Cricket: The Official Thread

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Casio

Casio

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BradleyH131
I can't believe this hasn't been started yet. Anyway, my thoughts so far.

  1. England picked a too conservative side, not playing Monty Panesar was insane. The Gabba has always been a good spinning wicket, and is one of the reasons that Shane Warne averages 19 there. Panesar's average of 32 is not that terrible for a left-arm orthodox (It's better then Harbhajan Singh, Nicky Boje and Daniel Vettori) and more importantly better then Ashley Giles.
  2. England need all their bowlers to perform to have any chance. Harmison was terrible on the first day, James Anderson wasn't any better. Hoggard was ok, but never looked like taking a wicket. Flintoff was the only one who looked dangerous and with his injury he should be using himself sparingly, not having to bowl every over of the day. They got better near the end, but by that time Australia was 500 runs infront.
  3. Australia not enforcing the follow on?! It's the craziest thing I ever heard. It's not like England have these formidable spinners who will rip Australia apart on a 5th day wicket. Chances are the way the England batting collapsed they wouldn't have made it to day 5 anyway. And although unlikely, Australia gave England the opportunity to even win the game, because they only needed a run rate of ~3.70 for the last two days, which is not impossible if a couple of batsmen got set.
 
Thought I'd better hunt about for an Ashes thread. I reckon you didn't make us follow on as the your main bowlers are about to pick up their pensions. Didn't stop you kicking our ass though.

We definately have the batting ability to make a decent contest of it but the bowling was rank. Harmi needs to find his groove and then we might have a chance of winning a test or 2 but without a decent set of bowling figures we have no hope. Need to win the toss this time and bat a good total and then put some pressure on your batsmen. Agree with the Monty thing too but he is naff in the field and with the bat.... Decisions decisions.

Edit: The total on our second innings was very good considering the state of the pitch. It looked like a crazy paved driveway.
 
Milliethemutt
Thought I'd better hunt about for an Ashes thread. I reckon you didn't make us follow on as the your main bowlers are about to pick up their pensions. Didn't stop you kicking our ass though.

We definately have the batting ability to make a decent contest of it but the bowling was rank. Harmi needs to find his groove and then we might have a chance of winning a test or 2 but without a decent set of bowling figures we have no hope. Need to win the toss this time and bat a good total and then put some pressure on your batsmen. Agree with the Monty thing too but he is naff in the field and with the bat.... Decisions decisions.

Edit: The total on our second innings was very good considering the state of the pitch. It looked like a crazy paved driveway.
Click to expand...

Yes the second innings was much better. Although almost 2/3rds of the runs were scored by 2 players, I think England can win tests too but they have to get their batting together. Maybe they're just not quite used to the speed and bounce of Australian wickets yet.
 
Here we go. It's rotten timing for us over here but I'll get the highlights and be able to stay up over the weekend. It starts at half 12.
 
Congratulations to Paul Collingwood on getting to 206 today. He played a brilliant innings and his and Kevin Pietersen's partnership was magnificant.

I just hope the Aussies can clean up the English before they get too many more runs, hopefully before stumps today...though 6 wickets in 2 hours will be hard.

Go the Aussies!

Edit: Also, congrats now to Pietersen on 150
 
Come on England. Just woke up this morning to to hear David Gower saying "that's the end of todays play." Bugger. May have watched some last night but can't remember. It was my work Christmas party last night. Going to watch all the highlights in a couple of hours so will be able to comment on the action then. Really please for Colly, local lad and all that even though he is a Mackem (sunderland supporter). And KP too.

Looks like we might have a proper contest this time.
 
last time i looked, Australia were 4/460 or something (i might be completely wrong, can't remember)

common Aussie
 
Australia were 5/312 at stumps today, after 97 overs. England currently leads by 239. Clarke on 30 off 44, Gilly on 13 off 17. Both not out.
(Thank you Bigpond live cricket update :lol: )
 
I'm impressed with the turn around England have done in this second match, the first game was a shambles from the brief moments that I saw :(

"I only support two teams, New Zealand and anybody playing Australia"

:D
 
Wow, looks like England may have a chance of getting outright :yuck: :grumpy:

Oh well, all we can do is watch and hope..... :)
 
Oh well, we made up for it.

GO AUSSIES!!

We can't lose now

Edit: What a great comeback and win! No english people expected that hahaha! Whoooo!!
 
Oh dear. Just watching highlights now but saw some this morning when I got up for work. Bugger.

How nervous were our batsmen this morning? Looks like the pressure got to them.
 
You would have thought so but he got spanked for 60+ off 10 overs in a one day game yesterday. Did get 2 wickets mind. I think he should be in but can't see them backing down.
 
At the moment anyone would be better then anyone in the team now. With exception of Collingwood, KP, and Hoggard.

If Harmison is still in the side next match you guys might as well just call it now. Someone with figures of 1/288 and a strike rate of 400 in the past 4 innings should not be selected.
 
He retired. Personally I think he was told he was getting the arse, and decided that he'd retire rather then face the humiliation of being dropped to the public. He was a good player, but he was never anything really special, all it means is that we can move Mike Hussey up to number 4, (Someone averaging 82 should be as high as possible), and put another all-rounder or bowler in, such as Shane Watson or Stewart McGill. Australia doesn't need anymore batsmen. We have decent batting all the way down to #9. And #10/#11 aren't terrible either.
 
It does sound like a jump before he was pushed type move. Just before his home test too. I reckon we'll be lucky to get any kind of result in the next 3 tests.
 
And England has lost the toss, and probably the test now before it's even started.

At least some balls have been shown and Monty is in. Although Anderson went out instead of Harmison.

EDIT: Wait. Harmison wasn't on the team sheet just then....

EDIT2: Monty has Langer with an amazing ball. I might have to eat my words soon.
 
Oh Monty Monty! Monty Monty Monty Monty Panesar!

Excellent. Makes you think even more why he didn't play the last test.

And Harmi is looking like he's coming back to form a bit too.

Watched the first session and the some of the last today, this cricket is killing me. Thank god for days off work.

Edit: McGrath was unlucky there.
 
Well full credit to England, they're actually looking like a whole team playing.

Although, Mike Hussey is a champion, I want to marry him, and father his children.
 
Target 557. Talk about Mission Impossible

Although Ponting should have held out longer, maybe until tomorrow morning!

WooHoo!! Wicket fallen just as i was typing!! Maybe I should type more...hehe
 
It's all gone wrong again. Watched until lunch but haven't seen the highlights of the rest yet. It looked bad enough when I went to bed but when I got up again it was terrible.
 

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