Day four: Test cricket is for The Birds

...this series is sort of like a month-long pass to an Alfred Hitchcock film festival...
- Prem Panicker, Sightscreen, 28.8.05

So, in a series that began with Dial M for Murder and continued with Spellbound, Notorious and Vertigo, England leads Australia two Tests to one. Psycho opens at The Oval on September 8.

Just a few observations after yet another awesome Test match:

• Australia's batting top order has been saved on so many occasions by one AC Gilchrist blasting a quick ton or so at number seven. Gilchrist's scores in this series so far: 26, 10, 49*, 1, 30, 4, 27, 11. That's 158 runs at 22.57.
• If there's ever a classic case of a captain being as good as the team he leads, take another look at those images of Ricky Ponting holding the 2003 World Cup. There's one member of the current Australian eleven who has a natural gift for leadership on the field of play and also has a one-day tournament win as captain to show for it. Unfortunately, he has also been a suspended drug cheat, a Pitch and Weather Informant, and has repeatedly demonstrated the value of the mobile phone as a sex aid. At least he has never been bashed up at the Bourbon and Beefsteak.
• We can take either one of two diametrically opposed lessons away from this marvellous Test series, either (a) we can point out that you can't win from following-on in Twenty20 cricket; or (b) we can praise the richness and diversity of a sport that is capable of giving so much pleasure in all its different forms.

I'll do more of a Paper Rout, and have some analysis of my own, on Tuesday once a couple of TV shows have gone to air. The Midwinter-Midwinters for Day Four: 3 pts - Shane Warne; 2 pts - Brett Lee; 1 pt - Steve Harmison.

Footnote: A limited release season of Jamaica Inn and Mr and Mrs Smith opens in Bulawayo and Harare from September 13.