*Official* Second Test at Lords

[aussie]

Jim Maxwell on the radio right now making some interesting points re. Lee's unavailability ahead of Edgbaston. Says if he can't play there they should bring Bollinger or Mackay over. Not a bad point imo.

Yea i heard him, he said conflicting that Lee has declared he wont play in the warm-up though, plus saying Clark "aint the bowler he was".

Mannn, i saw Clark in the warm-up on TV, he clearly should have been playing in this series from the start. Lee is the big fish.

 

[Burgey]

Didn't he retire in 1963 and then, er, die twenty years later? I know you're up against it but isn't that just a tad of an over-reaction?

Ha ha - Clint I think it is,not Slasher.

 

[GIMH]

Can't believe people are saying that Hughes is struggling. He murdered England in his first innings, was unlucky in the 2nd innings and wasn't even out in the 3rd.

36/=murdering someone. Give it up

 

[simmy]

Can't believe people are saying that Hughes is struggling. He murdered England in his first innings, was unlucky in the 2nd innings and wasn't even out in the 3rd.

And has an average of about 3.25 to show for it.

 

[zaremba]

Just for the record, Ponting has acknoweldged England outplayed Australia at the outset of his speech on the radio. And again in his preso speech.

Wanted to put that out there, before everyone comes on here and says because he didn't deliver his remarks with a big ****-eating grin on his face he wasn't gracious.

On the radio he's asked about Flintoff and said he bowled well, which is what Australia expected. I'm just noting this down for the benefit of our English brethren.

The English crowd gives Ponting a cheer as he responds in a quality and gracious manner to a **** question from Atherton about the umpiring. Doesn't blame them. Again, if anyone wants to bag him about this, please feel free to dispute this account.

Biggest cheer is for the umpires, fittingly so. Rudi gets a special award for his 100th test - not, as some Aussies on here have suggested, MOTM.

Nice from Strauss acknowledging Haddin and Clarke before throwing himself at Flintoff's feet.

Good post, Burgey. You're quite right to draw attention to Ponting's post-match words, he spoke really well and fair play to him for that. The crowd rightly responded graciously too.

(Good to see he's learnt to avoid having a swipe when asked a question by a journalist on this occasion )

Seriously, another really great Test match. I honestly thought that Australia were going to do it when Clarke and Haddin made it through to stumps yesterday. And that in the teeth of a target of 522; well, it was spectacular. Clarke's innings was a great piece of work. My only real hope for victory today was an inspirational spell of fast bowling and that could only come from one man, who duly delivered an incredible performance today. Pleased also for Strauss, under pressure as captain, whose 161 obviously set up England for a reasonably competitive 1st innings score.

 

[wfdu_ben91]

36/=murdering someone. Give it up

If you can't admit that it wasn't a pretty convincing 36 then you don't know cricket.

 

[Pizzorno]

Can't believe people are saying that Hughes is struggling. He murdered England in his first innings, was unlucky in the 2nd innings and wasn't even out in the 3rd.

Hitting 36 is not a murdering.

Strauss and Cook to Johnson in the first innings; that's a murdering. Phil Hughes can murder us for 36 runs as much he likes tbh.

 

[GIMH]

If you can't admit that it wasn't a pretty convincing 36 then you don't know cricket.

He batted well before he got out, he never murdered us. Hell, in the 2nd Test in 05 Ian Bell scored 4 with his first ball then got out with his 2nd, might as well say he murdered Australia as it was a bloody impressive 4

 

[simmy]

If you can't admit that it wasn't a pretty convincing 36 then you don't know cricket.

If the selectors see sense and pick Harmison instead of Broad in the next test (obv will never happen) then 36 will be his top score of the series.

 

[simmy]

He batted well before he got out, he never murdered us. Hell, in the 2nd Test in 05 Ian Bell scored 4 with his first ball then got out with his 2nd, might as well say he murdered Australia as it was a bloody impressive 4

It was actually 6. He hit one to backward point second ball and out on the 3rd.

 

[pasag]

Seriously, another really great Test match.

I dunno mate. Hard to look at it objectively right now and am a little sour understandably, but I think both games have been a bit ordinary save for their finales and various pockets of quality here and there.

 

[Pizzorno]

It was actually 6. He hit one to backward point second ball and out on the 3rd.

Yeah I remember the innings well. Mullered the Aussies to all parts for the first 2 balls. Awesome batting.

 

[wfdu_ben91]

Hitting 36 is not a murdering.

