Rain stopped annihilation

"Jimmy Savile" - just before his removal by the constabulary

Adelaide Day 3: England 551 for 4, 306 runs ahead. Rain stopped play at tea.

The Sunday papers here led with a picture of Aussie captain Ricky Ponting looking imploringly to the heavens. The inevitable headline: "Pray for rain". Well, Punter got his wish during the tea break when the rain did indeed set in for the day - but not before England had inflicted further pain on his pitiful bowling attack.

After my day of abstinence on Saturday (and a much needed early night to see off the last of my jet lag), I was back in the thick of the Barmy Army today. Standing room only again, though the number of locals daring to show their faces seemed to be in terminal decline. Delighted to hear early on that Steve managed to pick me out on the Sky coverage back in Germany!

Some Day 3 trivia: until his dismissal for 148 early today, Alastair Cook had spent all but one hour of the series so far on the field of play. He certainly deserved a rest. More interestingly, even the Aussies are starting to draw comparisons with legendary South Australian (and greatest ever Test batsman) Don Bradman - apparently both players scored the same number of Test centuries (15) by the tender age of 26.

But enough of Cook (and the Aussies certainly have had), the truncated day belonged to Kevin Pietersen with a double century which was as disclipined as it was commanding. The first double century I have seen live since my mum took me to the Oval to see Dennis Amiss score one off Holding and Roberts in 1976 - now there's a piece of trivia to be reckoned with. Amazingly, it was also KP's first hundred of any kind for 19 months - which may explain (but not excuse) the orgasmic squeal he emitted on reaching three figures.

So quickly did England score in the opening session that the Barmy Army was in danger of becoming prematurely hoarse from the chants of "Four more to the Eng-er-land". It took the belated appearance of Jimmy Savile* in mid-afternoon to get the singing started again. But alas, after only one rendition of the BA anthem, he was led away by members of the local constabulary, presumably for inciting a crowd to have a good time. Absurdly heavy-handed policing by Adelaide's finest. The cheers which greeted Jimmy's return around 20 minutes later (after a jolly good ticking off) almost overshadowed those for KP's 200.

Regrettably, there was no sign today of two characters who amused us so much on Day 1:
- "Mr Angry" in the purple shirt, an Aussie fan who was so incensed by the mere presence of the BA in his own backyard that steam was coming out of his head (you know, the sort that is definitely visible after 10 beers)
- The respectable-looking, middle aged BA fan who decked an Aussie for insulting the Queen, then cunningly disguised himself from the police by donning a Batman costume that just happened to be lying around.

And so to my Day 4 prediction: now more difficult to call due to the threat of rain, but I'm going for an early England declaration with a lead of 400, then Anderson, Broad and Swann to chip away and leave England on the brink of a win going into Day 5.

* Apparently his real name is Vic, but I did have difficulty convincing an ageing Australian hippy that he had never actually presented Top of the Pops.