The Ashes: 1st Test - The 'Gabba, Brisbane

kyp_durron

Well, Jones is earning his keep today

DMC

Beefy is suggesting "let him bowl.... he'll get his rhythm, let him bowl...."

My arse. Let him bowl and get his rhythm, but not in the second day of an Ashes test match. Go away to the academy in Perth and practice there. This is embarrassing.

kyp_durron

150 for Ponting.

Stuart Broad should be getting a phone call right about now. They can't play Harmison after this surely? Even Mahmood would be better.

DMC

Oooh.... Harmison or Mahmood..... can I have neither?

Harmison won't be picked after this. This reflects badly on the coach. If he was that bad in the Champions Trophy, what has he done prior to this test that made the decision to drop him in the last match of that tournament the wrong decision?? He's done nothing since arriving in Australia to justify his worth in the team. He hasn't earned the place on the team.

Yes, Stuart Broad is badly needed.

kyp_durron

DMC wrote:

Oooh.... Harmison or Mahmood..... can I have neither?

Harmison won't be picked after this. This reflects badly on the coach. If he was that bad in the Champions Trophy, what has he done prior to this test that made the decision to drop him in the last match of that tournament the wrong decision?? He's done nothing since arriving in Australia to justify his worth in the team. He hasn't earned the place on the team.

Yes, Stuart Broad is badly needed.

I was only saying Mahmood to put Harmison's performince in perspective .

Really though where are England going to get a wicket from?? This is looking far from good...

DMC

Bowled 'im! Out of the ground! Super ball.

Hussey b Flintoff 86

407/4

county

the one and only freddie gets the 4th wicket

Royale with Cheese

Wow, 407/4. England back in with a shout...

county

Royale with Cheese wrote:

Wow, 407/4. England back in with a shout...

easy there tiger;)

Royale with Cheese

county wrote:

easy there tiger;)

Don't worry now, there may have been a hint of sarcasm in my post. This is very depressing altogether

DMC

Time for some zzzzz, maybe with a hint of Blowers whispering in my ear

county

427-4 at lunch

kyp_durron

Austraila 602-9 dec

England 34-2, not looking good at all, will do well to avoid the follow-on. So far the Aussies have looked in a different league. Hope this doesn't set the tone for the whole series.

kyp_durron

Collingwood gone for 5.

England now 42-3, I honestly can't see any way back and we're yet to see warne as well.

DMC

Woeful!

county

pretty dire alright,if ever we needed a few boycotts in the team its now

TrueDub

A Boycott would be good, but what this situation calls for is a Tavare - 8 runs in a session once, the only man to see out a situation like this.

I said last night that the pitch is a belter and if England's top order bat the way they should the game is there to be drawn. That was a big "if", and they're up against it now. Tomorrow's play will prove whether Pietersen has the brain to play test cricket in all it's forms, by digging in & grinding it out.

JacksonHeightsOwn

how bloosy shocking is Harmisons bowling though???

he reminds me of me, i played cricket for just 1 season, when i was 12, i remember when i bowled id only get 2 balls in an over on target, but i was a bloody kid, this fella is paid to do that, shocking

England are gonna lose by an innings here, and get totally whitewashed, sure the injries didnt help, but my god thats a shocking display

SydneySider

Hi to you guys over there.

All I've caught so far is snippets on the TV and radio, but today is Saturday so I can take up the viewing position and watch the wickets fall!!

Big plug for the boys, great batting. Go Gilchrist in the second innings or match. He needs a big one.

KevIRL

Big drop there by Clark.

Pieterson should have been gone

KevIRL

Pieterson gone for 16.

England 78/4

Thats the early breakthrough the Aussies wanted

Paul Tergat

Not had chance to see any of it....anyone give me a decent summary so far, obviously not good in terms of score but who's bowling well and hows the pitch playing?

county

the aussies were lucky with that,never out

county

5 down now,england in tatters

flintoff out for 0

KevIRL

Flintoff gone to Lee!

This test is there for the aussies now

England up the ****ter

Flintoff gone after 3 balls

79/5

KevIRL

county wrote:

the aussies were lucky with that,never out

it did look out tho, on normal play. Even the sky lads said so.

Will England avoid the follow on?

county

KevIRL wrote:

it did look out tho, on normal play. Even the sky lads said so.

Will England avoid the follow on?

it was a no ball aswell



the aussies will not bat twice in this game

KevIRL

county wrote:

it was a no ball aswell



the aussies will not bat twice in this game

Yis are looking fooked mate. Australia by far the better team

Nowhere near the drama of 15 months ago tho

KevIRL

Lovely shot from Jones

county

KevIRL wrote:

Lovely shot from Jones

this is the start of a great partnership





*hopefully*

KevIRL

brings up the hundred!

KevIRL

Good fielding by Billy Bauden!

county

yes,cost england 4 runs:)

KevIRL

time for bed methinks, Atherthon is gone back to goin on about Botham's birthday party last night.

nothing to see here, move along

county

i`ll try and stay up for a few hours yet,thank god no work tomorrow

county

118-5 at lunch

Mothman

157 all out
McGrath takes 6

Aus bat again and are scoring at will, 132 - 1 off 31 overs
Hayden run out
langer 66no

Mothman

155-1 35 overs

lead restored to 600

20 minutes to end of play.

