The Ashes are coming home!

[Eclipse]

Im only getting "carried away" because the Eng team made the Aus look weak and frightened. Giving their wickets away... ironically like the England of old used to. Vaughan has got a worldbeating team here. Noone can deny this,

that's ********..

Australia gave there wickets away through arrogance and believeing they where good enough to hit every bowler out of the attack.. This should be a good lesson for them.

If anything it was the fact they wearnt scared enough.

 

[age_master]

Nah KP hair is what really matters, or wait it the shorts that he wears that matters, then again the Ashes is all about KP

haha yeah his hair is pretty shocking lol

 

[_Ed_]

Although England fans have every right to be very happy with the game, 20/20 is as has already been said very different to test cricket. And, the stars for England were Gough, Lewis and Collingwood, I don't expect those three to take much part in the tests, so although I am not saying England can not win the Ashes, I believe the 20/20 was irrelevant to how the summer will unfold.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

Again, I maintain that if Giles, Tresco and Hoggard have good series, England may well win the Ashes.

Trouble is (from my point of view at least) if one Mr Shane Warne has a decent series it won't really matter how well that triumvirate play; I really can't see us winning the Ashes until he retires to be honest so what, 2009??

Pleased as punch last night but. Meaningless game or no, thumping the Aussies at cricket is a moment to be treasured as it doesn't happen often.

 

[King_Ponting]

Dissapoined with the way the aussies played this morning. Little too much arrogance i think.

 

[twctopcat]

this is now two hyped games that england have beaten australia now, i think it will be getting to them

It will only be getting to the english fans and media, of that i have no doubt. After 18 years we will have to have the ashes sown up to start believing of victory.
What i feel came out of last night was that it is even. We are no longer afraid of the aussies like the past and it is a level playing field in that respect.

 

[twctopcat]

And gough is a legend as always, looked like some kind of mohican last night going ape ****! Long live magua.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Trouble is (from my point of view at least) if one Mr Shane Warne has a decent series it won't really matter how well that triumvirate play; I really can't see us winning the Ashes until he retires to be honest so what, 2009??

Pleased as punch last night but. Meaningless game or no, thumping the Aussies at cricket is a moment to be treasured as it doesn't happen often.

I maintain that the key for England is their batting. I think if the pitches offer a little bit of assistance (which hopefully they will) England's bowlers are probably good enough to at least make England competitive. But, on the same pitches, it's going to take a huge effort from players like Strauss, Trescothick and Vaughan to carry England to match-winning totals.

If the pitches are dead flat, the equation changes, and I think that England's batting is probably good enough to be competitive, but their bowling will have to stand up.

The real trouble with beating Australia is you have to perform in every department to manage it, and if you do get on top but can't maintain it for a whole match or in this case a whole series, you're not going to win.

I'm confident now though that England can at least compete.

 

[PY]

I don't think I've ever seen an England team as pumped as they were last night, I really think they are raring to get stuck in which I can only see as a good thing because as someone mentioned, I'm beginning to think that the mental part of the upcoming battles may well be even in terms of strength against mindgames and past experiences.

Someone made a good point that key components of this England team (Strauss, Flintoff, Jones, Bell and Vaughan had a cracking Ashes tour) haven't had an Ashes thumping experience so they don't have the baggage of what Australia have done to England in the past few tours.

 

[Pedro Delgado]

I maintain that the key for England is their batting. I think if the pitches offer a little bit of assistance (which hopefully they will) England's bowlers are probably good enough to at least make England competitive. But, on the same pitches, it's going to take a huge effort from players like Strauss, Trescothick and Vaughan to carry England to match-winning totals.

If the pitches are dead flat, the equation changes, and I think that England's batting is probably good enough to be competitive, but their bowling will have to stand up.

The real trouble with beating Australia is you have to perform in every department to manage it, and if you do get on top but can't maintain it for a whole match or in this case a whole series, you're not going to win.

I'm confident now though that England can at least compete.

I admire your positive objectivity

However, English batsmen have a seemingly indefatigable incompetence against the Warnemeister, aside from Mick, and I can't see Mick batting like the champion he was a couple of years back either. I agree it will be competitive on the field, and may "look" a close series to those watching, but in Wisden it'll still most probably read 3-1 or 4-0 I'm afraid; whatever we're good at, you're better at (Flintoff aside) although we're not too far behind.

Warne the key for me though, still.

 

[PY]

Nothing like a good bit of English realism to help keep people's feet on the ground.

I have to admit, I'm dreading seeing the headlines of the tabloids this morning because they're bound to gone over the top in true English media fashion.

 

[Richard]

Actually, we've now won the last Test, ODI and Twenty20 against Australia.

Not that it'll mean much come 21st July.

Nor, as almost everyone seems to have forgotton, come 19th June.

 

[Richard]

thats the other thing which i reakon screwed Australia up, mixing up the bating order at any level rarely works

As we see by the number of times Australia have done that with Lehmann, Martyn et al in ODIs...

