Ponting run out, Potter on cricket and a morning cider

I just did something I never expected -- I poured myself a CIDER at 8:38 a.m.
It's OK, though. I have been up since 5 a.m., listening to the fourth day of the fifth and final ASHES TEST -- the cricket series between ENGLAND and AUSTRALIA.
I downed several cups of coffee listening to the play on BBC RADIO'S TEST MATCH SPECIAL online.
I ate my breakfast while Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) discussed their love of the game while interviewed during the Lunch break.
"Test cricket is like a play in five acts," Radcliffe said. "I prefer it to Twenty20."
Me too. There's much more ebb and flow, tension and drama in the five-day version of the summer game.
So, why the morning cider?
Aussie captain Ricky Ponting was batting with authority against England's bowlers -- each successful swat of his bat seemed to diminish England's hopes for an historic victory over their antipodean rivals.
Then, seemingly out of the blue, Australia's Michael Hussey hit the ball and called for a quick single.
English cult hero Andrew "Fred" Flintoff grabbed the ball at mid on (a fielding position somewhat akin to shortstop in baseball) and took dead-aim at the wickets.
Ponting was late getting back to his crease and Flintoff's throw beat him to the wicket.
Ponting was out!
The crowd at London's OVAL cricket ground erupted, I began dancing around the kitchen, and that's when I poured myself a celebratory cider in my euphoria.
Australia's Michael Clarke was then run out (pictured) for no runs scored in the next over, and I was positively giddy -- and not because of any fermented apple juice.