-up of their bowling attack. Like his opposite number, Andrew Strauss, Ponting is leaving it late to pick, in his case between going with an all-pace battery and giving a debut to Michael Beer, the rookie left-arm spinner.

"It's what we think will be the best four bowlers on that wicket. Michael being a debutant doesn't come into it," Ponting said. "If he's in the four best bowlers for the wicket tomorrow morning, he'll play."

The altered character of a pitch renowned for its pace and bounce, and also wearing a wickedly green tinge this week, has left both captains in a quandary. "With a bit of grass in the wicket, there is every chance that the ball will stay newer for longer than it does in most other places, so you'd think it would swing a fair bit more," Ponting said. "We've got bases covered there, with [Ryan] Harris and [Ben] Hilfenhaus good swing bowlers."

Ponting's other change of tack for this Test is the prescription of "fun" for a team he thinks may have psyched themselves out with too much straight-faced theorising in the first two matches. This time, they will instead be putting their faith in humour – and instinct. "We've had fun this week," the captain said. "The theme of the week has been to enjoy the hard work and preparation. The last couple of days, that's what we've been trying to do."

Ponting will discover soon enough whether this Test is a laughing matter for him. "Looking at the wicket, you'd think there will be a result in this game," he said. "Obviously, that has to be a positive one for us – or else it's game, set and match."

Andy Flower's men are on the threshold of Ashes glory in Perth but expect embattled Australia to come back strongly

This really is a massive game of cricket. Win it, and England have the Ashes job done with the prospect of a dominance not seen since Australian cricketing austerity times of the late 70s. A draw even, and Australia would need to come back remarkably strongly in the final two Tests, knowing that Sydney is the ground that would favour England's swing and seam above all the others. An Australian win, though, would throw a panther among the black swans in the park: MCG, all to play for, teams level, Australia in the ascendant. Now that would be a challenge.

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But there has been a break in Melbourne since then, as if to draw a line under the first part of the series, and the fear is that it will be Australia who will gain most from the interim period, like a canvased boxer saved by the bell who has had time to recover senses and come out for the next round.

England have had things on which to ponder. The team dynamic has changed: Stuart Broad will be in a commentary box rather than on the field; Jimmy Anderson has flown home and back again in the space of 48 hours which means even with the flat-bed comfort and sleeping pills, he will need a rapid recovery; and the families are in town now, the laddish togetherness that has bound them through the first part of the tour a transient thing from here on in.

Flower's insistence on keeping partners out of the way until now was carefully thought out, debated, and disagreed with in some quarters, but has served them well. Now his work will be to ensure that the relief that comes with reuniting families does not in itself prove a distraction and a hindrance. The team are on the threshold of greatness in the English pantheon and cannot be allowed to blow it away in familial joy.

The pitch will hold the key. This, as has been stressed many times, is not the Waca of old. The accolade of the fastest, bounciest pitch in the world has passed to Old Trafford in recent years. Instead, not helped by commercial imperatives that see no future in games that last three days rather than five, the pitches have been restrained. Yesterday, 48 hours before the game starts, this wicket, on a redeveloped part of the square and used only twice before, including the West Indies Test last year, was far from finished, a light green strip set in a dark green square. The mower will surely be out before tomorrow, although the blades will not be set too low, and a further day under 30C heat will harden it up more than it already is. The colour promises more than it delivers. It will crack but Waca cracks have solid edges and do not lead to erratic behaviour: it will last and even get better. Once the new ball goes, there is some hard graft in store for the bowlers.

It will lead to confusion in the ranks. The Australians are feigning organisation (Mitchell Johnson was omitted from the Adelaide Test as part of a rotation policy apparently, which would be fine had he not been replaced by an overweight, unfit bowler blowing out of his backside by the end) but seem to have anything but. Calls for all their four pace bowlers to play at the expense of the prospective debutant, Michael Beer, surely are far-fetched: they have a back-up fourth seamer in Shane Watson, while the leg-spin of Steve Smith is jaunty but naive and was savaged by Ian Bell in Hobart.

Instead they will probably play a young spinner, who conceded runs at about five an over when playing against England here earlier in the tour and, having watched the experience of Xavier Doherty, would require a temperament approaching absolute zero if he is not to have his heart in his mouth when he bowls his first over.

Of Johnson there is little to add to the clamour that has filled the papers here, most of it condemnatory towards the idea that he can simply bring a damaged game straight into a match without trying out in a game first. A deal of biomechanical twaddle has been spoken about his problems but the last thing a fast bowler wants, intelligent or otherwise, is to have thoughts in his head other than those directed exclusively towards creating havoc at the other end: stand tall, arm up, hips clear, follow through. With a blank canvas he can be devastating, but head filled inappropriately and you have free runs.

In the England camp, there seems to be a leaning away from including Tim Bresnan in favour of Chris Tremlett although that means one of Anderson, Steve Finn and he would have to open the bowling into the wind – a strong wind at times – and hold that end while Graeme Swann is not doing so. Tremlett's bounce and control are his greatest assets, but he needs to be clear that the length he must bowl is still the one which hits the top of off-stump. Of all the grounds, this is still the one that best feeds the Australian strengths square of the wicket, as bowlers can get excited by seeing the ball hit the gloves high and pitch too short.

This will not be another Adelaide. Australia, disarray or not, will come back strongly. But there is resilience now in the England team. A personal view is that far from flagging, Anderson will double his effort and prosper, and bowl England to victory and the Ashes.

The wind in Perth is the great dictator – and England should use it to their advantage at the Waca, says the man who played for Western Australia in 1986-87

On the Swan River just behind the Waca the white horses are jumping up and down furiously. The Doctor is calling as it does every day sometime around noon.

You may be a bit fed up of hearing about the sea breeze known as "The Fremantle Doctor". But it matters. Even though you never see it, the wind can play a major role in any sporting event, especially in Perth, which is often cited as the second windiest city in the old Commonwealth.

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The sea breeze was buffeting off the river. As Panesar contemplated his spell he must have recognised that it was gusting at several knots towards wide long on/deep midwicket if he was bowling to a left-handed batsman. Unfortunately for him Flintoff did not recognise the implications; Gilchrist did.

Twenty-four runs came from a Panesar over. Gilchrist had licence and he knew that he only had to make reasonable contact, get the ball airborne and a six was on the cards. In fact he hit three of them in one over on his way to a stunning 57-ball century. England were humiliated again.

Had Panesar been bowling at the other end Gilchrist would not have cleared the long-on boundary. He would not have been able to beat the wind. In fact he would not have tried because Gilchrist knows about the Waca; he played for Western Australia for most of his career.

So there is an extreme example: once the breeze is up it is not so easy to bowl into it. With the new ball James Anderson may try that Prindiville End since the wind could assist his away-swingers. Tim Bresnan, if selected – and the breeze may well influence England's selection plans – would certainly be busy from that end. And Graeme Swann will bowl his off-spinners from there. At least the breeze allows him to drift the ball away from right-handers so his reliable first slip, Paul Collingwood, will be on red alert.

Batsmen must be alert as well. They must expect some drift and swing. They should also adjust their running between the wickets. The Waca has long boundaries. If a fielder is hurtling the ball into the breeze, there is always one run for the throw. Conversely if he is throwing with the wind, even though he appears to be in the middle distance, watch out.

Now to the playing surface, which used to be unique. The Waca provided the fastest, bounciest pitch in the world in the 80s and 90s. When Jeff Dujon was keeping to Michael Holding he looked to be approximately 40 yards from the bat: so too did Rod Marsh for Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee.

The square has lost some of its pace recently and has even started to offer some turn for the spin bowler. But the pitch remains quicker than the majority around the world. It can still seduce pacemen, salivating at the extravagant bounce, into bowling too short for the sheer pleasure of watching the keeper soar in the air to take the ball. Especially if there is some swing it is important to bowl full because there is every chance that the nicks will carry in Perth.

For batsmen looking to survive, the ability to leave the ball is crucial. At the Waca it has always been possible to leave the ball on length as much as width. Usually the bounce is so reliable and high that many deliveries can be permitted to sail over the top of off-stump. Mark Taylor was especially adept at this and eventually the oohs and aahs from the slip cordon died down.

For those looking to score it is important to play the horizontal bat shots well. There will be the odd chance to drive as the bowlers seek to swing the ball. But when they drop their length, "you've got to be able to hook, pull and cut to score runs at the Waca", as Rod Marsh used to counsel to those disconcerted by the extra bounce.

Finally, the flies. They are bigger and more persistent in Western Australia than anywhere else in the country. When Don Bradman played his last Test innings at The Oval someone noted: "It's hard to score runs with tears in your eyes." Well, at the Waca it is also hard to score runs when swallowing flies. It helps bowlers, as well as batsmen, if they can go about their business with their mouths shut.

• Tim Bresnan edges ahead of Chris Tremlett in selection race
• Australia returnee Mitchell Johnson works at his action

England arrived in Perth today for a match with destiny. The sky was azure, the sun hot and the Doctor was already biffing away merrily up the Swan river. The scrappy draw in Melbourne played on an unsuitable pitch, and adding very little to the value of the tour beyond time at the crease for Matt Prior, is behind them now. Ahead are what promise to be three tumultuous Test matches, beginning at the Waca on Thursday.

By England's current measure they played indifferent cricket the past weekend, although they were not even close to being unseated by Victoria. But the MCG when virtually empty is a soulless place to play and hard one to gain the sort of inspiration that will be there on Boxing Day. It lacks real purpose: all that empty acreage for such a game, like using a soup tureen in which to boil an egg.

In the past, state matches played upcountry at such as the old mining towns of Ballarrat or Bendigo served the dual purpose of offering a break from the Test grounds and providing a festival crowd to watch. If England asked for the MCG as a venue in order to have a preparatory look and get a feel for it (and not to forget that they were able to play their full Test side in two warm-up matches at Perth and Adelaide), then in getting the venue they failed to get the conditions.

For all that, the bowlers were diligent enough, stuck to their task and, if they failed to take wickets, then they kept a decent lid on things. There was sloppiness to the batting and the fielding, where catches went down, although some of these were Prior's, who did not have the benefit of his gauntlets.

The decision of Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower to play around with the batting order had its merit, but neither Steve Davies nor Eoin Morgan were able to take advantage of what, unless something drastic occurs, will be their only match before the one-day series.

The pitch, two away from the Test strip for Boxing Day, was unlike anything that David Saker, the bowling coach who knows the ground as well as anyone, had seen at the MCG and gave none of the seamers an opportunity to stake the sort of compelling claim that would persuade Flower to do other than go with whoever he had set his mind on to replace Stuart Broad before the match began.

Nor, for that matter, did it give any hint as to who might be effective there in the Test. In the absence of wickets all put in good spells of tight, restraining bowling of a kind that is part of the masterplan, while all managed to get reverse swing too.

Although he missed selection for Adelaide only by a whisker, Ajmal Shahzad is probably out of the frame for the Waca (but not Melbourne), leaving Tim Bresnan and Chris Tremlett to offer their different skills.

Tremlett has been impressive with his control and if there is more bounce to be found in the Waca pitch, then he above all of the bowlers might be expected to exploit it. Against that, however, is the knowledge that in Jimmy Anderson and Steve Finn, England have a pair of bowlers who, as they showed in Adelaide, can take wickets but also haemorrhage runs.

In those circumstances there is a need for someone to come and take control of one end. Bresnan is an integral part of England's one-day side in that capacity, and would be expected to do an honest job. There is also the matter of who can do the donkey work into the Doctor, and utilise it to swing the ball. It is a difficult decision. Bresnan might still be the man.

Australia, meanwhile, are still wondering whether the latest spinner to be plucked from the hat of obscurity, Michael Beer, will get a game and whether Mitchell Johnson, if in the probable event he plays, will be able to raise his bowling arm higher than his shoulder in delivery.

Much play has been made of him spending quality coaching time with Troy Cooley, who shortly takes over the running of the Australian Centre of Excellence in Brisbane, in order to rectify a defect. There is surely no quick fix to this though, something that has become ingrained into his action.

There is a lot of biomechanical talk of his right leg collapsing and hips moving wrong and so forth, all of which may or may not be a factor. Rather, it begs a more pertinent question as to what, if Johnson has got himself into such a mess, has the bowling coach been doing all this time? Cooley's mentoring role was an important factor in England's success under Duncan Fletcher but his coaching skills are less celebrated and include the ill-advised deconstruction of Anderson, something that took at least three years to repair.

The popular and colourful spin bowler has emerged as England's most inspirational player on and off the pitch and is key to our team's return to form

If, as looks increasingly possible, England's cricketers return from Australia triumphant this winter, lots of theories will doubtless be put forward to explain where it all went right.

Some will point to the dramatic return to form of Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen, England's batting heroes of the first two Tests. Others will cite the fact that Australia seem to have morphed, in very little time, from ruthless world beaters to ramshackle no-hopers, reminiscent in their ineptitude and disorganisation of the England team thrashed down under last time round in 2006/7. Others still will point to how Andy Flower, England's Zimbabwean coach, has instilled in a group of once distracted and faction-riven players an iron sense of discipline and self-belief.

One factor, however, is sure to be near the top of any such list – the remarkable contribution, both on and off the field, of England's off-spinner Graeme Swann.

In the past couple of years, 31-year-old Swann – "Swanny", as he is known in the dressing room and beyond – has emerged as England's most inspirational player. What's slightly surprising about this is that he is a spin bowler, and spin bowlers, in England at any rate, tend to be appendages rather than the bedrock of a team. Swan is not without his own maverick tendencies – he has a reputation as a joker and merciless mickey-taker – but he is also a consummate professional and a scarily effective bowler.

