The Salt and Pepper squid is just about ready to cook

The grinding continued at the Adelaide Oval today. No, not the pole dancing based grinding that might have presented an altogether different set of comments but England grinding Australia into the dirt in the second Ashes Test. Honestly, if Australia were a combination of rock salt granules and pepper corns then they would now be ground down so far that they would be ready to combine with some flour and rub onto some fresh, sliced squid head.

For those that are interested, my recipe for Salt and Pepper squid is one part rock salt to four parts pepper corns. Once that is ground down to a fine, but still a bit course, powder, lay out on a plate. Get your sliced up squid head and roll in the salt and pepper mixture until covered. Then roll onto a plate covered in flour that you prepared earlier (I found that gluten free flour gives a tempura type batter but you can use any flour that takes your fancy). Then heat some oil (any type really) in a pan at a very hot temperature and cook the squid for 90 seconds on each side. Serve with slices of lemon and a nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, drinking knows no nationalism, preferably outside when the children are in bed and the Cicadas are still singing.

The of the tape worsened considerably today. In almost 4 days of Test cricket, England have now made 1068 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. In other words, 267 runs per day for the loss of 1.25 wickets. Each fallen wicket is averaging 213.6 runs. Each session is on average yielding 89 runs for the loss of 0.41667 wickets. Tough stuff.

In between the oncoming depression, a couple of comments caught my ear / eye today. One of them cut through to the core of the issue and the other made we wonder what we were in for.

The first occurred in the early afternoon. Due to general child wrangling, I have been mainly following the cricket on the Internet, the radio and in the evening on either the highlights or the sessions during the day that I have taped. Anyway, my three and a half year old and I had spent considerable time negotiating viewing rights today. After some discussions that would have done the United Nations proud, we settled on Daddy getting to watch 15 balls of live cricket (with my son counting each ball allowed to make sure that I didn't sneak any extra in) and then we would read as many Roary the racing car stories as we could each handle (it turns out that we could each handle 5 before descending into craziness).

Around ball 4 or so I was fumbling with my phone when my son all of a sudden pronounced

"That boy looks sad"

I looked up and saw our captain, Ricky Ponting, filling the screen. He did indeed look pretty upset. When I asked my son why he was sad I was confidently informed

"Because he didn't get to hit the ball"

These thoughts worked on many levels. Firstly, Ricky was indeed sad. Forget the discussions about "tough day at the office" and cunning strategies poorly executed, if Ricky doesn't cry himself to sleep tonight then I am indeed a monkey's uncle. Being on the verge of losing a third Ashes is upsetting, let's make no bones about it.

Then there was the bit about not hitting the ball. Firstly Ricky is obviously sad because he expected to have hit the ball by now. i.e. have bowled England out and be batting by now. 4 / 500 and many is obviously not in line with the plan. Secondly, my son is obviously referring to Ricky's golden duck in the first innings and not being able to contribute batting wise to the team yet this Test. If only Channel 9's commentators were this insightful. I tell you what, Ricky had better be sad. I heard a rumour that neither he nor Michael Clarke attended the post day press conference last night and instead left Brad Haddin to do it. Sadness bordering on self harm is the only excuse I would accept for this level of leadership. Plenty of visiting captains have spent the summer being kicked around the country and still fronted up at the end of each day. We need to do the same, even when things aren't going well for us.

There was a boy that looked sad at the Adelaide Oval today. Ricky, if it helps at all, there were numerous boys that looked sad at home in front of their televisions all over the country.

The second comment that made me think was actually a paragraph emailed into the cricinfo ball by ball Internet commentary at the start of the day by someone named "Steve". Yes, I thought it might be Steve Waugh as well giving the boys a rev up. In fact, let's all pretend it was because it would be a good story. The comment was

"We'll find out how much the baggy green means to these players over the next few days. As an Aussie, I don't mind this real test of character. It is Adelaide, days 2 and 3 remember. If we can draw this, then, like England after the Gabba, we might gain momentum. But we have to deserve it. As a supporter, too, it's character building to get a taste of what others must've felt like for a long, long time. England deserve their success; let's be real: the volume of their supporters' hubris is but a measure of how much they've had to put up with ours over the years."

This says many things that I agree with.

Firstly, I like to see my cricket team tested. We kidded ourselves against the West Indies and Pakistan last season. England are a good professional team so I want to get a feel for where we really are at the moment (so far the strong vibe I am getting is not all that flash). I want to see some of the over-rated, vain, pampered kids in our team have to stand up against real opposition. I want to see Clarke prove his worth and I want to see Bollinger carry on like a goose and get wickets against good opposition (Rug, Australians love all that arms in the air, Merv Hughes impersonation gear as long as you are getting results. We will cut you off at the knees if you are not). If we get out of this match with a draw, I agree with "Steve" in that we must deserve it. If not, then I don't want to hear that we have escaped; we have simply stalled the slaughter.

Secondly, we are going to see how Australian fans cope with a bit of their own medicine now. We have dealt it out in spades for many years, have we got the ticker to take it ? I hope so but I worry. I think we have lost a little touch with reality and just expect to keep winning Series 5-0. Some of us got ourselves into a state where we thought England would never produce a good team again. We have become the North Korea of sporting supporters really.

The Bowler Formerly Known As Xavier was beginning to think that perhaps the Baggy Green didn't mean as much to him as he previously thought it did after the England team gave him a lesson on days 2 and 3 in Adelaide

Luckily, after my 15 balls of live, and commentated action, I was allowed to read stories with the television on but the sound muted. I was horrified at what I saw. Every Australian bowler was pretty much rubbish. No pressure built, no leader, no ideas. Pieterson was just waiting for a loose one and then smashing it. To my surprise, he rarely seemed to have to wait more than 4 balls before he found something to punish. Harris bowled some good ones but even he was guilty of giving away too many easy 4 balls. Doug the Rug looked very average today and was down on pace. Yet again, Marcus North was our most effective spinner with The Bowler simply not up to this level. He surely can't play in the next Test. Siddle was also mostly ineffective with Watson probably maintaining the most pressure and even that wasn't much.

This was a terrible day for Australia. We have played Pieterson back into top form, Cook can't stop scoring, Strauss has a hundred, Trott kills us, Collingwood looked good today and Bell ... well little Ian Bell at lowly number 6 looked absolutely stupendous, the best of the lot.

If I had a dog I would kick it. I don't want it to rain for the rest of the Test. We need to draw on our own merits or lose and face the consequences. Come on sunshine!