Ashes Diary: Trott under the collar for Cook

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Sometimes it's the little things that say so much. Plenty has been written about this England side's unity, but actions speak louder than words and yesterday Jonathan Trott stepped up to the plate, as I believe they put it in a game not entirely dissimilar to cricket. Noticing at the change of over that Alastair Cook's collar was a little askew, the South African-born batsman leant over and corrected it. Now that's team spirit.

Luvs hates, but ashes cashes in

More on @theashes, the American woman with an unfortunate Twitter handle. Yesterday she was annoyed at all the cricket fans mistaking her for a cricket match, now she doesn't mind so much. It's her mother (Luvshorses78) who's got her knickers in a twist now: "You know if people in Australia and England knew how to type proper grammer [sic] they would not have this problem," she roared indignantly. @theashes, meanwhile, is selling T-shirts and pondering an offer from Qantas to fly her out to watch the Ashes. Mental.

* As the match meandered to a slightly tedious conclusion early yesterday morning, thoughts in the Sky commentary box turned to board games – specifically, Monopoly. What piece, inquired David Lloyd, did Nasser Hussain like to play as? The iron, the former England captain replied firmly. Not sure what we can read into that.