Yeah, you're right. 5-0, now that's murdering. I remember you going off at an Australian for even mentioning 5-0 before the series begun and once it was all said and done, your post got bumped and you went off your nut. Was hilarious.

 

[Matt79]

Ah, well. 'Twas always only a fool's chance this morning.

Well played England. Very well deserved win. Losing is always hard to take, but its much easier when its off the back of a performance like that from a champ like Fred, not to mention some excellent bowling from Swann. England stepped up so very well on all the key moments in this test - Strauss and Cook on the morning of day 1 after electing to bat, Flintoff and Anderson with the new ball in the Aussies' first innings, and Flintoff this morning.

Flintoff is such a champ - on one hand I'm so sick of seeing him stand there like a pillar, arms raised, looking like a god/doofus, having just crushed us, on the other, you have to love the bloke's talent, sense of occasion, and sheer guts. Along with Warne and Gilchrist, he's one of the most special cricketers for an occasion I've ever seen, and Test cricket is immeasurably richer for having had him, and poorer for now losing him.

Will say here that while the bad umpiring yesterday certainly didn't help us, in a situation where we already needed everything to go right for us, they weren't the reason we lost. The reason we lost was mainly our woeful display in our first innings - unacceptable by most of our batsmen. Our bowling was below par - Johnson bowled badly, and Siddle was too inconsistent. That left too much for Hauritz and Hilfenhaus to do, and ultimately it cost us. It's hard to be too critical of our batting in the second innings: too much was left to the lower order, but in this specific circumstance, that's not entirely their fault, although Hughes did nick that ball towards slip in the first place, and Hussey was beaten by that ball.

As I've said elsewhere, not sure what we can do to improve this team much - Clark might need to coe in for Siddle, although that's quite harsh on Sid. Ponting needs at least two quicks who he can count on to get it right. I'm hoping against hope that Johnson will take enough out of his innings today - especially the way he was all at sea early on, but was able to settle, then impose himself, that it will carry over to his bowling and he extracts his head from his ass and bowls like we know he can. If that happens, we'll make up this loss and more in the remaining three matches.

I tipped Australia 2-1 at the start - this was the "1". Bring on Edgbaston!

 

[Jamee999]

If you can't admit that it wasn't a pretty convincing 36 then you don't know cricket.

Test match batting isn't about making 36.

 

[irfan]

Series Leading Wickettakers:
Hauritz 9 @ 29.3
Hilfenhaus 9@ 31.8
Johnson 8 @ 41.4
Flintoff 7 @ 35.3
Siddle 7 @ 44.6

Leading High Scores
Strauss 161
Ponting 150
Clarke 136
North 125*
Katich122

Both lists dominated by Australia but still England lead 1-0. :o

Shows you what a massive difference taking 19 wickets over 20 makes.

 

[Pizzorno]

Yeah, you're right. 5-0, now that's murdering. I remember you going off at an Australian for even mentioning 5-0 before the series begun and once it was all said and done, your post got bumped and you went off your nut. Was hilarious.

Excellent. Changing the topic completely. That really proves that Hughes murdered us.

 

[zaremba]

Can't believe people are saying that Hughes is struggling. He murdered England in his first innings, was unlucky in the 2nd innings and wasn't even out in the 3rd.

1st innings - "murdered" us for 30-something runs. I'd take that from the new Bradman or indeed any opener

2nd innings - "unlucky" to be unable to play balls on the leg side, had a waft at a near-wide and got a glove on it

3rd innings - "wasn't out" - well probably was caught cleanly but the replays were unclear. He'd already been dropped at slip by this point.


Apart from that, I agree with you that it's ridiculous to talk in terms of dropping him. He's a very dangerous player but will have failures from time to time and the selectors will need to keep the faith with him.

 

[wfdu_ben91]

He batted well before he got out, he never murdered us. Hell, in the 2nd Test in 05 Ian Bell scored 4 with his first ball then got out with his 2nd, might as well say he murdered Australia as it was a bloody impressive 4

He did murder you until Flintoff came on and started peppering him with delieveries about 3 foot over his head and then half an hour later he pitched one short of a length and inside edged it to the keeper. Was good ploy from Flintoff tbh, bowling delieveries that Hughes couldn't possibly hit and making him lose his momemtum.

 

[Prince EWS]

If you can't admit that it wasn't a pretty convincing 36 then you don't know cricket.

I suppose you're a big Ian Bell fan.