Mothman

End of play Day 3
181 -1 (lead 626) 40 overs
Ponting gets his 51no
Langer 88no

county

embarrassing to say the least,thank god i`m away for the weekend so i won`t be able to watch the last two days play,


on another note what is ponting at not making england follow on ,he will probably bat on for half a day tomorrow and declare.if england get to the close untouched it will give england a massive morale boost and have them thinking they can scape a draw,very poor captaining by ponting witch could bite him in the arse.


personally i dont think this will happen but giving england a sniff of getting something out of the game is poor judgment imo

DMC

I've seen this in a lot of tests in the last few years where the follow-on isn't enforced. The logic is, there is a chance that a tiring bowling attack will lose the advantage of 200+ runs that they had. Giving a batting side two goes one after the other is helpful to the batting side, as the other side continues to bowl.

What has happened is Ponting is giving his bowlers a breather. His intention is to throttle any life there is in England, not just for this test, but in the following ones. But he might have been given his bowlers too much of a breather. There was no sense in not declaring again before the close today.

I wonder has Ponting been told that if he did enforce the follow-on, there would've been a very good chance a 4th day sell-out crowd might have been refunded some cash? The cynic in me says it's entirely possible.

Mothman

End of play day 4
Aus declare when Langer gets his hundred
202 - 1

Setting target of 648

Eng get to 293 - 5 by close. (80 overs)

Collingwood 96 (out to an appalling shot)
Pietersen 92 no

They tore into Warne for a while with a stand of 153 in 146 minutes

Warne having last laugh with 4 wickets so far.

DMC

Australia 602/9d & 202/1d
England 157 & 293/5 (79.6 ov)
England require another 355 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Day 4 - Close.

100% improvement for England, the Aussie bowling was attacked, but that didn't stop some silly shots to get out; Strauss, Collingwood and Flintoff particularly mistimed. Still ****ed tho!

I wonder how Ponting's back is, as he appeared to do it while batting, he's not fielded at all.

mike65

Boy if the Aussies don't close this out fairly smartly, ie between lunch and tea the press will have them for breakfast. A draw would be unlikely but can be forced with some help from the weather.

Mike.

Royale with Cheese

Well if there was any doubt at all in what the outcome of this match would be, it's gone. KP gone 4th ball without adding to his overnight total. Meh

Royale with Cheese

And that's the end of that torture, 1-0 to Australia

DMC

At the end of the day, Giles got 24 (61) and 23 (55), and 1/113 off 30 overs.
Warne on the other hand scored 17 (42), and 4/149 off 44 overs

Now while we all know Warne is God, I think these figures show that the spinners didn't have the best of this match and it was the right decision not to play Monty. Warne's wickets were down to more nervousness of what the pitch could do, and also some awe that got him England's 2nd innings wickets. (Collingwood especially) For the batting and crease occupancy, in a lost cause, Giles did better. The other 3 bunnies below him added 27 between them. As much as it rankled with me at the start of play, it was the right decision not to play Monty.

kyp_durron

I don't see how it was 'the right decision' not to play Panesar. Monty had played his way into the side with some great performences over the summer, he deserved his place and got shafted for a bowler who was 'undercooked' as we all seem to say now. A strange choice considering the rest of the bowling attack was lacking match fitness or undercooked, whatever you want to call it. What did Giles do in this match to make you think he deserved his place over Panesar? 47 runs and 1 wicket?

I can see your point, but I just don't agree with the inclusion Giles in this test, maybe in Sidney or Adelaide. I'm sure however we all can agree England need to pick themselves up or a whitewash is a possiblity.

DMC

Thread reaches its century

Harmison was played because as he a fast bowler who was more likely to get more out of the pitch than a spinner, and out of the lumps that England have on tour, I'd still be tempted to play him in Adelaide. It still doesn't forgive him (or team management) for this performance.

Giles was put in to shore up the batting but also it was reckoned that any mere mortal spinner other than SK Warne, would'nt get wickets here, pure and simple, and those 47 runs, while in vain, crease occupancy was also important. I don't think you would get that with Monty, but it was clear than the management didnt want 8-11 all interchangeable in their ineptness.

Monty will feature in Sydney and Adelaide. He might get a 10 wicket haul in either place, but its more spinner friendly than The Gabba.

L5

kyp_durron wrote:

I don't see how it was 'the right decision' not to play Panesar. Monty had played his way into the side with some great performences over the summer, he deserved his place and got shafted for a bowler who was 'undercooked' as we all seem to say now. A strange choice considering the rest of the bowling attack was lacking match fitness or undercooked, whatever you want to call it. What did Giles do in this match to make you think he deserved his place over Panesar? 47 runs and 1 wicket?

I can see your point, but I just don't agree with the inclusion Giles in this test, maybe in Sidney or Adelaide. I'm sure however we all can agree England need to pick themselves up or a whitewash is a possiblity.

In fairness it seems like the right decision not to pick Monty, it was a pitch for seamers not spinners. Adelaide looks like it'll be perfect for Spinners, and it's looking like Australia might bring in Stuart MacGill, so it shows that they think it'll spin also.
Hopefully Harmison can sort his head out for Friday.