*Official* First Test at The Gabba

[wpdavid]

Could be that Oz are dusting off the Border 89 playbook and getting aggro as a tactic.

Always pretty likely. There was a fair bit of bad feeling by the end if the series in England, and 3 successive losses was always going to make Aus up the gutter stuff if they got on top. As long as no-one pretends it affects the result one way or another. Just boys behaving badly which apparently is fine in cricket, shows they care, etc etc

Well done Aus. Anyone who was actually watching more than the final score-line in the summer knew they might well turn it around on their patch, although I won't pretend I foresaw us being outscored by best part of 400 runs. England were a ****ing disgrace mind you, but their batting as a unit has been pretty dire for too long now.

Perhaps a historical precedent might be 1958/59. England had won the previous 3 series, but the most recent one was at home on pitches suited to their superior spin attack. For all the moaning about chucking, their line up of famous batters just didn't fancy the fight. Sounds familiar? Ended 4-0 btw.

 

[Spark]

Watching some highlights. Strauss does like to yell into the mic, doesn't he?

 

[Pothas]

Watching some highlights. Strauss does like to yell into the mic, doesn't he?

Yeah. It is not a good thing.

 

[Spark]

Yeah. It is not a good thing.

Yeah I love a bit of excitement on comms at the appropriate moment, but he needs to work on his technique. Seems to be holding the mic waaaay too close to his mouth, can be difficult on the ears tstl.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

If there's one thing this year's six Ashes Tests have taught is its that as soon as one side get on top, the idiot troll flagwavers come out of the woodwork. Apropos of nothing, obv.

Also that the crushing that both sides got at Lord's and Brisbane is not reflective of either sides overall ability.

 

[Spark]

Also that the crushing that both sides got at Lord's and Brisbane is not reflective of either sides overall ability.

One-off crushings rarely are.

 

[NUFAN]

I would have loved to have seen Lyon belt out the team song, he would have nailed it after going so long without the chance to sing it.

Also, why does a 381 run win ring a bell? Has the same margin happened recently between the two sides? It might be something obvious, I just can't recall.

 

[sreeku7]

Aussies had two genuine quick bowlers whereas England had none.Even Stuart Broad is only a lively fast medium bowler when compared to Johnson and Harris.Australia made a mistake when they sacrificed pace for something else in India and England earlier this year(remember John Hastings and Jason Bird)This Test was a reminder of the old fashioned Australian aggression with plenty of hostile fast bowling and verbal barrage under which England buckled as they used to do a few years ago

 

[Woodster]

Wow, a bit of a thrashing for our boys!We simply couldn't cope with the pace and aggression of Johnson. Again there were wickets that should see the batsmen reduced to naught boy nets, I'm looking at Trott, KP, and Prior.

It was amazing to see the Aussie payers have found their voices!!This is probably the first time for quite some time they feel on top and able to compete in a series with England, and boy are they trying to let England know. Even Johnson, the timid looking scared of his own shadow and full of self doubt Aussie paceman has found a bit of confidence. It's very different not seeing the Aussies sulk around with their shoulders drooping, this could make for a much more interesting series!

 

[Pup Clarke]

Who didn't see this coming though? I mean, the margain of victory surprised me, but when your warm-up matches involve facing Grade bowlers then you're going to be massively undercooked.

 

[Woodster]

Who didn't see this coming though? I mean, the margain of victory surprised me, but when your warm-up matches involve facing Grade bowlers then you're going to be massively undercooked.

Nothing Engand can have done about that though, and it's only like our county sides fielding 2nd XI's, it happens.

 

[MW1304]

Ffs they're not undercooked.

Bad/good time for my laptop to break down, depending on how you look at it. The main thing that strikes me is how much a result and performance like this has fired up and given life to the Aussie players, like Woodster says, but especially in contrast to England when they have inflicted similar results on Australia (although not quite to this extent, admittedly). It was real foot on the throat stuff, and at no point did England look like getting back into the contest once Australia were on top. You can compare it to any time in the home series that England looked well on top, there would be a complete inability to finish the job and allow them back in the game with some good scrappy stuff, yet here Australia looked ferocious, intense and downright arrogant, in a good way. I don't know, maybe I'm jumping the gun, but this has the look of an Australia on top and unwilling to let go of it, regardless of some of the petty comments and general ugly chest-beating in the media.

 

[Woodster]

Ffs they're not undercooked.

