Magnificent 7*
I've got a confession to make.

I've done very little work today, because I've been glued to the cricket, and my goodness it was worth it.

Cometh the hour cometh the man, and in this case, the man was Matthew Hoggard, whose 12 wickets in the match, including 7 in the second innings gave England a remarkable victory.

The funny thing is that whilst I would dearly have loved to have been there, or in front of a TV, there is something incredibly addictive about watching cricket on the internet, and within that the two best sites I've found are Cricinfo and The Guardian.

Cricinfo allows you access to enough stats (the cricketers lifeblood) and an online scorebook to follow the progress at a glance, and watch dot ball after dot ball appear before your eyes, whilst also adding flesh to the dry bones with some meagre commentary.

The Guardian, by contrast have cunningly stuck a man with a keyboard in front of the TV and get him to give a summary of the core action in each over, together with encouraging general jokey banter between everyone who is studiously hitting refresh and avoiding work.

Whilst The Guardian may be fractionally more up to date, Cricinfo is more for the purist, giving an excellent breakdown of each and every innings and enough commentary to keep you enthralled.

Roll on the final test of what has been a fascinating series, and congratulations to England who can't now lose.

*Count the number of times this phrase features in tomorrow's papers if you have nowt better to do. Remember, you read it here first.

- posted by Paul @ 4:13 pm