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

[King_Ponting]

Can you post your address so that I can come round and beat some sense into you!

Aus are overrated... England are rampant... there is only going to be one winner. (That is England by the way )

England win a one game and thats how you react..... Lets just wait till the end of the series until you make that judgement

 

[simmy]

quite an extraordinary effort that, easily the best innings hes ever played at the test match level. you could see from the grit and determination very early on in his innings though that this was going to be a big one and at the end of the day he almost single handedly saved australia from defeat. that inning was not just important on the basis of the result, but also to make up for his abysmal captaincy during this series, australia really needed him to lead from the front today. well done against some truly brilliant spells of fast bowling that he had to endure.

Fantastic knock. I have to say it and was disappointed that the commentators didnt mention it more. Would have been better if he hadnt got out. What was that paddle shot all about?! If he hit it, it was going for four and he wouldnt have got the strike for the next over anyway.

 

[Shane Warne]

If Bell and Pietersen hadnt have been given out... with equally both horrendous decisions then you would not have been gloating because you could have been chasing another 100.

Bells still isn't officially the wrong decision. Snicko didn't even react to the pad impact, so it led to speculation that it was playing up, backed up by Atherton.

Replays showed Bell's bat move on impact. A lot of people believe it was out.

Pietersens happened after he was given a let off when he gloved his first ball.

So he was given a life and got 20 more runs than he was entitled to, and those proved to be vital runs in the context of the game.

 

[tooextracool]

Who takes more out of that match?

England for dominating but coming up short or Aus for escaping?

it'll be extremely interesting for sure, theres plenty to take out for both sides. england can take the fact that out of the top 7 only ponting, clarke and possibly martyn looked anything like threatening during the game. not to mention that almost every english player has done something of significance in this series. australia can take away that finally one of their top order players has performed, mcgrath will be fully fit for trent bridge(unless the aussies decide to take up rugby again), gillespie will finally be dropped, and they have a week and a half to get some rest, regroup and for their batters to get some well needed batting practice.
but so very often we've seen that a draw in which one team completely dominated has resulted in a contrasting result in the next test. im worried about the fitness off some of the english players, simon jones might just have injured his knee yet again and both flintoff and harmison have bowled very long spells during this game.

 

[Shane Warne]

im worried about the fitness off some of the english players, simon jones might just have injured his knee yet again and both flintoff and harmison have bowled very long spells during this game.

Let's hope one of them has to miss a game to even it up from when Mcgrath was absent.

 

[simmy]

England win a one game and thats how you react..... Lets just wait till the end of the series until you make that judgement

I was predicting England wins after the Twenty20 match ffs!

England will be a little concerned that they did not win with 108 overs to bowl.. but... and this is my main point.... you will like this as its true... England have no main concerns. All their batsmen have scored runs now... all their bowlers have got wickets... (Although Pietersen's catching is a shocker).

Australia on the other hand, having batting problems from 1-7 (except Ponting)... you cannot deny it so dont even try... Gillespie is rubbish... you cannot deny it so dont even try and McGrath and Warne are being played a hell of a lot better.

Australia despite Ricky Ponting today, Brett Lee last match and Shane Warne throughout have showed no character whatsoever. Take Bell for example... the way he battled through was superb and was unlucky to be given out.

Anyway, everyone was predicting Aus wins before the series began... so why cant I predict an England win. Is it because the Aussies are oh so incredibly mighty and cant be betted against?!?! Oh please. I can stay by that decision and I am surely backing the stronger side at present.

 

[Jamee999]

That'll get complaints, where's the un-hidden Aussie bias?(simmy)

You can't drop Dizzy he's your 4th Best Batsman.

 

[tooextracool]

MacGill's message to McGrath: "Don't go out."

i would have thought the message to mcgrath would have been " watch out for the slower ball yorker", something that for reasons unknown wasnt tried by harmison in that last over. tailenders have never been the best at picking variations, and that really would have been worth the effort, especially instead of some of the tripe that was actually bowled in that last over.
however as it turned out, the message was simply for mcgrath to stand out of his crease and reduce the chances of an lbw decision going against him.

 

[Shane Warne]

McGrath and Warne are being played a hell of a lot better. .

It's funny you chose to only focus on that when the same argument could be made of Harmissons and Giles recent impact.

 

[simmy]

Let's hope one of them has to miss a game to even it up from when Mcgrath was absent.

No lets not.

 

[simmy]

That'll get complaints, where's the un-hidden Aussie bias?(simmy)

You can't drop Dizzy he's your 4th Best Batsman.

