***Official*** NatWest Series/Challenge

[tooextracool]

Flintoff, too dumb to place the ball either side of the fielder, smashes it in the air to them instead. What a waste, again.

err, did you not notice the fact that the bat turned in his hand and therefore the ball didnt go where he wanted it to go?

 

[tooextracool]

Well I can't see any reason to have Flintoff ahead of him.

except for the fact that he has a better technique?

 

[King_Ponting]

Pietersen should bat ahead of collingwood who is a finisher but not before flintoff

 

[tooextracool]

Trescothick got a lovely ball,.

err no, while there was nothing wrong with the ball, the fact is that it took a very poor trescothickesque stroke to get out to it. the ball didnt do much except hit the seam.

England batted fine I think..

other than the fact that tresco, strauss and collingwood batted like novices. if you didnt already know it, then i'll tell you again, this england batting lineup relies completely on 2 players, take a wild guess at who those 2 are.

 

[tooextracool]

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.

so do you actually watch any cricket at all? i mean seriously, anything at all?
if you still havent realised that it was a 2 paced wicket, on which not a single batsman from either side managed to time the ball properly for a significant part of his inning, and that mcgrath and lee bowled quite brilliantly in their opening spell, then really theres not much hope for you at all.
the game was not lost by solanki, but by the incompetence of batsman 1,2 and 4 who wasted 30 balls between them to get 3 runs, and then managed to get themselves out in the process. solanki, couldnt even think about doing anything else at 6-3 other than survive and build a partnership, and hope that flintoff and KP could turn it around, neither of which happened.

 

[King_Ponting]

so do you actually watch any cricket at all? i mean seriously, anything at all?
if you still havent realised that it was a 2 paced wicket, on which not a single batsman from either side managed to time the ball properly for a significant part of his inning, and that mcgrath and lee bowled quite brilliantly in their opening spell, then really theres not much hope for you at all.
the game was not lost by solanki, but by the incompetence of batsman 1,2 and 4 who wasted 30 balls between them to get 3 runs, and then managed to get themselves out in the process. solanki, couldnt even think about doing anything else at 6-3 other than survive and build a partnership, and hope that flintoff and KP could turn it around, neither of which happened.

I beg to differ, for the time symonds was at the crease he seemed to time the ball alrite.

 

[tooextracool]

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.

indeed our lack of a swing bowler in ODIs hasnt helped us either. both mcgrath and lee got the ball to swing today(mcgrath got it to swing last game too), while none of our bowlers did,presumably because neither of them can.

 

[tooextracool]

just on watson, i cant believe that he was picked to play test cricket, especially as a 'bowling all rounder'. he's so far from being test class with the ball its simply amazing. he might make a decent ODI bowler because hes fairly accurate and has a good slower ball and makes a decent 5th bowler, but seriously he seriously isnt good enough to play test cricket.

 

[Mister Wright]

err no, while there was nothing wrong with the ball, the fact is that it took a very poor trescothickesque stroke to get out to it. the ball didnt do much except hit the seam.

Yeah, I agree, there was nothing special with that ball, just a poor shot.

 

[Mister Wright]

just on watson, i cant believe that he was picked to play test cricket, especially as a 'bowling all rounder'. he's so far from being test class with the ball its simply amazing. he might make a decent ODI bowler because hes fairly accurate and has a good slower ball and makes a decent 5th bowler, but seriously he seriously isnt good enough to play test cricket.

Well said. Although I think he was an 'experimental selection' but that is still no excuse. But, Australia wanted to play 2 spinners and thought they needed a back up 3rd seamer, still I think they could have gone with the 3 quicks and spinner.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

im sorry, but what in the hell was ponting thinking when he took lee off ater 4 overs?
you'd think that he would have tried to get pietersen in ASAP and test his technique against the new ball(which it seems england are trying desperately to shield him from).
as far as lee's bowling is concerned, yes it was brilliant, and he managed to maintain his accuracy for pretty much the entire game. if he bowls like this more often in test matches he'd be a fine bowler.

Pretty encouraging to hear that from you, actually. I've been saying for a few months now that he is a very different bowler now than he was 18 months ago - the way be bowled yesterday, and in the ODIs in New Zealand, and in most of the VB series this summer, would lead him to have significant success in test cricket.

 

[marc71178]

LOL @ Scallywag returning when Australia start winning again. Ah so predictable.

Indeed - but no comments about the great captaincy last weekend I see.

 

[marc71178]

lets also not forget Husseys record in English domestic cricket.

Because of course Pietersen's is terrible

 

[Craig]

Indeed - but no comments about the great captaincy last weekend I see.

Also no comments from prominent Bangladesh bashers like Richard and Langeveldt on their great win over Australia.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

err no, while there was nothing wrong with the ball, the fact is that it took a very poor trescothickesque stroke to get out to it. the ball didnt do much except hit the seam.

The shot wasn't great and he kind of hung the bat out at it a bit, but the ball was quite good, it angled across him and moved away. It wasn't as simply as him playing a poor shot.

other than the fact that tresco, strauss and collingwood batted like novices. if you didnt already know it, then i'll tell you again, this england batting lineup relies completely on 2 players, take a wild guess at who those 2 are.

I agree with you there, but the point I was trying to make is that England did not play particularly badly with the bat yesterday. Flintoff and Solanki were quite good and were removed by some good bowling, and the top three ran into a fantastic spell from both ends, and the fact that they might have had technical flaws exploited doesn't mean that they batted poorly.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

just on watson, i cant believe that he was picked to play test cricket, especially as a 'bowling all rounder'. he's so far from being test class with the ball its simply amazing. he might make a decent ODI bowler because hes fairly accurate and has a good slower ball and makes a decent 5th bowler, but seriously he seriously isnt good enough to play test cricket.

He's not test class with the ball yet, no, but he was definately a selection with an eye on the future. And really, he bowled pretty well in that game. He's certainly test class with the bat, in my view.

 

[Scallywag]

England will now have 5 front-line bowlers as opposed to 4 which can and hopefully will be a big difference and that is without having to compromise the batting at all really (Giles is just as likely to score runs as Solanki at number 8). Anyway Giles is a massive improvement on Solanki overall, I don't think Symonds or Lee are going to be as much as an improvement on whoever they replace.

Good call.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

If I hear the headline 'And a turn of fortunes for one of cricket's bad boys' about Symonds one more time, Channel 10 deserves to be taken off air.

 

[jlo33692]

just on watson, i cant believe that he was picked to play test cricket, especially as a 'bowling all rounder'. he's so far from being test class with the ball its simply amazing. he might make a decent ODI bowler because hes fairly accurate and has a good slower ball and makes a decent 5th bowler, but seriously he seriously isnt good enough to play test cricket.

spot on

 

[jlo33692]

If I hear the headline 'And a turn of fortunes for one of cricket's bad boys' about Symonds one more time, Channel 10 deserves to be taken off air.

yours on 10???
We are 7 and foxtel but same feed.......