In an England line-up not short of wicket-taking stars (James Anderson is currently probably the world's best swing bowler), it is Swann above all who strikes fear into opposition batsmen. A purveyor of skiddy, sharply spun off-breaks, he has the invaluable knack of taking wickets when it matters, and is particularly lethal during the latter stages of a Test match on a deteriorating pitch.

But Swanny's appeal, and his importance to his teammates, extends well beyond his on-field exploits. In the past few years he has emerged as one of cricket's most attractive and colourful personalities, known as much for his Twitter updates (more than 111,000 followers) as for his skill with the ball.

He has a tendency to get into surreal scrapes: earlier this year, he was tested positive for drunken driving; his excuse was that he was driving to buy a screwdriver to release one of his cats from under his floorboards. He is also the lead singer of a Nottingham-based band named Dr Comfort and the Lurid Revelations (which probably tells you as much as you need or want to know about their music).

Within the English camp, too, he has emerged as a social linchpin, the main manufacturer of that vital ingredient for any sporting outfit – camaraderie. Cricketers often talk about the loneliness and boredom of touring, and it helps enormously if a team contains a larger-than-life character who is able to play the part of jester.

Throughout his career, Swann has naturally gravitated towards this role, a tendency that has occasionally seen him branded as a disruptive influence. In the current England set-up, though, his fun-loving presence and verbal boisterousness appear to have only a morale-boosting effect. That this is true is plainly evident from the video diaries Swann has been recording while in Australia, which thousands avidly follow on the English Cricket Board's website (www.ecb.co.uk).

In them, Swann comes across as a likable and intelligent man who is forever coming up with novel ways to keep his team-mates amused. He is a natural mimic and constantly ribs people about their appearance, be it Graham Gooch's waistline ("It's a good job this is a wide-angle shot") or the fact that "Cooky" (Alastair Cook) runs like Woody from Toy Story.

In one particularly funny scene, he eavesdrops on a press conference being given by fellow bowler Steven Finn. As the journalists listen respectfully, Swann's face appears in the frame and announces solemnly: "He's the most boring player I've ever played with."

The entry ends with a shot of Swann retiring to the bathroom nursing an imaginary nosebleed. Perhaps less successful is the moment when Swann adopts a mock Pakistani accent while talking to the team's spin bowling coach Mushtaq Ahmed, which suggests a certain naivety in the area of ethnic sensitivity. (Although, to give Swanny the benefit of the doubt, "Mushy" himself doesn't seem to care.)

Like many of the best cricketers, Swann hails from a family that has the game in its veins. He was born in Northampton in 1979, the son of schoolteacher parents Ray and Mavis. Ray, now retired, was a dedicated club cricketer who occasionally played at county second team level. Graeme's older brother, Alec, an opening batsman, also went into professional cricket, playing for Northamptonshire and then Lancashire; he is now a cricket reporter on the Northants Evening Telegraph.

Speaking to the Observer, Alec, who is two years older than his brother, recalls a happy and stable childhood dominated not just by cricket but by rugby and football well. Schoolwork, he says, was never really a priority: "Though Graeme's not a genius, he's quite an intelligent lad, but he got by without really, shall we say, exerting himself. He knew he was going to pass his exams and he did. He stayed on till A-levels but once he'd made his mind up he was going to play cricket then university wasn't an option. His attitude was, 'I'll be all right.'"

Having started playing for a local Northants team, Horton House, Swann progressed through the county and national junior ranks. On leaving school, he was signed by Northamptonshire, joining Alec. Within a year he was on the fringes of the national team, going on an "A" tour of South Africa and Zimbabwe in 1998, and a full England tour, also of South Africa, the following winter. But, as Alec recalls, this first taste of the big time wasn't really a success.

"He didn't play much cricket, he was always one of the back-up players. They thought he wasn't really up to it so he went back to county cricket. I think people saw him then as a bit of an upstart. England were a very experienced team at the time, and he was just a young lad, perhaps saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and whoever was in charge just didn't take to him." So began a long interval during which Swann was a jobbing county cricketer, successful enough but never really a star. He grew increasingly frustrated at Northamptonshire, where he clashed with the South African team coach Kepler Wessels. The breakthrough came with his switch to Nottinghamshire in 2005; Alec says this was the "best move he ever made".

Nottinghamshire were one of the top teams in the country. Swann was encouraged to be himself, and started taking bucketloads of wickets. When the form of Monty Panesar, then England's first-choice spinner, dipped in 2007, Swann earned a recall to the England team. He has never really looked back, establishing himself as the side's talismanic bowler, becoming the first English spinner to take 10 wickets in a Test match since Jim Laker, earning the ECB Cricketer of the Year award this year, and in the process catapulting himself up the world bowling rankings to his current position of number two, behind South Africa's Dale Steyn.

So where did it all start going right for Swanny? According to his brother, nothing fundamental has changed; it just took a while for him to find both a county and an England set-up that suited his personality: "Ability-wise he could have done it regardless of who he played for. But it's not always a question of just being good enough. Someone's got to see you in the right time and the right place."

Former Wisden editor Matthew Engel agrees that Swann's problem earlier in his career says more about the coaches he played under than his abilities. "When he was on the way up, some of the more boring coaches, like Duncan Fletcher [England coach 1999-2007] and Kepler Wessels, didn't get him at all and he only fought his way into the England team when his numbers became unarguable."

Engel adds: "He's a big reason why the England team has improved. Not just because he takes wickets but because he isn't afraid. He plays as though he's having fun, which is important for a spinner because he has to purvey a kind of magic." It's a magic the whole country will be counting on in the coming weeks.

Selection of Michael Beer for third Test after five first-class matches shows the Australian selectors are lurching like a drunk in a dark alley

They could not have picked Shane Warne, although that would have been hilarious. Even their Delphic oracle, Richie Benaud, whom the Australians look to as a source of venerable wisdom in times of trouble, but who now usually restricts himself to brief and impenetrable utterances, was crystal clear about that particular bandwagon. He thought it was a preposterous idea.

But instead of picking Warne, Australia's selectors seem to have listened to him. Warne identified Michael Beer as his choice last week in one of his many columns and – glory be – Beer is in the 12 for Perth, the left-arm spinner's new home.

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His selection is not quite as astonishing as the recall of Warne would have been. But it is not far behind. Warne may like the notion of a St Kilda boy emulating his route into the Test team after barely any first-class cricket – Beer has had only six first-class outings since his debut on 10 October this year – but the comparisons between the two end there. Beer is an orthodox finger-spinner, not a mystery man. There is not much reason to suspect that he will be any more effective than Xavier Doherty, who played in the first two Tests and was immediately ditched, having given up 306 runs in taking three wickets.

The 26-year-old Beer was never selected for his state team despite regular success in Melbourne grade cricket, where he took 213 wickets in six seasons. This year he moved to Perth and he played against the tourists for Western Australia just over a month ago. He did take five wickets in the match, albeit yielding runs at a rate of five per over. In England's second innings he managed to dismiss Kevin Pietersen, but surely they are not being seduced by that theory again. So Beer becomes the tenth spinner to be chosen since Warne's retirement.

Anyone in pursuit of any echoes of Warne in the latest deliberations of the Australian selectors would do better to focus upon Steve Smith rather than Beer. Smith is only 21, and he played his two Test matches against Pakistan in England last summer. And he has something. There is a sparkle in his eye. He is a brilliant fieldsman, always a good sign. His batting is unorthodox and very 21st century; he stands tall and ready to deliver and he has an excellent eye. In one-day cricket he can whack the ball miles and sometimes he does the same in the longer form of the game.

At this stage in his career, Smith's batting is more advanced than his wrist-spin bowling, though he has just taken eight wickets in a match, for the first time, for New South Wales against South Australia in Sydney. Those eight wickets took his tally to 41 in first-class cricket, which is 25 more than Beer.

In the same match Nathan Hauritz hit his maiden century and took three wickets in the second innings. By all accounts he is bowling much better now. But it seems the selectors have decided that even if Hauritz is the most accomplished and reliable spinner in the country, they do not want him in the team any more. Nor are they so enamoured by the left-arm spinner Steve O'Keefe, who bowled respectably for the A team in Hobart three weeks ago.

Instead the selectors prefer the excitement of trying to pluck magical rabbits out of their hats. Or maybe they cannot cope with any more U-turns, which the recall of Hauritz would represent. They appear to be lurching this way and that like a drunk in a dark alley.

Smith may well be the future, however. Even if Australia lose the Test at Perth, and therefore the Ashes, he will probably be around for the rest of the series. Smith is someone the Channel Nine commentators can salivate over. At least he offers hope. The same may apply to the other recalled youngster, Phil Hughes, the idiosyncratic opening batsman, who was dropped after two Ashes Tests in 2009 and replaced by Shane Watson. (Hughes, by the way, celebrated his recall with a duck in the second innings of New South Wales's Sheffield Shield match with South Australia in Sydney).

Whether Smith is mature enough to sway a Test match is another matter. His leg-breaks have promise, a fair bit of fizz but not much consistency. Smith will definitely play in Perth, batting at six or seven, since the Australian selectors are sending no spare batsmen to the far west. Ricky Ponting does not have the option of playing safe with a specialist batsman at six.

It is not certain how Ponting will arrange his lower order, but he is aware that this an area of great concern. In three completed innings in the first two Tests, the tail have amassed a grand total of 50 runs between them. The final choice will probably be between Beer – who, unlike Hauritz, has yet to suggest that he will be a source of runs down the order (top score so far 24 not out in the current Shield game against Queensland) – and Peter Siddle, the hat-trick hero, who launched Australia's pursuit of the Ashes so spectacularly at the Gabba, but who has not taken a wicket since that first innings in Brisbane.

The process of elimination tells us that Siddle's place is in doubt. Ryan Harris, a bulldozer of a bowler, even if his body has a tendency to rebel against the demands put upon it by a fiercely competitive mind, was Australia's best bowler in Adelaide. So he has to play.

Ben Hilfenhaus's style of bowling can be invaluable in Perth, where it is essential that someone is able to bowl into the wind. The Fremantle Doctor is as reliable as dear old Doctor Finlay. It is not possible to tell exactly when it will arrive but it always comes. The Swan River just beyond the Waca can often be a millpond with dinghies helplessly becalmed but they buzz along as soon as the doctor calls.

It can suit an away-swing bowler to run into that sea breeze, which blows from long leg to wide mid-off when a right-handed batsman is facing at the river end. And usually, if the ball swings, the nicks carry to the slip cordon at the Waca. Hilfenhaus is the likeliest swing bowler in the Australian side and he could therefore be a threat. Moreover, his stock has risen by virtue of not being selected for the Adelaide match. So he has to play, too.

And then, of course, there is Mitchell Johnson, whose prospects have also been enhanced by his absence in Adelaide. There was much caring talk after he was dropped for the first time in his career about the benefits of Mitch going away and clearing his mind. He needed some time to sort his game out. The priorities have changed now. Australia are desperate.

The selectors cannot possibly believe that Johnson's rehabilitation is complete. He has not bowled a competitive ball since Brisbane – to the dismay of Kim Hughes and many others. Instead they are clinging on to his record rather than the evidence of their own eyes. Johnson has taken wickets in clusters in the past. His Test figures match many of the greats. And he is fitter than Doug Bollinger. They are clutching those straws. However, Troy Cooley, Australia's bowling coach, will have worked wonders if he can transform Johnson via a few net sessions at the Waca.

So we are in topsy-turvy territory. The Australians arrive in Perth in the knowledge that defeat means that the Ashes remain with England. For the last three Ashes tours that has been England's predicament and they have been blown away. The wicket at Perth may not be quite so quick as the halcyon days but by the standards of the rest of the world there is enough life for the pace bowlers and more encouragement for the spinner than there used to be.

This Test becomes a pivotal one for the Australians. Lose, and the hue and cry around the country will become deafening. If the Ashes are out of reach then there may be a headlong pursuit for fresh blood. The thirtysomethings, in particular, will be in jeopardy.

Even Ponting, the embodiment of Australia, all cragginess and steel-eyed determination under that fading baggy green, and one of the greatest players ever to represent the country, will be under extreme pressure. There will be those calling for his immediate removal as Test captain if Australia lose. Whether that will include the Australian selectors is hard to gauge. Because no one has a clue what they will come up with next.

Andy Flower says he already knows who of his three back-up bowlers will take Stuart Broad's place – but a strong performance in Melbourne could sway his thinking

Somewhere within his travelling portmanteau Andy Flower must have a clipboard, and thereon a checklist. For gradually, England are debunking all the 10-Reasons-The-Poms-Are-Duds perceptions that have been thrown at them before the series began. The Gabbatoir? Check. The ghost of Adelaide? Check. Alastair Cook can't bat while Kevin Pietersen's ego and a left-arm spinner will do for him? Check and check again.

Jonathan Trott's temperament then? Check. Jimmy Anderson's bowling, and Steve Finn's inexperience, Ian Bell's timidity, and how a finger spinner cannot possibly take wickets in Australia – 20 wickets in a match? How? Check. One after the other the myths have been exploded until on yesterday morning in Adelaide, Graeme Swann rounded off the most complete performance by an England team in memory. It had been, Flower said on arrival to a wet Melbournetoday, "a perfect game", although he was at immediate pains to temper that by saying that not every catch was taken, or run saved, and that improvement was possible in terms of consistency.

