28 November 2010
This was a night well worth being awake for. One of the most exciting final days of a Test match cricket, I, or anyone else for that matter, can remember. From what looked an absolutely hopeless position Cock and Trott batted all day, both not out, Cook with 235 and Trott with 135. England finished with a score of 517 before declaring about half an hour before tea. A number of long-standing records tumbled. Probably their most interesting one was England’s top three all scoring centuries for only the second time in their Test history.: The only previous occasion was at Lord’s in 1924 against South Africa, when Jack Hobbs, Herbert Sutcliffe and Frank Woolley made hundreds in a match England won by an innings and 18 runs. Who said watching cricket is like watching paint dry!
There really wasn’t very much hope of bowling out Australia but it was worth a try. In the event they lost only one wicket and ended the day with 106 runs and a drawn match. This sets the fascinating scene for the remaining four Tests to come.
The final of the APT masters tennis between Nadal, number one in the world, and the former number one Federer was somewhat of a damp squib.
Although Nadal managed to win the second set by breaking Federer service, Federer hardly break into a sweat to win two sets to one. Interestingly, these two have met on 21 previous occasions 14 of which were won by Nadal, although this is a little misleading as 10 of them were on clay courts which is not Federer’s favourite surface.