*Official Third Test at Edgbaston

[Pizzorno]

I enjoyed readin that post Zaremba but to be fair, the best chant of the day for me was, "There's only one Bobby Robson".

 

[sephiroth123]

Ball only started to swing in our innings after about 30 overs...and it was starting to go late in the day for Australia. First session could again be a collapsefest (completely unavoidable obviously...)

Well judging from the forecast I doubt there wil lbe a first session, indeed may not even get an afternoon session. The eveing session is going yo be ultra key, England really need to have a quick strike rate if they want to win from what seems to be a good position...if it weren't for the rubbish weather that is coming.

At least Monday's forecast is improving!

 

[JBH001]

This. A bit annoying to see it just dismissed as a bit of bad luck that plagued Australia's innings. Not that everyone has said that, but it seems to have been alluded to in parts.

Yeah, agreed. Need to give some credit where its due - superb bowling by Anderson and Onions.

 

[zaremba]

Whinge Watch Update: just seen the Johnson / Bell not out LBW decision. A real shocker. Bell is a very very lucky man. But I can live with that quite comfortably.

 

[Burgey]

Hardly a shocker. Was missing leg, but it's not like it hit him outside the line after an edge.

Plus, the poorness of the decision is hardly affected by what happens afterwards.

Go back a few pages. Only the last one counts.....

 

[Burgey]

Evening all,
Sorry I've missed the thread for the last couple of days on account of being at the game. And what a day it's been! Quite incredible stuff.

Spirit of Cricket News: Pleased to see Strauss allowing Ye Crims a substitute for Haddin (I reckon Australia would have done the same). Disappointed to see Ye Crims choose not to applaud Bell for his 10,000th FC run (particularly when St Ricky had been generously applauded both for reaching his 20,000th and for becoming leading Aussie Test run scorer)

Whinge Watch: Doubtless there will have been some bleating about Johnson's and Clarke's dismissals, but frankly the convicts have had their fair share of chances in this game. Not least Clarke

Golden duck of the day: From a field of two, The Batsman Formerly Known As Mr Cricket. Balls faced: 1. Shots played: 0. Runs: 0. Cheers, Mike, thanks for turning up

Crowd Chant of the Day: the Hollies stand, to Macdonald and Clark walking round the boundary (to the tune of Bread of Heaven): "Even Mitch, Even Mitch, Even Mitch is better than you!" Closely followed by "Super, Super Mitch, Super Mitchell Johnson" from the Barmy Army

Rain will save our antipodean friends this time, as it helped save us in Cardiff. But good to see that Strauss was dead right to talk about the Aussie aura going. Going, going, gone.

Did the Barmy Army do their "We're fat, ugly, haven't had an original thought since 1999 and dribble warm beer down our chins" chant?

Glad you got some decent weather to see a good amount of play mate. Always good to be at a venue when your team produces on the day.

 

[zaremba]

Did the Barmy Army do their "We're fat, ugly, haven't had an original thought since 1999 and dribble warm beer down our chins" chant?

Beats the hell out of "Warnie Warnie Warnie Warnie Warnie", if not "Get your hands off our flies, Jardine, they're the only friends you've got"

Glad you got some decent weather to see a good amount of play mate. Always good to be at a venue when your team produces on the day.

Yeah thanks Cameron. A really good day for a Pommie fan, after a pretty poor one all round yesterday. A lot of cricket (and/or rain) left in this game yet, though. England's noses aren't that far ahead. A good session for your lot and we could be back in trouble. A draw the most likely result I suppose.

 

[tooextracool]

Why is it that you are a better swing bowler if you can only swing the ball when conditions are right? Steyn is miles ahead of Anderson overall, and slightly ahead of him even in swinging conditions. See what he did to India last year in Kanpur when conditions were right.

My point was merely that when the ball is swinging, there is definitely a case for Anderson being more devastating than Steyn and arguably the most devastating bowler in the world. Reasons being, one bowler can only bowl outswingers and is a bit more predictable whereas the other can get the ball to bend both ways at will at around 90mph. You can look at it whatever way you want, but it is pretty obvious that Steyn has pretty much always been a better *bowler* than Anderson and its not a point that I have argued.

Regarding Steyn in India, see Anderson in Mumbai 2006/07 or for that matter Anderson at Edgbaston 2009 against the Aussies.

On another note, Johnson's performance in this series shows how premature is was to call him the world's best after his SA success. If Steyn were Australian, pundits would be hailing him as the best in the business, but for some reason his name doesn't seem to come up.

So who on earth is saying that Steyn isnt the best bowler in the world at present?
Johnson was never very good, as I've pointed out before, he was overrated based on his performances in 1 series and he was lucky to have taken as many wickets as he has in almost every other series that he has played before then. He isn't a patch on Steyn or even Anderson for that matter at this point in his career.

 

[tooextracool]

Did that exact thing to Brad Haddin in Sydney this year.

I didnt watch said ball so I cannot comment on it. However, the reason why I think I rate Anderson's ball to Manou was because it was bowled from right at the edge of the crease and he was still able to bend it significantly and hit off stump. If Steyn bowled from wide of the crease and did the same, then credit to him, although whenever I've watched Steyn bowl he gets pretty close to the stumps.