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Each of Chris Tremlett, Ajmal Shahzad and Tim Bresnan will be playing in Friday's three-day match against Victoria and from it one will emerge who will take over Broad's role at the Waca and also give an indication as to who might flourish on the drop in MCG pitch on which the fourth Test will be played. Already Flower has said that he knows in his mind who he wants in Perth but that he could still be influenced by a strong performance over the weekend.

Each has strong credentials. "Tremlett," said Flower after the team's arrival in a wet Melbourne, "brings heavy bounce with the ball coming from that height. He bowls a consistent length. He is not express but it is imposing as a batsman when someone of that height and size is running in at you. And he will bring consistency with that bounce. That is why he did well last summer because he bowled a consistent length.

"Bresnan is an experienced cricketer even though he is relatively young. He is strong and accurate and bowls skilful reverse swing and obviously bats and fields as well. Some call him a medium- pacer but he is quick enough to beat good players. He has a quick bouncer. And Shahzad bowls very well at left-handers: we saw that in Hobart. That doesn't mean to say he is not effective against right-handers but is more dangerous against left-handers. But he too has enough pace to beat good players and when the ball reverses he can reverse it both ways. He is fit and strong and can run in all day."

Obviously the condition of the Perth pitch will play a part, and Flower's conversations with the groundsman during England's pre-series preparations suggested that he wanted to try to quicken it up. Such a transformation can only come by virtue of leaving extra grass on it, though, something Ricky Ponting might be keen to encourage for the rest of the series given his bowler's inability to take more than 16 wickets in two Tests and just six in 304 overs in the last two innings (high risk for the more assistance there is, the better the England bowlers are to exploit it). However, anecdotally there is evidence that the Australian players acknowledge that Bresnan really does bowl a "heavy" ball – one which jars the bat – and that rather than the obvious straight substitution of Tremlett for Broad, based on obvious similarities in height, it may well be that they could be looking at his reliability and experience with the ball, coupled with his batting ability.

Whoever plays, he will almost certainly share the new ball with Anderson, who has returned home briefly for the birth of his second child before arriving back in Perth on the 15th. Finn already has been a revelation on this tour, but is not yet ready to take the responsibility of leading the charge. "I have been very impressed with how he has handled the pressure," said Flower, "and indeed very impressed with that aspect since he first played international cricket. But he is a young man and nowhere near fulfilling his potential at the moment. He is learning all the time and the experience he is getting is invaluable for his long term future. Would he take the new ball? I would be surprised."

Flower was reluctant to divulge the team to play Victoria, but then as good as managed it anyway by saying that Andrew Strauss would captain, both Steve Davies and Eoin Morgan would get their first outing of the tour, with Davies keeping wicket so that Matt Prior could play as a batsman, that the Test match bowlers would all be rested as would Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen. Brains more addled than Sherlock Holmes's could work it out from there.

Probable England team v Victoria in Melbourne: *Strauss, †Davies, Trott, Collingwood, Bell, Morgan, Prior, Bresnan, Tremlett, Shahzad, Panesar.

Former Australia captain Steve Waugh says national selectors are "in a quandary" over their team's form slump and may be best to give incumbent players the chance to redeem themselves the Ashes series against England.

images by Patrick Mahoney

It was only last week that the Washington Post asked for my opinion on the New Jersey pastor calling for Christians to stop using Facebook. Had I known what would erupt this week, I might have agreed with him.

The big idea of my Post blog was that Facebook doesn’t cause adultery, people do. Calling for a boycott of Facebook is not the answer because the issue is the heart. Even if someone doesn’t commit adultery because of Facebook, if that sin remains in their heart, they will find another way to act upon it. Sadly, after the story broke, it was revealed that the pastor protesting against Facebook was, in fact, guilty of prior adultery, along with his wife. Of course, their adultery had nothing to do with Facebook, according to the news reports. So, while I pray for the couple to get beyond whatever may be troubling their marriage by God’s grace, it simply confirmed my big idea that sinners are ultimately responsible for sin. 

Facebook, like many technologies and cultural phenomena, is an opportunity for my heart and the hearts of others you and I interact with to be revealed and transformed. Funny that this week, a simple comment I made appreciating the talent of Jay-Z generated hundreds and hundreds of comments across multiple threads on my Facebook page. Compare that to nineteen comments on my post regarding a news article about the Christian who is being raped, beaten, and tortured for his faith and needs some people to push for his freedom.

The backstory is this. While flipping through TV channels recently, I noticed an enormous concert by Jay-Z. The event was simply epic. Madison Square Garden was packed and people were raising their hands and singing along with religious zeal. By no means a hip-hop expert, but someone who did grow up listening to the earliest days of rap as a non-Christian, I have been aware of his influence for some time. He has sold fifty million albums, garnered ten Grammys, and was honored as one of the Ten Most Successful Artists of the previous decade by Billboard Magazine. He’s also helped to launch the careers or at least influence the music of Beyoncé, Eminem, Rihanna, Kanye West, Notorious B.I.G., Timbaland, Linkin Park, and Dr. Dre, among others. Some of these friends joined him on stage for the portion of the concert I watched, which was quite a performance.

Back to Facebook, where I posted that despite using bowling words, Jay-Z is a genius. I was very surprised to see how heated the ensuing debate became. Scanning the comments, it became clear that there was a polarization between two camps of thought about how Christians should engage culture. One side cited Philippians 4:8 and 1 Peter 1:13ff and advocated that Christians should not listen to music like Jay-Z. The other side cited 1 Corinthians 9, Romans 14, and John 17:15 and advocated that Christians have freedom in Christ and should be in the world but not of the world. All in all, it was a predictably ugly display of Internet flame-throwing where it gets personal fast and people say things digitally they would never say in a face-to-face conversation. Still, I’d like to address the issue of how Christians should engage culture—mostly for those caught in the crossfire of the two extremes.

This blog is not intended to defend everything I’ve ever said and done, as, like all sinners, there are things in retrospect I would say and do differently. This blog is also not intended to defend or impugn Jay-Z. He’s a gifted producer and musician, some of his lyrics are vulgar, and though it will likely never happen, if I ever got to chat with him I would be curious to hear what he thinks about Jesus.

Are You a Missionary?

What I’ve found over the years is that whenever I speak about something culturally related from a Christian perspective, a debate rages. This has been the case since the earliest days of my ministry. This is because I consider myself a missionary in culture. When we started our church we did so in what was among the least churched cities in the nation, seeking to reach the least churched demographic—young, educated, single, urban men. The truth is, these kinds of young men are generally missing from the American church. One thing these men of all races are doing is listening to rap music.

So, as a missionary, I find it a good thing to be aware of what is going on in culture in general as well as in music in particular. Though not a musician myself, I have some five thousand songs on my iTunes account from a wide range of genres and styles. Music is among the most defining and revealing aspects of any culture, and so in addition to enjoying some music, I study lots of music. This endeavor is helped, in part, by a communications degree from one of the top programs in the nation, where I spent a few years analyzing advertising, marketing, political speeches, film, music, and the like.

Here’s the big idea: it’s not about music, it’s about missions.

The God of the Bible is a sender by nature. He is a missionary God who has sent his people into the world since Abraham. In the Old Testament he sent prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Jonah over cross-cultural boundaries. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live as a man, in a particular time and place, with a particular people as a missionary in a sinful culture. The Father also sends the Holy Spirit to Christians so that we, like Jesus, might also live as missionaries in culture. The gospel that portrays this most clearly is John, where Jesus says roughly forty times, “The Father has sent me,” and then says in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

As a missionary, I do not view culture passively, merely as entertainment. Rather, I engage it actively as a sermon that is preaching a worldview. I teach my children to do the same. Their computer is fully visible in the middle of our kitchen and dining area, with protective software to help ensure they are not prematurely exposed to content they cannot handle, dangerous people, and also such things as pornography. The television used by our five children is also mounted for all to see in the most visible section of our home to help ensure we actively oversee our children’s cultural intake. That television also has a password that my wife or I must enter if anything is to be recorded or watched beyond a certain age-appropriate rating. 

We also watch shows with our children. Those shows are recorded on a TiVo so that we can stop and have discussions during them, helping our kids understand the ideology that is being presented and how to think about it critically. We want our kids to be innocent but not naïve. Naïve Christians are the most vulnerable to engaging culture ignorantly and unpreparedly. If a Christian kid does not know how to walk as a Christian in culture, it’s no surprise that once he or she leaves their parents’ home after graduation, they are statistically likely to fail continue walking with Jesus.

The attitude we have for our children is the same we have for our church. This is why we have a pastor leading film and theology discussions. This is why we have a large contingency of Christians who are in the music business but do not wave the flag of Christian music. Rather, their theology informs their songwriting and artistry. Like our children, our goal is not to create a safe Christian subculture as much as to train missionaries to live in culture like Jesus. This helps explain why we baptized, by God’s grace, almost a thousand new converts last year alone—people who simply would not have connected with a typical Christian church existing in a cultural cul-de-sac.

Syncretism vs. Sectarianism

Regarding missiology, the question is, how are Christians to be missionaries in their cultures? Historically, and biblically, there are two erroneous extremes that Christians swing between: syncretism or sectarianism.

Syncretists go too far into culture, abandoning or diluting the gospel in the name of relevance. Liberals in the early twentieth century did this by pandering to the high culture of academic modernity and abandoning belief in the inerrancy of Scripture, the supernatural, and the divine nature of Christ. The shells of mainline churches are their legacy. Most recently, the Emergent Church did much of the same as they chased after the postmodern mood of our culture by questioning the virgin birth of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, and God’s design for heterosexual marriage.

Sectarians are better known as fundamentalists who impose man-made rules on people in the name of achieving holiness by avoiding sinners and hiding out in a “Christian” culture. They are prone to seeing others sin more easily than their own sins of hypocrisy and religious pride, while arguing about morality when they should be explaining how to be redeemed. Whereas syncretists go too far, sectarians don’t go far enough. Neither follows the entire example of Jesus, though both would disagree passionately. 

The general concern of sectarians is that to be in culture is to be in sin. All Christians are commanded by God to avoid universal sins—offenses the Bible condemns for all people in all cultures—as well as particular sins, or offenses that are sinful for some people under some circumstances but not for all people under all circumstances. Christians are to do so without unfairly condemning or restricting the freedoms of fellow Christians who involve themselves differently in controversial cultural matters. For example, I personally disdain cigarettes, but I cannot forbid everyone in my church from smoking, because the Bible does not. This is, in part, what Paul means throughout the New Testament when he speaks of weak and strong Christians. In truth, every Christian is both weak and strong. We all have some areas in which we need to restrict our freedoms because of our weaknesses, while we are able to use our Christian liberty in areas in which we are strong.

Unity, Not Uniformity

I recognize that Christians will have different personal convictions in matters of culture and I welcome those differences that are not sinful, because what pleases God is unity, not uniformity. Uniformity undermines mission and often is promoted by erroneous restrictive and permissive theologies. Restrictive Christians go too far and name everything a universal sin, forbidding some cultural activities that the Bible does not, such as listening to certain musical styles, getting tattoos, watching movies, smoking cigarettes, consuming alcohol moderately, enjoying some sexual pleasures within marriage, and body piercing. Conversely, permissive Christians tend to name everything a particular sin and bless activities that the Bible forbids, such as drug use, fornication, homosexuality, and cohabitation before marriage.

I’m not advocating either a permissive or a restrictive approach to debatable cultural issues. Rather, I am encouraging Christians to involve themselves in culture not merely for the purpose of entertainment but primarily for the purpose of education. As a missionary, you will need to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and befriend people that you might not like to better understand people whom Jesus loves. For example, I often read magazines intended for teenage girls, not because I need to take tests to discover if I am compatible with my boyfriend or because I need leg-waxing tips, but because I want to see young women meet Jesus, so I want to understand them and their culture better.

Garbage In, Garbage Out?

Sadly, a theology of “garbage in, garbage out” remains quite popular but has numerous flaws. First, there is no such thing as a pure culture untainted by sin and sinners, including Christian entertainment, which has had its share of scandalous behavior. One such example is the fact that as I’m writing this blog, the leader of a major Christian television network has publically confessed to adultery. Second, it is uncertain what distinguishes clean “Christian” and unclean “secular” entertainment forms and why Bibleman is so much better than Spiderman.

Engaging culture requires discernment by God’s people to filter all of the cultures they encounter, Christian and non-Christian, through a biblical and theological grid in order to cling to that which is good and reject that which is evil. As we engage culture (watching films and television, listening to music, reading books, shopping at stores, and so on), we must do so as theologians and missionaries filled with wisdom and discernment, seeking to better grasp life in our culture. We do this so we can begin the transforming work of the gospel in our culture by contextualizing the good news of Jesus. Not compromising. Not changing. Contextualizing. Practically, this means doing what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22–23, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” The truth is that every ministry is contextualized, the only difference is to which culture and which year of that culture. Everything from pews to chairs, sound systems, projectors, suits, and a printed Bible in the English language are very recent missiogical contextualizations in light of the two thousand years of Christianity. 

For those who are familiar with my ministry, this all may seem very confusing in light of comments I have made on other cultural issues. For those who have raised objections and questions in a gracious manner, with all sincerity I want to say thank you! They help me learn how to articulate more effectively my deeply held biblical convictions about Christ, Christians, church, and culture. They help me learn and grow, which I appreciate and need. 

