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

[tooextracool]

Hello.

Good to see Australia show England up, when Brett Lee was concerned over Strauss when he hit him on the head.

Really made England look pathetic at Lords with their forced display when Ponting got hit.

Good to see that one of the teams plays within the spirt of cricket.

miss langer getting hit on the head at edgbaston didnt you?

 

[tooextracool]

Kapser>MacGill>Gillespie for mine.
As many say, he`s bowling alright, but doesn`t look like taking a wicket anytime soon.

the problem with gillespie is that once he gets hit for a couple of boundaries, he loses line and length and starts bowling rubbish. i still have no clue what purpose he serves to this australian side on this wicket.

 

[Shane Warne]

miss langer getting hit on the head at edgbaston didnt you?

No, what's the got to with anything?

 

[Shane Warne]

the problem with gillespie is that once he gets hit for a couple of boundaries, he loses line and length and starts bowling rubbish. i still have no clue what purpose he serves to this australian side on this wicket.

His batting is his strong point thesedays.

Hopefully he can hang around for a good number of balls and support a batsman.

 

[tooextracool]

Ponting seems to have a game plan and never deviates from it even when it's wrong.

Take today.

Lee bowls 5 overs in his opening spell as usual and is replaced by Gillespie as usual.

Trouble is, Lee had just taken a wicket bringing Vaughan to the crease.

Vaughan had been bowled in each of his 2 previous innings by Lee.

You have to think that the last person he wants bowling to him is Lee instead Gillespie plays Vaughan into form.

Meanwhile, Australia's most dangerous bowler, Warne, stands at slip twiddling his thumbs because Ricky's black book say "Jason to have 7 overs from that end."

Dumb

yep i failed to understand what ponting was thinking about there. certainly my respect for pontings captaincy has come down a couple of notches during this series.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Risky business calling Giles a proper batsmen but i agree well played Bell, funnily enough he seemed to get less nervous once Vaughan got out. You'd have thought it would have made him worse.

Hope he can make his 2nd hundred tomorrow.

There were only 3 wickets down at the time, so I was referring to Bell, KP, Flintoff and Geraint. I wasn't surprised to see Bell playing a lot more freely once Vaughan went - often happens that way. If England can get through the second new ball they should get 500+ easily, but there's obviously plenty of capacity for quick wickets as well as the new ball is pretty bouncy and pacy.

 

[cricnewbye]

Great day for England, congratulation! Sorry but i'm really new to cricket and need to find a website where i can watch come video highlights? Any link? Related to this Ashes series? Thanks for your help!!

 

[tooextracool]

Congratulations to Vaughanie, everyone needs a bit of luck every now and then. B)

all the 3 batsmen who got past 50 needed some sort of luck to do so. if australia arent happy with the days performance they've only got themselves to blame.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

yep i failed to understand what ponting was thinking about there. certainly my respect for pontings captaincy has come down a couple of notches during this series.

Mine too. I rated Ponting a good but not great captain before this series. He's done some good work in ODIs over the years imo, and I thought he was quite excellent in Sri Lanka when Australia were under pressure on a number of occasions. Warne and Gilchrist are clearly better captains in the technical sense, and have better cricketing brains, but Ponting's age and experience got him the job. He's been quite average on a number of occasions in this series though, even if I don't think he deserves all the criticism he had taken for a couple of things. His decisions at the toss seem to be predisposed far too often... it's about the easiest job for a captain, and you have to look at the bloody thing as well as talk to people who know the ground. At Sophia Gardens against Bangladesh he batted because he wanted the practice on what turned out to be an early seamer and it cost Australia, but that was more failing to take the opposition seriously rather than actually making the wrong call. At Edgbaston in the test though, that was a shocking call, and he clearly made it based on pre-match speculation and stats in which the team batting second won a lot, rather than actual judgement on the pitch.

His on-field decisionmaking when Australia is under pressure also seems down from the excellent standard he set in Sri Lanka. I said before the series that Vaughan was a better captain, but I'm certainly more convinced of that now than I was before.