 

[stephen]

Far out, you could watch the Bell LBW in fast forward and it would be a 100% certainty. What the heck was blind Rudy doing out there?

 

[tooextracool]

No doubt that it was a poor decision, but it was nowhere near as bad as the one where Symonds hit the cover off the ball and was still not given out caught behind. There was a genuine case here about whether there was an inside edge especially since there were 2 sounds with bat hitting pad unlike in the Symonds scenario where the ball was miles away from everything other than bat.

So it was a bad decision, get over it. We see millions of them everyday in test match cricket. If people want to whinge, why not whinge about the fact that the referral system wasn't put into place for this series, because that is a more of a genuine argument than 'Is Rudi blind/biased?'

 

[stephen]

No doubt that it was a poor decision, but it was nowhere near as bad as the one where Symonds hit the cover off the ball and was still not given out caught behind. There was a genuine case here about whether there was an inside edge especially since there were 2 sounds with bat hitting pad unlike in the Symonds scenario where the ball was miles away from everything other than bat.

So it was a bad decision, get over it. We see millions of them everyday in test match cricket. If people want to whinge, why not whinge about the fact that the referral system wasn't put into place for this series, because that is a more of a genuine argument than 'Is Rudi blind/biased?'

The whinge is because it is the worst decision that I've seen by an international umpire since the Symonds one.

Absolutely terrible, batsman was absolutely plumb and the bat was nowhere near the ball. An international umpire should get them every day of the week.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

So it was a bad decision, get over it. We see millions of them everyday in test match cricket.

Well usually around 3 or 4 anyway.

 

[tooextracool]

The whinge is because it is the worst decision that I've seen by an international umpire since the Symonds one.

Absolutely terrible, batsman was absolutely plumb and the bat was nowhere near the ball. An international umpire should get them every day of the week.

You are telling me you havent seen any plumb decisions not given in the last 2 years?
Rightly or wrongly, these sorts of decisions happen too often for cricket to continue this way. The point is that we are not going to get anywhere without that referral system.

 

[91Jmay]

Shane Watson and Simon Katich had decisions given not out, which were just as out as Bell's. Stop whinging, Australia are playing awful cricket. End of.

 

[Matt79]

****. What a disaster of a day. Weather looks like the only thing that might prevent an English win, an I've made my views of that kind of thing pretty plain. We certainly don't deserve a draw at the moment.

Well bowled Onions and Anderson. Haven't read through the thread yet, but I assume Gimh achieved multiples. The difference in Anderson when the ball swings is astonishing. Honestly never really rated him until I saw him bowl last night.

 

[Matt79]

Well done to Ricky Ponting in the record, btw. Pretty small consolation for him not getting a bigger score though.

 

[oitoitoi]

Reading some of the comments....over reactions quite astonishing in some places from both sides.

1. Anderson vs Steyn.....are you being serious? Steyn has done it everywhere against everyone, consistently, Anderson's only done it when the conditions have favoured him in England and NZ, and even then pretty occasionally. Generally he's only done it against the weaker opposition too. I'd take Zaheer over him too because of skill with the old ball.
2. Onions like S Pollock in his heyday........!
3. Fair enough Bell got the biggest let off of his career, (johnson - when it rains it pours) but it doesn't change that Australia's batting was a pile of excrement.

Clarke got a rough one, international umpires should be able to spot those sliding down leg fairly easily as it's a textbook sort of thing. Some of the Australian dismissals though... their batting coach must be going off the walls, North, Hussey, Johnson, wtf were they doing? These Aussies just don't look like they've got the old arrogance and bloody mindedness in them, they need a Steve Waugh/Allan Border in that line up, Merv Hughes wouldn't go amiss either. Australia deserve to lose this match and probably the series too, they've been rubbish. Overall been dissappointed with this series so far, the standard of cricket has been, in general, so mediocre. England have played as expected, though Prior's doing much better than I would have predicted, thought Bopara might be more organised too. Australia have been pretty pants (Haddin and Hilfenhaus aside), cashed in on a flattie at Cardiff where England did their best to throw the game away, were awful at Lords and have continued that way at Edgbaston, tough to see them coming back from this.

p.s. Would also strongly dispute Strauss in a world XI ahead of Sehwag, and possibly Gambhir too.
p.p.s. When will they drop S Broad?
p.p.p.s. Who's wife did Clark screw to not get a game?

 

[tooextracool]

Reading some of the comments....over reactions quite astonishing in some places from both sides.

1. Anderson vs Steyn.....are you being serious? Steyn has done it everywhere against everyone, consistently, Anderson's only done it when the conditions have favoured him in England and NZ, and even then pretty occasionally. Generally he's only done it against the weaker opposition too. I'd take Zaheer over him too because of skill with the old ball.
2. Onions like S Pollock in his heyday........!

Think if you read the thread a bit more closely, you will find that no one has made any of the above 2 comments.

 

[Pizzorno]

Meh, Anderson has better hair than Steyn. That's what matters in the end.