One helpful taxonomy I have used for years to help teach on missiology is as follows:

·     Receive – There are things in culture that are part of God’s common grace to all people that a Christian can simply receive. This is why, for example, I am typing on a Mac and am going to post this blog on the Internet without searching for an expressly Christian computer or communication format.

·     Reject – There are things in culture that are sinful and not beneficial. One example is pornography, which has no redeeming value and must be rejected by a Christian.

·     Redeem – There are things in culture that are not bad in and of themselves, but can be used in a sinful manner and therefore need to be redeemed by God’s people. An example that has resulted in a great deal of media attention is sexual pleasure. God made our bodies for, among other purposes, sexual pleasure. And, although many have sinned sexually, as Christians we should redeem this great gift and all its joys in the context of marriage. 

As you can see, each issue requires discernment. Liberal syncretists tend to receive too much. Fundamental separatists tend to reject too much. So, while I would reject yoga because it is a Hindu worship act, it is possible for the Christian to redeem some of the exercise principles, as my friend, Rose, extols. Likewise, it’s not a sin to watch a film such as Avatar, enjoy the technological mastery, and learn about how to tell a great story. But, it is imperative for a Christian to not embrace the blatant pagan worldview that does not distinguish between Creator and creation, upon which the entire storyline of the film is constructed.

That said, is it possible to appreciate the musical and entrepreneurial talent of Jay-Z without praising his character or beliefs? Yes. Is it possible to watch and listen to Jay-Z to learn about culture, what people are valuing, and why some men have much larger audiences than any preacher because of how they present their message? Yes. Should Christians agree with the every message he and other artists present? No. Should Christians who like rap check out guys I have enjoyed getting to know a bit, such as Lecrae? Yes. Should all Christians listen to Jay-Z? No. Should Jay-Z sit down and talk to me about Jesus? Yes. Jay-Z, whenever works for you is good for me, and if need be I’d even watch a Nets game. 

For further reading, I have addressed this topic at length in my book Radical Reformission (2004), in numerous sermons since, and last week a Mars Hill pastor wrote a blog about how we engage culture .

Has England's triumph in the second Ashes test sparked your enthusiasm for the sport? If so, here are a few games to test your own skills on.

If you're revelling in England's Ashes domination, you may already have searched the shelves of your local Game store for the latest cricket simulation – and probably come away empty-handed. EA Sports, the leader in the sports sim genre, hasn't produced a console cricket title for several years, choosing, instead, to concentrate on its successful Fifa and Madden brands. The company may well reconsider, though, especially as its decision to back the emerging sport of mixed-martial arts with the much-hyped EA MMA, has not gone quite as well as hoped – the game sold just 45,000 copies in its first month on US shelves.

But there are some decent Cricket games still around. I've gone for titles that you can play on current platforms, so that means no Brian Lara Cricket (there's a PlayStation iteration, Brian Lara Cricket 99, that should play on your PS3, but the original Megadrive version was the best) and no Super International Cricket, a great little arcade-style title for the old Super Nintendo console.

If you have any of your own suggestions, feel free to add them in the comments section.

You are the Umpire
(Four Door Lemon, iPhone, £1.19)
UK studio Four Door Lemon has already turned Paul Trevillion's newspaper comic strip, You Are the Ref, into an iPhone app, and now here's the team's take on the spin-off cricket version. In You Are The Umpire, you're faced with a series of challenging decisions based on the cricket rule book; it's your job to select the right course of action in each scenario. It's a simple and stylish conversion, which makes perfect use of the original illustrations, and even allows players to create their own comic strips using the images supplied. With hundreds of multiple choice questions included, it's a relaxing way to kill time on long commutes, or between innings. There's an iPad version coming soon.

Big Cup Cricket
(Eidos, iPhone, £1.79)

A brand new cricket sim from Eidos, which is quickly pulling in ecstatic user reviews. Players select from 20 international sides and an array of game modes then use the touchscreen to bowl or bat, with the timing, speed and direction of your swipe governing the ball direction and velocity. It takes a while to get the hang of the controls, but once you do, it's actually a really involving little sim. The cute visuals and crisp sound effects add charm, plus there's Game Centre support for online leaderboards. A Wi-Fi two-player mode would have been a nice bonus, but as it is, this is possibly the best cricket sim on the App Store.

Touch Cricket
(On-Sea, iPhone/ipad, 59p)
Not everyone appreciates this rather tricky batting sim, but I like it's physical control mechanic. Your aim as batsman is simply to achieve the highest score possible. There's a side on view of your player and you need to use your left thumb to alter his position and the right to swing your bat. Timing is crucial, as is getting in the right position to fend off tricky spin bowls. It's quietly satisfying when you get it right, and at just 59p (there's also a free Lite version), wannabe England batsmen won't be complaining about the limited structure.

International Cricket 2010
(Codemasters, Xbox 360, PS3, from £10)

This was the last big console cricket sim, and although it only drew average reviews from the specialist press at the time, many fans rate it as a decent enough slogger, and I'd concur – especially as its easily available for much less than the original £39.99 price tag. It's officially licensed so you get 16 full international sides as well as 21 authentically modelled stadia. The analogue control system is well implemented allowing for a decent accuracy and a range of shots, and bowling, too, is well implemented and enjoyable. The visuals are certainly lacking, though – a shame as cricket isn't exactly the most processor intensive sport to simulate.

Stick Cricket
(Stick Sports, PC/Mac, free)
The original Stick Cricket, a simple but thoroughly addictive Flash-based browser game, was released in 2004 and became such a cult success it has encouraged creator Stick Sports to produce a whole range of sports sims on its site. The latest versions of the cricket game remain true to their ancestor: you simply have to get as many runs as you can, using the cursor keys, and careful timing, to hit an array of shots. The games are free to play, but you'll need to register.

This was the most complete performance by an England team in the memory of those who witnessed it

The storm broke over the Adelaide Oval shortly after 2pm yesterday afternoon. First came the black anvil tops, then the crackle of lightning and rumble of thunder, and finally the sheets of rain that obliterated the ground from view. It was around three hours too late to prevent Australia from one of the worst defeats in decades, not just in the simple match statistics but in the total discrepancy in the performances, collective and corporate, between the two sides. By then, the victorious England team were back in their hotel across the river enjoying their celebrations. As it turned out, Australia needed to last only 50 overs or so: they managed 17.

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Without equivocation, this was the most complete performance by an England team in the memory of those who witnessed it. From first over to last, they dominated proceedings, first with ball and in the field, and then with bat. It was virtually flawless: a hand-wringing stinger of a one-handed caught-and-bowled chance to Jimmy Anderson early in the first innings that reprieved Mike Hussey, who went on to make 93; a sharp chance offered by Hussey to Matt Prior yesterday as England sought to close down the game and the ball exploded from the rough; a substitute fielder, Eoin Morgan diving over a ball instead of stopping it. This, though, is grade A nitpicking, done merely to illustrate the level of dominance. If there were those who felt that England might have peaked too early in the warm-ups, then now it can be seen that they had not got beyond base camp. The only question is how to sustain it.

They did not emerge unscathed from Adelaide and the loss of Stuart Broad to an abdominal muscle tear deprives England of one of their most abrasive characters, who, apart from anything else, in the estimation of the bowling coach, sends down the most dangerous bouncer in world cricket. That he has taken only two wickets in the series at around 80 apiece in no way tells the story because bowling involves team work. He alone rattles Michael Clarke.

Yet, remembering the words of Andy Flower before the series started, that he did not expect the same bowlers who began it to be there throughout, even this possibility seems to have been pre-empted. For the planning for this campaign goes back way beyond the final selection meeting, to numerous conversations between Flower and Andrew Strauss, the coaches and Geoff Miller, the national selector. From this they decided on the type of player they wanted and instructed Miller to find them. For an Old Trafford Test, with Tim Bresnan injured, they brought in Ajmal Shahzad and watched him reverse swing the ball at pace. In he came to join the party. David Saker was sent to The Oval to monitor Chris Tremlett, ignored the tales of insipid character that have dogged him and, taking as he found, saw only a Test match bowler.

It is one of these three who will now fill Broad's boots and it will be done seamlessly for each has already shown against Australia A in Hobart that they can perform in Australia. Each will play in Friday's game against Victoria at the MCG and, from that, will come the decision. Likeliest is that England will play the conditions, recognise that although the Waca has long since lost the pace of old, bounce is still a great asset, and bring in Tremlett.

This game, though, will give them a chance to assess the MCG conditions too (although no one knows them more intimately than Saker, who coached there prior to joining England, and for whom it will be a slightly emotive return) and, remembering how Dean Headley bowled England to a rare victory there in 1998 with reverse swing, a chance for Shahzad to lay down a marker.

Australia can go away now, lick the wounds and try to regroup during the 10-day break before the third Test. After the match, Ricky Ponting was generous to the opposition, dignified, and thoroughly honest, concerned not just for his team as a whole but his own performance: Ponting leads from the front but has been unhorsed.

He knows what needs doing and talks a lot about "executing skills", but it is not just skills that could be for the chop now. His bowlers managed to take only five wickets to England's 20, which sheds a new light on the common perception that England would be incapable of bowling the Australians out twice with a four-man attack while Australia knew all the Kookaburra tricks.

Seven of Graeme Swann's 10 five-wicket-hauls have been away from England, let it be noted, matched only by Derek Underwood as a spinner and in a third of the matches. It was Ryan Harris who looked the best of the Australia bunch, although his king pair rather knocked into a cocked hat the notion that he had to replace Ben Hilfenhaus to bolster the batting. But Doug Bollinger clearly lacks the basic fitness for a strenuous Test match and despite his Brisbane hat-trick, Peter Siddle hammered on a door that remained firmly bolted.

Australia have to start throwing caution to the wind a little, and swallow some pride too: Mitchell Johnson could be back and Hilfenhaus, too. Perhaps not Nathan Hauritz though, despite the unfortunate time that Xavier Doherty has had: Ponting is believed to have had enough of a reluctance to play on the part of Hauritz, and has lost all confidence. Of the batsmen, Simon Katich, out for the series with an achilles injury, will be replaced by Phil Hughes, about whom England know plenty, while North will wait anxiously to see if he too has not been removed for the 21-year-old Steve Smith.

England's only decision, meanwhile, is whom to rest and whom to keep going over the weekend. Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen must have a break (although Pietersen as good as had a holiday watching Cook and Trott bat), as must all the bowlers. Steve Davies should keep wicket, allowing Prior to bat only, and Morgan too can play his first game.

Strauss will lead, the England captain bottom scoring for the third successive innings (if ever there was not a crisis, it is this). But last night, as the thunder continued and the rain rattled down, these were all thoughts far from the minds of the England team. Their celebrations would have been long, hard and well-earned. They have inflicted a damage on the Australian psyche from which it will desperately hard to recover.

Ricky Ponting put defeat at Adelaide down to 'bad skill execution' but Australia's problems are far from abstract

After their most devastating home defeat to England for half a century, Ricky Ponting faced the press as he is obliged to do and he stared them in the eye as he always does. But he could not say much. The English team were praised and he acknowledged a "bad loss".

He assured us that there was no lack of endeavour or fight in his team but the "execution of our plans and the execution of our skills were not good enough". This was a mantra to which he returned time and again. He's a country boy from Launceston, Tasmania. Somehow it would have been preferable if he had just said: "We played shithouse".

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Of course, there is a lot of nebulous talk about "attitudes" and "challenges" and "skill execution" on these occasions, but we can never be privy to the discussions that really matter. Ponting said that he was meeting with Andrew Hilditch, the chairman of selectors, later in the afternoon. That is when the debate moves away from all the abstract qualities that every team craves and over to the nitty-gritty of personnel.

Australia are expected to announce their next Test squad on Friday and it will not be a case of "same team, different performance, please". They are in disarray. Any side who concede 1,137 runs while taking six wickets have fundamental problems.

In any case they know that their opening batsman Simon Katich is injured. Phil Hughes, the unorthodox left-hander from New South Wales, is expected to replace him. Ponting acknowledged as much. "Hughes is the first name to come to mind," he said. "I'd be surprised if it's not him."

Hughes played against England at Hobart for Australia A and scored runs in the second innings. He was also in the Test team at the start of the 2009 Ashes series, when he was quickly sorted out by the English pacemen and then dropped with surprising rapidity. England know their plans for him. He likes to hit square on the off-side, which he does with surprising facility for an opening batsman. So they bowl tight at his body, often from round the wicket, and they hit him with the odd bouncer. They – and Hughes – also know that this plan worked rather well.

One other batsman will be under intense scrutiny: Marcus North. "He will be disappointed with his week's work," said Ponting. "He looks like scoring runs but inconsistency has plagued his first-class career – not just his Test career." Hang on, this sounded as if Ponting had already reached a conclusion, so he added quickly: "He's in the same boat as me this week [nine runs in the captain's case, and on a flat one]".

There will be pressure for changes so the genial North could easily go. Perth is his home city but the Australians are not in a sentimental mood just now. There are experienced alternatives around; Michael Hussey's brother David is a feisty cricketer. So is Cameron White from Victoria. Both have prospered in one-day cricket for Australia. Theoretically the next cab off the rank should be Usman Khawaja from New South Wales, but it may be that the selectors will be more interested in a short-term fix via one of their craggier Sheffield Shield players ahead of a long-term building programme. That can wait until the Ashes are well and truly gone.

