Ha! Who needs Tom Brady? If you are looking for a totally dominant sports team, you need look no further than Australia’s cricketers.

Shame really, I was looking forward to some close matches.

Well, that was a fine day’s entertainment. Superb performances by Matthew Hayden and Anil Kumble, but you gotta love Stuart Clark. He looked totally comfortable. You could just imagine him muttering, “put me in at #11 will they? I’ll show them…”

Kevin and I have just seen Muttiah Muralitharan set a new world record for the most wickets in a test career. It was an exceptionally sweet moment for Murali to do so in his home town of Kandy with all of his relatives, and even the boys from the school he attended, there to see him make history. As a sometime Victorian I am, of course, honor bound to believe that Shane Warne was a better bowler, and certainly Warne would have taken more wickets if Glen McGrath hadn’t been around to share his hauls, but Murali’s (current) 710 wickets is an amazing achievement and he shows every sign of carrying on for some time and adding significantly to his total. His is a record that may last a very long time.

Kudos also to Ryan Sidebottom for holding out for so long and helping put England in a potentially winning position. And sympathy to Paul Collingwood who really didn’t deserve to become a historically significant victim. Meanwhile, back to the game.

The England – Sri Lanka test series is finally with us, and I got to catch a little bit of the game last night when we got back from the airport. As it turned out I missed most of the action, because Hoggie had got some favorable conditions and was at his brilliant best. Kudos to Sangakkara for digging his side out of an awful mess, but there’s a limit to what you can do from that sort of position. 188 is not a good first inning score. Except…

This is Kandy; it is Murali’s home ground. He’s just four short of Shane Warne’s record of 708 test wickets in a career. Do I expect the ball to turn square? Of course I do. And in the few overs from Monty that I got to see, there was one ball that pitched in the rough well outside off stump. Sangakkara shouldered arms, and looked on in amazement as the ball cut back viciously and rapped him on the knees. Monty was unlucky not to get an LBW with that one. Given that I love good spin bowling, I’m very much looking forward to the rest of the game.

Yep, they are a sorry lot, those Red Sox fans. Sadly I am in a bind because:

1. My local cricket team back in Darkest Somerset have named their Twenty20 squad the Red Sox. Silly name for a cricket team, but it worked, because the lads made it to the semi-finals of the national club Twenty20 tournament. The Sox, bless them, mentioned this on their web site, so I’m honor bound to be nice to them.

2. I’m flying to Boston on business on Sunday and I want to get out alive.

Yesterday was couch potato day here. We did get out for a walk around the lakes, but the rest of the day was spent slumped in front of the Brazilian Grand Prix, the Rugby World cup Final (on 24 hour delay here) and some cricket.

The Twenty20 World Cup provided such wonderful entertainment that I was very sorry I was stuck in the UK when I could have been watching it with Kevin (although of course he was in Japan for much of the event). I was very pleased, therefore, to discover that the whole tournament is still available on streaming replay from Willow TV for just $10. That’s a full 26 3-hour matches, many of which are very close. Remarkable value.

Because all of the matches are listed it is possible to tell from who is in the later stages of the tournament what some of the results must have been, but there are no actual scores listed so the material is relatively spoiler-free. If any Americans fancy taking a look at some cricket, this is an excellent way to do so. You can watch a complete game in the time it takes to watch a baseball match, and the action is seriously high octane. If you’d like recommendations as to which games to watch, just ask.

Who could have believed it? When Sri Lanka last played a one-day series against England they thrashed them. Since then, Sri Lanka have gone on to play in the final of the Cricket World Cup while England were, frankly, embarrassing. So England go out to Sri Lanka on tour, and everyone anticipates another thrashing. Not so. Colly and the boys have wrapped up a series win by going 3-1 up with one game to play. Sri Lanka will doubtless bemoan the absence of Murali, but then England are missing Flintoff, so no excuses there. Just goes to show what you can do with a bunch of enthusiastic youngsters who haven’t just been handed a thorough whipping by Australia.

The Bearded Wonder, in his latest column for the BBC web site, alerts me to the fact that Mark Ramprakash has averaged over 100 for a second season. This is a phenomenal achievement. The reasons why Ramps hasn’t played more for England are doubtless varied and complex, but there’s no doubt that he’s one of the best batsmen in world cricket. Many other countries would be glad to have him.

Of course what Bearders was asked was whether anyone else had achieved the same feat. And one man has: the inimitable Geoffrey Boycott. We’ll politely gloss over any questions comparing how long the two men took to score their runs.

