Ashes 2011

JustinDee

What has been entertaining is Kevin Pietersen's little spat with the odious Piers Morgan on Twitter.
Clash of the Egos if ever there was!

d'Oracle

I have not heard nor seen it.
But I can say as comfortably as one can having not read/heard:

Fúck Twitter and the same to anything both those men have to say.

JustinDee

d'Oracle wrote: »

I have not heard nor seen it.
But I can say as comfortably as one can having not read/heard:

Fúck Twitter and the same to anything both those men have to say.

One thing Twitter is good for is news updates (especially when stuck in a meeting - always handy for a sneaky view)

kryogen

KP actually did speak some sense yesterday on the sledging subject, I was shocked

JustinDee

kryogen wrote: »

KP actually did speak some sense yesterday on the sledging subject, I was shocked

What did he say? Its part of the game for over one hundred years and he's one of its chief proponents, even from the non-striker's end?
Jelly bean anyone?

harpsman

Me too-anyone got any funny or interesting sledging incidents?
Still wanna know why so much needle between haddin and jimmy

JustinDee

harpsman wrote: »

Me too-anyone got any funny or interesting sledging incidents?
Still wanna know why so much needle between haddin and jimmy

Pietersen said sledging wasn't an issue, which in my view is correct. Its part of the game and always has been.
Losing teams tend to point it out yet you'll nearly always find they're also doing the same.
Anderson I don't think is great at it as he appears to get riled up too much by getting it back. He's currently got something going on with Watson (dating back from 2009 series), Haddin and Johnson. Classic!

Keepers (and slips) because they're right behind the batsman tend to be the 'worst' at it.
Actually I think I'll start a thread on sledges. Should be fun. The greatest I've ever seen was Ian Healy with Ranatunga when Sri Lanka toured Aussie.

KevIRL

Gotta love the boxing day test, even more so when its The Ashes

Beasty

England win the toss and put the Aussies in - only change is Bresnan for Finn

2 catches dropped in the first 3 overs, then Tremlett gets Watson, caught Pietersen

15-1

kryogen

37-3 now, Ponting gone to a beauty and Hughes too somewhat unfortunately as he was looking like he was settling

I have never seen so much consistent abject failure from the top order

Gonna struggle to save this match and the series now and the match is only 15 overs old!!

Good bowling on display,Aussies need to dig in big time now

Conditions are favouring the bowlers i might add, so hopefully when Oz have a bowl they can replicate the previous test form (they will need it)

dfx-

England so desperately need Hussey out it's funny:pac:

See the problem Australia have with getting a fair pitch for the ball means England can get wickets ok too against Watson and Hughes etc.....

crackit

kryogen wrote: »

Ponting gone to a beauty

A decent ball but nothing like a beauty. It's only a beauty if you're as far out of touch as he is that you're likely to nick off to a half decent ball. England making the most of a good toss to win. Moreso now that it's rained to spice up the pitch again.

Expect a low score from Aussie followed by the pitch dying and England batting long (barring some Mitch Magic - unlikely) and the series being finished within 4 days

amacachi

Is it rained off? Just saw the scorecard and a break on Sky. :P

crackit

amacachi wrote: »

Is it rained off? Just saw the scorecard and a break on Sky. :P

Yeah rained off. They all went home and called it a draw

amacachi

Called it a draw on the first day, deadly!

Seriously though, what's up? Odd to stop in the middle of an over.

amacachi

Out! Poor batting.

crackit

sorry kids but you can make all the excuses for Ponting and Clarke as being great players on reputation and record (and they are) but bottling it 6 times out of 7 each in a crunch series like this doesn't cut the mustard.

When it was on the line they bottled it. They had nothing to do with the 1 Aussie win or even the 1 Aussie draw. Add to that a number of sh*te dismissals between them and it makes it worse. Oh by the way, they are captain and vice-captain and, as such, the leaders.

If this Test match was a movie it would be Apocalypse Now

dfx-

37-1 to 98 all out. 20 of those from Siddle/Harris

amacachi

Awful batting from the Aussies. Brits seem to be being smart enough and taking it handy, if they can bat smart and get through the rest of today and all of tomorrow they have the match in hand.

crackit

jebus you have to be a wind up or someone who has just read about the ashes in the paper the last few days/weeks.

