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

[Mister Wright]

Just out of curiosity, i saw someone mention that in england if play is lost due to rain, then the next days play doesnt start earlier? if so why? pretty sure in australia is a fair amount of play is lost then they usually start play earlier then normal

Because the light usually lasts until 9 or 10pm (is that right?) They add the extra time to the end of the day. In Australia where the light only lasts until 7pm on the best of days, they have to add time at the start of the day, and they do add time at the end of the day also.

 

[Demolition Man]

Seriously though - any other Aussie fans think England deserve the Ashes?

'Cause I kinda do. I feel like if we somehow win this one, we'll have gotten out of jail, and I think the players know it.

Which is not to say that I wouldn't take it happily if we somehow pull it off and retain the urn.

Getting out of jail is what us convicts do best.

Chandigarh 1996-the great escape comes to mind,

 

[Disgorge]

No offence to you englishman but flintoffs is an robotic ape you bowls 2 hours straight.

 

[Linda]

Yet again the Aust middle order as failed. Its a shame that the hard work of Langer and Hayden has been ****ed away in 2 hours.

If today hasn't ended Martyns career then it must be close, hes on notice, yet again hes failed when he needed to score runs, hes become Mark Waugh. His place will be series by series, he'll need to make lots of runs all the time to keep his place.

I cant let this go, it makes me too angry. Last year, in Sri Lanka and in India, Martyn saved the team time and time again, and yet people still say things like this. He's not the perfect batsman, so he cant score loads of runs every series, but who the hell can?!

Gilly............WTF has happened to this bloke, hes falling apart, we needed 50 from him today and yet again hes out cheaply. He'll need to score heavily in the Australian summer or I'd say hes gone.

Kat.................this was his time to make some quality runs and he didn't, he doesn't deserve a lot of mercy at this point.

Aust needs to find another 100-120 runs to make this interesting. Its just a crying shame they crumbled this morning, 4-350 is a platform, 6 for 350 is teetering.

Yeah, good idea, lets do a big mass eviction and sack them all. That'll do wonders for the team.

 

[marc71178]

You've just seen Damien Martyn's last shot in Test cricket.

Thanks for the memories, Marto.

Won't he get a chance to get out in the second innings?

I for one hope not, but this game is still on.

 

[Linda]

Getting out of jail is what us convicts do best.

Chandigarh 1996-the great escape comes to mind,

Oh, that was a beauty DM. You just cheered me up a bit

 

[superkingdave]

well i remember someone saying that Flintoff didn't have very good stamina before...

 

[luckyeddie]

Because the light usually lasts until 9 or 10pm (is that right?) They add the extra time to the end of the day. In Australia where the light only lasts until 7pm on the best of days, they have to add time at the start of the day, and they do add time at the end of the day also.

We're talking Autumn here.

This is the latest in the year that a test match has EVER been played in this country, and at 10.00 am the likelihood is that there's still dew on the ground. That's why, in the one-day final at Lord's, you often see the opposition put in.

Sunset will be before 8.00 pm, but even at 6.30, the sun's that low in the sky that it's becoming quite unplayable. We are a long, long way away from the equator.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Seriously though - any other Aussie fans think England deserve the Ashes?

'Cause I kinda do. I feel like if we somehow win this one, we'll have gotten out of jail, and I think the players know it.

Which is not to say that I wouldn't take it happily if we somehow pull it off and retain the urn.

My feeling is that 2-2 would be a pretty fitting result, all things considered. It's been a very close series, England have dominated a couple of games, Australia have dominated one, and there's been some thrilling finishes.

If England somehow pulled off this win, I'd definately think they deserved to win it. If Australia look set to win it and get held out by the rain though, I'd be a bit disappointed. I'd definately like to see a positive result one way or the other.

 

[Entrael]

England deserve the Ashes, as an Australian supporter i'd like to say Australia played better but at the end of the day England have outplayed, out thought, Australia in most regards..

I thought we were pretty complacent coming into the Ashes, it didnt seem as though we had much of a strategy and i think that showed. Some of the comments said such as "we dont need to improve" etc, i found to be extremely stupid and arrogant, and its come back to bite us..

Nonetheless, this is cricket who knows what can happen in these last few days.. lets hope it comes down to the wire again, and may the best team win

 

[howardj]

Seriously though - any other Aussie fans think England deserve the Ashes?

'Cause I kinda do. I feel like if we somehow win this one, we'll have gotten out of jail, and I think the players know it.

Which is not to say that I wouldn't take it happily if we somehow pull it off and retain the urn.

There's no way we deserve the Ashes. Winning the Ashes would only encourage the selectors to keep together a team which, for all its greatness and resourcefulness, is clearly on the slide. I'd like to see younger players with potential - Watson, Cullen (in Sydney as the second spinner), Jacques etc - brought in to play in the same team as the greats, such as McGrath, Warne and to a lesser extent Langer. In the same way that McGrath and Warne had the opportunity to play alongside of McDermott and Border respectively, before they retired.

 

[_Ed_]

Damien Martyn since the start of 2004: 22 tests, 1823 runs @ 50.63. And although he's had a bad series (every batsman has one of those), he's still averaging 39.16 this year. No real reason for dropping him on the back of only 5 bad matches.

 

[luckyeddie]

No offence to you englishman but flintoffs is an robotic ape you bowls 2 hours straight.

Welcome to Cricket Web.

As you can see, we don't discriminate against anyone here - even morons.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

We're talking Autumn here.

This is the latest in the year that a test match has EVER been played in this country, and at 10.00 am the likelihood is that there's still dew on the ground. That's why, in the one-day final at Lord's, you often see the opposition put in.

Sunset will be before 8.00 pm, but even at 6.30, the sun's that low in the sky that it's becoming quite unplayable. We are a long, long way away from the equator.

Actually, being a long way from the equator matters little this time of year...I'm up above the Polar Circle at the mo and it still sets about 8. Equinoxes and whatnot.

 

[marc71178]

That would have been out if he'd seen it ironically, this light is dangerous to the fielders.

Clarke has ridden his luck, but the fact remains he's still there, and if we can just nick him quickly then things look a lot lot rosier.

 

[aussie]

na i dont think England deserve the Ashes a 2-2 result will be a true reflection of this series for me.

 

[marc71178]

The difference is Pakistan time wasted so much time that they deserved nothing (if the umpiring had been good in the first place they'd have got Pakistan bowling 15 overs an hour and they wouldn't have had to go with 2 wrongs making a right).

But you're happy that England have bowled all of 21 or 22 overs in this session?

 

[marc71178]

Katich should be dropped... Absolutely useless, his team need him to play a good innings and he gets out for 1

Hardly his fault if dismissed by a good ball.

 

[marc71178]

Brilliant stuff from Collingwood, another 3 runs he's saved.

That goes some way to making up for the fact that as a batsman he didn't even make it into double figures then.

 

[honestbharani]

My feeling is that 2-2 would be a pretty fitting result, all things considered. It's been a very close series, England have dominated a couple of games, Australia have dominated one, and there's been some thrilling finishes.

If England somehow pulled off this win, I'd definately think they deserved to win it. If Australia look set to win it and get held out by the rain though, I'd be a bit disappointed. I'd definately like to see a positive result one way or the other.

But weren't the Aussies saved by the rain too? They were clearly the better side for most of the 2nd, 3rd and the 4th tests and I think it was Gavaskar who said that the team that won the most sessions deserves to win the test match. I think if this series ended 2-2, it would be an unfair result for England. 3-1 would probably be unfair too. AFAIC, this series is 3-2.