There's probably nothing that gives me more pleasure in following cricket these days than charting the rise and rise of Michael Clarke. Friday, he breathed life into an Australian side that had been struggling to get on top of the First Test, and then looked set to add a debut Ashes century at Lord's to his CV.

Three BBC radio cricket programs currently available from the website through listen-on-demand:

I'm not sure when this went to air, but BBC Five Live has a 52-minute program in which Geoff Boycott, Geoff Lawson, Allan Lamb and Jon Agnew have a panel discussion of their Ashes memories.

The Dave Podmore Ashes Special went to air on BBC Radio Four last night. It runs half an hour.

Seventeen wickets on the opening day of an Ashes Test at Lord's. That hasn't happened since the century before last.

We have five contestants in the Ashes and More Tipping Competition, and no one has picked an England victory at Lord's. It's already a strange Test and strange things can happen.

There he is again. Right underneath the masthead subheading "We will hold firm" is the headline "Shane Warne loses control of his googlies AGAIN".

Number 500 for Glenn McGrath!

First ball after tea, no less. Trescothick tried to push away a ball going down leg side, he got a leading edge, which was taken by Langer in the slips.

Oh, make that 501. Strauss caught by Warnie at first slip.

Are we heading for an Australian first innings lead here?

Nice call, Ricky.

To be fair, 190 all out is an improvement on 87 for 5. But still not anywhere near good enough. Some great bowling by Harmison (5/43), and a little too much gay abandon from the Aussies. Justin Langer seems to play three types of innings - a first-over duck, a double ton, or a quickfire 40-odd-and-out. Today it was the latter. Nice symmetry from the middle order - Gilchrist 26, Katich 27, Warne 28.

All interest now falls to Glenn McGrath, whose next wicket will be his 500th.

Surrey have enjoyed making heavy weather of their victories lately. Monday night's quarter-final in the 20-over comp came down to a Duckworth-Lewis tie (Duckworth-Lewis tie in a 20 over game? sheesh). But instead of doing the obvious - five overs each way of extra time, and if it's a draw come back Wednesday morning for the replay - they went for the next most obvious tie-breaker, the penalty shootout... er, the bowl-out.

The women were first with a Cricket World Cup, holding their first in 1973 while the men didn't get started till 1975. Now the men have announced a medal for best player of the England-Australia Test series, five years after the women did the same.

I think England will probably win two of the five Tests, but I also think Australia will probably pick up two. I reckon it will be a two-all draw, Australia retaining the Ashes.

- Rick Eyre, BBC Radio Five Live, 21.6.05

I said it on radio last month and I'll stick with it now. The England-Australia Test series will finish in a 2-2 draw, which means Australia will retain the Ashes.