A small piece of good news on the cricket front. Darrell Hair has dropped his ridiculous racial discrimination suit against the ICC. Presumably it became obvious to him that he wasn’t going to win, and he thought better of spending any more money on lawyers. Hopefully that’s the last we’ll hear of that, and with any luck the last we’ll hear of Mr. Hair.

Ha! Who says cricket is boring? I don’t have any fingernails left. And now you know why I call Warnie “god”. He’s a damn sight better at miracles than any of those beardy guys.

Bottom line: Australia never stopped believing that they could win; England never quite believed that they could.

Predictions for Perth: Watson in for Martyn. That should strengthen both the batting and bowling for Australia. England will blame everything on Geraint Jones, replacing him with Reed, and will “show faith” with the rest of the side.

A quick look at some statistics is in order so as to put what Collingwood and Pietersen achieved yesterday in context. Cricket has various ways of categorizing partnership records: who the batsmen were playing for, who they were playing against, which wicket was involved, where it happened and so on. Colly and KP put on 310 for the 4th wicket against Australia in Adelaide.

In terms of all time English records, they were a long way behind. In particular the largest ever partnership by English batsmen was also for the 4th wicket: 411 put on by Colin Cowdrey and Peter May against West Indies in Birmingham in 1957. However, in terms of England-Australia matches, it is a clear 4th wicket record, eclipsing the 288 set by Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe in 1997. It is also, by quite a long way, the highest partnership made by either side for any wicket in Adelaide.

Collingwood’s 206 is also a significant achievement. Only seven other men have scored 200 for England against the Aussies. Wally Hammond did it four times, but that’s great batsmen for you, and Australians will doubtless point to Bradman’s six double centuries and two triple centuries.

And finally, the last time that England made more than 500 against Australia was in 1986 in Perth. That match was drawn. A fine captain’s innings by Allan Border allowed Australia to avoid following on – something I’m sure Ricky Ponting is aware of.

Well, that was better. The first two sessions were horribly slow, but once KP and Collingwood got together England started to look like a side that could win a test match. Hopefully they’ll weather the conditions early on Day 2 and can go on to post a respectable score (500+). Batting conditions are not going to get any better. They might just get worse, although probably in ways that only Panesar can exploit effectively. I suspect a draw is the most likely outcome, but you never know. Over five days, the balance of the game can change many times.

Normal service is resumed. Australia wrapped up the match before lunch in a very cool and professional manner. Having KP go in the first over was a bit of a disappointment, entertainment-wise, but so it goes. Now all of the attention focuses on Adelaide on Friday (or Thursday afternoon for those of us in the USA). And the talk is, of course, about selection.

Australia, I’m sure, could go into the match with the same team full of confidence, but if they do want to make changes, here are the obvious ones. In: McGill, Watson; Out: Martyn, Clarke.

England desperately need to make changes, but have a distinct shortage of talent to choose from. What they should do is this. In: Panesar, Mahmood; Out: Giles, Anderson.

You are, of course, free to disagree.

What a difference a day makes. Late on day 3, Australia had a chance to enforce the follow-on and thoroughly humiliate a demoralized England. By tea on day 4 Ponting was off the field with a bad back and the English batsmen, Pietersen and Collingwood, were looking remarkably comfortable. KP in particular has taken the attack to the Australians, smashing Warne all over the place and walking calmly down the pitch to try to put McGrath off his length. The Australian commentators were seriously impressed. That’s how they like to see the game played. (I shudder to think what Boycott was saying on the Sky commentary. Probably something like, “Oooh, ‘ee shudn’t be playin’ like thaat. ‘Ee mite get aaht. Jus’ leave th’ ball, lad.”)

Of course there is another game to play, and God is slowly whittling away at the England batting order. He got Collingwood and Flintoff late in the day. He only needs to add Jones the Gloves to his list of victims and he’ll have the England tail at his mercy. There’s also a new ball due first thing in the morning, which will help McGrath. But there is rain forecast. Actually the forecast says “storms”, which in Queensland means dumping an entire day’s worth of rain in half an hour. It may not last long, but the outfield will be swimming afterwards. England now have a real chance of stealing a draw. If Australia had enforced the follow-on the game would probably be over by now.

The commentators are talking animatedly about rain being forecast for tomorrow. This is a situation English batsmen understand: bat until the rain saves you. If it does happen, the failure to enforce the follow-on will come back and bite poor old Punter.

Well it should be just about all over by now. Had Australia enforced the follow-on, England would be several wickets down and still several hundred runs behind. As it is, Langer and Ponting are getting some batting practice and entertaining the crowd. Presumably serious play will resume some time tomorrow.

The one thing this does do is stop the English media complaining that they lost because of the pitch. Batting looks as easy now as it did at the start of day one.