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

[Nate]

Hoggard should do quite well. I reckon he`ll swing it.

 

[greg]

Yeah, that was a dodgy decision. But you can hardly complain with the luck you`ve had in the last hour.

I hope you're not including Hoggard's playing and missing in that 'luck'.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Quite happy to admit weve been outplayed in 3 of the 4 tests to date but please dont even try and suggest that Eng havent been massively favoured by decisions in this series.

They haven't, being an Aussie you haven't had many positive things to focus on so you just look at all the decisions that go against them and forget the rest.

 

[greg]

Never mind mate, England are still miles short of what they should have made. Barring a rare contribution from our opening bowlers, you're well set for a sizeable lead.

I think people's views on the value of the England score are being skewed by the series situation. The English had hopes (and the Aussies fears) of 550 being on the board with the series effectively being over. Anything that still gives the Aussies a chance of winning is therefore being looked upon as a major positive to Australia. In the context of the match alone i reckon this is still a pretty good score (even if it arguably could have been more).

Bear in mind that all the commentators are saying that they think this is more of a 3rd day pitch than a second day one. And when the Oval starts to deteriorate it really becomes very difficult to bat on.

 

[Nuffy]

Lady luck has deserted us this series, its difficult to see us forcing a result at this point.

When I saw Giles be given not out after a clear nick, I couldn't help but think how stupid the likes of Gilchrist, Langer and Lara are for walking.

If the opposition decide not to walk (and it is their decision) then its ridiculously stupid to do so in the context of a cricket match.Why adhere to a standard that the opposition chooses not to, its fighting with one hand tied behind your back.

 

[social]

They haven't, being an Aussie you haven't had many positive things to focus on so you just look at all the decisions that go against them and forget the rest.

Eng win the last test by 3 wickets.

Ponting, Martyn and Katich all received poor decisions against them.

Jones adds 50 to his score after receiving the benefit of doubt

Could easily have been a different result.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

No way that last one was 50/50. The usual 'Australia aren't getting the decisions blah blah' guff continues.

It was 50/50 in so far as it could have gone either way. Obviously on the replay it shouldn't have been given out, and obviously the Bell one should have, but I wouldn't have been particularly surprised if the Bell one had been given not out and I wasn't particularly surprised to see the Harmison one given out. Warne had half a dozen decisions in the first couple of tests which were similar go against him, and you can whinge about people pointing it out all you like but it doesn't change what happened.

Anyway, my intent was not to complain, but rather to note the change in attitude to Warne's appeals in this test. As greg pointed out, I think perhaps the coverage of the first few tests and the umpiring in them has had an impact.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Yeah, that was a dodgy decision. But you can hardly complain with the luck you`ve had in the last hour.

They're tailenders, they tend to miss completely any ball that swings a bit - not England's problem if they miss the stumps as well.

 

[Slow Love™]

So... 373. Well, I hope we can get a nice lead here, but we've been expecting the Aussie bats to pass England comfortably on some of these bat-friendly tracks too often now for me count on it. I'd have felt a lot more confident if the Poms had 330 or so on the board.

Still, this is the time for something special if we're gonna save the Ashes. I'd love to see something special from anybody, but particularly Langer or Gilly. If Hayden makes a double century and puts us ahead, many of us are gonna look like a$$es, but I'm willing to wear it.

 

[Loony BoB]

Stephen Harm-his-arm?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Mate, Pakistanis and New Zealanders who complained at atrocious decisions that went against them in the Pak vs Aus and NZ vs Aus threads generally copped exactly the kind of reaction I'm describing. I remember even myself, as an Aussie supporter no less, copped it now and then from other Australian supporters when criticizing bad decisions, which I consider just as valid as people's numerous criticisms of players in threads.

That's the reason I brought up the conspiricy theories rather than just talking about poor umpiring decisions. Many people, particularly New Zealand fans, claimed that the umpires were either purposely or subconciously favouring the Australian team and that was why Australia were having the best of the decisions. There were even individual threads full of flame wars about it.

There have been some Australians who have done similar things in this series, but largely they haven't, which is why the situations are different. Talking in a thread about cricket and having people go on and on (a-la Nuffy and Shane Warne in this thread) about how the umpires are cheating and favouring one team and that's why all the results in the series have gone the way they have and so on is extremely annoying and people who do that tend to get criticised a lot.

But as to the evening up argument - can't you see how farcical it is to claim that when you acknowledge (in the very same sentence) that "Australia have had the worst of the umpiring calls in this series by a fair margin". How could both be true? It's completely illogical.

Australia have had the worst of the umpiring in this series, but they'd had a number of things go their way as well, and they had the best of the umpiring in the Australian summer at home. Against New Zealand, Australia had the best of the umpiring in the home test series, but when it went to New Zealand it evened up a fair bit. In India, Australia had the best of the umpiring early in the series, but as it wore on it evened up a bit.

That's what people mean when they say it evens out - poor umpiring decisions go against everyone eventually, they don't universally favour one team or another any more than injuries or weather or any other form of bad luck does.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Still, this is the time for something special if we're gonna save the Ashes. I'd love to see something special from anybody, but particularly Langer or Gilly. If Hayden makes a double century and puts us ahead, many of us are gonna look like a$$es, but I'm willing to wear it.

Cameel will look like a right genius though.

 

[Nate]

Hoggard bowling very well at present.

 

[Nate]

What a corker.

 

[social]

Amazing what pressure does.

Hayden cant miss the middle of the bat in county games yet looks like an absolute novice come the tests.

Mind you, this is probably the best Hoggard has bowled all series.

 

[greg]

Also the Giles LBW should IMO give cause for thought for all those complaining about all those Warne LBWs that haven't been given this summer. An umpire has to effectively pick Warne off the pitch and well as deciding the line on which it has pitched and the degree the ball will spin. On the back foot (a la the Trescothick non-decision at Lords) it's pretty easy. But they really should have no business giving batsmen out when they are as far forward as (to pick a random example) Flintoff was at Trent Bridge.

 

[Nate]

Wa-Hu! Shot Langer.

 

[Nate]

And again. Please no wickets before lunch.

 

[social]

Also the Giles LBW should IMO give cause for thought for all those complaining about all those Warne LBWs that haven't been given this summer. An umpire has to effectively pick Warne off the pitch and well as deciding the line on which it has pitched and the degree the ball will spin. On the back foot (a la the Trescothick non-decision at Lords) it's pretty easy. But they really should have no business giving batsmen out when they are as far forward as (to pick a random example) Flintoff was at Trent Bridge.

Trouble is that Warne has picked up a considerable no. of wickets throughout his career in a similar manner to the Flintoff delivery. Umpires have generally taken the stance that a batsman cannot simply plonk his pad down the pitch as a first line of defence.

Until this test, umpires have changed tact in this series.

At the end of the day, 2 best teams in the world should be umpired by 2 best umpires and we have not seen that. For all I care, they could bring Shep and Dickie Bird out of retirement (or any 2 other current English test umpires) as the current crop of neutrals simply are not up to scratch.

BTW, you do realise Tresco was plumb and given not out.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Lovely shot for one there for Hayden. Yet again some good signs early in his innings... we'll see how he goes when it starts to reverse.