But it is the bowling that will cause their selectors the greatest headaches. There were two changes after Brisbane. There will surely be just as many after Adelaide. Xavier Doherty will always be able to boast about his baggy green cap – after two Tests, he may not need it any more.

It has been tough for him; he has not bowled dreadfully. But he was pitched into an Ashes series, almost on a whim, and just conceivably because he propels the ball with his left-hand, which was supposed to terrify Kevin Pietersen. Selection via the plucking of rabbits out of magical hats seldom works.

Doherty will go for certain, but there is no certainty over who might replace him. Nathan Hauritz? Well, he has just been dropped and there is the suspicion that he is not the grittiest of cricketers. But Hauritz is probably the best spinner in Australia. However a U-turn is required for his selection. There is the charismatic option, the wrist-spinner Steve Smith. He is a gifted cricketer, but in truth he is a batsman who bowls.

It would be remarkable to see Doug Bollinger running in at the Waca. At Adelaide he looked like an unnatural athlete who is not very fit. His chief contribution in the game was to create some rough for Graeme Swann outside the right-hander's off-stump, a fact that did not escape Ponting's notice.

Nor can Peter Siddle, the hat-trick hero of the first day of the series, be certain to play. In Perth it always makes sense to have a swinger who has to run into the Fremantle Doctor. But that breeze can help the ball to deviate away from right-handed batsmen. In the past Damien Fleming, no great speedster, flourished there.

Ben Hilfenhaus, dropped after Brisbane and not so accomplished a swinger as Fleming – or Jimmy Anderson – is still the likeliest of the contenders to find that swing. Traditionally the great consolation at the Waca for swing bowlers is that the nicks carry to the slip cordon.

It may be that Ryan Harris will be the one paceman to survive, his dodgy knee permitting. He was the best of the Australian bowlers at Adelaide and the worst of their batsmen after acquiring a king pair via two reviewed lbws (that could be a record). Nobody wants to bat at No8 in this series. With Chris Broad also missing out from there at The Gabba, so far no one has scored a run from there.

So who else is there? Well, this could turn into a soap opera. In their desperation they might easily bring Mitchell Johnson back even though the scars of his Brisbane mauling and his subsequent rejection are still fresh. It seems as if the Australian selectors are going to have execute their skills very cleverly this week.

It was only last week that the Washington Post asked for my opinion on the New Jersey pastor calling for Christians to stop using Facebook. Had I known what would erupt this week, I might have agreed with him.

The big idea of my Post blog was that Facebook doesn’t cause adultery, people do. Calling for a boycott of Facebook is not the answer because the issue is the heart. Even if someone doesn’t commit adultery because of Facebook, if that sin remains in their heart, they will find another way to act upon it. Sadly, after the story broke, it was revealed that the pastor protesting against Facebook was, in fact, guilty of prior adultery, along with his wife. Of course, their adultery had nothing to do with Facebook, according to the news reports. So, while I pray for the couple to get beyond whatever may be troubling their marriage by God’s grace, it simply confirmed my big idea that sinners are ultimately responsible for sin. 

Facebook, like many technologies and cultural phenomena, is an opportunity for my heart and the hearts of others you and I interact with to be revealed and transformed. Funny that this week, a simple comment I made appreciating the talent of Jay-Z generated hundreds and hundreds of comments across multiple threads on my Facebook page. Compare that to nineteen comments on my post regarding a news article about the Christian who is being raped, beaten, and tortured for his faith and needs some people to push for his freedom.

The backstory is this. While flipping through TV channels recently, I noticed an enormous concert by Jay-Z. The event was simply epic. Madison Square Garden was packed and people were raising their hands and singing along with religious zeal. By no means a hip-hop expert, but someone who did grow up listening to the earliest days of rap as a non-Christian, I have been aware of his influence for some time. He has sold fifty million albums, garnered ten Grammys, and was honored as one of the Ten Most Successful Artists of the previous decade by Billboard Magazine. He’s also helped to launch the careers or at least influence the music of Beyoncé, Eminem, Rihanna, Kanye West, Notorious B.I.G., Timbaland, Linkin Park, and Dr. Dre, among others. Some of these friends joined him on stage for the portion of the concert I watched, which was quite a performance.

Back to Facebook, where I posted that despite using bowling words, Jay-Z is a genius. I was very surprised to see how heated the ensuing debate became. Scanning the comments, it became clear that there was a polarization between two camps of thought about how Christians should engage culture. One side cited Philippians 4:8 and 1 Peter 1:13ff and advocated that Christians should not listen to music like Jay-Z. The other side cited 1 Corinthians 9, Romans 14, and John 17:15 and advocated that Christians have freedom in Christ and should be in the world but not of the world. All in all, it was a predictably ugly display of Internet flame-throwing where it gets personal fast and people say things digitally they would never say in a face-to-face conversation. Still, I’d like to address the issue of how Christians should engage culture—mostly for those caught in the crossfire of the two extremes.

This blog is not intended to defend everything I’ve ever said and done, as, like all sinners, there are things in retrospect I would say and do differently. This blog is also not intended to defend or impugn Jay-Z. He’s a gifted producer and musician, some of his lyrics are vulgar, and though it will likely never happen, if I ever got to chat with him I would be curious to hear what he thinks about Jesus.

Are You a Missionary?

What I’ve found over the years is that whenever I speak about something culturally related from a Christian perspective, a debate rages. This has been the case since the earliest days of my ministry. This is because I consider myself a missionary in culture. When we started our church we did so in what was among the least churched cities in the nation, seeking to reach the least churched demographic—young, educated, single, urban men. The truth is, these kinds of young men are generally missing from the American church. One thing these men of all races are doing is listening to rap music.

So, as a missionary, I find it a good thing to be aware of what is going on in culture in general as well as in music in particular. Though not a musician myself, I have some five thousand songs on my iTunes account from a wide range of genres and styles. Music is among the most defining and revealing aspects of any culture, and so in addition to enjoying some music, I study lots of music. This endeavor is helped, in part, by a communications degree from one of the top programs in the nation, where I spent a few years analyzing advertising, marketing, political speeches, film, music, and the like.

Here’s the big idea: it’s not about music, it’s about missions.

The God of the Bible is a sender by nature. He is a missionary God who has sent his people into the world since Abraham. In the Old Testament he sent prophets like Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Jonah over cross-cultural boundaries. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live as a man, in a particular time and place, with a particular people as a missionary in a sinful culture. The Father also sends the Holy Spirit to Christians so that we, like Jesus, might also live as missionaries in culture. The gospel that portrays this most clearly is John, where Jesus says roughly forty times, “The Father has sent me,” and then says in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

As a missionary, I do not view culture passively, merely as entertainment. Rather, I engage it actively as a sermon that is preaching a worldview. I teach my children to do the same. Their computer is fully visible in the middle of our kitchen and dining area, with protective software to help ensure they are not prematurely exposed to content they cannot handle, dangerous people, and also such things as pornography. The television used by our five children is also mounted for all to see in the most visible section of our home to help ensure we actively oversee our children’s cultural intake. That television also has a password that my wife or I must enter if anything is to be recorded or watched beyond a certain age-appropriate rating. 

We also watch shows with our children. Those shows are recorded on a TiVo so that we can stop and have discussions during them, helping our kids understand the ideology that is being presented and how to think about it critically. We want our kids to be innocent but not naïve. Naïve Christians are the most vulnerable to engaging culture ignorantly and unpreparedly. If a Christian kid does not know how to walk as a Christian in culture, it’s no surprise that once he or she leaves their parents’ home after graduation, they are statistically likely to fail continue walking with Jesus.

The attitude we have for our children is the same we have for our church. This is why we have a pastor leading film and theology discussions. This is why we have a large contingency of Christians who are in the music business but do not wave the flag of Christian music. Rather, their theology informs their songwriting and artistry. Like our children, our goal is not to create a safe Christian subculture as much as to train missionaries to live in culture like Jesus. This helps explain why we baptized, by God’s grace, almost a thousand new converts last year alone—people who simply would not have connected with a typical Christian church existing in a cultural cul-de-sac.

Syncretism vs. Sectarianism

Regarding missiology, the question is, how are Christians to be missionaries in their cultures? Historically, and biblically, there are two erroneous extremes that Christians swing between: syncretism or sectarianism.

Syncretists go too far into culture, abandoning or diluting the gospel in the name of relevance. Liberals in the early twentieth century did this by pandering to the high culture of academic modernity and abandoning belief in the inerrancy of Scripture, the supernatural, and the divine nature of Christ. The shells of mainline churches are their legacy. Most recently, the Emergent Church did much of the same as they chased after the postmodern mood of our culture by questioning the virgin birth of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture, the exclusivity of Christ for salvation, and God’s design for heterosexual marriage.

Sectarians are better known as fundamentalists who impose man-made rules on people in the name of achieving holiness by avoiding sinners and hiding out in a “Christian” culture. They are prone to seeing others sin more easily than their own sins of hypocrisy and religious pride, while arguing about morality when they should be explaining how to be redeemed. Whereas syncretists go too far, sectarians don’t go far enough. Neither follows the entire example of Jesus, though both would disagree passionately. 

The general concern of sectarians is that to be in culture is to be in sin. All Christians are commanded by God to avoid universal sins—offenses the Bible condemns for all people in all cultures—as well as particular sins, or offenses that are sinful for some people under some circumstances but not for all people under all circumstances. Christians are to do so without unfairly condemning or restricting the freedoms of fellow Christians who involve themselves differently in controversial cultural matters. For example, I personally disdain cigarettes, but I cannot forbid everyone in my church from smoking, because the Bible does not. This is, in part, what Paul means throughout the New Testament when he speaks of weak and strong Christians. In truth, every Christian is both weak and strong. We all have some areas in which we need to restrict our freedoms because of our weaknesses, while we are able to use our Christian liberty in areas in which we are strong.

Unity, Not Uniformity

I recognize that Christians will have different personal convictions in matters of culture and I welcome those differences that are not sinful, because what pleases God is unity, not uniformity. Uniformity undermines mission and often is promoted by erroneous restrictive and permissive theologies. Restrictive Christians go too far and name everything a universal sin, forbidding some cultural activities that the Bible does not, such as listening to certain musical styles, getting tattoos, watching movies, smoking cigarettes, consuming alcohol moderately, enjoying some sexual pleasures within marriage, and body piercing. Conversely, permissive Christians tend to name everything a particular sin and bless activities that the Bible forbids, such as drug use, fornication, homosexuality, and cohabitation before marriage.

I’m not advocating either a permissive or a restrictive approach to debatable cultural issues. Rather, I am encouraging Christians to involve themselves in culture not merely for the purpose of entertainment but primarily for the purpose of education. As a missionary, you will need to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and befriend people that you might not like to better understand people whom Jesus loves. For example, I often read magazines intended for teenage girls, not because I need to take tests to discover if I am compatible with my boyfriend or because I need leg-waxing tips, but because I want to see young women meet Jesus, so I want to understand them and their culture better.

Garbage In, Garbage Out?

Sadly, a theology of “garbage in, garbage out” remains quite popular but has numerous flaws. First, there is no such thing as a pure culture untainted by sin and sinners, including Christian entertainment, which has had its share of scandalous behavior. One such example is the fact that as I’m writing this blog, the leader of a major Christian television network has publically confessed to adultery. Second, it is uncertain what distinguishes clean “Christian” and unclean “secular” entertainment forms and why Bibleman is so much better than Spiderman.

Engaging culture requires discernment by God’s people to filter all of the cultures they encounter, Christian and non-Christian, through a biblical and theological grid in order to cling to that which is good and reject that which is evil. As we engage culture (watching films and television, listening to music, reading books, shopping at stores, and so on), we must do so as theologians and missionaries filled with wisdom and discernment, seeking to better grasp life in our culture. We do this so we can begin the transforming work of the gospel in our culture by contextualizing the good news of Jesus. Not compromising. Not changing. Contextualizing. Practically, this means doing what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:22–23, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” The truth is that every ministry is contextualized, the only difference is to which culture and which year of that culture. Everything from pews to chairs, sound systems, projectors, suits, and a printed Bible in the English language are very recent missiogical contextualizations in light of the two thousand years of Christianity. 

For those who are familiar with my ministry, this all may seem very confusing in light of comments I have made on other cultural issues. For those who have raised objections and questions in a gracious manner, with all sincerity I want to say thank you! They help me learn how to articulate more effectively my deeply held biblical convictions about Christ, Christians, church, and culture. They help me learn and grow, which I appreciate and need. 

One helpful taxonomy I have used for years to help teach on missiology is as follows:

·     Receive – There are things in culture that are part of God’s common grace to all people that a Christian can simply receive. This is why, for example, I am typing on a Mac and am going to post this blog on the Internet without searching for an expressly Christian computer or communication format.

·     Reject – There are things in culture that are sinful and not beneficial. One example is pornography, which has no redeeming value and must be rejected by a Christian.

·     Redeem – There are things in culture that are not bad in and of themselves, but can be used in a sinful manner and therefore need to be redeemed by God’s people. An example that has resulted in a great deal of media attention is sexual pleasure. God made our bodies for, among other purposes, sexual pleasure. And, although many have sinned sexually, as Christians we should redeem this great gift and all its joys in the context of marriage. 

As you can see, each issue requires discernment. Liberal syncretists tend to receive too much. Fundamental separatists tend to reject too much. So, while I would reject yoga because it is a Hindu worship act, it is possible for the Christian to redeem some of the exercise principles, as my friend, Rose, extols. Likewise, it’s not a sin to watch a film such as Avatar, enjoy the technological mastery, and learn about how to tell a great story. But, it is imperative for a Christian to not embrace the blatant pagan worldview that does not distinguish between Creator and creation, upon which the entire storyline of the film is constructed.

