*Official* First Test at Swalec Stadium, Cardiff

[DingDong]

Australia


pathetic captaincy

 

[Matt79]

Johnson's figures don't flatter him. They reflect te ability he's shown in the last couple of years to produce a few wickets even when not bowling as well as he can. But agree that he struggled with his line as badly as I've seen in recent times at times in this match.

Thought Siddle was better, but he was too hot and cold. One good over, one poor one. Would back him to have more of an impact through the series than he did in this math.

And as someone said, you'd think England would have to improve from here as well. But given they could only manage 6 wickets on this pitch, while we got 19, they need more improvement.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Johnson's figures don't flatter him. They reflect te ability he's shown in the last couple of years to produce a few wickets even when not bowling as well as he can. But agree that he struggled with his line as badly as I've seen in recent times at times in this match.

Thought Siddle was better, but he was too hot and cold. One good over, one poor one. Would back him to have more of an impact through the series than he did in this math.

And as someone said, you'd think England would have to improve from here as well. But given they could only manage 6 wickets on this pitch, while we got 19, they need more improvement.

Disagree. They look flattering because he bowled so wide the batsmen would've struggled to lay bat on ball even if they were minded to. Didn't make them play nearly enough. He'll bowl much better and end up with worse figures than he got today.

 

[Top_Cat]

Rank captaincy by Punter with the bowling changes. It's crazy that in just over 100 overs, Hilf only gets 15 of them when he's been the best bowler in the match.

This Test is also the archetypical reason why everyone who reckons Aus can go into a Test relying on part-timers to take wickets need their heads read. Every time Clarke/North/Kat were on, the pressure noticeably fizzed out. Was especially painful when bowling in tandem with Hauritz. Given, he bowled quite well but he's clearly a bowler who relies on pressure being on from the other end and the part-timers Aus have just don't cut it and haven't for some time.

All that said, Collingwood put on a clinic for how to bat out a draw. The tail really stood up here for England too, great stuff. Helps having a bloke with 4 FC tons coming in at 9!

 

[Nate]

Yup.

How long should any team need to dismiss Monty ****ing Panesar on a 5th day pitch? 40 minutes not enough? Then the reason you didn't win is staring you in the face, Ricky.

And we're only talking a couple of minutes delay; perhaps one over at most. Even if those minutes hadn't been wasted, would they have managed to dismiss Monty or Jimmy in that extra over? And if they had, would they have scored the 14 (or more) to win in the one over available to their batsmen?

Anyhow I can't imagine that he and the Australian set-up will waste too much time (no pun intended) and energy between now and Lord's whingeing about this.

But if they do, it's a sign that this draw (just corrected a Freudian typing error of "defeat") has really hurt them badly.

"I was unhappy with it, but it lasted a couple of minutes, and we got them off the ground. I don't want to make that big a deal with it. I'm sure others will be taking it up with the England hierarchy, as they should. It's not the reason we didn't win. We've got to look at those reasons."

Rolleyesssss

 

[pasag]

Threw up a little in my mouth after reading the last few pages.

 

[_Ed_]

Wow, kudos to England. I went to bed when Flintoff got out, thinking any hope of an interesting conclusion was gone.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

So that's 5 Ashes Tests in a row that have had thrilling conclusions

I take it the 5-0 pizzling is just forgotten?

 

[Burgey]

As I posted at the time, the really amazing thing to cme out of today's play is the size of the home team physio's Man-Cans.

Unbelieveable.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

As I posted at the time, the really amazing thing to cme out of today's play is the size of the home team physio's Man-Cans.

Unbelieveable.

I don't think one person in history has simultaneously been called a "fat ****" by so many people.

 

[Son Of Coco]

There was another series where Straya were the best team in the first test, about 4 years ago, I think. Anyone remember how that ended?



Because he's the captain of Australia.

I don't think it's fair to bring down the deeds of the English team from 4 years ago by comparing them to the guys we saw playing this week.

