***Official*** Tour Games

[pasag]

5/347. Massive effort.

 

[Nate]

Heheheheheh.

 

[steds]

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Wow, what a performance. Marsh was sensational, and Voges and White's hitting at the end was world class. Hard not to feel pretty optimistic at the future of our batting ranks with some of those guys coming though. I doubt Voges or White will have major international careers as batsmen, but Jaques, Birt and Marsh were really impressive today, and Cosgrove's a pretty solid bat too.

England were pretty woeful. Flintoff bowled pretty well and I guess Giles wasn't bad, but they made it look like an absolute road and a tiny ground out there. Certainly not a 340 pitch, and Mahmood and Anderson in particular have to improve plenty on that effort if they're going to have an impact in the tests.

Fielding was pretty poor too.

 

[Nate]

Hilfenhaus to clean up I reckon. It`ll be interesting to see how Tait goes against them, and I`m a fan of Dorey. Jones to get out sweeping against Voges` spin anyone?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Does anyone know much about Ritchard? I've never seen him before, and only heard of him from the u-19 team. What's he like?

 

[albo97056]

Why does fletcher like mahmood, hes possibly the most useless bowler ever to play for england. econ of 6.5 and an average of 43, brilliant.

And why pick monty only to bowl 3 overs, its not like he got tap, it went for 17! a lot better than mahmoods 9 ovs 97runs

 

[social]

Wow, what a performance. Marsh was sensational, and Voges and White's hitting at the end was world class. Hard not to feel pretty optimistic at the future of our batting ranks with some of those guys coming though. I doubt Voges or White will have major international careers as batsmen, but Jaques, Birt and Marsh were really impressive today, and Cosgrove's a pretty solid bat too.

England were pretty woeful. Flintoff bowled pretty well and I guess Giles wasn't bad, but they made it look like an absolute road and a tiny ground out there. Certainly not a 340 pitch, and Mahmood and Anderson in particular have to improve plenty on that effort if they're going to have an impact in the tests.

Fielding was pretty poor too.

Cant draw too many conclusions but the worrying things for Eng were:

1. Back-up bowlers - Mahmood and Anderson were horrible. They've been playing regularly so dont have the excuse of being out of practice.

2. Fielding - looked like a bunch of old men with little mobility and few decent arms

3. Jones - took a great catch (made to look better because he was like a statue until the ball was almost to him) but was generally poor

This ground is enormous but Eng bowled 4 ball after 4 ball

At least Freddie looked fit and why they would choose to protect Monty rather than give him experience on a typical Oz deck is hard to fathom

 

[Nate]

50 off the last 3 by my count. So much talent not in our International team. Brilliant.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Yeah, you've got to question Flintoff's captaincy a bit. It's a warm-up game, not the world cup final. It's better to give Panesar a decent bowl and some valuable practice in the conditions than protect him in the vague hope of saving a few runs. Even if the other bowlers were keeping it tight it would have been a poor decision, as it was it was inexplicable.

 

[steds]

1. Back-up bowlers - Mahmood and Anderson were horrible. They've been playing regularly so dont have the excuse of being out of practice.

Umm Anderson's just returned from having a stress frature in his back and has played 3 ODIs. I don't class 3 ODIs preceded by about half a year out as playing regularly and I don't expect him to be close to 100%.
Mahmood's just shocking.

 

[Burgey]

This is great. Hope its all downhill from here for the visitors.

 

[vic_orthdox]

Ritchard will bowl about 120km/h outswingers.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Ritchard will bowl about 120km/h outswingers.

Haha. Wow, you make him sound so good. Can't wait to watch him bowl now.

 

[steds]

Trescothick to claim the stress-related virus has returned in 5...4...3...

 

[Burgey]

S Tait - a dead set enigma. Mixes a profuson of wides & no balls with jaffas. Seriously rapid though.

 

[howardj]

I wouldn't be reading too much into this game.

It's equivalent to a Lilac Hill tour opener.

Wouldn't be surprised if champagne was inbibed pre-game.

 

[Johnners]

Cook gone to Hilfenhaus, perhaps a rivalry that we'll see plenty more of in the future?

 

[Burgey]

Cook gone to Hilfenhaus, perhaps a rivalry that we'll see plenty more of in the future?

Not if he keeps playing shots like that...

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Been a lovely spell from Tait. Very accurate by his standards, and surprisingly quick, if those speed readings are accurate. Bowling up around 147-149 consistently, with one up to 151. That's around 92-95 mph. Economy rate of 1.2 will do, anyway.

Result of the game is a foregone conclusion now, but England should at least use the overs to get some time in the middle for their batsmen. At least Strauss looks good.