**Official** Tour Matches

[BoyBrumby]

Dropped Mussey in the 70's as well. Played Saj.

Aye. Off his own bowling, poetically enough.

 

[superkingdave]

Sidey has 0-40 out of 227/6 against Lancs

 

[Furball]

And as has been said by many so far, how beautiful is The Huss in full flight?

Not a fan tbh, though I love him in ODIs bizarrely.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Watchful stuff from Hauritz. 3 off 34 currently with 3 balls left in the day.

EDIT: And smacks the first of them for 4. D'oh.

 

[tooextracool]

Heres hoping for another 50 and then a 5fer for Hauritz....

 

[social]

For all those that havent seen him, Hussey is a superb player and runs today are a MASSIVE boost to Oz's Ashes campaign.

As for Eng, Harmison is still the bowler that Australia fear most and Bell is not a great captain

 

[social]

BTW, didnt realise that Eng were playing Warwick's 2nd X1 attack - wonder whether they'll cop as much flak as Oz did for their abject failure

 

[tooextracool]

BTW, didnt realise that Eng were playing Warwick's 2nd X1 attack - wonder whether they'll cop as much flak as Oz did for their abject failure

Don't think it really matters because the whole point of a warm up game is for the players to get some batting time and with the exception of Pietersen and Flintoff most of them were in for a little bit of time. Even though, its a futile exercise considering that most of them have already been warming up by playing FC cricket this summer in the same conditions anyways. Its not like they collapsed for 130 all out in which case it would have received some justified criticism.

Regarding Harmison, I missed most of the game today, did he actually bowl with the sort of venom that we've seen him bowl at his best or was it just the Aussies giving him too much respect?

 

[superkingdave]

Don't think it matters what bowlers Warks put out...they've performed pretty much uniformly terrible so far this year, though of course some of the wickets have been roads. FWIW Woakes and Rankin would definitely be in their first choice side, Woakes is their top wicket taker (11 at about 48) and Rankin has only missed games for being on Ireland duty.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Regarding Harmison, I missed most of the game today, did he actually bowl with the sort of venom that we've seen him bowl at his best or was it just the Aussies giving him too much respect?

No, genuinely bowled well. Opening spell to Hughes in particular was classic "Good" Harmy. Gave him a proper working over. Slowed down as the day went, but in each spell his average was over 85mph. His swing was the biggest surprise tho, got more movement than Onions.

 

[GIMH]

You wouldn't pick him for the Tests though, would ya?

 

[BoyBrumby]

You wouldn't pick him for the Tests though, would ya?

Probably not for the first. Would go:

Flintoff
Broad
Swann
Anderson
Onions

Love Sid & all, but unless he's at top lick he seems to be replaced by his less effective religious cousin, Canon Fodder.

Rashid bowled better than his figures suggest, but Johnson played him v easily and if the top order had shown more attacking intent it could've been a trainwreck. Panesar needs a lot of Warwicks scalps for mine too.

 

[GIMH]

If Panesar took a 20fer I'd still be against picking him at this point. Pretty sure I have more FC wickets than him this season.

 

[BoyBrumby]

If Panesar took a 20fer I'd still be against picking him at this point. Pretty sure I have more FC wickets than him this season.

In agreement. Just not convinced the selectors see it like that.

What worries me is with KP's achilles being shot if we don't play Monty we effectively only have the one spinning option.

 

[GIMH]

There's always Cook

 

[Richard]

BTW, didnt realise that Eng were playing Warwick's 2nd X1 attack - wonder whether they'll cop as much flak as Oz did for their abject failure

Warwickshire don't really have a first or second attack - all their bowlers at the current time are ****e. Has been that way for at least a year, maybe two.

Far cry from the days of Donald, Giddins, Brown, Welch, Giles, Smith etc.

 

[BoyBrumby]

There's always Cook

Based on the one over I've seen him bowl my hopes aren't high.

 

[tooextracool]

Theres absolutely no way I'd pick Panesar to play a single test this series and I would agree with BB that I wouldnt have Harmison in for the first test given what we expect from the Swalec stadium. Flower and co need to be smart about this and choose their best bowlers for the conditions. Harmison does have a role to play in this series, but I wouldnt really be picking him until we got to a bouncier or faster pitch in the series.

 

[Richard]

Game over for Mahmood tho, surely? Done literally nothing except one or two decent yorkers Mitch has kept out without too much drama.

There's many things which should've signalled game-over for Mahmood before now (ie, game should never have been on - he should never have played regular county cricket never mind international). I doubt we've seen the last of him, though one can always hope.

His story is like a poor man's Harmison story.

 

[GIMH]

Based on the one over I've seen him bowl my hopes aren't high.

Yes indeed, although didn't he take a wicket last week?