*Official* Fourth Test at Headingley

[pup11]

England team is spot on imo

Yeah, I think England needs to pick Harmison, they are going to take too much of a risk picking both Sidebottom and Anderson, because if the ball doesn't swing, then the whole English bowling attack could end up looking pretty pedestrian.

If the ball swings at Headingley, then Jimmy alone would/should be good enough to rattle the Aussie batting line-up, whereas in case the ball doesn't swing, Harmison can provide you guys with something different from rest of the bowlers.

 

[Uppercut]

Never having seen Swann bowl before this series I was really surprised at how quick he bowls it. Also the fact that his action is so busy, and the source of the speed at which he puts the ball through the air. Now, I havent seen much of Swann but he seems to me to be the kind of bowler who really needs to be in rythm to bowl the good and consistent spells a good spinner (especially an offie) should. Reckon his action is a little too uncontrolled, its hardly the classical sauntering delivering type over a braced front leg, and that allows for the fact that he suddenly seems to bowl poor lengths - unless, of course, everything is in sync.

Swann regularly bowled sub-50mph in the West Indies.

His speeds have been up a fair bit, either as a tactic or because that's just the way it's coming out. Honestly though, the guy's a quality bowler.

 

[Uppercut]

If the ball swings at Headingley, then Jimmy alone would/should be good enough to rattle the Aussie batting line-up, whereas in case the ball doesn't swing, Harmison can provide you guys with something different from rest of the bowlers.

Thing is, Harmison needs pace and bounce in the pitch to be effective far, far more than either of those bowlers need swing to be effective, and Headingley doesn't look like offering that.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Vaughan is retired

Yeah, but it's a bit "chicken and egg" tho, for my money. If he'd been selected he wouldn't have called it quits IMHO. Can't see him having done worse than Ravinder either, tbh.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, but it's a bit "chicken and egg" tho, for my money. If he'd been selected he wouldn't have called it quits IMHO. Can't see him having done worse than Ravinder either, tbh.

Tbf, it'd have been an untrustworthy man who would have recommended dropping Ravi after three centuries in consecutive innings. He'd have had trouble doing worse than Ravi, but I can't see him ever having been able to make a difference considering he hadn't scored a run in yonks.

 

[FBU]

England are as bad as anyone when there is a flat pitch though. Anderson is pretty much useless and generally gets hammered and so would our 4th seamer whoever it might be.

There is a perception that Anderson is only effective when the ball swings because he takes his wickets in bunches when it does swing. He does get wickets when it doesn't swing sometimes with extra bounce, othertimes when the ball is seaming. Then there are times batsmen give their wicket away with poor shots to his good and bad balls.

 

[four_or_six]

Yeah, but it's a bit "chicken and egg" tho, for my money. If he'd been selected he wouldn't have called it quits IMHO. Can't see him having done worse than Ravinder either, tbh.

Given he couldn't manage a whole day in the field for Yorkshire, I doubt he could have been selected whatever. Especially with KP not 100% either.

 

[B.Scott4England]

2 Things.

Problems for GiMH at Headingley - BBC SPORT | Cricket | Headingley boosts Ashes security

And

Is it true that Michael Clarke is doubtful with an abdominal injury? I think it was reported in the Metro this morning. Which by and large would mean it was not true but haven't seen it referenced on here.

 

[GIMH]

Anti-social behaviour? Moi!

RE Clarke - it got a thread of its own which is why you haven't seen it in this thread. SSN say he is sitting out training today but I am sure he'll be fine.

 

[B.Scott4England]

I see.

You better be on your best behaviour lad

 

[Uppercut]

Problems for GiMH at Headingley - BBC SPORT | Cricket | Headingley boosts Ashes security

Would hate if they clamped down hard on this kind of thing. You can stop people from booing, but you can't force them to show respect. Should just put an announcement on the PA urging some decency if it happens again.

