***Official*** 2nd Test at the Adelaide Oval

[Poker Boy]

It's hard to believe that this is the same Collingwood who looked hopelessly out of his depth at No 4 in England's first post-Ashes Test and when Strauss had his paternity leave in the last Test of that series I thought "oh God no, that means Collingwood will come back". He got two 50s in that match and since then has never looked back..and.to think I thought "what was Fletcher playing at" when he swapped him for KP in the order at the start of this series. At this rate if Vaughan is to come back it might be as an opener, and Tresco might have blown his chances all together. As for tomorrow? If we can get rid of Langer, Hussey and Ponting who knows...Clarke and Martyn are under pressure for their places if Watson comes back and Gilchrist is hopelessly off form...still think we should have played Monty instead of Anderson but at least we should keep the Ashes until Xmas now...

 

[pasag]

Langer is out already though.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Langer is out already though.

PB's talking about the follow-on, clearly.

 

[Poker Boy]

Langer is out already though.

Sorry my mistake. That's what tiredness does for you....

 

[Prad100w]

Collingwood..

Collingwood does possess tremendous temperament.He knows his limitations and moulded his game according to that..He played very sensibly..He has got a cool head and is a fighter to the core, reminds me of Mark Boucher of SA..It is an absolute pity to know that he wouldnt have been playing if Trescothick was there in the team..

 

[Barney Rubble]

Well, it appears I was thoroughly wrong about Collingwood. Fair play to the lad. I always liked him as a bloke, and you can't fault his attitude, but I never thought he had the natural ability for something like that. Amazing innings.

KP once again majestic, making Warne and McGrath look like rookies.

All in all a fantastic day from our lads, we're back in this series for sure.

 

[Hoggy31]

Can see this heading for a draw unless Harmison fires, can't really see Flintoff doing it all on his own. As for Giles, well, yeah, England would be better off if Pietersen bowled more overs than him.

 

[The Baconator]

Yeah this does seem to have draw written all over it. Only chances of a result are really if we skittle 'em or they get a big score and we badly **** up in the second.

 

[tooextracool]

I noted what you said later on about Bel and Collingwood, but how do you rate Bell's performance? I think he is trying very hard to stay in and get runs, and perhaps that is affecting his natural game and that he isn't proactive enough in looking for quick singles to help ease the pressure on him. He batted well yeasterday but I can not work out what was going through his head to play that shot that got out.

I thought Bell played quite well before he threw it away with that shot. He has shown that hes capable of grafting an innings though, and this is something that England missed out on last Ashes. This batting lineup is much much better than the one that ended up winning the last Ashes IMO because they are capable of attack and defence, theres a good mix of both in the lineup. On the shot that got him out, it was a poor shot, ive never been a big fan of the hook shot tbh, the pull shot is fine but the hook is almost always going to get you in trouble. Especially when its over neck high its almost impossible to keep it down. It is interesting though, as the commentators mentioned, Ian Bell had 60 on the board and was chastised for playing the hook shot yet Pietersen who had played 1 ball played the same shot to a similar ball and not much was made of it.

As for sweeping, there is nothing wrong in playing it IMO ifyou what you are doing. I have read a cricket manuel by Imran Khan on the topic of sweeping he said to move your leg outside leg stump to prevent yourself being bowled around/behind your legs. If any England player worked at it they can be successfull. I mean look at Hayden - for much of his career spin was his weakness, but he worked hard at it and look at his 2001 series in India as proof.

Oh i dont have a problem with the sweep shot if its executed well. Andy Flower made a career in the subcontinent out of it. But none of the England batters can play it well, that is quite obvious to me. Also none of the England batters are exactly great players of the cross batted shots- pull and hook shot. Bell, Collingwood, Cook, Flintoff and Jones are all players that prefer to play with a straight bat, and all of them bar Cook look quite good against spin when they are playing with a straight bat so i find it quite ridiculous when all of a sudden they bring the sweep shot into play because its just such a contrast to their technique.

One thing I do have to mention is that great decision by Steve Bucknor not to give Pieterson out caught behind off Lee in the morning. At first I thought 'out' and certaintly a lesser experienced umpire probably would have given him out. Well done to Bucknor.

Bucknor has been on top of his game this series. Its good to see, ive always thought of him as an excellent umpire, and it was quite sad over the last few years where they derided him as not liking Indians and what not.

