Touring takes its toll

Batsman Ian Bell reflects on the first defeat for England's Cricket Academy side as their winter in Australia nears its end.

The second half of the Academy programme has seen us taking to the air.

In the last three weeks, we have travelled from Adelaide to Melbourne, on to Canberra, and finally back to Adelaide.

Our game in Melbourne was truly memorable as we played at the famous MCG.

This was a great experience and I can only imagine what the atmosphere must be like when the stands are full of spectators - awesome. It was made even better by the fact we carried on our winning run.

From Melbourne, the squad flew to Canberra in the Capital Territories.

Mark Wallace waits for his turn in the nets

Here we won the four-day fixture, but suffered our first reverse, courtesy of Duckworth & Lewis, in the one-day game - it was disappointing as we did not play well.

Whilst there, however, we did get the opportunity to visit the Bradman Museum at Bowral, which was fascinating.

From there the squad flew back to base in Adelaide. The management chose to drive, a journey of 14 hours - not too sure why.

We returned to our training routines before playing a South Australian side in a four day game. Unfortunately, our practice and team selection was affected by injuries, with three of the pace bowlers being sidelined.

This is good for part-time bowlers like me to improve on a second skill but not necessarily the best for team performance.

Steve Harmison flew home for an operation and was replaced by Ryan Sidebottom.

Sidebottom: A late arrival

The South Australian game was not good, we played poorly as a team again, despite the odd good performance and suffered our first significant defeat by seven wickets.

The result was that the squad incurred some serious and justified ear bashing for a below par display.

Still not too much leisure time to be had. Catching a new release film being the highlight.

However, we did manage to get to an Aussie Rules football game, which was good. I didn't realise how big the pitch was - these guys must be fit.

We now have another week in Adelaide when, hopefully, the injuries will heal before we fly to Sydney to take part in a one day tournament.

Time is now moving quickly and people's thoughts are now starting to turn towards preparations for the new English season.