Oz VII - 2 -0 to the Eng-ger-land

Last night was superb. England again outplayed Australia and deservedly won the one-day series. Unlike the previous match I watched at the SCG England could only manage 4 an over run rate and until Collingwood and Flintoff steadied the ship it looked like they might struggle to get to 200. The rain delays seemed to play their part. It was bizarre sitting their under the blazing sun whilst at the same time being rained on.

The crowd was as entertaining as usual. The Australian fans were really giving their own new players stick. In our part of the stand a stand-off emerged over a blow-up Kangaroo with a section of Aussie fans chanting 'chuck the roo', it climaxed in a fight with a meat pie and one guy getting escorted out by the police. The police presence was again very high, it seemed to work as there was only one Mexican wave. I can see the headlines now. I managed to get some satisfaction out of the Loye run out. The run out was not a great moment but the Australian sitting next to me jumped up to cheer and sat down still cheering forgetting his seat had folded up leading to him falling down with his pint all over him, comedy gold. Later on an old woman opened her umbrella when it started to rain for the 6th time and nearly managed to take her husband's eye out, he wasn't impressed.

The Australian innings started well with Gilchrist and Hayden knocking Plunkett and Mahmood round the ground. Yet the wickets started to tumble again. It was great to see the Aussie fans around get quieter and quieter as they realised what happened in the past two matches could be happening again. England looked like they were going to win and the only thing to stop them would be the weather. After a couple of delays it got to the 17th over and it again started to rain. To win the Australian innings had to reach 20 overs. The English players were doing their best to ignore the downpour.

After that England were able to come out after a stunning catch by Dalrymple finished off any lingering Aussie hopes. Me and Jack had moved down next to the boundary rope by this stage and the platoon of the Barmy Army were in full swing with Jimmy Saville leading them. Rain forced the players off again at the 27th over and then after 20 mintues of waiting England were declared the winners of the match and the series. At which point chants of 2-0 started ringing out, the few Australians left followed it up with 5-0. Admittedly they did thrash us in the Ashes, but everyone expected them to win the one-day series easily. They haven't lost a home one-day series in a decade and England haven't won one in Australia since 1987. Currently England are ranked 7th in the world for one-day teams and Australia are 1st. It is a big achievement to win and to win convincingly. Not only that but Ponting and Buchanan have been giving the English team stick for not putting up a strong enough test.

At the end the players came out and celebrated with us in the rain. We were all chanting and you could see how pleased the players were. We were of course surrounded by police because pf the danger that we posed, there was a risk of a Mexican wave or two. Flintoff again bowed down to the Barmy Army as he did at the end of the Ashes and Nixon climbed up the advertising hoardings into the fans. Nixon hung around as the other players drifted off obviously enjoying his moment with England in the limelight.

Super Fred's, Barmy Army, Super Fred's, Barmy Army...now for the World Cup...