 

[Son Of Coco]

I can not put into words how much I despise that hairy-armed midget arsehole. He looks like a rat, he acts like a rat and he's living proof that nothing decent has ever come out of Australia. Other than Tim Cahill of course.

 

[Son Of Coco]

While it's funny to see the Poms so ecstatic after playing some very poor cricket for 4 days and then escaping with a draw due to the application of 1 batsman and their tailenders full credit should go to Collingwood for batting well on the last day and the other guys in the tail for hanging around so well.

Hopefully, while they're celebrating this draw, they'll forget to fix up the multitude of problems they have and go into Lords in the same frame of mind. Although I think they'll have forgotten about the victories over the West Indies now and woken up to the fact that they'll have to improve a lot in the next game. They don't have a lot of time to do it though.

When I went to be last night I was reasonably confident we'd pick up the last two wickets, but obviously something went wrong along the way

 

[Top_Cat]

I don't think it's fair to bring down the deeds of the English team from 4 years ago by comparing them to the guys we saw playing this week.

Not to mention it's a totally different ball game (so to speak). England at Lords in 2005 were on top for various portions of the game and they had to play their knackers off to get back in the game, let alone win. Here, Aus had a bowling attack all playing their first Ashes game and were still absolutely in charge for most of the game. The draw doesn't really reflect what went on in totality.

 

[Son Of Coco]

You're arguing with a nation that whinged like little girls at Bodyline, yet loved Jeff Thomson...nope, no double standards to see here.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah, TBF, I'd be fuming if I was an Australian, but I don't doubt for a second that they'd do exactly the same thing if they were in our position.

Ponting probably shouldn't have chased an umpire to try and get a blatant n/o given as out if he wanted to talk about the spirit of cricket. **** him.

Yeah, they'd do just the same, that's why it's funny. That and what GIMH said... has Ponting been brought in front of the match referee for that yet?

Yup.

How long should any team need to dismiss Monty ****ing Panesar on a 5th day pitch? 40 minutes not enough? Then the reason you didn't win is staring you in the face, Ricky.

And we're only talking a couple of minutes delay; perhaps one over at most. Even if those minutes hadn't been wasted, would they have managed to dismiss Monty or Jimmy in that extra over? And if they had, would they have scored the 14 (or more) to win in the one over available to their batsmen?

Anyhow I can't imagine that he and the Australian set-up will waste too much time (no pun intended) and energy between now and Lord's whingeing about this.

But if they do, it's a sign that this draw (just corrected a Freudian typing error of "defeat") has really hurt them badly.

Ricky Ponting on "the Spirit of Cricket" - chapter 94

Should we have a whip round and buy Ponting a harlequin cap?

Better have a chop at the TMS crew then, incl CMJ and Agnew, who all thought it was OTT. For his part, Ponting was asked about it and responded, before noting it wasn't the reason England held on for a draw.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Onya Jimmy. Hate the rest of your useless **** teammates (I'd have made more runs than ****ing Cook, would've tried harder as well, and I ****ing hate England) but you're a beautiful man.

 

[Polo23]

Did anyone else think that test was a disappointment? The standard compared to 2005 was terrible.

Bar Hilfenhaus, Australia bowled poorly. The "spearhead" of the attack, Mitchell Johnson, was rubbish, though was gifted wickets through poor batting. England's batting was even worse than Australia's bowling, and England's bowling was the worst of the lot. The only good cricket was from Australia's batsmen, and that was on one of the worst test pitches i've ever seen (in terms of how dead it was).

Thank god there was a nailbiting end to the test, it may be enough to help people forget that the standard was piss poor.

Also, on the Ponting issue..it's a bit rich for him to be complaining about England not playing in the spirit of the game. I can think of numerous instances where he, or his team have thrown the whole "spirit of the game" right out the window to get the win.

It was unnecessary from England however, they would have drawn the test regardless.

 

[Son Of Coco]

At least the English bowlers have stood up in this test and said to their batsmen, "Look if you're not going to make 100's then we will"

 

[Top_Cat]

Easier to make runs in a losing cause (apparently).