 

[King_Ponting]

i must admit, as a bell doubter, he made me look quite stupid by his performance today. Looked the real deal.....

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

i must admit, as a bell doubter, he made me look quite stupid by his performance today. Looked the real deal.....

You think so? I was impressed by his endevour to grind out an innings when things weren't going his way and he showed a bit for the future, but it certainly wasn't a convincing innnigs in my mind. Not only was he put down, he seemed almost incapable of scoring off Warne, and McGrath could easily have had him out twice with his slower ball.

The thing where I guess he answered his critics today (if he had any) was with regard to his mental strength and ability to make runs when it wasn't just flogging the crap out of Bangladesh. His actual ability still has legitimate questions though, and they won't be answered for a little while yet. England should definately stick with him for now.

 

[tooextracool]

Vaughan's high score in tests is 197. Come on guys, take a gamble - think he'll reach 200?

strange player, doesnt get nervous in the 90s, but gets nervous when he gets near 200.

 

[tooextracool]

To me, up to this point, he has looked clueless and ordinary. Your defence must be motivated by hope and your impassioned arguments that he shouldn't be overlooked by selecting both Thorpe and Pietersen at the outset of the series. Because it can't be explained by how he's looked at the crease thus far.

id agree with that actually. hes struggled a fair bit against warne(not that thats much off a surprise) and hasnt looked convincing at all during this inning. he even looked more convincing on the way to his 21 than he did today IMO. nonetheless i thought he looked fairly comfortable against pace, other than that simple chance of mcgrath.

 

[King_Ponting]

You think so? I was impressed by his endevour to grind out an innings when things weren't going his way and he showed a bit for the future, but it certainly wasn't a convincing innnigs in my mind. Not only was he put down, he seemed almost incapable of scoring off Warne, and McGrath could easily have had him out twice with his slower ball.

The thing where I guess he answered his critics today (if he had any) was with regard to his mental strength and ability to make runs when it wasn't just flogging the crap out of Bangladesh. His actual ability still has legitimate questions though, and they won't be answered for a little while yet. England should definately stick with him for now.

Yeh i was impressed with his mental strength out there today, even tho he was struggling he stuck at it and built an innings much in the same way steve waugh would when he decided to knuckle down even tho things werent going his way. I also liked the way he played warne today, cause he really looked like he was picking him, as opposed to previous tests when he has looked close to clueless against warne.

On another subject, vaughan must have been taking batting tips from hogard in the first two tests, or vice versa, cause hoggards dismissal today was almost a replay of vaughans dismissal against lee at edgbaston...

 

[tooextracool]

No, what's the got to with anything?

because a fair few english players went up to langer and asked him how he was doing.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Nice way to cap off a wonderful day for Lee. Actually three of Australia's bowlers bowled very well today, they were just confronted by some bad luck, a heap of dropped catches and some good batting. Aside from the catching, and Gillespie who was pretty shocking, it was very high standard all round.

Interesting to hear you say that. You've been one of his staunchest advocates so far. I can't really comment, 'cos I've only seen about 40 minutes after lunch & the last hour (so about 2 overs of Dizzy), but I'm guessing with you saying that he's definitely been below par. When does loyalty become intransigence?

I'd say from what little I've seen it's fairly even. The pitch looks a good 'un (a little movement for Lee with the new ball, but nothing excessive) but from what the commentators said (7 chances going down?!?) Oz coulda been well on top. Failure from Fred early doors & I'd say they're in the box seat.

 

[Anil]

england on top after first day....if england cross 450, australia's winning options will become very limited....

 

[simmy]

Well said Anil.

 

[simmy]

I actually thought Bell batted very well considering Vaughan's blazing form the other end. Just stuck it out.

Alas... If only Pietersen had done the same.....!

 

[Shane Warne]

Well said Anil.

Possibly post of the year there by Anil.