***Official*** NatWest Series/Challenge

[Swervy]

Are you being serious?

Did the run rate not drop for Australia after Harmisons three wickets on Sunday?

he was being sarky I think!!!

 

[archie mac]

'The boys are back in town', not that I was ever worried

 

[Gloucefan]

he was being sarky I think!!!

I did wonder...

 

[badgerhair]

England batted fine I think... Flintoff and Solanki consolidated nicely and turned things back to equality, but both got undone by some pretty good bowling. Flintoff played a silly shot, but he did so because he got tied down and the RRR was over 7. After that the game was gone.

Well, at least this evening proved that England aren't invincible and that Australia actually are capable of winning at least the odd game.

I thought we looked a bit less sharp than we have in our recent games, and Australia sharper than in theirs.

if so, then things are as they should be - the sides are evenly enough matched that it's going to be down to which side is playing nearest to its potential on the day.

And as aussie says, good to see that the never-say-die spirit is alive and well.

Cheers,

Mike

 

[Sylvester]

Lee and Symonds lifted the team big time. Only two bowlers not fully there yet but hopefully a few more games will get them back into form

 

[Crazy Sam]

australia just too good.

symonds delivers as expected.

 

[Scaly piscine]

For such a strong England fan, you seem to turn on your players pretty fast. Lee and McGrath were unplayable in the first half a dozen overs, and nobody would have scored against them. Trescothick got a lovely ball, and Strauss was worked out in a brilliant over. It's not like they played stupid shots, so why blame them?

England batted fine I think... Flintoff and Solanki consolidated nicely and turned things back to equality, but both got undone by some pretty good bowling. Flintoff played a silly shot, but he did so because he got tied down and the RRR was over 7. After that the game was gone.

On that pitch there's no such thing as unplayable for 6 overs. McGrath bowled rubbish in his first over and got away with it. There were virtually no singles taken at all, in fact England were pretty poor at that all game (Australia only hit one more boundary than England did).

As for Solanki and Flintoff, Solanki was pretty poor really - even slower than Vaughan. Flintoff was decent but threw it away as usual, the blind six or out stuff is just not going to succeed.

 

[Swervy]

On that pitch there's no such thing as unplayable for 6 overs. McGrath bowled rubbish in his first over and got away with it. There were virtually no singles taken at all, in fact England were pretty poor at that all game (Australia only hit one more boundary than England did).

As for Solanki and Flintoff, Solanki was pretty poor really - even slower than Vaughan. Flintoff was decent but threw it away as usual, the blind six or out stuff is just not going to succeed.

To be fair to Flintoff, the run rate required was pushing up towards 8 an over with still 25 overs to go..he had to make a dash.

And you cant really expect Solanki to come in with the score at 4 (after being at number 8 previously) then see 2 further wickets fall before the score had got to double figures, and go blazing away. England had to build up to a position where the big hitting could start,and the only way to do that was to play no risk cricket

 

[Neil Pickup]

On that pitch there's no such thing as unplayable for 6 overs. McGrath bowled rubbish in his first over and got away with it. There were virtually no singles taken at all, in fact England were pretty poor at that all game (Australia only hit one more boundary than England did).

As for Solanki and Flintoff, Solanki was pretty poor really - even slower than Vaughan. Flintoff was decent but threw it away as usual, the blind six or out stuff is just not going to succeed.

Did you watch the game?

 

[Scaly piscine]

To be fair to Flintoff, the run rate required was pushing up towards 8 an over with still 25 overs to go..he had to make a dash.

And you cant really expect Solanki to come in with the score at 4 (after being at number 8 previously) then see 2 further wickets fall before the score had got to double figures, and go blazing away. England had to build up to a position where the big hitting could start,and the only way to do that was to play no risk cricket

Who said anything about blazing away? 34 off 69 is Javed Omar territory, he should be able to score faster than that without too many risks.

 

[shaka]

Finally the comeback has occurred, great bowling return for Lee.

 

[Scaly piscine]

Anyways now Australia have had a freak result (ie they won) that makes the 3rd ODI between England and Australia somewhat meaningless even by ODI standards. May as well just fast forward to the final really.

 

[shaka]

Well done Gough on getting 46 runs off 47 deliveries

 

[age_master]

Finally the comeback has occurred, great bowling return for Lee.

i actually dont think he bowled that well, especially not after his first spell. didn't quite have the accuracy last night, just bit of a lack of match practice i imagine.

 

[age_master]

As I type, Flintoff goes, caught in the deep.

should have been out stumped for mine, didn't last long afterwards anyways so it doesn't end up being a turning point.

 

[roseboy64]

Brilliant batting by Gough. Looks like the top order bats could learn a thing or two from him after that display.

 

[age_master]

yep, when facing Brett Lee, its best to close your eyes and hope

 

[Mister Wright]

Just looking at the live career stats - who do you guys think will have a higher average at the end of this series - Pietersen or Hussey? As of this moment...

Name          Mat    I  NO  Runs  HS     Ave 100  50   Ct  St
MEK Hussey      8    6   5   229  84  229.00   0   2    4   0
KP Pietersen   15   10   6   649 116  162.25   3   3    8   0

Pietersen - he's a better batsman.

 

[shaka]

i actually dont think he bowled that well, especially not after his first spell. didn't quite have the accuracy last night, just bit of a lack of match practice i imagine.

I only saw the scoreboard this morning, as the game was played overnight, so I was unable to watch him bowl, just went by what I saw his bowling figures were. He will most likely be much improved in the next game.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

On that pitch there's no such thing as unplayable for 6 overs. McGrath bowled rubbish in his first over and got away with it. There were virtually no singles taken at all, in fact England were pretty poor at that all game (Australia only hit one more boundary than England did).

As for Solanki and Flintoff, Solanki was pretty poor really - even slower than Vaughan. Flintoff was decent but threw it away as usual, the blind six or out stuff is just not going to succeed.

If McGrath's first over was "rubbish", I'd hate to think what everyone else bowled. There were a couple of balls offline in it, and later in the over he hit the spot. From his second over on he was brilliant, and Lee's first spell was as good as any you will ever see in ODIs.

As far as the pitch is concerned, where you got the idea that it was a complete road I have no idea. It was quite slow, plenty of balls kept low, and nobody could get the pace of it throughout the match. McGrath moved a couple of them a mile off the seam, and both bowlers were swinging it, and bowled wicket-taking deliveries with swing on several occasions.

Solanki was slow, but England were three down for nothing. Flintoff and Solanki did an excellent job of consolidating, and their partnership scored at over 4 an over and didn't let the RRR get out of control. It wasn't until they got out that things started to unravel again, and both of them were undone by good bowling.

Honestly, the only English batsman who got out due to a stupid shot was Flintoff, and he made a fair few runs, and was forced into the shot by good bowling and a high RRR. If you think England were rubbish with the bat in that game, I'd love to see a game when you think they were good but just faced quality bowling.