Ashes Cricket 2009 -- tense to the max!

I tell you what -- when I started following cricket, an alternate sport that gets virtually no mention in the United States (and admittedly I probably only know 10% of what an aficionado knows about the game), I had no idea of how exciting and tense it could be. Especially on the biggest stage, the Test, five five-day matches. And one of the best known Test series, if not the best, is the Ashes: England v. Australia. (England currently ranked #4, Australia #1, but South Africa is about to take over the top spot if the Ozzies lose.)

Well this one is turning classic. I discussed this a little before. First match, England pulled out a draw. Second match, triumph for England and gimpy-kneed all-rounder Freddie Flintoff (an all-rounder is a guy who can both bowl and bat pretty good). Third match, Australia manages the draw. Fourth match, a Flintoff-less England collapses and slinks off.

But now, at the Oval, in London, in the company of centuries of history, England has come back, BIG time. They got to bat first, and in the first innings (each team gets two), they got 332 runs. Decent total, but Australia has better batsmen. Aussie first innings, they get to 73 or so with no wickets -- to get out of an innings, either the other team takes 10 wickets: there are a number of ways to do that, or you "declare", meaning you've got a big enough lead to now try and get the other team's wickets (more on that later). So anyway, suddenly England starts taking wickets (Stuart Broad got 5 of the 10) and no prisoners, including the wicket of Ricky Ponting, currently the best batsman in the WORLD. They took somebody else out with zero runs, a "duck". So they get an unexpected lead on Australia.

Now they have to defend. And they have a rookie call-up, Jonathan Trott, never played at the highest level before (the Test). First innings, not so great, 41 runs. Second innings, gets a century -- over 100 runs, which is basically historical. Hardly anybody does that the first time. So England gets a big lead, over 500 runs (with Trott leading the charge) and "declares".

Now all they have to do is get 10 wickets from the Aussies in two days. Because the Aussies dug in and denied them any in the last session today (Saturday) and got 80+ runs too.

So it all comes down to the bowling on Sunday. Will the wicket-taking hero Stuart Broad get more? Will Flintoff come through with a bravura perfomance on the last day of his last Test? Or will Australia bat boringly for two days, salvage a draw, and keep the Ashes? (Alternatively, they could get a world record number of runs to win. Unlikely, but...)

That's what's up. The pressure is amazing. This is brilliant. I just hope the weather holds (it looks good for Sunday). If most of the last two days get canceled by rain, that would be too anti-climactic.

Even if you have no idea how to play the game.

Play-by-play on www.cricinfo.com