That said, is it possible to appreciate the musical and entrepreneurial talent of Jay-Z without praising his character or beliefs? Yes. Is it possible to watch and listen to Jay-Z to learn about culture, what people are valuing, and why some men have much larger audiences than any preacher because of how they present their message? Yes. Should Christians agree with the every message he and other artists present? No. Should Christians who like rap check out guys I have enjoyed getting to know a bit, such as Lecrae? Yes. Should all Christians listen to Jay-Z? No. Should Jay-Z sit down and talk to me about Jesus? Yes. Jay-Z, whenever works for you is good for me, and if need be I’d even watch a Nets game. 

For further reading, I have addressed this topic at length in my book Radical Reformission (2004), in numerous sermons since, and last week a Mars Hill pastor wrote a blog about how we engage culture .

• Michael Clarke dismissed in final over
• Australia still trail by 137 runs going into last day

As England retired to the dressing room earlier today, they knew that ultimately, the fate of the second Test match lay in the weather. Rain knocked an hour from play after tea, and they knew the prognosis. But if the winning of this Test always looked a race against time, then from what proved to be the final ball of the day they would have seen a glimmer. It brought a wicket, but not just any wicket. Michael Clarke is, along with Mike Hussey, the best player of spin in the Australian side and had made 80, with the end in sight, when he succumbed, not to Graeme Swann, declared the best spin bowler in the world, but to Kevin Pietersen who began his cricket life as an off-spin bowler only to become a master batsman instead. Australia finished the fourth day on 238 for four, with Hussey on 44 and the deficit still 137.

Pietersen was Andrew Strauss's last throw of the dice in an effort to break a highly skilful partnership between Clarke and Hussey that was frustrating them. All else had been exhausted: Jimmy Anderson, seemingly lacking the immediacy of his bowling thus far in the series, was given a towelling, 70 runs coming from 15 overs, his runs leaked to all parts of the Adelaide Oval; Steven Finn had taken a wicket and was getting a modicum of reverse swing but was being played with some comfort. Worryingly, Stuart Broad had been absent from the attack for a while with a stomach muscle strain and Paul Collingwood had enjoyed a couple of overs spinning his cutters but to no avail.

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And Swann, on in the 10th over of the innings, had toiled through 34 overs, spinning the ball sharply from the footmarks created by the pounding of Doug Bollinger's clodhoppers during England's mammoth innings. There were a couple of wickets for him as well: first Simon Katich, his injured achilles such an encumbrance that although bravely opening the batting he was hobbling, able to run only with all the alacrity of someone chasing a bus while carrying heavy shopping; next Ricky Ponting, superbly caught at slip by Paul Collingwood, a huge blow for Australia.

But Clarke and Hussey had managed to turn back the England tide which saw the scoreboard read 134 for three, with a stand of 108. Australia, faced with a deficit of 375, the biggest against a touring side in Australia for 36 years, had come at England strongly in their second innings, counterattacking, playing shots with gusto. If down they were going, it was going to be in flames. Boundaries abounded, some involuntary, others sumptuous. It was exhilarating, seat-of-the-pants cricket.

The Australian batsmen rode their luck. Edges flew just wide of fielders, miscues went into open spaces. When Swann came on at the Cathedral End, it was a pivotal moment and immediately he created problems. Katich, pushing forward without conviction, edged to Matt Prior. Ponting came, got off his pair imperiously with a back-foot punch through the covers, and then swept Swann hard for a second boundary. Strauss moved a man back, Ponting decided not to repeat the stroke next ball, prodded instead and edged. Was it a deliberate ball or one that simply did not spin? It matters not. Ponting, who has started series so strongly in the past, has now made 10, 51 not out, 0 and 9.

Then came Clarke. He might have gone first ball had Ian Bell, at silly point, been a yard deeper as he too thrust firmly and got a bat and pad edge. Thereafter, he played with a freedom that belied his back condition. He saw Finn dispose of Shane Watson for 57, yet another half-century not converted into something more substantial. But Hussey, almost out of the side a fortnight ago, is in the form of his life once more. The feet of both batsmen twinkled against Swann. Broad's indisposition deprived England of the weapon believed to be most feared by Clarke, and instead of hammering at him, he was to be found in the nets, bowling gingerly, under the eye of Andy Flower, David Saker and the physio, Kirk Russell. His stomach muscles were strapped up and a dozen or so deliveries sufficed: it did not look promising.

Gradually, though, the rough was starting to have an effect. Swann ripped one ball as might a wrist spinner, beating batsman, stumps and keeper. Another spun inside the bat to take the pad and rebounded to Collingwood at slip. They claimed a catch, Tony Hill concurred but on referral was shown to be wrong.

Clarke had hit 11 fours when Strauss called up Pietersen. Those who have seen him bowl in the past recognise someone who can turn the ball and ought to be in a position to bowl more than he does. The second ball of his second over spun sharply at Clarke, who could only play it from his bat on to his thigh and thence to short-leg where Alastair Cook made good ground to take the catch. This time it was England who referred the not out decision and got the verdict. The value of the wicket at that time was magnified, for Pietersen was in the final over before the second new ball became available. Now they knew that a new batsman would be at the crease to face it.

England had decided to bat on in the morning, a debatable option given the forecast but one which they hoped would not force them to bat a second time. But in the 41 minutes they spent scoring a further 69 runs, Pietersen was able to reach 227, his highest Test score before giving poor Xavier Doherty a consolation wicket. Bell and Prior, though, kept on the pressure, Bell finishing unbeaten on 68 when Strauss called them in. England's 620 for five was their highest score in Australia since 1928 when they made 636 at Sydney.

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Rob will be here from around 11pm so until then why not read Mike Selvey's day four report?

As England retired to the dressing room earlier today, they knew that ultimately, the fate of the second Test match lay in the weather. Rain knocked an hour from play after tea, and they knew the prognosis. But if the winning of this Test always looked a race against time, then from what proved to be the final ball of the day they would have seen a glimmer. It brought a wicket, but not just any wicket. Michael Clarke is, along with Mike Hussey, the best player of spin in the Australian side and had made 80, with the end in sight, when he succumbed, not to Graeme Swann, declared the best spin bowler in the world, but to Kevin Pietersen who began his cricket life as an off-spin bowler only to become a master batsman instead. Australia finished the fourth day on 238 for four, with Hussey on 44 and the deficit still 137.

Pietersen was Andrew Strauss's last throw of the dice in an effort to break a highly skilful partnership between Clarke and Hussey that was frustrating them. All else had been exhausted: Jimmy Anderson, seemingly lacking the immediacy of his bowling thus far in the series, was given a towelling, 70 runs coming from 15 overs, his runs leaked to all parts of the Adelaide Oval; Steven Finn had taken a wicket and was getting a modicum of reverse swing but was being played with some comfort. Worryingly, Stuart Broad had been absent from the attack for a while with a stomach muscle strain and Paul Collingwood had enjoyed a couple of overs spinning his cutters but to no avail.

And Swann, on in the 10th over of the innings, had toiled through 34 overs, spinning the ball sharply from the footmarks created by the pounding of Doug Bollinger's clodhoppers during England's mammoth innings. There were a couple of wickets for him as well: first Simon Katich, his injured achilles such an encumbrance that although bravely opening the batting he was hobbling, able to run only with all the alacrity of someone chasing a bus while carrying heavy shopping; next Ricky Ponting, superbly caught at slip by Paul Collingwood, a huge blow for Australia.

But Clarke and Hussey had managed to turn back the England tide which saw the scoreboard read 134 for three, with a stand of 108. Australia, faced with a deficit of 375, the biggest against a touring side in Australia for 36 years, had come at England strongly in their second innings, counterattacking, playing shots with gusto. If down they were going, it was going to be in flames. Boundaries abounded, some involuntary, others sumptuous. It was exhilarating, seat-of-the-pants cricket.

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• Fast bowlers added to squad for Adelaide Test
• Ricky Ponting defends under-fire Mitchell Johnson

Australia have called up two more fast bowlers, Ryan Harris and Doug Bollinger, for the Adelaide Test as their captain, Ricky Ponting, warned that nobody was certain of selection in the aftermath of The Gabba.

The ground popularly known as The Gabbatoir could become a slaughterhouse for Australia's first test attach after England racked up 517-1 on the final day of the drawn first Test, their second highest Test score in Australia.

"We have to work out which is the best attack to take 20 wickets in Adelaide," Ponting said. "We will decide that irrespective of what the bowlers have done up here workwise. They will be given a couple of days to recover. I don't think anyone is certain for selection."

Most criticism of Australia's bowlers has centred upon their tattooed man, Mitchell Johnson, whose mental strength has been brought into question, but Ponting defended his attitude.

"His state of mind seemed really good. Every time I asked him how he was going he seemed really positive. I have seen him bowl better though. But I am not singling anyone out because we have a lot of work to do as a bowling group.

Australia had won 18 and drawn four of their last 22 Tests at The Gabba, which will leave England satisfied with a draw after trailing by 221 on first innings.

"I have never played on a Gabba wicket like that in my whole career," Ponting said. "How slow it was for the first couple of days was really foreign to me. The result indicates that there was something different about it this week."

The Adelaide Oval, reputedly the flattest track in Australia, will bring no immediate comfort to put-upon bowlers on either side, but the Queensland fast bowler, Harris, who has played only two Tests, is the top side of 30, and who may never have entirely recovered from knee surgery last year, is in the sort of form to be presented by Ponting as a potential saviour.

"He has had some niggly knee problems but he has got through two Shield games and everyone believes the injury he has had will be fine for Adelaide," Ponting said. "He is a great competitor, he runs in all day for you, he is the sort of guy who is going to bowl the right length for Adelaide conditions, he runs in and bangs the ball into the wicket if you want to have success and if there is any reverse swing down there he is good at that as well.

"There are lots of things that are good to like about Ryan. The fact that he has had good success in international cricket means that he is one of those guys who need to be playing."

Ponting's unhappiness with the outcome at Brisbane was tempered by Australia's untroubled batting in the closing hours of the match, which confirmed his belief that the surface remained extremely benign for a final-day pitch.

"We got into a good position to win the game but we weren't good enough to win it. We didn't bowl as well as we could as a group by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a difficult wicket to bowl on for the last couple of days. 1-500 is a pretty demeaning scorecard isn't it. Our boys are pretty tired at the moment. If we get a flat wicket again in Adelaide we have to make sure we are a whole lot better."

Australia squad for second Test in Adelaide

Simon Katich, Shane Watson, Ricky Ponting (captain), Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Marcus North, Brad Haddin, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger, Ryan Harris, Xavier Doherty.

Jimmy Anderson deserved better and the England bowler's Gabba experience could cast a shadow over the rest of his tour

Geoff Miller, England's chairman of selectors, took the opportunity as Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin built their triple-century stand to spread a bit of propaganda on Australian radio. The preparation has been huge, no stone left unturned, that sort of thing. It is to be hoped that one of the stones that England peered under was the one called Desolation.

The desolation stone inevitably appears on every Australia tour. It is the one that feels impossible to lift, the one that insists that there is no hope, that it is time to abandon the struggle and allow Australia to do as they will. At 450 for five, 23 minutes after tea on the third day, another England attack was looking right at it.

Some England fast bowlers in Australia have carried the desolation stone around with them permanently. Martin McCague, a soft-hearted fast bowler born in Northern Ireland, was mercilessly attacked on the 1994 tour as "the rat who joined the sinking ship" for betraying his Australian upbringing. Michael Slater flayed him all around The Gabba. He was never the same again.

Even such a heroic figure as Andrew Flintoff can tell you about the desolation stone. When he captained England during a 5-0 whitewash in Australia four years ago, most of his squad retreated into a world of endless room service while Flintoff, on at least one occasion, was alone to stare into an empty glass while they were stacking the chairs around him in the early hours.

Miller told Australian listeners that this is not about to happen again. "We need to show character now," he said, in the interval between England's wicketless morning and wicketless afternoon. "Over the past two years we have not dominated international cricket, but in times of adversity we have shown character to battle back. I don't think this will be any exception."

Whatever the result of Brisbane, even after the pounding on the third day, most Australians still believe that this will be a close one. Midway through the match, even as England faced a 221-run deficit on first innings, Australia's dominance was based on one hat-trick, by Peter Siddle, and one colossal partnership, between Hussey and Haddin. The rest had been nip and tuck between two disciplined but not hugely outstanding sides.

By rights, when Australia's late wickets suddenly fell, they should have fallen upon Jimmy Anderson, who can rarely have bowled better in a Test outside England, or with such ill luck. But it was perhaps timely that they fell to Steve Finn, the baby of the England attack, the bowler who might have found the experience hardest to withstand. Finn's six for 125 when compared to the figures of Anderson and Finn was a statistical absurdity, but when he took his fifth wicket, Anderson's congratulations were among the warmest.

It is Anderson's psychological state that will be of most concern ahead of Adelaide. He was a forlorn soul on England's last Ashes tour, taking only five wickets in three Tests and losing heart at his inability to swing the Kookaburra ball in Australian conditions.

This time he has been immensely disciplined. Hussey is a grounded individual, a man who tells it as it is, and he knew that against Anderson he had won a battle worth winning.

