Flintoff "was fit" for Headingley

[GIMH]

Oh yeah, it was mainly the Sri Lanka tour that I was calling ********. It's not ideal playing the weaker teams first up in an Ashes summer, but the schedule doesn't really allow for anything else. Next time New Zealand are over here they only get two tests though, because it's in an Ashes year, that's a real shame IMO.

The fact that we played Bangladesh in 05 could have been costly actually, as we saw Ian Bell have a similar summer to Bopara this time out (IIRC Bell went into the 05 Ashes with a Test average of 297) but thankfully there were other batsmen there to cover for him.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

If we replaced Hingston with a machine that just randomly selected between the phrases "I hate the IPL", "I Hate England", "I'm a fair-dinkum Saffie, don't you know", and "Fight me, I'm tough, bro", would anyone notice?

"Murali chucks it" should be there or thereabouts.

 

[howardj]

I broke this story yesterday afternoon. Anyway, FWIW, I think England made the correct decision. I think it was better for him to play 5% fit at the Oval. Rather than 2% fit at Headingly, and miss the Oval.

 

[slippyslip]

Well, considering Flintoff's bowling was poop at Edgbaston Flintoff could only have been considered as batsman. But Flintoff in a team and not bowling would probably be more psychologically damaging than no Flintoff.

Just my theory of course.

 

[Jakester1288]

It looks like it's time for Samit Patel to get off the pies.

 

[Richard]

It's not ideal playing the weaker teams first up in an Ashes summer, but the schedule doesn't really allow for anything else.

Nope, it doesn't. England have never had a series against a strong or strong-ish team at home immediately preceding a home Ashes.

 

[wpdavid]

Nope, it doesn't. England have never had a series against a strong or strong-ish team at home immediately preceding a home Ashes.

Bit harsh on 2001 Pakistan imo.

 

[Richard]

I did think that, but with Pakistan you never really know what they are until the time has come and passed. And by-and-large, on that tour, they were a shambles.

 

[wpdavid]

I did think that, but with Pakistan you never really know what they are until the time has come and passed. And by-and-large, on that tour, they were a shambles.

50/50 wasn't it? Needn't have bothered turning up at Lord's but comfortably beat us at Old Trafford iirc. They were certainly streets ahead of any other warm-up act we've had.

 

[BoyBrumby]

50/50 wasn't it? Needn't have bothered turning up at Lord's but comfortably beat us at Old Trafford iirc. They were certainly streets ahead of any other warm-up act we've had.

Wasn't that the test we lost 7 wickets after tea on the final day to lose? Shep missed about 3 wickets off no-balls if memory serves. We should've probably got away with the draw, but it is us.

 

[GIMH]

That was the very one. Athers mentioned it during the lunch break of day 4 at Lord's; said that when he lost his wicket to a no-ball in that game, he wasn't bitter that it was a no-ball, just miffed at the way he'd got out and said that Katich probably felt the same

 

[andyc]

Wasn't that the test we lost 7 wickets after tea on the final day to lose? Shep missed about 3 wickets off no-balls if memory serves. We should've probably got away with the draw, but it is us.

Pakistan must've bowled well.

 

[Pigeon]

it's all part of the dastardly IPL conspiracy to destroy English cricket, clearly.

I second this. The Flintoff decision to last this Ashes is clearly a golden **** off extended to the ECB by the IPL.

 

[wpdavid]

Pakistan must've bowled well.

Yeh - Saqlain cleaned up at the end of Day 5 on one of our more spin-friendly surfaces.

 

[Jamee999]

Wasn't that the test we lost 7 wickets after tea on the final day to lose? Shep missed about 3 wickets off no-balls if memory serves. We should've probably got away with the draw, but it is us.

Nah, if the ball was moving around, there's no way to lose less than 7 wickets. Fact.

 

[Richard]

Yeh - Saqlain cleaned up at the end of Day 5 on one of our more spin-friendly surfaces.

As I recall he barely got a ball off the straight all game, and the tail-end wickets he picked-up were due to England ineptitude rather than his own skill. Only Waqar Younis came close to bowling well that Test, for mine.

Pakistan winning that Second Test was more about England doing a Pakistan (dropping ****loads of catches, bowling dangerously but waywardly, batting brilliantly then diabolically in the same innings, having fortune conspire against them with the wickets off no-balls to compound their own ineptitude) than Pakistan playing especially well.

If England had played at Old Trafford as they had at Lord's - ie, caught the catches, bowled accurately and batted consistently through the order rather than one or two top-order doing the job and everyone else falling off the radar - then Pakistan would've been wiped off the turf same way everyone else who'd faced England for the previous 12 months (except Sri Lanka at Galle) had been.

BTW I agree that they were streets ahead of any other two-Test-pre-Ashes series we've had - but when that amounts to Bangladesh and a West Indies who were only pitched there on a random whim and clearly had precious little interest, or quality, then that's really no achievement. Pakistan of 2001 were still very much not strong or strong-ish. Wasim and Waqar were past it; Shoaib was ill; Saqlain was neutered by the pitches; Saeed Anwar was past his best; Mohammad Yousuf was then what he is now, a flat-track bully; the also-rans were either hopeless (Azhar Mahmood) or being completely mismanaged (Abdur Razzaq being asked to open the batting? ). The only quality players on that tour were Inzamam and, of all people, Rashid Latif, who was never more than a decent wicketkeeper-batsman.

 

[Richard]

Nah, if the ball was moving around, there's no way to lose less than 7 wickets. Fact.

It wasn't moving around though. That deck was flat as a pancake, with no seam or turn, and the ball didn't swing very much in that game or at any point that summer or the next five summers.

Still, even though you were only 8 at the time, don't miss the chance of a smart-aess comment.