***Official*** 4th Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

[PhoenixFire]

Hussey, Ponting, McGrath, Gilchrist, Langer all underperformed, yet they still thrashed us.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Hussey, Ponting, McGrath, Gilchrist, Langer all underperformed, yet they still thrashed us.

McGrath was good I think. Kept the pressure right on throughout both innings and could easily have taken more wickets than he did. Obviously a few of those batsmen got out for low scores, but that's sort of a given that a few will do so. The key to Australia winning was that all four bowlers were extremely good. Australia played quality cricket throughout, except on the second morning.

 

[Johnners]

Lee finally had his share of luck today, and got 4 well deserved wickets after some tight bowling. Clark was Magnificent as usual, and is about a bee sting's width behind Punter in terms of MOTS honours imo. That ball he cleaned up Pietersen with was a pearler, a bad bit of batting, but the ball was still magnificent.

Hayden & Symonds could probably feel hard done by in not receiving MOTM, but you couldn't really see them going past Warne if he had a good match, and he probably had it sewed up as soon as he took 5 wickets in the 1st. All the same, it was good to see a bowler take out a deserved MOTM award.

Flintoff's captaincy went from bad to worse over the last two days. His field placements were ridiculous to our tailenders, trying to save runs instead of trying to take wickets. Mind you, he wasn't exactly helped by some of Saj's bowling!

The only positives england could take out of their performance afaic is Saj's 4 wickets, despite some ordinary overs to Warne this morning. Read's keeping looked far better than Jones, and he batted quite well in surviving whilst the tail fell around him in Englands 2nd innings.

Australia on the otherhand can take heart in the fact that they still managed 400+ without Contributions from Ponting, Hussey & Clarke, our 3 highest runs scorers for the series. Also, it's worth noting that all of Australia's 7 batsmen have made Centuries (9 in total) this series, compared to just 3 for England. The vastly improved Bowling performace of Lee was another positive. His action looked a helluva lot better than it has in any other time during the series, and to me it's no coincidence that it's also the 1st time he's taken more than 2 wickets in an innings, and went for under 3 runs an over easily.

All in all, it was yet another comprehensive victory to Australia.

EDIT: How freaking good was Langers catch!!

 

[social]

If guys like Warne and McGrath (and even Stuart Clark this summer) have proven anything with bowling, it is that being 'boring' is good. Just put it on a good line and length, and keep doing it. Don't, like Brett Lee is often guilty of and even Saj Mahmood to a degree in this match, be bored by it.

Mark Taylor, regarded by all and sundry as a top captain, summed it up beautifully

Bowl accurately and aim to hit the top of off stump every ball - fields are easy to set, runs are hard to score, and theyre the balls that take most wickets anyway (the "genius" of McGrath btw)

Having 5 plans for a batsman (including run outs!!!!????) is ridiculous - you have so many thoughts going thru your mind that the chances of executing efficiently are reduced exponentially.

 

[GIMH]

Agnew critical of England's team spirit

Dind't realise KP had batted four this morning. Team spirit really does sound shot. Hopefully Vaughan stays fit for the year, because team spirit never seemed an issue under him.

 

[chris.hinton]

Simply Awful.. i said before and i will say it again they have to be changes from top to bottom in Organization so this does not happen again

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Love Aggers.

 

[Tomm NCCC]

Rudi Koertzen has had a poor game. Turned down 5 LBW appeals which were plum, and out. I would say he has ruined the game. I would say it, but I still think that England wouldve messed up anyway.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Rudi have a few out that shouldn't really have been either. How on earth was Bell out and Cook not?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Rudi have a few out that shouldn't really have been either. How on earth was Bell out and Cook not?

They were both gone IMO. Mahmood wasn't out though. Great ball from Warne, but it would have missed off.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Cook certainy was out, but maybe Bell's was a bit high, didn't see Mahmoods.

 

[Prince EWS]

They were both gone IMO. Mahmood wasn't out though. Great ball from Warne, but it would have missed off.

Yeah, both were certainly out IMO. Hayden was also out twice not given (I think he was on 0 at the time too - went on to score 150+), and Symonds once not given (on 20 odd - went on to score 150+ as well.)

Really though, no matter how bad the umpiring was, you can't lose by an innings and 99 and blame the umpiring. Rudi is lucky the game was by no means close because both sides had very rough decisions go against them.

 

[PhoenixFire]

TBF, if Symonds and Hayden had both been given out at the right times, then England would still be in with a chance now.

 

[pasag]

Pics from today. Sorry if there are too many or whatever.

 

[pasag]

And some more:

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Quality pics. Love the last three, and the one of Warne leaning on his bat.

 

[Jono]

Where'd you sit today Passag?

 

[Jono]

Edit: wrong thread, how embarassing.

 

[pasag]

Gate 6 - Southern Stand, just next to the sidescreen.

 

[Legga]

England are pathetic.
5-0 here we come.