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

[greg]

Poor show!!

(I can understand it but).

Nah, I'm sure we were all quite happy to express the same sentiments and more when Glenn decided to test his ankle ligaments.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Haha yeah. Tell me you weren't happy when McGrath was out!

Let's just say I wasn't crying in me soup Okay then, fair dos.

Just goes to show how much respect Jonah as earned during the series.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Nah, I'm sure we were all quite happy to express the same sentiments and more when Glenn decided to test his ankle ligaments.

Yeah but I didn't tell anyone

 

[Slow Love™]

Wow, I'm really glad Jones is out - rain aside, our chances of evening up this series just jumped significantly. I'd like to see Hodge in for Hayden in our lineup (another right-hander in the order) and Katich up to open, but it won't happen.

The negativity around James Anderson (with some it obviously approaches contempt) is so surreal to me - I lost touch with him during his loss of form, and my opinion of him from what I'd seen earlier was that he was very decent. He may surprise, if they play him.

 

[Barney Rubble]

I reckon drop Bell and place Collingwood, more options with him there, as I think he can bowl too.

Not really. Bell's the better batsman, and contrary to popular belief, the better bowler too. Certainly in first-class cricket, anyway - Bell's first-class average is only 1 run higher than Simon Jones'!

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Wow, I'm really glad Jones is out - rain aside, our chances of evening up this series just jumped significantly. I'd like to see Hodge in for Hayden in our lineup (another right-hander in the order) and Katich up to open, but it won't happen.

The negativity around James Anderson (with some it obviously approaches contempt) is so surreal to me - I lost touch with him during his loss of form, and my opinion of him from what I'd seen earlier was that he was very decent. He may surprise, if they play him.

Too much like brett lee
He'll bowl you a brillent potential wicket taking ball 5-6 times a day but the rest of the balls in between are poop!

 

[Barney Rubble]

Too much like brett lee
He'll bowl you a brillent potential wicket taking ball 5-6 times a day but the rest of the balls in between are poop!

Luckily for us (and him) some of the poop ones occasionally take wickets - I remember a couple of West Indians lobbing half-volleys to cover, and a couple of Saffers middling it to gully in the past year or so.

 

[simmy]

Jones will be missed just as much as McGrath was missed by Aus, which is fairly huge compliment!

His ability to reverse swing is invaluable on a pitch which should offer nothing at all to the seamers!

Aus chances have gone up massively... just whether Aus can weather the weather. (What a sentence!)

 

[BoyBrumby]

Just on Sky Sports News, Jonah is officially out of the Oval Test.

Clicky

Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Ah, fudge. That's really bad news.

I don't wanna take the conservative option of bunging in another batter, but unfortunately I have no faith in young James at all. He was embarrassingly poor in the 4th test in SA. He may be playing on a flat track @ OT, but Dom Cork & Glenn Chappel have taken their wickets for far few runs this year.

Not that I'm advocating Glen Chappel, mind....

 

[SpaceMonkey]

Yep. Also doesnt look promising for the tour of Pakistan if he needs an op to remove the born spur

Its weird that Flintoff could play for months with the problem by using injections but Jones cant even do a few overs with it. I guess its in a different place on the ankle thats harder to mask with painkilling / anti-inflamitary injections.

 

[open365]

ahh crap!

not jones,he's englands best bowler by far.

i'm not sure who should play instead of him,i think england will go with jimmy anderson because they don't want to change their game plan but collignwood is the safer option IMO

 

[Scaly piscine]

Not really. Bell's the better batsman, and contrary to popular belief, the better bowler too. Certainly in first-class cricket, anyway - Bell's first-class average is only 1 run higher than Simon Jones'!

mmhmm, nice self-defeating argument there...

I would find it hard to believe that Collingwood would have been worse than Bell has been this series if he'd have played in his place. (Cue marc to go on about how unlucky he has been to face so many unplayable deliveries which were mostly decent deliveries that Bell made appear to be unplayable, he's kind of like the reverse of a great batsman who turn decent deliveries into 4s)

 

[Barney Rubble]

mmhmm, nice self-defeating argument there...

I would find it hard to believe that Collingwood would have been worse than Bell has been this series if he'd have played in his place. (Cue marc to go on about how unlucky he has been to face so many unplayable deliveries which were mostly decent deliveries that Bell made appear to be unplayable, he's kind of like the reverse of a great batsman who turn decent deliveries into 4s)

Let me guess - I've failed to spot that Colly's FC batting average is higher than Bell's, haven't I? Bugger.

EDIT: No, that's not it - Bell's is 11 runs higher than Colly's. OK, I give up - how is my argument self-defeating?

 

[Barney Rubble]

Haha, check this out......

Surely there's someone who deserves his ticket more than he does.......

 

[Scaly piscine]

Let me guess - I've failed to spot that Colly's FC batting average is higher than Bell's, haven't I? Bugger.

EDIT: No, that's not it - Bell's is 11 runs higher than Colly's. OK, I give up - how is my argument self-defeating?

You going on about FC averages, then mention that Bell's FC bowling average is only 1 run higher than the taff's FC bowling average.

 

[greg]

Let me guess - I've failed to spot that Colly's FC batting average is higher than Bell's, haven't I? Bugger.

EDIT: No, that's not it - Bell's is 11 runs higher than Colly's. OK, I give up - how is my argument self-defeating?

Nope. I don't get it either. Unless it's a point about how meaningless FC averages are.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Nope. I don't get it either. Unless it's a point about how meaningless FC averages are.

Ah well, at least the cogs are turning... slowly.

 

[Barney Rubble]

You going on about FC averages, then mention that Bell's FC bowling average is only 1 run higher than the taff's FC bowling average.

I still don't get it - the first mention of FC averages I made was that Bell's average was only 1 run above Jonah's, and that was just to illustrate how underrated Bell's bowling is.

To put my point in other words, IMHO Bell is the better batsman which means Colly shouldn't replace him, and there's no sense including Colly as an extra bowling option because we already have Bell in the team, who could do that job better than he could.

 

[Scaly piscine]

I still don't get it - the first mention of FC averages I made was that Bell's average was only 1 run above Jonah's, and that was just to illustrate how underrated Bell's bowling is.

To put my point in other words, IMHO Bell is the better batsman which means Colly shouldn't replace him, and there's no sense including Colly as an extra bowling option because we already have Bell in the team, who could do that job better than he could.

Except you're basing who is better simply on FC average as there's nothing else in Bell's favour to put Bell ahead of Collingwood, because anyone who's seen Bell play this summer would see his batting is worse than Collingwood's. Bell is a Ramprakash waiting to happen if he doesn't improve.

 

[greg]

Except you're basing who is better simply on FC average as there's nothing else in Bell's favour to put Bell ahead of Collingwood, because anyone who's seen Bell play this summer would see his batting is worse than Collingwood's. Bell is a Ramprakash waiting to happen if he doesn't improve.

"North-East England" wouldn't happen to be Durham, would it? The only times I've seen Collingwood bat this summer was in the ODIs, where (like everyone else) he looked extremely uncomfortable first up against McGrath, but spent most of the time batting against Symonds and Hogg. So not really much scope for comparisons.