If England (who trail by 30) take it handy and bat smart and bat through the rest of today and all of tomorrow they should have the match in hand?

Nostradamus hasn't a patch on my man.

amacachi

Sure I'm fcuking deadly at predictions.

SharpshooterTom

Say what you want about the game but that was one massive toss to win. Couldn't of had that any better.

Not that it means much, but I guess Australia can try to win the next game and say they didn't lose the series. It would mean a lot.

booth70

Jeez....Its a replay of the Ind v SA test at the Centurion last week....one team loses toss...gets put in to bat...gets rolled over for next to nothing under seaming , swinging conditions.....the other team will now make hay while the sun shines and will end up with a lead so massive that there is no way back in for the first team....

JustinDee

Just threw wickets away. Watson and Hughes in particular.

Woeful performance by Aussie. Even Bresnan took wickets.

Moist Bread

Haha even Hussey couldn't save them this time. Bloody joke of a top order.

Still not convinced England can close this out. If the weather is sunny for the rest of the match I expect Hussey/Haddin to grind the English bowlers into dust second dig, with Watson getting a pretty 97.

Moist Bread

JustinDee wrote: »

Just threw wickets away. Watson and Hughes in particular.

Woeful performance by Aussie. Even Bresnan took wickets.

Bresnan isn't as bad as he is made out to be. I'm not saying he is any good or anything like that. but he cops too much flack tbf.

Why is Hughes so terrible, when his record is quite good up until this series? He keeps going for crap outside off that he should just leave well alone.

JustinDee

Moist Bread wrote: »

Bresnan isn't as bad as he is made out to be. I'm not saying he is any good or anything like that. but he cops too much flack tbf

He is ordinary, especially away from home. A safe bet for England because he can be a handy bat.
Against a side remeniscent of Allan Border's in '85, any old slabber like Bresnan would look good.

JustinDee

Moist Bread wrote: »

Why is Hughes so terrible, when his record is quite good up until this series? He keeps going for crap outside off that he should just leave well alone.

He got carried away when Punter started cracking some lovely boundaries at the other end.

booth70

Moist Bread wrote: »

Haha even Hussey couldn't save them this time. Bloody joke of a top order.

Still not convinced England can close this out. If the weather is sunny for the rest of the match I expect Hussey/Haddin to grind the English bowlers into dust second dig, with Watson getting a pretty 97.

Agree.....Australia,despite getting slapped around big time,should still be able to bat this one out to safety....Ponting will be batting for his career and captaincy in the second dig....I am hoping he shows what a class player he really is

Moist Bread

JustinDee wrote: »

He is ordinary, especially away from home. A safe bet for England because he can be a handy bat.
Against a side remeniscent of Allan Border's in '85, any old slabber like Bresnan would look good.

Agree completely that he is ordinary with the ball, but today he did ok, his pace was higher than I expected. I'm guessing they put him in to keep the run rate down (as well as for his batting) - as opposed to Finn bowling a crap ball once or twice an over.

mike65

Woke up at about 4 am, flicked on BBC radio and wondered why the TMS team were chatting away for an extended period - could it be the Aussies were out in 5 hours of play I wondered

Went back to sleep dreaming of England being about 150 for no wicket in the morning

booth70

Tweet of the day: @NHoultCricket "Listeners to ABC calling for Marcus North to be recalled. It is that bad for Australia"

Such is the state of Australian batting reserves that they have somebody like Steve Smith playing TEST cricket as a batsman

wicorthered

This current Australian side would struggle to win a series in Bangladesh!!

SharpshooterTom

booth70 wrote: »

Agree.....Australia,despite getting slapped around big time,should still be able to bat this one out to safety....Ponting will be batting for his career and captaincy in the second dig....I am hoping he shows what a class player he really is

Unless weather intervenes here, there's absolutely no chance of a draw.

Odds
England 1/7
Draw 6
Australia 16

Speak Now

Wow what a day for England.

Light shower has blown over and day 2 starting on time.

mike65

Tsk England 159-1 (Cook c Watson b Siddle 82)

Speak Now

170 for 2

dfx-

260-2 before Ponting's controversial 'discussion' with Dar...now 286-5..

