Has it started? The Ashes?

Has it started? The Ashes?

I've had a particularly mad week and before I knew it I was sat in bed watching the first over of the test. For no other reason than there was a lot on I'd managed to not saturate myself with mass media Ashes coverage and suddenly before I knew it I was tuning into the toss. The nightmare that was 2002 and Nasser Hussain's '...we're going to field' were still very prominent in my mind.

'We'll bat' said Strauss. Get in I thought. 140-0 at lunch and we're off.

The preparation has been excellent. We didn't get stuffed by the Queensland Ministers Invitation XI like we normally do and nor did some retired former test player swot us all over the park. What could possible go wrong? Strauss's third ball for a start. Damn, damn, damn. He'd fallen in to the Australian trap. Had he not realised that they were '...going to target Strauss'? How could he be so naive?

As he trudged off Twitter went into meltdown. Searching on #ashes there were about 70 tweets per second coming in.

Then something happened in the next over that gave me hope. Alistair Cook played a forward defensive where his left foot actually came down the pitch towards the ball and his front leg bent appropriately at the knee. I quickly grappled with my mobile phone and texted Stewart in Australia with the message 'Cook to get a ton'.

As I drifted off into sleep Trott and Cook seemed to have weathered the storm and the Australians made the mistake of releasing the pressure by bringing Mitchell Johnson on to bowl.

I'm sure that at some point in the early hours I checked my phone and the score, but then I dreamt about checking my phone and the score and they were both quite different. When I woke up in my mind England were on fire with hundreds from Cook and Collingwood. For some odd reason Sky Sports were showing some old clips of Siddle taking a hat trick. Hold on? Is that Australia batting. Ah crap. Damn that fine line between dreams and reality. As I trudged despondently to the shower I could hear my daughter asking her Mum '...have we won the Ashes yet' [muffled response] 'Oh, can I watch my tele now?' At which point the Ashes was replaced with Little Einstein's.

Another hectic day followed and my staying power was waning as Katich and Watson dug in early doors. I really can't believe how Watson has resurrected his career as an opener and he really does look a good player. Good feet movement combined with a really straight blade. I though Hussain was going to blow a blood vessel on Sky as he repeatedly showed in their 'Third Man' section how both Katich and Watson were vulnerable to the straight fuller delivery. No one had told the England bowlers though.

This morning I awoke to the highlights running and watched Swann getting clubbed by Hussey. Sir Geoff said in today's Telegraph that this was the worst he'd seen Swann bowl in test cricket to date. This worried me as most of the English press seem to think all our hopes are pinned on the cheeky chappy. Is the pressure too much?

England bowled well though in the session between lunch and tea before Haddin and Hussey pinched the last session.

England are poised with the new ball tomorrow...........