 

[Richard]

well everyone knows Warne's hair will be the key to Australia retaining the ashes

Interestingly I think it won't actually be utterly insignificant.
Everyone, but EVERYONE, knows how important his PR is to Warne - if the England players are able to get under his skin with the old "going bald, Warnie" etc. jibes I seriously wouldn't rule-out it having some effect on his bowling, even if it is only relatively small.
If his hair is out of the worry, it obviously won't affect him.

 

[Richard]

What i feel came out of last night was that it is even. We are no longer afraid of the aussies like the past and it is a level playing field in that respect.

You see, I think we already knew that. I think that was achieved with the Champions Trophy victory.
All things being even, this summer's NatWest and Ashes will be decided purely in terms of the players on view.
Thing is, of course, Australia are superior in that department anyway, even if they have lost their psychological hold.

 

[Richard]

Someone made a good point that key components of this England team (Strauss, Flintoff, Jones, Bell and Vaughan had a cracking Ashes tour) haven't had an Ashes thumping experience so they don't have the baggage of what Australia have done to England in the past few tours.

And that's been said before - fact is, if it ever affected people like Atherton, Stewart, Hussain, Thorpe etc. I'll eat my computer.
The only reason they lost to Australia loads is because people like McGrath kept on bowling fantastic deliveries to them.
Equally, you only have to look at the like of Usman Afzaal and God-knows-how-many others to see that you categorically DO NOT have to have been involved in previous Australian thrashings to be "carrying baggage".

 

[Adamc]

I hope England win the first ODI against Australia, the tabloids will have a field day. The bigger the bubble, the better the burst... Or something like that.

TBH, even though I've always really looked forward to watching them, I've never really been that bothered about who wins the Ashes. I actually have fond memories of the First Test in '97, as Taylor (my favourite player at the time) scored a ton to break his form slump.

For some reason though, I'm really hoping Australia win the Ashes this time round. This is probably due in part to the fact that this is the first Ashes series since I started using CW, and a lot of the rubbish that has been posted is really getting on my nerves. Mind you, if I were an English fan I would probably feel the same way.

 

[Richard]

I maintain that the key for England is their batting. I think if the pitches offer a little bit of assistance (which hopefully they will) England's bowlers are probably good enough to at least make England competitive. But, on the same pitches, it's going to take a huge effort from players like Strauss, Trescothick and Vaughan to carry England to match-winning totals.

If the pitches are dead flat, the equation changes, and I think that England's batting is probably good enough to be competitive, but their bowling will have to stand up.

The real trouble with beating Australia is you have to perform in every department to manage it, and if you do get on top but can't maintain it for a whole match or in this case a whole series, you're not going to win.

I'm confident now though that England can at least compete.

It all depends on what type of assistance in the pitches - if there's even a bit in it for the seamers expect to see England knocked-over for 250 or so. Equally, don't expect Harmison and Flintoff to give anything back.
If the pitches are flat, England's batting-line-up is not good enough to be competetive, you mark my words. It'll be the familiar story of cave-in to McGrath especially - it might even be the case that the three of them get something out of the flat deck anyways.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

For some reason though, I'm really hoping Australia win the Ashes this time round. This is probably due in part to the fact that this is the first Ashes series since I started using CW, and a lot of the rubbish that has been posted is really getting on my nerves. Mind you, if I were an English fan I would probably feel the same way.

Yeah I sort of feel the same way. I'm not the most partisan fan in the world or anything, but when people play Australia and make a really big deal out of relatively insignificant things (I felt the same way about the India series in Australia, for example), it riles me a bit. Having said that, most of the English fans on the forum have been fine about it.

It was also good to see nobody on the Australian side of the fence whinging about Michael Clarke's dodgy decision yesterday, because there's nothing more irritating on this forum than when umpires "cheating" becomes an issue.

 

[Richard]

Yeah, I meant Katich. My mistake.

My composite XI... pre-Ashes.

Justin Langer
Matthew Hayden
Ricky Ponting
Damien Martyn
Graham Thorpe
Andrew Flintoff
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Warne
Jason Gillespie
Matthew Hoggard
Glenn McGrath

I think Hoggard JUST shades Kasper as things stand. Hoggard did enough in what were not particularly seam-friendly conditions in SA to convince me he's at least as good as Kasper is currently, and one of the problems I have with the current Australian attack is how one-dimensional it is. It's all seamers who rely on moving it off the wicket rather than swinging it, who bowl slightly back of a length and keep scoring down as much as possible, and all bowl in the 135-140 range. That's why Í think Lee deserved a go in NZ, but Hoggard would also provide some variety. Harmison has yet to convince me really. It will be easier to pick the side after the Ashes though.

I find it difficult to pick Thorpe ahead of Katich myself, and you'd always have to base your team on conditions, too - on a turning pitch I'd much prefer have Warne and Giles than 3 seamers and Warne - Giles on a turner is better than any of Kasprowicz, Gillespie and Hoggard.