The 1st Test so far......

OK. I have been watching intensely the competition for the last 4 days and here are my thoughts.

England 1st Innings.
I thought England's first innings whilst was not great I do not think their performance was too bad. The Australian bowling was poor with the exception of Siddle, Doherty and Watson. Both Hilfeneus and Mitchell Johnson were very poor. Without the dazzling display from Siddle it could of been very different.

Australian 1st Innings
The Australian innings looked a little shaky at first, in particular with Michael Clarke stratching around for some runs. If England had a little more luck with the decisions then it could of been a different story with Australia only having a slender lead. The England players all bowled without luck (maybe Broad was too short in his deliveries?) and at no point did they get their heads down. Equally whilst the bowling was good both Haddin and Hussey played well.

I wrote to my brother in law after the end of the 3rd day saying to him that England were still in this purely because I felt England mentally were the better side. This was proved yesterday. Whilst Australia played on inspiration, the England players felt they could get back into the game.

England 2nd Innings - so far
I thought Strauss lead from the front and some of his shots were top class. Outside of the catch M Johnson put down he did not do much wrong. Equally Cook just knocked the ball around until he decided to put the accelerator down.

The Australian fast bowling yesterday was some of the worst I have seen in a long time. It was not accurate, it was too short and they paid for this. Before the test match started I felt the batting was fairly equal however it was going to be down to the bowling. There is no doubt that Australia's bowling is not as strong as England's bowling now we have seen the attacks.

Mitchell Johnson needs to unfortunately be dropped as he has lost all confidence.

So all in all today is going to be a fantastic day of cricket. If England can declare at lunch and then have a good bowl in the afternoon, then they may further dent the Australian confidence. My prediction now is that I believe Australia will struggle to retain the Ashes - and I think Ricky Ponting knows this. I think they need to spend the rest of the Ashes ensuring they blood new players for the next generation since the side is in transition right now, whilst England are an excellent unit.......

Anyway that is my obserrvation from an Australian perspective.