And so it is Sunday

And so after a relaxing Saturday, which saw me sleeping most of the day and watching 'cheesey' American Christmas films  ( some of which were quite good actually). I toddled off to my bed at about 10pm and went straight to sleep. I woke up at 1am but decided that I wasn't going to put the test on, turned over and slept until 4am.

So I tuned in, in time for Pieterson being dismissed by Siddle who appears to be fast becoming his nemesis. And then Bell, who hit a full toss straight to Steve Smith and never really got involved in the innings. Joe Root played brilliantly hitting 87. Ben Stokes played well hitting 28.
 However listening to Geoff Boycott ( someone that I NEVER listen to) he did speak some sense I thought, saying that having seen Stokes play against Yorkshire at Scarborough ( as did Daddy Rushworth and I), he thought he is a great  player in the making. He thought that an inclusion into the one day side would have been advisable as he still didn't know if Stokes is ready for test cricket.

However well played Ben.

So with Australia declaring (again) and  putting England in to bat it really did look as if the Australians were going to wrap it up in 4 days. I think that it will be over by lunch tomorrow and then England will need to take a long hard look at the team. Closing score England 247-6, they need 284 to win!

Funnily enough all the cricket pundits who were forecasting a 5-0 England win in the series are now seriously back peddling. Michael Vaughan saying Australia could win5-0! ( talk about changing sides he did that better than I Lady lainey at a Durham/Yorkshire match)

So what has happened to the  team? Well the Lady Lainey view is that KP is not the saviour of England ( South Africa maybe!). He is too big a personality and plays for himself. Hubris is the perfect word to describe his cricket performance.

Cook as Captain has not performed well in this test, Carberry hasn't shown his style and Bell is following very closely in KP's footsteps. The bowling contingent are another entity altogether!

Lets see what the Perth test brings.

Other crickety news, there have been changes in the coaching structure at Durham, however no one appears to have been 'let go' and so they have shuffled people around and still have way too many hangers on. ( I pay my membership I am allowed my say!!)

The new cricket fixture format is not very Lady Lainey friendly either. 4 day matches will now start on Sundays. There will be little or no Saturday matches . And T20  ( or The Blast as it will be known) will be on Friday evenings. I have 4 more years fully paid up Durham membership, I might get to see a couple of matches over the next four years!!

Well I am in full cricket rant this morning, so I must be feeling better.....................that is until I go to visit Tzarina Katerina.