Bad/good time for my laptop to break down, depending on how you look at it. The main thing that strikes me is how much a result and performance like this has fired up and given life to the Aussie players, like Woodster says, but especially in contrast to England when they have inflicted similar results on Australia (although not quite to this extent, admittedly). It was real foot on the throat stuff, and at no point did England look like getting back into the contest once Australia were on top. You can compare it to any time in the home series that England looked well on top, there would be a complete inability to finish the job and allow them back in the game with some good scrappy stuff, yet here Australia looked ferocious, intense and downright arrogant, in a good way. I don't know, maybe I'm jumping the gun, but this has the look of an Australia on top and unwilling to let go of it, regardless of some of the petty comments and general ugly chest-beating in the media.

I agree this was impressive, they didn't let us back in the contest at any point really. I wonder how Australia's body language will be once we get on top of a contest, the old feelings of being helpless as Cook and co pile on the runs (should this actually happen) and still they have the top order frailties when under more pressure. Can't really fault their approach in this Test though.

 

[indiaholic]

Apropos of nothing:
Mitchell Johnson takes Joe Root's wicket hand **** - YouTube

 

[wpdavid]

Also that the crushing that both sides got at Lord's and Brisbane is not reflective of either sides overall ability.

Probably very wise. And if I may indulge in a bit of 'told you so', I was massively flamed by some posters for suggesting as much after Lord's.

The difference may be that Aus have been able to make a handful of significant improvements to their side since Lord's; something that I don't think England are in a position to do. Poor as Trott has been (and whatever happened to us being able to rely on our Saffers to stand up to the quick stuff?), I don't reckon anyone thinks Bairstow or Ballance or Stokes would improve matters. Likewise, whilst Rankin may or may not be the least bad of a pretty limited bunch, no-one really thinks he's going to have the sort of impact that we've seen from Johnson if he comes in for Tremlett.

Which doesn't mean that I think we'll lose every game by 400. Hope not, anyway. But our batsmen's weaknesses against quality pace have been there for all to see for 6 tests now, so this isn't really a one-off for our top 7. And I know that Aus aren't perfect, but if the pitches continue to take Swann out of the equation - something which Aus are 100% entitled to do - then our weaknesses against their attack >>>>> their weaknesses against ours.

That isn't being pessimistic for the sake of it. Nor is it entirely down to one massive loss. It's just trying to analyse where the series is likely to go based on what we've seen over the last 6 tests, plus a bit as far as England's batting in concerned.

 

[Spark]

The problem really is that England can't seem to break the Australian bowlers' control of the situation - even in England, with the exception of Lords' 2nd dig where we basically gave up, at no stage did it look like the situation was getting out of the bowlers' hands. The result is that England are continuing to score veeeery slowly and to put up a big score - ie. 400, which is a minimum at Adelaide in the first innings - they're going to have to bat for a gargantuan amount of time. Which 1. is obviously difficult against a good attack and 2. makes it harder to win.

They're going to have to change something, but KP aside I'm not sure how.

 

[MW1304]

I think that is a very significant point. Lots of people on here were defending, quite rightly, England's go-slow at many stages of the home series when it was quite justified. Whilst there is nothing wrong with going at around 2 an over regularly, it is nevertheless a sign of the hold Australia's bowlers have over our batsmen. Never does the situation feel out of control for Australia at any point. If an attack is bowling with precision to a plan, sometimes what is needed is an impetus, or to challenge that bowler and get on top of him and much as he is to you. I think we saw that with KP, who was trying to break some sort of shackle. More than anything, though, I think it shows quite how well Australia are bowling. There is a definite psychological edge there every time we bat.

 

[Woodster]

It's an interesting point. I think there are times when England have to assert some intent and positivity on the opposition's bowlers, it doesn't have to be a concerted effort or become reckless in any way, but just to upset a bowler's rhythm and maybe get some impetus into their own innings. I personally am happy with the overall theory of being patient, setting a platform for the more fluent and risk taking strokplayers we have, which really is only KP and Prior of the batsmen. It does mean we have to bat longer for a score of 450+ but we are taking less risks to do so than the likes of Warner, Watson, etc. Obviously the pitch will at times dictate the style of batting and the approach that needs to be adopted.

 

[wpdavid]

Yeah, I think just staying out there for a while would help. Walk before you can run, and all that.

 

[Furball]

The problem is that Clarke, or somebody in the back room staff, is an absolute ****ing genius when it comes to field placement.