***Official*** Australia in England (The Ashes)

[tooextracool]

With the exception of Harmison and Flintoff early, England's bowling has been ordinary and we're 180-9.

No application and no brains. Really amateur stuff.

not sure what you've been watching really.....
jones bowled exceedingly well and both of his 2 wickets were fairly good deliveries. flintoff was off color and hoggard was rubbish, although the 2 of them still managed to bowl 2 very good balls thats got hayden and gilchrist respectively.
australia didnt bat poorly at all, they batted just like they always do while harmison and jones bowled well.

 

[tooextracool]

I'm quite worried by what I'm seeing from Lee. It's deja vu; he was picked to play the home series against India after bowling so well in the ODI's and FC cricket and proceeded to lose his head and bowl short crap, hence lack of success on the WACA deck and subsequent harsh treatment by the batsmen on the SCG.

Already, forgetting that which made him successful in the ODI's, at least 60% of his deliveries have been in his half. At what point, I really wonder, will he switch his brain on and forget that just trying to bowl quick ALONE earns him a belting from Test-class batsmen??

to be honest i thought he bowled pretty well in that first spell. hes just not the sort of bowler who gets seam movement, so hes not going to be anywhere near as good as mcgrath on a seamer friendly wicket.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

personally, i cant see any reason why people wouldnt.
i expect katich to score more runs than ponting on this tour.

Yeah, I rate Katich extremely highly too, and have for a while now. He's got a wonderful temprament and a very good technique. I picked him as my series surprise packet over Lee (who I also expect to do quite well) because of that. He and Martyn are the batsmen I would expect to do best for Australia this series, and Katich along with Langer is the batsmen I would most like to see in if Australia were in trouble.

 

[tooextracool]

Nope, I covered myself saying that Pieterson should be picked over Thorpe IF Thorpe wasn't fit but Thorpe should be picked otherwise.

what a pity, if the selectors had brain they would have picked both of them. and really if this wasnt an occasion for thorpe to be batting in then what is?

 

[tooextracool]

Well done Tresco, managed to edge a ball that did nothing on leg stump.

wow what a surprise, tresco edges mcgrath to slip.

 

[Run like Inzy]

not sure what you've been watching really.....
jones bowled exceedingly well and both of his 2 wickets were fairly good deliveries. flintoff was off color and hoggard was rubbish, although the 2 of them still managed to bowl 2 very good balls thats got hayden and gilchrist respectively.
australia didnt bat poorly at all, they batted just like they always do while harmison and jones bowled well.

Sure they bowled well but Mcgrath simply bowled better. (Although the English batsmen weren't without fault) Looking at Hoggard he did bowl a few too many balls legside. The English bowled well but I think the Aussies batted with more patience. England showed signs of impatience at the Oval ODI where they should have got 270 batting first on a cracking pitch but ended up with a mediocore score.

 

[tooextracool]

BTW what do we reckon about Ponting chirping at Vaughan when he came out to bat? He certainly had a lot to say for himself, so what's his problem today?

its all part of his mission to improve australia's on field behaviour.

 

[tooextracool]

This really is incredible bowling. Forget the pitch - McGrath would get wickets on any deck in this form.

whether he'd get 5/21 is another question though.

 

[tooextracool]

The thing was the poor shots were more of a factor than any thing else. If Australia had tried to play themselves in a bit, I would give the small turbulations in the pitch, if any, to be more of a factor. But I see what you mean.

err no. the poor shots came from langer & katich. the others either had flaws exposed or just got good deliveries. this is a very very poor wicket, you cant have uneven bounce on a first day wicket.

 

[tooextracool]

I know it's early days, but on that showing Bell is not remotely in the same class as Thorpe.

im not sure what you are trying to suggest there but i can assure you that if you are writing off a player based on one inning where he got a nearly unplayable delivery it is quite ludicrous.
as far as players in the same class as graham thorpe is concerned, umm there isnt a player in the current england side who is in the same class as thorpe ATM. and well there are arent that many aussies in the same class as thorpe either.

 

[tooextracool]

And Jones breaks the tension with a great shot off the back-foot through cover. I really like him.

im really starting to like him too, well i liked him before but after he played like a complete dumba** in SA i started to dislike him a fair bit. he has all the shots in the book and a fairly decent technique, yet he seems like he only really applies himself when england are in very deep trouble.

 

[tooextracool]

He missed as many as he hit and doesnt move his feet..

i can assure you about 1 thing. theres absolutely nothing wrong with his footwork.

England need Thorpe and someone has to make way for him.

the person that needs to make way for thorpe is someone who not only has poor footwork, but also a miserable record against australia. take a guess who that is.

 

[tooextracool]

Yeah, I think he bowled quite well... as I said, much better than he has been. He wasn't as good as McGrath and Lee obviously, but he bowled enough good balls that I'm happy enough to have him in the team.

i think even shane watson would have bowled a handful of good balls on that wicket

 

[tooextracool]

Yeh instead of bell. But his replacement in peitersen is doing quite well.

good god its one inning, where he got quite a nasty delivery on a brute of a wicket. give him a break.

 

[Steulen]

i can assure you about 1 thing. theres absolutely nothing wrong with his footwork.



the person that needs to make way for thorpe is someone who not only has poor footwork, but also a miserable record against australia. take a guess who that is.

Tresco out, Vaughan to open, Thorpe at 5, Pietersen at 4? Is that what you're saying?

Hmmmm....might work.

Tresco's dismissal was indeed very poor, and also a severe case of history repeating.

Still, the selectors will not go this way, even if (make that when) innings 4 is a carbon copy of today.

 

[tooextracool]

Sure they bowled well but Mcgrath simply bowled better.

yes i know, and this is precisely what i meant when i said several times before the series that preparing a seam friendly would be useless for englands chances, because no matter how well flintoff, harmison, hoggard and jones bowl, mcgrath and co will bowl better.

 

[Pratters]

yes i know, and this is precisely what i meant when i said several times before the series that preparing a seam friendly would be useless for englands chances, because no matter how well flintoff, harmison, hoggard and jones bowl, mcgrath and co will bowl better.

So what kind of a wicket would be useful acording to you as a spin supporting pitch wouldnt be an answer most definitely from an English perspective!

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

yes i know, and this is precisely what i meant when i said several times before the series that preparing a seam friendly would be useless for englands chances, because no matter how well flintoff, harmison, hoggard and jones bowl, mcgrath and co will bowl better.

This wicket isn't exactly a green-top though. It's got a reasonable amount of seam movement of course, but not as much as several wickets seen in the ODI series... mostly it's just got uneven bounce, which should be right up Harmison's alley. And really, it was reasonably true in Australia's innings comparitively. A few still shot off a length and other kept down (the second ball of the test, in fact), but not as much as in England's innings.

 

[tooextracool]

Tresco out, Vaughan to open, Thorpe at 5, Pietersen at 4? Is that what you're saying? .

thorpe at 4 i'd expect.

Tresco's dismissal was indeed very poor, and also a severe case of history repeating.

Still, the selectors will not go this way, even if (make that when) innings 4 is a carbon copy of today.

sadly that will be the case, no matter how poorly tresco does in this series.

 

[tooextracool]

So what kind of a wicket would be useful acording to you as a spin supporting pitch wouldnt be an answer most definitely from an English perspective!

why not? a slow turning wicket like the ones we saw at Lords and edgbaston last year against the WI might be the perfect wicket for England.