Seeing Elle gave the team a buzz

One of the great attractions about London is the opportunity to see and meet interesting people from all walks of life and professions.

Obviously it helps being a part of the Australian cricket team, but even still, it is a buzz meeting people like the Queen, Pat Rafter, Elle Macpherson and Bon Jovi.

These opportunities are rare, so they become fairly special moments for the majority of the guys.

Also visiting our changing room this morning was former England captain Mike Brearley.

He and I have become friends since my time at Middlesex, and therefore it was a thrill to have him in our room sharing old stories, and the odd bit of advice on leadership.

He and Stephen spent some quality time talking about the most important traits of leadership.

Listening to the two of the great leaders talk over a cup of tea was both interesting and inspiring.

If we ever need someone to brighten up the changing room, and Merv is in town, then he is the man to call for

Justin Langer

Gilchrist gave England plenty to regret

A man so admired and respected for his feats on the field, he has equal legendary status resulting from his character and personality off it.

Character's like Merv are crucial for the game, and while they are becoming less common in this day and age, they are always highly regarded by the public and of course their teammates.

On the field, and there is still plenty of life left in this Test match. England must be regretting dropping excitement machine Adam Gilchrist three times during his fantastic innings of ninety.

In Test cricket you simply cannot afford to give players a chance, because more often than not it will prove so very costly.

With Mark Butcher batting solidly, the picture may have been so different had England held their catches.

The fight shown by Butcher and Mark Ramprakash means England will not just roll over and die.

They will be looking to scrape as many runs as possible to put the pressure on us in a run chase.

This game is far from over and we will need to be at our disciplined best tomorrow to secure a two nil lead in this series.

From London

JL