Paul Collingwood: Another nurdling, nudging, gritty triumph

That title's ironic, by the way. We hate it when people use those words about Paul Collingwood , even if his innings perhaps merits it (except for the word 'triumph' - we don't mind that one). You just get the feeling that people are delighted that he's living up to his reputation. He's not though, because, as we all know, it's reputed that he's out of his depth.

Out of his depth and technically ill-equipped to bat at four, Paul Collingwood has once again fluked his way into the nineties. Please let him get two more runs tomorrow. He's on 98 not out and he deserves a hundred. Sometimes hundreds are all that counts. People say things like: "He hasn't passed three figures in his last ten Test matches" and stuff like that. You could have been averaging 80, but 99 is bottling it; 100 is influencing the course of a match.

Paul Collingwood's twice been out for 96, so presumably he's past the bit where he gets nervous and will be sleeping soundly like we'll be doing tonight, during the afternoon session, awash with curry and beer.