48 hours: The reckless and the righteous

Spare a thought this morning for the bleary eyed, those poor souls who first endured the horrors of the All Blacks match at Newlands before being drawn unwittingly into a fascinating Ashes contest at Birmingham.

They're easily identified; the ones who can barely stay awake at the workplace, who put the principle of sport before duty all weekend, and who - as a result - are still murmuring part-sentences about "Freddie" Flintoff.

Some may have been guilty of throwing food at the television screen as the All Blacks out-tricked themselves at Cape Town, and still others may have been involved in hurling abuse at referee Andrew Cole. But whatever their mood after New Zealand's bizarre performance against the Springboks, nocturnal sports fans would have found it difficult to prise themselves away from the screen afterwards as Freddie strutted his stuff at Edgbaston. Evoking the memory of Ian Botham, the strapping all-rounder first rescued his team with the bat and then helped destroy Australia with the ball, re-igniting interest in the ancient series, and leaving England within touching distance of a series-levelling win.

In his first Ashes series, Flintoff endured a shoulder injury, a spell of quality leg-spin from Shane Warne and some indifferent support at the other end to club a priceless 73 off 86 balls, while stretching England's lead to 281.

He then produced the killer blow in Australia's second innings, dismissing Justin Langer and Ricky Ponting in the same over to grab back the momentum for his side, before returning later to winkle out Jason Gillespie.

It made for compelling viewing, the sight of the almost impregnable Australian side being beaten to the punch with bat and ball, writhing in their death-throes at the end of the third day, and suddenly looking more vulnerable and less certain.

Full of themselves before the test match, the Aussies were effectively taken down a peg by England and particularly by the much-maligned Ashley Giles, who responded to criticism by landing telling blows in each innings.

In fact, it was hard to escape the feeling that without McGrath, there was little between the teams, and that Australia might have seriously over-estimated their superiority after winning the opening test.

And you'd have to wonder whether the All Blacks were under a similar delusion when they came up with the idea of running the ball with such gay abandon against the Springboks.

Short drop-outs from the 22m line? Running it from under their own posts? It might work against the weak or the poorly organised, but it was always fraught with danger against the intensity of the South African defence.

You just don't play it cute with the Springboks. The suspicion is that we may have became a tad carried away with the Lions success, talking about the gap between ourselves and the rest of the world, and lauding the superior athleticism of our players.

But so what if we've got brilliant runners and handlers? It doesn't mean much if the team forget to respect possession and territory, and make the sort of tactical errors the All Blacks made yesterday morning.

The hope is that New Zealand will now take stock of their position, learn from the lessons of yesterday morning, and tailor their game-plan so it more closely meets the threat posed by their opponents.

On the other hand, and with all due respect to the Aussie cricketers, it would be good if we got more of the same when the third Ashes test starts this week at Manchester.