"It's all going on here..."

That was pretty exciting in the end...

At 46-4 I would never, even in my wildest dreams, have thought that England would have been able to hold on to a draw today against Australia. Fine batting from Collingwood, Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar; it's days like today that prove that Test Match cricket can be - and so often is - one of the most exciting, enthralling sports in the world.

So many times in the past and recently I've attempted to explain not just the rules of cricket to friends who don't understand or who have no interest in the game, but why I love it so. The appeal of a game that to them is five days of boring drudgery played by the upper classes. Today proves that nothing is further from the truth.

However, while it is extremely gratifying to see the look on Ricky Ponting's face at the end of the game and while I am incredibly happy to still be level in this five match series, it is worth pointing out that at time during this game England were just plain awful.

Making 435 in the first innings on that pitch is no disgrace by any means. What came next though was pretty hard to watch I must admit.

Granted, the Australian batsmen played well and any innings that features four centuries (the first time this has happened in Ashes history) deserves credit. The way England set their stall out though and some of their tactics, especially by the captain Andrew Strauss, was questionable at best.

The England bowler's approach was naive and the pace attack looked thoroughly toothless for vast majorities of their time spent running in to bowl. A lack of patience is also to blame for five of the six bowlers conceding 100+ runs and changes should, and almost certainly will, be made ahead of the second Test which begins at Lords on Monday. That pitch tends to favour the seam bowlers, so despite his unlikely heroics with the bat today Monty will probably make way for one of either Steve Harmison, Graeme Onions or Ryan Sidebottom. Personally I'd go for Onions as I feel with the aid of the slope at Lords he'll be able to get the ball swinging much more than any of the England seamers managed to do in this match. I'm also in two minds as to whether to replace Stuart Broad with either Harmison or Sidebottom. Broad was the main culprit when it comes to lack of patience and although he has the potential to contribute vital runs at the tailend of the innings, Harmy and Sidebottom have both in excellent form as of late for their respective counties.

The England batsmen too will need to improve their all round game, as too many of them - in both innings - gave their wicket away cheaply. All 11 players would do well to remember that this is a Test series of five, five-day matches not a Twenty20 match and it takes nouse, patience and persistence to succeed and not merely big hitting and aggressive bowling.

Test cricket done well is one of the great sporting spectacles and this series is shaping up to be a classic in the vain of 2005. If the outcome is to be the same as that memorable series though, England are going to have to step up their game, because the Aussies will come out fighting after this latest set-back.

xo