Anderson's first-innings return of 37-13-99-2 did him credit, but it did not do him justice. He bowled a wonderful spell with the second new ball on the third morning, when England still had visions of parity on first innings, but luck and lack of referrals were against him.

This was Anderson's likeliest ground, where he could expect to swing the ball most, and now he must face up to Adelaide's flatlands, where he could be at his most vulnerable, before taking leave of absence for a week to join his wife Daniella for the birth of their second child. The excellent man-management displayed by England in the Flower‑Strauss regime will now be needed; they will be more worried about the child within the man.

Nobody will remotely worry about Stuart Broad, whose inner mongrel will see him through, but Graeme Swann has also had a bit of a comeuppance. Many finger spinners in Australia have had a torrid time. Anil Kumble's Test average is 29.65, but 37.73 in Australia; Daniel Vettori's average rises from 34 to 40; Muttiah Muralitharan, most remarkably of all, from 22 to 75.

Miller himself can assure Swann that England off-spinners can prosper in Australia, and the talent that has made him the No2 ranked bowler in the world will not disappear overnight. He also has plenty of second-innings bowling to come. But the dressing room may be a little quieter for a while and the next episode of Swanny's Ashes video diary, a nicely irreverent taste of life on tour, may have to visit the dark side.

Australia's batsmen survived some early scares but then punished England in an all too familiar style

The dam burst during the hour before lunch. Until then runs had come at a trickle as Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad busted themselves for the breakthrough that might come with the new ball. Then finally Brad Haddin broke the deadlock with an on-driven boundary, chopped another to third man, and the Australian pair were away, leaving both bowlers wondering about broken mirrors and black cats under the wheels of the car. But for an hour or more they had contained, making life difficult, jagging the ball past groping blades. In his second over, Anderson had beaten a tattoo on Mike Hussey's pads, roared his appeal and then whirled away, arms spreadeagled in celebration, as Aleem Dar raised his finger. Hussey suspected the ball had pitched outside the line of leg-stump, and by the merest smidgeon, the technology indicated, he was right. Anderson trudged back to his mark.

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Four overs later, Anderson repeated the dose, only this time it was straighter. Hussey was gone, surely, stone dead. But Dar begged to differ, seduced not so much by the overturned decision as the double noise as the ball cannoned from one pad to the other, sounding for all the world like an inside edge. Anderson though had no recourse to a referral, for England had squandered one on a frivolous early appeal against Simon Katich on the second day, and been deprived of another when their referral for a suspected catch offered by Michael Clarke proved negative. The snickometer to which the third umpire does not have access because of time constraints seemed to show that the other technology was not infallible. So Hussey escaped. Management of the referrals, which by and large Australia have done better than England, is becoming an integral part of the game.

Such then are the thin margins on which can hang success or failure. When Hussey came to the crease the previous day, with Australia in straits, he did so with his career still in the balance, in the team on the back of a last-ditch second innings hundred for Western Australia while the young pretenders to his place failed against England in Hobart. If it was a show of faith by the selectors, then it was made in the knowledge that centuries from him have been rare of late, amounting to another career-saver at the Oval last year and one against Pakistan at Sydney last year. So tenuous was his place that had Clarke not been declared fit, a debutant would have batted at four rather than Hussey being moved higher up the order. What might have happened had he failed at the Gabba is now hypothetical for the force was with him. His first ball, from a rampant Steven Finn, on the charge, was pitched perfectly, moved away and found the edge. Another millimetre or two of carry and it would have landed in the hands of Graeme Swann at second slip. Instead it fell tantalisingly short.

Together Hussey and Haddin transformed the match perhaps even more eloquently than Peter Siddle's rampant hat-trick: a monumental effort, a record breaker, the highest-ever partnership for any wicket by any country at the Gabba, obliterating from the list the 276 that Don Bradman and Lindsey Hassett added for the third wicket against an ageing Bill Voce, young Alec Bedser and Doug Wright in 1946. This time, Australia were 143 for five when they came together, still 117 adrift of England. By the time they were separated, almost half an hour into the final session, they had shredded the England bowlers, all of them: the persevering Anderson, the bristling Broad and the colt Finn. And Swann too, the world's leading spinner. Reputations count for little here and the offspinner was picked off by Hussey and belted by Haddin. Swann it was who broke the deadlock, thanks to the diligence of Paul Collingwood at slip but a spanner has been thrown into the works, for his capacity to hold an end is fundamental to England's bowling strategy. He will have better days in this series but this was calculated and hurtful, the poor deliveries punished almost unfailingly, but the attack taken to the good ones too. From here on we shall see of what he is made.

It would be easy to say that the pitch played better than it had done at the start: the Gabba, say the sages, is usually best for batting on the second and third days. That might indeed be the case, but that would be to diminish how well both batsmen played. It is surprising how flat a pitch can seem when a pair are in their pomp, the field is scattered as if simply spat out rather than conforming to a plan, and the bowlers are under the pump. Strokes were played freely and with precision and unhesitatingly. Significantly, there was no hint of the reverse swing that must be a part of England's plans. It rarely reverses in Brisbane say the self-same sages. It left the bowlers with little but heart and persistence. They never flagged.

All the while, there was the spectre of an earlier encounter here, an overwhelming sense of deja vu. A dozen years ago on this ground, England's bowlers had reduced Australia to 178 for five, only to fall foul of Steve Waugh and the wicketkeeper Ian Healy. They added 187 and both made centuries, Healy reaching 134. Only a monumental cloudburst on the final day saved England from defeat. On the way, right in front of the press box, Angus Fraser, at third man, had dropped a skyer offered by Healy early on in his innings. At the time, there was a clamour in Australia to ditch the gruff old stager in favour of a new sensation by the name of Adam Gilchrist. Healy's hundred on his home turf kept him in the side for another dozen matches and in 13 more innings, only once did he get beyond 14. Fraser's drop cost England dear, but the carnage he delayed for bowlers everywhere was incalculable.

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106th over: Australia 307-5 (Hussey 110, Haddin 71) "I have told a number of people tonight that I won't sleep until we've bowled Australia out," says Kat Petersen. "I am a little worried that I will run out of caffeine / sugar / electricity before that happens." At this rate I'd be worried about running out of breath before it happens.

105th over: Australia 306-5 (Hussey 110, Haddin 70) Bah department: Brad Haddin has been dropped by Alastair Cook! It was the very first ball from the new bowler Paul Collingwood, and Haddin drove it very high back whence it came. Cook charged after it from mid-off, but couldn't hold on to a difficult, diving two-handed chance. He only just got his fingertips on it in the end. It was a really hard chance, but I can think of a few fielders around the world who would have taken it. Haddin gets it right two balls later, dismissing a length delivery from Collingwood imperiously over midwicket for four. England desperately need not only a wicket but also control: they've conceded 37 from the last six overs.

104th over: Australia 299-5 (Hussey 110, Haddin 62) Hopelessly short from Swann, and Hussey pulls him handsomely for four. The runs are coming very quickly now. Swann is really struggling - three overs for 17 so far, more Richard Dawson than Jim Laker - and so much of that is down to the hurt Hussey put on him right from the start. No praise is too high for the way he has played Swann. Who says bullying can't be admirable? "Any point in staying up Rob?" says Clare Davies. "Boycs tells us that whoever wins on Friday wins the match and the series. We might as well give up now." I always half suspected that Sir Geoffrey didn't know what day it is; now we have proof.

103rd over: Australia 293-5 (Hussey 105, Haddin 62) Haddin hooks Broad emphatically for four, and for the first time England look just a little ragged. The longer these two bat, the greater the chance of Mitchell Johnson Babe Ruthing them towards oblivion. There is a horrible history of Australian lower-order batsmen slugging a tiring England side all over the place: Fleming, Reiffel and Geoff Lawson. Remember Lord's 1989? The parallels are a little worrying. At the end of day two, Australia were 276 for six in reply to England's 286. They just about got a first-innings lead. "In response to Jo (99th over), I'm that person," says Damo Hollingsworth. "I'm yet to see an Aussie wicket fall. But as an ex-pat living in London who has just seen Huss bring up his century I'm searching for the espresso machine." Lovely story, Damo. Good lad. Could you just email your address? We'd like to send a gang of heavies over to kick seven bells out of every coffee machine within a five-mile radius interview you for a piece on Aussies living in England during the Ashes. Or something.

102nd over: Australia 286-5 (Hussey 104, Haddin 56) It hasn't happened for Swann yet. "Funny Rob," says Eamonn Maloney. "I met a minx down the pub last night who was an extremely good, mature, two-paced 50."

101st over: Australia 280-5 (Hussey 102, Haddin 52) Michael Hussey cover-drives Broad delightfully for four to reach a fantastic century, fluent yesterday and dogged today. This means so much to him: he crouches, clenching his fist furiously, then raises both hands before letting rip a simple "WOOOO!" and embracing Brad Haddin. What a lovely moment this is for one of cricket's good guys. He was under huge pressure before the match, and Australia were under huge pressure when he came to the crease, but he countered both of those - and had the nerve to go after Graeme Swann in a way that may resonate throughout the series. It's his first century since that infamous Test against Pakistan earlier in the year, only his third in the last two years, and his 12th overall. It has also pushed his Test average back over 50. In other news, I can pay this next email no lower compliment than to say that it could easily have come from Mac Millings. "At work overseas," says Paddy Murray. "Thought I would confuse the missus with a text. 'Spent all last night OBOing'. 'At your age, you'll go blind!' was her reply. Was she right?"

100th over: Australia 274-5 (Hussey 97, Haddin 52) Graeme Swann comes on, and you know what that means: a calculated assault from Mike Hussey, nervous nineties or no nervous nineties. He charges the second ball and dumps it over mid-off for four, an outstanding piece of batting that is worth a helluva lot more than four runs, just like that six in Swann's first post-lunch over yesterday was worth plenty more. "Strauss needs to think on about his body language," says Phil Sawyer. "The three seamers have been bowling superb line and length. He needs to encourage them to keep doing the same, not stand there sucking his lips looking like he's ruing all the decisions that have gone against them (understandable though it is). The mood of a team is lead by the mood of the captain. Keep up this pressure and the wickets will come." This is all true, salient even, but what hell kinda crazy serious Phil Sawyer email is this? Ah, this next one from the same man is more like it. "In answer to Alex Netherton (95th over), yes there is. Finn trying to look aggresive. He ends up looking like he's just smelt a particularly nasty fart." I hadn't thoughtr about this England attack's generally niceness. You could take their all home to meet your Mum and she'd love them (well, not if you were going out with all three of them at the same time. She'd probably frown on that, unless she was one of t- let's not go there). Has there ever been a prettier pack of fast bowlers? They are not exactly this mob, are they?

99th over: Australia 269-5 (Hussey 92, Haddin 52) Haddin drives Broad right back into the stumps at the bowler's end. He is hitting it beautifully now - so, yes, you do have a permission to haemmorhage hope. Saying which, he drags an inside edge back into the pads and not far wide of the stumps off Broad. "I've now seen Australia score 116 without seeing a wicket, which is disappointing," says Jo Davis, with interesting use of the word 'disappointing'. "However, there must be someone out there who is now none for 194 (I think) having just given up on the opening partnership yesterday to get a bit of sleep, and woken up at 143 for five. Whoever you are, p**(*)s off to bed now - cos another hour of you and this one's gone."

98th over: Australia 269-5 (Hussey 92, Haddin 52) Haddin is starting to look very dangerous, and belabours a cut stroke off Finn for four to take the Aussies into the lead. The next ball is fuller and driven for four to bring up an extremely good fifty: mature and two-paced. The first 25 runs took 111 balls, the second 25 just 23. "Caroline (84th over) should go with both the characters who are chatting her up," says John Starbuck, "on condition that they sort out her Ashes feed for the night." Who says romance is dead? How does the Pulp song go? I know you won't, believe it's true, I went with him because I wanted to watch some wonderful, cerebral cricket.

97th over: Australia 260-5 (Hussey 92, Haddin 43) Anderson does come off and is replaced by Broad. I would have gone to Swann, but you can't really argue either way. A couple of quick singles bring Australia level with England. It's imperative England keep their first-innings deficit down to two figures. "Feeding off the crack in the pitch is one thing," says Ian Copestake, "but the bowlers look like they're already on speed."

96th over: Australia 258-5 (Hussey 91, Haddin 42) Haddin misses a big cut shot at Finn, who has probably been the loosest of the England bowlers this morning. (These things are relative.) "In the pub, open fire, widescreen TV, naively optimistic and now covered in beer after that earlier referral," says Robert Jenkins. "Aside from the decision, do the Ashes get better than this? Anyone in south London looking for it on TV should hit the Alex by Clapham Common, awesome atmosphere."

95th over: Australia 257-5 (Hussey 90, Haddin 42) Having paid his dues with first the match situation (yesterday) and then the new ball (today), Haddin is now starting to enjoy himself and drives Anderson's first ball thrillingly over mid-off for four.
This man is a dangerous customer. Another misfield, this time from Finn at mid-on, costs England another run. That was Anderson's eighth over of the morning, and that will probably be his lot for now. If so, it's been a wonderful spell of bowling: 8-2-14-0. "Is there anything less threatening, apart from us, than Jimmy's aggression?" asks Alex Netherton.