HAHA. Brilliant.

 

[Jamee999]

You wouldn't have got close if McGrath had played at Edgebaston.

You'd have not got near.

 

[Shane Warne]

No lets not.

If Flintoff misses the next game and we win by two runs after a bad final decision given in our favor, then I can gloat about how we are better, like you.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Anyway, everyone was predicting Aus wins before the series began... so why cant I predict an England win. Is it because the Aussies are oh so incredibly mighty and cant be betted against?!?! Oh please. I can stay by that decision and I am surely backing the stronger side at present.

Nobody objects to you tipping an England win mate, it's the incredibly obnoxious fashion in which you do it that people find irritating. If I'd started a thread before the Ashes saying "AUSTRALIA WILL WIN ALL FIVE TESTS BY AN INNINGS!" people would have had a go at me about it as well.

 

[King_Ponting]

I was predicting England wins after the Twenty20 match ffs!

England will be a little concerned that they did not win with 108 overs to bowl.. but... and this is my main point.... you will like this as its true... England have no main concerns. All their batsmen have scored runs now... all their bowlers have got wickets... (Although Pietersen's catching is a shocker).

Australia on the other hand, having batting problems from 1-7 (except Ponting)... you cannot deny it so dont even try... Gillespie is rubbish... you cannot deny it so dont even try and McGrath and Warne are being played a hell of a lot better.

Australia despite Ricky Ponting today, Brett Lee last match and Shane Warne throughout have showed no character whatsoever. Take Bell for example... the way he battled through was superb and was unlucky to be given out.

Anyway, everyone was predicting Aus wins before the series began... so why cant I predict an England win. Is it because the Aussies are oh so incredibly mighty and cant be betted against?!?! Oh please. I can stay by that decision and I am surely backing the stronger side at present.

People were questioning punters batting and look how he reacted, like wise with lee. Im sure the aussies will rise to the challenge. IMO England are currently playing above themselves and australia below themselves....

 

[simmy]

It's funny you chose to only focus on that when the same argument could be made of Harmissons and Giles recent impact.

Fair point. But Flintoff and Jones are more than covering for them.

Its just a matter of time before Harmison finds form and when he gets it right.. he will be a handful.

Giles... well... Drop him... play Collingwood and bowl Vaughan's offies. Giles let England down a little in the second innings.

 

[Shane Warne]

You wouldn't have got close if McGrath had played at Edgebaston.

You'd have not got near.

Makes sense considering Mcgrath's been one Australia's best batsman. Yet to be dismissed and has scored runs.

 

[simmy]

People were questioning punters batting and look how he reacted, like wise with lee. Im sure the aussies will rise to the challenge. IMO England are currently playing above themselves and australia below themselves....

Australia are playing well below par. England on the other hand are certainly not playing above themselves as they have been doing this to all teams before them for 2 years.

 

[simmy]

People were questioning punters batting and look how he reacted, like wise with lee. Im sure the aussies will rise to the challenge. IMO England are currently playing above themselves and australia below themselves....

Vaughan and Bell were under more scrutiny.

All the Aus batters bar Ponting and Warne look out of touch and didnt rise to anything today. They have no respect for the English bowlers, that is their problem.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

People were questioning punters batting and look how he reacted, like wise with lee. Im sure the aussies will rise to the challenge. IMO England are currently playing above themselves and australia below themselves....

I think that's pretty hard to deny, yeah. Flintoff is clearly improving all the time, to the point where, as well as being a pretty handy batsman, he's in the top 5 or so best pacers in the world without question. However, England have performed just about flawlessly in their last two tests, batting, bowling and fielding brilliantly, and certainly peaking in general play. Australia have been sloppy, had injury concerns, and have lacked application and grit in their batting. You can't blame anyone except Australia for that, but in terms of the potential series result, it does mean that Australia have a lot of room to improve and England really don't have anywhere to go. I mean, all of England's top 4 made scores in this test, they held every catch bar one, Jones and Flintoff bowled as well as they have ever bowled etc. For Australia, Warne and Lee were pretty good without being brilliant, McGrath returned his worst figures in his test career while having three catches dropped off his bowling and getting a wicket off a no ball, Martyn got sawn off at a crucial time in the fourth innings etc. Australia should (and need to!) improve in the next test, because really very little has gone their way so far, and have been completely below their usual standard even taking into account the high quality of the opposition performance.

It will be a test of England's ability, as well as just how good Australia really are in the post-Steve Waugh era over the next two tests with the series on the line. I can't wait.