 

[GIMH]

Wouldn't boo him anyway, was more thinking along the lines of running on the pitch and hitting him with a Rock Bottom

 

[Scaly piscine]

Please please Australia bring back Lee instead of Clark.

2 low 90s bowlers spraying it all over the place at Headingley - lovely.

 

[pup11]

Haddin is pretty much clear to play at Headingley, so that's good news, but the situation with Lee seems to be getting slightly complicated, he seems to claiming he is fit to play, but the Australian side doesn't seem too keen to pick him for the Headingley test, so this might get a bit interesting.

Moving on, ECB might have advised fans not to boo Ponting, but I really don't think its a big deal, this is pretty much part and parcel of an Ashes series, the away team has always coped treatment like this from home fans, and trying to clamp something like this down might only encourage people to do stuff like this.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Tbf, it'd have been an untrustworthy man who would have recommended dropping Ravi after three centuries in consecutive innings. He'd have had trouble doing worse than Ravi, but I can't see him ever having been able to make a difference considering he hadn't scored a run in yonks.

Given he couldn't manage a whole day in the field for Yorkshire, I doubt he could have been selected whatever. Especially with KP not 100% either.

Ravi had earned his go, I wasn't try to suggest otherwise. I was just pointing out that if Mick had been included (maybe even just in the squad) he might not have called time so pre-emptively.

Just as an aside, what a work of fiction the sixteen man Ashes squad actually proved to be. Neither Trott nor Harmy were in it. Makes one wonder what was the point.

 

[four_or_six]

Wouldn't boo him anyway, was more thinking along the lines of running on the pitch and hitting him with a Rock Bottom

Wasn't you that texted into 5Live this morning to nominate Jimmy Anderson in their 'men that other men find attractive' was it?

 

[GIMH]

Haha, no, but I agree

 

[social]

C'mon mate lets get a bit real here, when we had guys like Hayden, Langer, Symmo, Gilchrist in the side, then Australian side could have been rated as the most scary batting line-ups for any spinner to bowl too.

In the current Australian side though, one can't say that anyone else apart from Clarke, Haddin, Hughes and Katich, play spin all that well, and reason for that is simple, there just aren't any decent spin bowlers around in the Aussie FC arena anymore, which hardly allows the upcoming Aussie batsmen to hone their batting skills against spin bowling.

This has even started to show in the way our batsmen have struggled against almost every half-decent spinner they have come across in the recent times.

Swann has struggled in this series because he has bowled badly, its as simple as that, he hasn't really been blown away by the Australian batsmen, it just that Swann has fed them with plenty of loose balls and to their credit they have manged to put those bad balls away, but its also for everyone to see that whenever Swann has bowled a decent spell (which hasn't been too often in this series), he has troubled the Australian batsmen.

So you're saying that he's crap but not that crap even though he's bowled crap against not very good players of spin who have taken advantage of the crap that he has bowled

Sorry, but I'm confused!

With the exception of one innings, Swann has been very poor in this series and is, without doubt, a very average bowler whose test figures have been boosted to a ridiculous degree from playing terrible teams before now

 

[social]

Swann doesn't bowl full tosses because he tries too much variation. It's a technical deficiency with his front arm, he pulls it down too quickly which means that his bowling arm is sailing without a rudder for the last part. It's why his length varies too much.

Warne's mentioned a few times about his ability to spin the ball when bowling quick. It's an asset, but the batsmen read his length so much better when he's >90km/h. When he's in the 80s, you can see the doubt about coming forward or back, and he gets so much more bounce.

Poor technique with his front arm also causes his bowling arm to go beyond the perpendicular against the right hander which results in no away drift

That's a fault which he has had for virtually his entire career

 

[PhoenixFire]

With the exception of one innings, Swann has been very poor in this series and is, without doubt, a very average bowler whose test figures have been boosted to a ridiculous degree from playing terrible teams before now

Murali average 30 against virtually the exact same WI side that Swanneh average 20 odd against.