***Official*** 1st Test at The Gabba

[steds]

Food for thought, this time next year, Zimbabwe will be playing test cricket, and they can't play Bangladesh forever..

And that has what to do with the Ashes?

 

[Anil]

what if england somehow bat out a day and a half and save this test? is there a chance in a million that it could happen?

 

[Fusion]

what if england somehow bat out a day and a half and save this test? is there a chance in a million that it could happen?

With their present demoralized state, I say there's no chance in a billion that would happen.

 

[superkingdave]

Funniest thing i've heard all week was a rumour that Harmison was saying he thought he'd bowled pretty well this test...

 

[Anil]

With their present demoralized state, I say there's no chance in a billion that would happen.

yeah that's what i would think as well...just idle musings that's all...

 

[Son Of Coco]

i was, were you?
KP ended up with both his pads outside the off stump, that in itself would suggest that the ball would have to do a lot for it to hit the stumps. Like i said earlier, it merely came in on the angle, not off the seam so it was a straight delivery and considering how close Mcgrath gets to the stumps it should be pretty obvious that the angle wasnt significant, certainly nothing like Makhaya Ntini would generate.

Yeah, I was...KP's pad was moving across from leg to outside off when he was hit, the ball did move in a bit, and while his back leg ended up outside off, it wasn't there when he was initially hit. To the naked eye I don't think anyone could be blamed for giving it out, and I'm pretty sure KP wouldn't have left it if he'd have known where it was going to end up after it hit the pitch.

EDIT: I should say, his leg ended up a fair way outside off, he was hit outside off stump but the ball was moving in a little making it difficult to judge. Really, if he hadn't shouldered arms he would never have had anything to worry about. Watching it on tv I commented that, with the way McGrath was moving the ball around one of the English batsmen would get themselves into trouble with the leave, and they did.

 

[age_master]

Funniest thing i've heard all week was a rumour that Harmison was saying he thought he'd bowled pretty well this test...

About as well as Gilshrist batted in the first dig maybe

 

[greg]

Strauss*
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Joyce (well only because he's the one who's been called up to the squad)
Collingwood
Flintoff
Read
Harmison/Mahmood
Hoggard
Panesar

Better call up a reserve batsman to cover a late injury.

Start again.

 

[marc71178]

The most worrying thing was how it looked plumb to pretty much everyone in the world (Except TEC), yet hawkeye showed it missed off stump..

Does that show how poor the human eye really is? Or how bad Hawkeye is? Or how mediocre TEC is as an individual?

I'd say it's another reason to not trust Hawkeye to be honest (a bit like the last series when it told us a "bowled" had missed the stumps...)

 

[marc71178]

Thats true...but they cant make riduculous selections like Giles over Panesar!

If that were really the case.

I think that the choice was actually Giles and Anderson against Panesar and Mahmood...

 

[tooextracool]

I'd like to see England stand a foot outside their creases to Mcgrath and come down the track to him occasionally. That in essence would take lbw out of the equation and also cause him to change his line

 

[pasag]

Hmm Ponting slightly hurt. The irony.

 

[pasag]

Langer gets a real fine hundered. Brilliant stuff and Australia declare. Hope Pontings alright. This may be over today.

 

[Craig]

I've never seen any side that wasnt bangladesh or zimbabwe get so outclassed by any opposition in a test match. Its quite sad really,on the same wicket where the England batsmen looked like they were dodging bombs, the bowlers made it look like it was an absolute road. I wouldnt be surprised if Duncan Fletcher went in with no changes for the next match, but tbh this defeat isnt the same as Lords last year(where we outclassed more in the field than anywhere else). At least Panesar has to play now, and unfortunately so does Sajid Mahmood. id replace both Giles and Anderson, the latter of whom has been the biggest disappointment for me at least as i really thought he might finally have been test material. I wouldnt tinker with the batting lineup too much yet. I think one of the issues that Atherton pointed out, and also something that i have noted in the past is that our bowlers simply havent improved since the last Ashes. You can put it down to injury and what not, but Harmison if anything has gotten worse, hes made no attempts to add any sorts of variations to his bowling. Hoggard's seam position has been woeful for several years(hes been bowling with a wobbly seam), you'd think the bowling coaches would have done something about it by now and even Flintoff hasnt really added too much to his armoury. Losing Troy Cooley was a big blow to English cricket, but the bowlers dont seem to have made any of their own effort to improve.

Well Harmy couldn't bowl an worse if he tried, this is probably one of the worst he has bowled in his entire FC career in all probability. And why didn't England move heaven and earth to keep Cooley. Ask him to name his price and he match it.

Anyway Langer has (yawn) another 100 and Ponting has declared with a lead of 647. Boring.

 

[Craig]

Langer gets a real fine hundered. Brilliant stuff and Australia declare. Hope Pontings alright. This may be over today.

Pretty meaningless if you ask me.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Presumably Ponting's back problems hastened the declaration. If he was fit he would have gone for another century I think. Still, in terms of forcing a result it's the most sensible decision.

Incidentally, another 40 odd here and he'd have got a century in each innings four times in tests, which is a record, and the four occasions would all have happened in the last 12 months, with the first such match being the Gabba test against the West Indies last summer.

 

[tooextracool]

And why didn't England move heaven and earth to keep Cooley. Ask him to name his price and he match it.

Duncan Fletcher probably didnt like his personality

 

[Craig]

Funniest thing i've heard all week was a rumour that Harmison was saying he thought he'd bowled pretty well this test...

I would be sending all the anti-doping people around and be demanding for urine and blood tests to see if he isn't on something.

I mean WTF?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Pretty meaningless if you ask me.

It's not the toughest hundred he'll ever score, but in terms of his career it's pretty important, given that he was supposedly under pressure for his place before this test. 82 and an unbeaten 100 should put that to bed.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

One gets the feeling that McGrath and Clark will be all but unplayable from here out. The cracks are even widers today and both Hoggard and Harmison got the ball to move off them. I think this one will be over before stumps.