Well what can I say after all the excitement of Adelaide and our wonderful trip down to the Coast we were full of expectation as we arrived in Perth for the Third test. Four years ago we had been out on a dive boat in the Whitsundays as we had gone 3-0 down at this point so we were buzzing.
As my cold had started to recede and I had stopped whingeing for five minutes, Dean grabbed the opportunity to trundle me down to the ground the day before to watch England net and arrived just as Australia had finished their practice. The general consensus from those already there was that Mitchell looked all over the place - Hurrah we thought! When England came out they looked as strong and as focused as they had in Adelaide so it was definitely 'game on'. We even bumped into Robbie Fowler who plays for the local side Perth Glory and is a bit of a closet cricket fan. Later Ian (wrong un!) Bailey, Andy (expat) Vogler & I managed to blag our way into a Channel 9 Pre Ashes party and sample a few of the free drinks available and had a tour of the wicket with the curator (groundsman to us!) and my god it looked green. 
So the big day duly arrived and Straussy won the toss and we were relieved to hear that he had chosen to put Australia in to bat and by the end of day one we had duly bowled them all out for 268 and at the close of play we were 29-0. The next morning the media were baying for blood and were very much blaming the selectors.
Day two started well until we got to 78-0, then within a few overs we were 98-5 and all out 187........... Michell Johnson was back taking 5 wickets! From then on the whole game turned on its head and we were the underdogs fighting for survival and our woes continued finally falling on day four to a loss on 267 runs. This brought the series back to 1-1 and suddenly from a position of potential ashes retention, we had suffered a terrible blow and finger nails were starting to deplete!
Sara
As my cold had started to recede and I had stopped whingeing for five minutes, Dean grabbed the opportunity to trundle me down to the ground the day before to watch England net and arrived just as Australia had finished their practice. The general consensus from those already there was that Mitchell looked all over the place - Hurrah we thought! When England came out they looked as strong and as focused as they had in Adelaide so it was definitely 'game on'. We even bumped into Robbie Fowler who plays for the local side Perth Glory and is a bit of a closet cricket fan. Later Ian (wrong un!) Bailey, Andy (expat) Vogler & I managed to blag our way into a Channel 9 Pre Ashes party and sample a few of the free drinks available and had a tour of the wicket with the curator (groundsman to us!) and my god it looked green. 
So the big day duly arrived and Straussy won the toss and we were relieved to hear that he had chosen to put Australia in to bat and by the end of day one we had duly bowled them all out for 268 and at the close of play we were 29-0. The next morning the media were baying for blood and were very much blaming the selectors.
Day two started well until we got to 78-0, then within a few overs we were 98-5 and all out 187........... Michell Johnson was back taking 5 wickets! From then on the whole game turned on its head and we were the underdogs fighting for survival and our woes continued finally falling on day four to a loss on 267 runs. This brought the series back to 1-1 and suddenly from a position of potential ashes retention, we had suffered a terrible blow and finger nails were starting to deplete!Luckily throughout all of this we found solice in a little back street pub called Durty Nellys who had pints of Guinness for $5.50 for the whole time we were there even when we drank them dry twice!
Well onwards and upwards its nearly Christmas so off to Melbourne we will go..........
Hugs
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