Well it started off with a walk to the station. One I have done many times before, but not with such urgency. I felt myself almost running, desperate not to miss the train. The night before, I had made my sandwiches and popped to the off licence to buy my mandatory four-pack. My clothes were laid out and I woke up as soon as my alarm went off.

Outside the Oval it was heaving, thousands of people, the cries of the touts where everywhere, but I for one was not even contemplating selling my ticket, nor did I have any spare! There were even buses with adverts. I really don’t think I have ever witnessed such anticipation for any Test match I have been to. The closest thing in atmosphere was Port Elizabeth for the World Cup game, also between England and Australia.

After queuing for about 20 minutes, I entered the ground and found my seat and my friends. The sky was blue and the ground was buzzing.

The overnight scorecard had stood at 319 - 7 to England. McGrath as usual bowled the first over, and things looked really good for England when Geraint Jones crashed his first ball from Lee into the boundary. Sadly he lost his off-stump the next ball. In my group we had hoped to get at least 350, and at that point it didn’t look likely.

Luckily Ashley Giles played solidly, meanwhile Harmison crashed a number of fours to the delight of the crowd, and we suddenly thought four hundred was possible. Giles turned down a single to mid-wicket and we were of the opinion that this was eminently sensible. The theory appeared to be that Giles could take Warne and Harmison could crash more runs off the seam bowlers. Sadly it was not to be as Bowden gave Giles out to the next ball, which looked to all of us to be a leg-break turning away from the stumps but it is so difficult to tell, even with the big screen.

So the Australians came out to bat. There was a feeling that some of the Aussies were due a score, the opening bowlers looked good, but sadly we got the feeling that the Australians were in it for the long-haul. Matthew Hayden looked so different from the incarnation we are used to. Both batsmen were leaving any wide-balls and Hayden was flat batting everything. They crawled along and it seemed that their aim was to bat for as long as possible.

The biggest cheer of the afternoon came whenever substitute Gary Pratt was on the field. I don’t know if his selection as substitute was a deliberate ploy to annoy Ponting, but someone must have told the operator of the big screen, as they proceed to show the Run Out of Ponting at Trent Bridge, much to the joy of the crowd!

As tea approached the ground got muggier and muggier, we could see the clouds coming over and we began to realise that the rain was about to hit us. Especially as one of our group, was phoned up by his Dad to tell us that it was “****ing Down” in East Molesey!

After tea everyone came out and the umpires conferred it was dark behind us, but the other end of the ground, where the weather was coming from was light. When they all walked off we were shocked, we didn’t understand why a team that is desperate to win was off the field when the weather forecast for the next two days was appalling.

For an hour and half it was darkish, but not very dark, there were spots of rain in the air, and nobody could understand why there was no cricket. The umpires walked to the middle twice and looked at a darkish sky, chatted and walked off. It was amazing, it wasn’t dark and it wasn’t actually raining; yet we were watching covers.

Eventually, the umpires came on again, things looked good but again they chatted for about five minutes, it was then it started to rain, it was never as heavy as we were told it would be. At that point much of the crowd was already stating to leave, most in disbelief as to why there had been no play for an hour while conditions had been ok.

We used up the last of our beer kitty and waited until they officially ended the day’s play. We were not surprised when they did exactly that about thirty minutes later.

It was a very disappointing end to what had been a good day. I am stunned by how negative the Australians were, not just in their decision on the light, but also their field settings when England were batting, and their approach when they did actually bat. There was a joke going round the England fans after a big appeal for an LBW against Hayden which was refused by the umpire that England were probably happy that the umpire did turn it down!

At the end of the day's play, the Australians had reached 112 - 0 in reply to England's 373.