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

[King_Ponting]

yeh but according to some forum members mcgrath, hayden and ponting are rubbish......

 

[tooextracool]

I wish England would show a bit more urgency in between balls, if they stopped faffing about they'd get another 2-3 overs in.

you know, following the match on television would be a lot better than following it on cricinfo.

 

[Shane Warne]

I don't think England 'should' win. They have to get 10 wickets, and if even a couple of aussie top-order batsmen get going they are going to have trouble getting ten wickets.

Nothing I've seen in this series would suggest to me that England won't create enough chances to take 10 wickets in a whole day's play.

 

[tooextracool]

Actually, maybe. If Australia lose one in the next hour, Gillespie should bat at 3.

wouldnt be a bad idea if warne batted at 4 and lee at 5 either

 

[chalky]

Anyone know Carke's condition? If he hasn't improved since Friday you can't see how much he will have offer. I still think it will be difficult for England to bowl out Australia tommorrow if Australia bat with a defensive mentality. It's ironic really that Australia bowl best when the opposition is on the densive and they can have build up pressure and have lots of close fielders to take any chances created. England on the other hand I think prefer teams playing shots and coming at them when they are bowling. and don't seem so penetrative when teams dead bat against them.

 

[marc71178]

I think they all are, they just haven't had to do it for a while.

That's a key thing.

They've not had to battle their way out of trouble for a long time - could it be that is the key to this game?

 

[luckyeddie]

yeh but according to some forum members mcgrath, hayden and ponting are rubbish......

Eh?

McGrath is an all-time great and Hayden's just in need of a few runs.

 

[marc71178]

Yep, bangers in a test match = irrelevant information

What about in ODIs?

 

[tooextracool]

Me neither, the taff was good with the new ball earlier

yep a whole 3 balls.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I don't think England 'should' win. They have to get 10 wickets, and if even a couple of aussie top-order batsmen get going they are going to have trouble getting ten wickets.

As we've seen before Australia struggle to last 100 overs on a 1st/2nd day pitch, let alone a 5th day pitch with lots of pressure and men around the bat. There's no doubt Australia *could* last the required overs, but England have Giles who can put it in that rough against the 4 lefties all day, they've got Flintoff who's always on the mark and a challenge, Jones who took six in the first innings. Those are the three main threats, but then they've also got Harmison who can produce something at any time, Vaughan who looked more threatening than Giles today and Hoggard as backup if the rest get injured or something.

 

[marc71178]

If youre bowling with one slip and a gully and the ball goes between them off the edge, guess what, its still an edge

If there's only 1 slip and 1 gully you cannot moan about any shot through the gap.

 

[tooextracool]

No declaration yet. Not sure what England are trying to achieve - Australia would have to score at 4 runs per over throughout day 5 to win.

Harmison's padded-up as well...

There we go.

past the 418 obviously. not sure what the harmison padding up was all about, looked more like a bluff than anything else.

 

[marc71178]

Mark Nicholas just saying how he saw Macgill practice and how there was an argument he should have played in this match to which Slater replied, no argument here.

Told you all. Next time heed my wisdom.

In place of who?

Playing 2 seam bowlers who were both injury doubts and no back-up would've been a complete recipe for disaster.

 

[marc71178]

I think he's playing for himself, worried about his recent low scores costing him his place.

He would not be worried about it, because the first 2 Tests he got 4 good balls, and the English selectors aren't the sort to chop and change after that bloke gets a good first knock 50.

 

[luckyeddie]

What are you talking about, mr paranoid?

I was giving Vaughn credit because people said how it was pointless declaring when they did because they had to bowl a part time spinner and the fast bowlers didn't get to bowl many overs.

So I was saying that it's not as if Vaughn was poor though because he infact troubled the batsman more than any other bowler.

Eh?

I'm just desperately trying to find any 'irony' at all in Vaughan causing trouble to batsmen - but that's probably more to do with the fact that I know the meaning of the word.

Sometimes I struggle to make sense out of anything you say - and this occasion is no exception.

 

[tooextracool]

He's not going slowly at all now, going after everything in fact - I think the criticism was of his batting earlier in the innings, when his first 10-15 runs took 50-odd balls. All's well that ends well I guess.

its the way he bats though. hes likes to get himself set before playing his shots. it might not have been the most effective way to play in this inning, but at the end of the day it was still a major contribution.

 

[tooextracool]

In place of who?

Playing 2 seam bowlers who were both injury doubts and no back-up would've been a complete recipe for disaster.

as bad as it sounds, even shane watson would have been a better choice than gillespie.
there isnt much doubt now though, that its the last time we're seeing gillespie this series, and i'd be surprised if it isnt the end of his test career.

 

[Shane Warne]

Eh?

I'm just desperately trying to find any 'irony' at all in Vaughan causing trouble to batsmen - but that's probably more to do with the fact that I know the meaning of the word.

Sometimes I struggle to make sense out of anything you say - and this occasion is no exception.

Situational Irony - The irony that most people think of. A difference between what you expect to happen (in a story, for example) and what actually happens.

How does this not apply to everyone complaining that the best bowlers on paper wern't able to bowl enough and it was a waste of time bowling a part time spinner, then the part time spinner then going on to cause more problems than the frontline pacemen?

 

[tooextracool]

What a ripper from Glenn! haha, didn't see that coming at all.

there'd be some doubt as to whether he even saw it at all.

 

[Beleg]

Scaly Pscine,

I am not saying that England doesn't have a (moderate) upper-hand here. But to say that England 'should' win is an overstatement. I think even you will agree that it isn't too difficult to spring back to form on this pitch (as Bell and Strauss) have shown. And people like Ponting and Martyn haven't even been in particularly bad form of late - merely looking for a lucky brake. And if they, alongside Gilly, get going that 400 in eminently getable.