It's almost time to chase

I didn't say much about the first Ashes Test in Australia, which the Aussies won handily, and without a lot of drama.

As I write this, the second Test could get more interesting.  What happened was this:

The English captain chose to bowl first.  This gave Australia a chance to get a big lead, which they basically did.  Then England batted, and didn't do real well.  This meant that Australia could force them to bat again, right away, rather than taking their turn (which is called "enforcing the follow-on").  That way, Australia could win outright without ever batting again, if England didn't get enough runs to exceed Australia's score in the first innings, or Australia can see exactly how many runs they'd need to get when they batted after England.

But it hasn't worked out that way.  Australia didn't enforce the follow-on, and apparently due to some changes in the way that the ball behaved late in the day, England started taking wickets.  And today their star bowler, Jimmy Anderson, caught fire and took five wickets (which is a lot because the innings is over when 10 are taken).  So now, literally now, England needs one more and then it's their turn to bat -- and they have to "chase" a total of around 350 runs.   Not easy, but not impossible.

Chases can be fun.  We'll see how much fun this one is for the English side.

The Ashes, Second Test, Day Four update