Mothman

Prior and Trott have added a hundred since.
388-5
Trott 117no, Prior 44no

mike65

Cushty! Will England look to press the advantage in terms of runs, or might they declare with say 400 lead and see if they can bowl the Aussies out on Day 3?

booth70

The Ashes is long gone and its an embarrassment to England that Australia were still in this series before the fourth test started....

I hope Ponting,for the sake of the future of Australian cricket, parks his hyper inflated ego somewhere, resigns as captain, considers moving down the batting order to 5.

He is still too good a player for this to be his last series but its time for Australia to bring in fresh faces , put in a rookie at no: 3 with Ponting's role in the team now being to guide and 'blood' in these youngsters...akin to what Tendulkar's role in the Indian team is now....May be by doing that he might rediscover his own form.....not long ago the dogs were out for Tendulkar's head but he seems to be playing his best cricket at the age of 37!

Clarke is not ready to captain Australia....so Hussey would be my 'stop-gap' choice during the next few years of transition that Australia are going to have to go through

harpsman

Aussies showin what sore losers they are again-ponting should be suspended for last test-total disgrace.

JustinDee

harpsman wrote: »

Aussies showin what sore losers they are again-ponting should be suspended for last test-total disgrace.

Should Strauss have been suspended for kicking off at umpires after umpires called bad light in two tests? Nope.
Its called pressure and no-one commenting on it in these forums has any inkling of what it entails. Fine match fee and get over it.
Ashes are gone.
Use rest of test to get some practice in for Sydney and try draw series then after break get set for CWC as there's a good squad around for that.

Corsendonk

harpsman wrote: »

Aussies showin what sore losers they are again-ponting should be suspended for last test-total disgrace.

Well he has to be seen to do do something for his new 2 year contract of 1.8 million Aus dollars a year, he certainly isn't earning that money with his batting.

TrueDub

JustinDee wrote: »

Should Strauss have been suspended for kicking off at umpires after umpires called bad light in two tests? Nope.
Its called pressure and no-one commenting on it in these forums has any inkling of what it entails. Fine match fee and get over it.

Disagree completely with you - he went totally over the top and looked childish at best. As captain you have a responsibility to show example in behaviour, and he failed.

JustinDee

He'll be the first to admit that when game is finished. Only people making a fuss about it, even with him having been already punished are in the media. The irony is that the loudest of them all have priors for on-field antics themselves.

booth70

Yep...thats right....fine 40% of a match fee for somebody earning about 2 million a year....that'll teach him a lesson

Ponting got off lightly there.......Perhaps Madugalle didn't enforce a one match ban cos he reckoned Ponting won't be in the team for the final test anyway!!

TrueDub

JustinDee wrote: »

He'll be the first to admit that when game is finished. Only people making a fuss about it, even with him having been already punished are in the media. The irony is that the loudest of them all have priors for on-field antics themselves.

But will it stop him doing it again? I doubt it. He can apologise and be contrite afterwards all he likes, but he'll do it again because the punishment doesn't deter him.

And I'd say the same no matter which player it was. Schoolboy tantrums like that have no place in a game for adults.

wicorthered

Ashes gone for Australia England just too good for them. CA needs to radically overhaul the team. For SCG I'd go

Watson
Jacques
Khawaja
Hussy
White (Capt)
Ferguson
Haddin
Johnson
Hauritz
Harris
Copeland

Getting dropped might shake Clarke into form. Think Ponting will retire at the end of the series anyway so I'd get shot now as he won't make runs. Smith is hopeless and Hughes couldn't open an envelop! Hilfenhaus is probably the least threatening Aussie opening bowler in 20 years and Siddle despite taking 3 in this test just doesn't do it consistently enough!

JustinDee

Ffs talk about mountains out of molehills.
He won't be banned. Nobody has been shunted out for that kind of behaviour before. Not even (Chris) Broad, Miandad, Gatting, Singh, Botham or Michael Holding despite their own notable incidents being as bad as if not worse, were suspended.

And since we're all in puritanical-mode, should Strauss have been reprimanded for his behaviour on two occasions following bad light stoppages?

Seriously, you'd swear he had Aleem Dar with some of the sanctimonium following this.
Whether or not he's 'sorry' is between the players, referee, umpires and Cricket Australia. What about the children? They'll live. Nobody has said what he did was right.