94th over: Australia 250-5 (Hussey 89, Haddin 37) That's a good shot from Haddin, who waits for a short one from Finn and guides it between slip and gully for four. Finn goes wider on the crease and Haddin leans into a nice cover-drive that brings three runs, and with the 250. There is just the first slight sense that England – through no fault of their own – have missed their moment with the new ball and may now have to look to Graeme Swann. "My housemate just nipped in to ask why, on a Friday night, I am sitting on my own in my room with a dodgy TMS link and half a bottle of a dubiously sweet liqueur called Amarguinha, cursing England's luck and my high hopes," says Terri Loska. "My reply that 'this is wonderful, cerebral cricket' did not, apparently, answer his question." Maybe if you'd belched as well?

93rd over: Australia 242-5 (Hussey 89, Haddin 30) Hussey employs Geoff Boycott's favourite tactic by getting a single and thus playing Anderson from the bowler's end. Anderson then has a strangled appeal for LBW against Haddin, as much to keep up the ratio of an LBW appeal every over this morning. It was going down leg. A misfield from Broad at mid-off gives Haddin a single, and that brings up the century partnership. They have ridden their luck this morning, Hussey in particular, but both have played very well. "There is a theory that we exist in one of an almost infinite set of parallel universes, each fulfilling one possible way in which things might pan out (you know, the Sliding Doors make-the-tube, miss-the-tube scenario)," says Lynn Bashforth. "So how come we are in the one where Attack Leader Anderson does NOT have a wicket yet??" Can I phone a friend? Do I have a friend? An acquaintance?

Drinks Oof. There were 21 runs in 12 overs, with no wickets, yet that was as exhausting and riveting an hour as you could wish for.

92nd over: Australia 241-5 (Hussey 88, Haddin 29) The Sky chaps are talking about the cracks, which are getting wider and wider. That's great news for England, especially with two tall fast bowlers. On Sky, Beefy recalls a game in Perth where "you could actually stand your bat in the crack". Remember that game in 1996-97, when Curtly Ambrose ran riot and prompted the brilliant headline 'The Fissure King'? Haddin is beaten by a good one from Finn and then scorches a cover-drive that is brilliantly fielded by Collingwood. Haddin can't go through the covers so instead he goes down the ground, driving handsomely for four. This is wonderful, cerebral cricket, so here's Mac Millings to bring things down a notch. "Re: Gary Naylor's insightful comments (88th over), a small section of my ball once kissed the turf, but it was enough of it to bloody hurt."

91st over: Australia 237-5 (Hussey 88, Haddin 25) Anderson beats the driving Hussey outside off and has the exasperated look of a man who would like to land a vigorous right-hander on Dame Fortune, were she a bloke rather than a dame. Two balls later he beats him with a regal lifting leg-cutter. What an utterly preposterous jaffa that was. You'd have struggled to CGI a delivery so good. Even Don Bradman wouldn't have nicked that it was so good. England have had no luck this morning. "Hello Rob," says Ben Meakin, getting the niceties out of the way so that he go off on an admittedly legitimate one. "Re: that lbw on Hussey, what's really irritating is that they lost their last review on a caught-behind decision that Snicko later showed should have been out. Bloody hell."

90th over: Australia 233-5 (Hussey 88, Haddin 24) Finn replaces Broad, whose figures are a Walshesque 24-5-44-0. As a child of the 1980s, I could read economical bowling figures all day. I think I know who's winning. Finn has a very big shout for LBW against Haddin with his third delivery. Instinct was that it was going over, and replays confirmed it. A good decision from Billy Doctrove, and you can't always say that at 12.12am. "Thought you might be interested in what's coming up at the HiFi club in Brisbane," says Sky's Paul King, the man who sent the universe on an entirely different path when he introduced Bumble to The Fall. "Who will draw the bigger crowd I wonder – Doves or The Mighty Fall?" I assume there's a team outing to watch You Am I tonight.

89th over: Australia 230-5 (Hussey 86, Haddin 24) This is a fantastic spell from Anderson, and the last ball of his over cuts Haddin completely in half. It moved back a long way, but bounced over the stumps as Haddin went for a big yahoo. "Australia all out for 332," says Robin George. "England to finish the day 246-5. Trust me, the first ever day's cricket my Dad took me too was an Ashes test at the Oval in 1989. I was 13, very scared of Merv Hughes, BUT cleaned all my Dad's mates out of their money on the 'predict the lunch time and tea scores' game. Now I feel obliged to take him to the cricket every year so whilst I won, I lost." In fairness, predicting the scores in that astonishingly depressing summer of 1989 wasn't that difficult. Basically, it was like the rule of three, but for cricket: think of a par score on any given pitch, treble it for Australia and divide it by three for England.

88th over: Australia 229-5 (Hussey 85, Haddin 23) This is great stuff, and I can hardly keep up with it. A maiden from Broad to Haddin. "Re: the review system, the image of the ball appears to be the same size as the ball, which cannot be right as only a small section of the ball kisses the turf," says Gary Naylor, losing me at 're:'. "Hence, the "pitching outside" element of the UDRS favours the bowler. That's why the Hussey Review looked closer than it felt on first sight."

87th over: Australia 229-5 (Hussey 85, Haddin 23) England are getting closer and closer to a wicket. Anderson has huge shouts for LBW against Hussey turned down from consecutive deliveries, but England have no reviews. The first pitched just outside leg and was going over the top, but the second was a great shout. It came back sharply to Hussey, who was only saved by two noises and the perception of an inside edge. Except replays suggested the two noises were the sound of pad on pad, and showed nothing to suggest an inside edge. I am almost certain that would have been given out on review. That was out, basically, and England are really unlucky because they probably lost a review because of an incorrect decision yesterday (admittedly an entirely understandable decision, given the available technology). A brilliant over from Anderson.

86th over: Australia 227-5 (Hussey 83, Haddin 23) Broad hasn't been quite on it thus far, but then he produces a superb delivery, full and jagging past the outside edge of Haddin. "That's the length!" implores Nasser Hussain on Sky. And then he so nearly gets Haddin with another full delivery that induced a sliced drive low towards Pietersen at backward point. I thought he'd got it at first, because Pietersen fielded the ball and then started running as if in celebration, but in fact it had bounced a fraction short. "As one of the few who haven't fallen victim to your Friday night minefield (no, I've not even mailed an ex), how on earth do you even know about Smith Westerns?" asks Julian Menz. "For the love of all that is sacred." I was going to argue that I'm hip and cool and thus aware of all the trending popular beat combos, but that bloody picture in yesterday's Guardian has shattered an image I'd spent literally seconds building up.

85th over: Australia 227-5 (Hussey 83, Haddin 23) Hussey has been very busy this morning, stealing a completely of sharp singles and generally looking like a man who won't be dictated to. He almost gets in trouble then, trying to leave outside off but then steering it to slip on the bounce via the face of the bat. Anderson is bowling well, Hussey is playing well. Who will blink first? "I understand the basis of premise that Tony Soprano would like Andy Flower," says Marie Meyer. "However, would he ever be able to wrap his head around the idea of a white guy from Zimbabwe? I think not. Although he would probably generate some amusing dialogue on the subject." Fair point. Uncle Ben's!

84th over: Australia 225-5 (Hussey 83, Haddin 23) A rare piece of shoddy glovework from Prior, who fails to claim a short one from Broad and thus concedes two byes. Broad then jags one back into Haddin, who jams his bat down just in time. "I am currently in Oslo (for work)," says Caroline Cowan. "It is freezing and I have been chatted up by two of the tallest guys I've ever seen. And I'm no short a***e myself at 6'1". I am now having a dilemma. Do I stay up for a while to put myself through the emotional wringer that is the Ashes Or do I do the sensible thing and go to bed so I can go sightseeing tomorrow? The next couple if months are going to be full of such difficult decisions." Enough of that*: I want to know what word 'a***e' refers to. Do you put an extra S so as to really enunciate it? Shortarsse?

* Stay up you fool. This is the only emotional wringer in town!

83rd over: Australia 222-5 (Hussey 82, Haddin 23) On Sky, Nasser Hussain laments England's length, which has been a touch short thus far. "Maybe they believe more in the cracks." If anyone knows about cracks, it's Nasser. And then Hussey survives on review, having originally been given out. BAH. What a big moment this is. He was pinned in front of leg stump by a good delivery from Anderson that moved back into him, but he called for the review instantly and there was always a doubt as to whether it pitched outside leg. Replays showed it did, but only just. That was so tight.

82nd over: Australia 221-5 (Hussey 81, Haddin 22) It's Stuart Broad at the other end, as you'd expect. Haddin is beaten by a good delivery early on, and then slams a drive to mid-off when Broad pitches one up. That's the length, even if it brings the risk of going for a few boundaries. "I, unlike most of the drunkards out there tonight, am actually working," says James Pole. "DJing in a bar in Manchester till 2am. Couldn't find a stream on my laptop that I'm pretending to DJ off so I'll be following the Guardian's OBO like I did through my days at uni. Yes, I've got a degree. And the best job I can get?? Shit bar DJ. Brilliant." Don't DJs always get the girls? Like in High Fidelity. Anyway, play some Smith Westerns for them, Mr DJ, put a bit of jauntiness in their life. They'll be so drunk they won't know it from Carl Cox, so you'll be fine.

81st over: Australia 220-5 (Hussey 81, Haddin 22) England take the new ball immediately, and here comes James Anderson. His first ball is a good one, darting away from outside off stump. There are three slips and discernible swing, which will encourage England. Haddin defends solidly, one drive excepted, and it's a maiden. Anderson's figures are Ambrosesque: 22-11-40-2. "Right," says Stuart Bulloch, "Ms Optimism has sat provocatively on my lap, I have Peroni and I've got my cat addicted to Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Let's roll. Wickets please Rob. PS. The cat said no to Flamin' Hot."

Andy Flower is again absent from the Gabba today after the removal of a cancerous lesion. He should return tomorrow. Our very best wishes go to him. He is, you don't need us to tell you, a remarkably impressive man in so many ways. Tony Soprano would like Andy Flower, or at the very least respect him, and that's high praise round these parts (well, in my brain).

The journey in for an overnight OBO can often be a nightmare. All those losers on the piss again. I remember one particularly grim evening in 2005. But Kings Cross seemed calm tonight. No modern romance in dark alleyways; nobody taking the long route home by walking drunkenly in a perfect circle for 20 minutes before realising where they are, or rather aren't. Maybe everyone was rushing home for a big night in, I don't know. Feel free to send in hilariously drunken emails, littered with typos, that will shame you for the rest of your days let us know how your Friday night went: how you embarrassed yourself, who you won't be making eye contact with for the foreseeable, and so on. Did you drink and dial? Quaff and tweet? Swig and soliloquise?

As you probably know, play will start at 11.30pm English time, half an hour early, to make up some of the time we lost yesterday.

Preramble Hello. The concept of the big Friday night in may seem oxymoronic, but then longstanding cliches are powerless to resist the force of Ashes cricket. Any pub worth its salt will be totally empty at 11.29pm, its discerning clientele having all done one en masse (either that or the blinds and the big screen will come down, the bolts will go on the doors, the ashtrays will come out and the night's play will be watched through a cloud of smoke so thick that you can't see your own nose, never mind Simon Katich's). Social obligations cannot compete with this, a night of monstrous importance. It's entirely conceivable that, by 7am tomorrow morning, we will know who is going to win the match; and it's entirely conceivable that whoever wins the match will win the series, given that no team has come from behind to even draw an Ashes series in Australia since the 1960s.

If England are to win this match and series and thus conquer the entire known universe, they will have to do so in unusual circumstances. All four of their Test victories in this current era of competitive Ashes cricket effectively occurred on the second day, when they put enough runs and wickets (particularly the latter) in the bank to cover the inevitable hard times as they contemplated the scariest thing of all: that picture of Andy Bull in today's Guardian beating Australia.

Edgbaston 2005 England 407 & 25-1; Australia 308
Trent Bridge 2005 England 477; Australia 99-5
Lord's 2009 England 425; Australia 156-8
The Oval 2009 England 332 & 58-3; Australia 160

This time the game is so deliciously poised that nobody really knows who's winning, and for England that means an extremely severe test of their mental strength. Australia will resume on 220 for five, 40 runs adrift. Thanks to a piece of timing that could have been made for or demanded by TV, play was called off last night after precisely 80 overs - so this morning England's bowlers will have fresh minds, fresh legs, and most importantly of all a fresh red cherry.

James Anderson bowled quite splendidly yesterday with an oldish ball, and could do real damage this morning. He looked less the "pussy" to whom Justin Langer once disparagingly referred and more like a grown-up tiger, with fangs and claws, a man who deserves to be in the top five of the ICC Test bowling rankings. Forget all that gloryboy stuff, hooping it round corners and detonating off or middle stump in favourable conditions**: this was a really impressive, disciplined performance in circumstances that demanded some seriously hard yakka.

Anderson wasn't the man of the day, however. That was Michael Hussey. Mister. Bloody. Cricket. He played a supreme counter-attacking innings at a time when there was all sorts going on at the other end, and branded Graeme Swann psychologically. Hussey will resume on 81 not out, and if he and Brad Haddin - who showed that dashing Aussie wicketkeepers can change their spots with a very responsible 22 not out from 71 balls, one of the slowest innings of his Test career - get past the new ball, Australia could build a decisive lead. In short, anything could happen. Who needs to be out on a Friday night?

* Though it's equally conceivable that the contest will continue to snake and ladder in the manner that led Scyld Berry, certainly the most original and almost certainly the sharpest thinker in most cricket press boxes, to consider the possibility of another Brisbane tied Test.

** Although we'd quite like some of that gloryboy stuff with the new ball today please if that's okay? Nice one.