 

[tooextracool]

You mean like all the English fans did in the first test?

Ironically i posted far more in the first test thread than this one. So perhaps the 'all' English fans might not be very apt. Then again maybe im not one of those stereotypical English cricket fans.

 

[tooextracool]

I think the only way a result will be reached is if Australia declares or is bowled out by the end of tomorrow, then attempts to dismiss England cheaply before trying to get the runs on the 5th day. The other option is, of course, that England bowls us out twice in the next three days for less than 550. Without Monty though I don't think so...I'm not a big believer in A Giles ability.

I'd back a draw though.

i do hope that Australia goes for the win. We do know what happens whenever they go for victories in games that their primary focus should be the draw, i.e Eden Gardens and Eden Gardens II in Adelaide 03/04

 

[tooextracool]

will be interesting to see whether Giles bowls from over or around the the wicket tomorrow. I think he might start from around, but he'll move over after a few overs to exploit the rough patches outside the left handers off stump.

 

[Slow Love™]

As a side-note, there is a lot less interest in this Test than the previous one on here? Is that because England were so poor in Brisbane, or is it a case of all you Aussies suffering from an acute case of whenthegoinggetstoughthecrimsrunawayitis ??

Funny you should say that, 'cause superkingdave, TEC and Brumby aside, it feels like there's far less participation from the English in this year's Ashes threads than last year. It often seems like it's a bunch of Aussies talking a fair bit of the time. It may be a timezone issue - it sounds like the games start at around or past midnight over there, while for us Aussies watching the Ashes from overseas, it's generally a more comfortable 8 or 9pm or so.

Looking at the thread counts of the two tests so far, I'm kinda surprised at my low participation rate, but I have been having a lot of connectivity issues with this site recently, and quick posts commenting on the action as it happens just don't seem worth the effort.

 

[Nishant]

I think england need to get the aussies to follow on! Otherwise, a draw is on the cards....with that said, england have suprised a lot of us already!....u never know!

 

[tooextracool]

i doubt England will enforce the follow on even if they get the chance to do so, not after what happened the last time they scored 551/6 at least.

 

[BoyBrumby]

i doubt England will enforce the follow on even if they get the chance to do so, not after what happened the last time they scored 551/6 at least.

I'd agree, unless we roll Oz for less than 200, which is a fairly slim hope.

 

[chalky]

Funny you should say that, 'cause superkingdave, TEC and Brumby aside, it feels like there's far less participation from the English in this year's Ashes threads than last year. It often seems like it's a bunch of Aussies talking a fair bit of the time. It may be a timezone issue - it sounds like the games start at around or past midnight over there, while for us Aussies watching the Ashes from overseas, it's generally a more comfortable 8 or 9pm or so.

Looking at the thread counts of the two tests so far, I'm kinda surprised at my low participation rate, but I have been having a lot of connectivity issues with this site recently, and quick posts commenting on the action as it happens just don't seem worth the effort.

I think the connection issue has something to do with it. I know it did for me I posted quite regularly on the 1st 3 days of the 1st test but got a bit frustrated on thr 4th & 5th days(ironically when England were having their best time) as posts were getting lost as the site was regularly freezing for 15-20 mins. eventually I just turned the computer off and didn't bother.

 

[Slow Love™]

I think the connection issue has something to do with it. I know it did for me I posted quite regularly on the 1st 3 days of the 1st test but got a bit frustrated on thr 4th & 5th days(ironically when England were having their best time) as posts were getting lost as the site was regularly freezing for 15-20 mins. eventually I just turned the computer off and didn't bother.

You should report this at the Site Discussion forum, a few of us are having similar problems, and reporting it in this thread. I kinda wonder if it's perhaps more widespread than it's assumed, but only a few people are actually bothering to post about it.

 

[PY]

With the matches starting at 12.30am, I'm not motivated to stay up as it's on Sky which I don't have so at best it is listening to the radio.

And most comments in threads are made 'in match' from both sides, only a couple of posts by each person can be made commenting 'apres-play'! Though we don't have much to debate after that 1st Test display.

 

[PY]

The simple plans are always the most effective :

"Make 700 and bowl them out for under 150 on the last day," he [John Buchanan] said when asked what his team's strategy was.