2nd day of the ash's and it don't look good!

[panix04]

I think the writing was on the wall with the exclusion of Panesar, i have only seen about 2 hours of the test (before work) and England have looked flat as a pancake, there appears to be no drive and determination - Sure Flintoff is predictably fired up, but were is that fire in Steve Harmison - Don't get me wrong im a big fan of Harmy, but he is far too much a confidence player in my opinion. He needs to take a big Wicket, if he gets ponting in the Aussies next innings (if they have one!) i think we will see a new Harmison. However it is our batting line-up that looks weakest with the loss of Trescothick and Michael Vaughns enforced ommision the batting line-up looks pretty flimsey! I don't mean to sounds dis-respectful, but Cook, Collingwood, Bell even Jones - it just does not look very strong on paper. Im hoping that England are still getting used to the climate and there will be dramatic improvements in the 2nd half of this test, but once KP, bell and freddy get out Jones will inevitably whack one in the air trying to be clever and get out, Giles will put on a trademark 30 and get bowled and we will have to endure 30 minutes of Hoggard straight batting everything at the floor, all this before inevitably having to follow on! I miss the last ash's series! :(

[ahw26]

[QUOTE=panix04;161671]I think the writing was on the wall with the exclusion of Panesar, i have only seen about 2 hours of the test (before work) and England have looked flat as a pancake, there appears to be no drive and determination - Sure Flintoff is predictably fired up, but were is that fire in Steve Harmison - Don't get me wrong im a big fan of Harmy, but he is far too much a confidence player in my opinion. He needs to take a big Wicket, if he gets ponting in the Aussies next innings (if they have one!) i think we will see a new Harmison. However it is our batting line-up that looks weakest with the loss of Trescothick and Michael Vaughns enforced ommision the batting line-up looks pretty flimsey! I don't mean to sounds dis-respectful, but Cook, Collingwood, Bell even Jones - it just does not look very strong on paper. Im hoping that England are still getting used to the climate and there will be dramatic improvements in the 2nd half of this test, but once KP, bell and freddy get out Jones will inevitably whack one in the air trying to be clever and get out, Giles will put on a trademark 30 and get bowled and we will have to endure 30 minutes of Hoggard straight batting everything at the floor, all this before inevitably having to follow on! I miss the last ash's series! :([/QUOTE] :D :D its been a great first two days in my opinion, looks like things are finally gonna return to normal. by which i mean Australia constantly walloping England

[Marshall]

Being English, I have to say it pains me to say that I agree with ahw26 - we are not going to retain the Ashes. To be honest, if you thought England were going to win in the first place, you're not truly English! Ah, pessimism...:) I was pleasantly surprised when we won last Summer, but evidently that was a long, long time ago in cricket times... As for saying the batting looks weak in England's case, I am of the opinion that the bowling attack looks shallower. Bell, Collingwood and Cook are all players who have experience for England and in their own right could be overlooked by the Aussies, and could make a decent contribution. Cook is my prediction for England player of the series, coming of age and cementing his place in the team. The bowling is lacking an 'it' factor. Jimmy Anderson, Sajid Mahmood and Monty are all inexperienced and at times inconsistent. With Harmison misfiring, that leaves just Giles and Hoggard, and that's worrying. On to another point, I think the wrong decision was made over the captaincy. While Freddie gives the inspirational, Ian Botham-esque captaincy, his bowling and batting are the channels in which he should be concentrating. In my opinion, the role will hurt his performance. Strauss should have been more suited, and while it can be argued he lacks a dynamic quality, he is a true English captain, in that he justs gets his head down and does all the hard work. To sum up this ramble, I think to be fair last Summer's Ashes is the tip of the iceberg for this team, and the Ashes will be going back to Australia. But then I said that last time so what do I know eh?:)

[panix04]

after loosing the 1st test last time around i put a bet on with my grandad that England would win, i am ever the optomist when it come's to cricket. We may not be firing on all cylinders at the moment, but i think we can turn it around. As for the bowling, i think Hoggard and Freddy are the pick of the bunch, Gilo keeps the run rate down but he lacks the wicket taking edge that Monty would have provided and as the old addage go's to win a test match you have to be able to take 20 wickets! I think with Flintoff, Hoggie and Monty in the attack we would have had 3 viable wicket takers, Harmison should just concentrate on bowling a good line and length and good things will happen for him, he's trying too hard to get wickets, i think if he just constantly tossed balls down just wide of off-stump he could do a lot more damage to the Ozzies than trying to uproot the middle stump with Yorkers or hammering in short delivery's, Brett Lee proved they will cut and bruise themselve's Harmison doesn't need to do it for them! I do agree though that Cook is a cracking prospect and i think eventually he will become a test regular, but i do think the team would look that much stronger with Tresothick opening and Vaughn batting at number three, but what do i know, i thought Thorpy should have been in the side for the last ash's tour! If everyone was fit heres the team i would have picked Trescothick Strauss Vaughan Cook/ or Bell - i think cook's a better batsmen but Bell is an awesome fielder. Pieterson Flintoff Reed Hoggard Jones Harmison Panesar

[weirdo_man]

I read Panix's original post and have no clue what he is talking about. :|

[Undertaker666]

Cricket - England vs Australia.

[ahw26]

well if your English then the news at stumps of day 3 is even worse than day 2, England were skittled for just 157 in reply to Australia's 9 for 602 with McGrath taking 6 for 50. Ponting decided to bat again and at stumps on day 3 Australia are 1 for 181 with Ponting on 51 and Langer on 88 an overall lead of 626 with 9 wickets in hand and 2 days left. Yep things are finally back to normal :D

[panix04]

im the daft englishman who decided to stay up all night and watch it! oops! Oh well, it was a good bit of fielding to stump hayden - every cloud has a silver lining eh?

[sheepy]

If only Simon Jones were playing...

[ahw26]

[QUOTE=sheepy;161858]If only Simon Jones were playing...[/QUOTE] tbh i dont think it would make much difference, since losing the ashes this australian team has been a side possessed, they have not lost a test match since. The closest they got was a draw against South Africa. Plus Ricky Ponting has made 9 test centuries since last ashes series and has scored over 1600 runs in his last 13 tests

[panix04]

yeah but he's really old! Damn Shane warne, that guy could take wickets on apitch made of super glue! Still, atleast we can make it respectable today if Geraint jones pulls his finger out of his behind and scores some runs - i didn't watch much of the 4th day (i was still tired from staying up to watch England humilate themselves on day 3!) but cook looked in good Nick and Collingwood looked defiant, if somewhat shaky! I can't help but think that we might have had a shot at taking an unbelievable win had we have batted better in the 1st innings!

[ahw26]

well i have to give England some credit for the way they batted on day 4, finally showing some intent that is the way to go about. but their main problem now is their bowling, on day 3 Langer, Hayden and Ponting all had no problems with it, it was like a training session. The only wicket was Hayden, mainly because he ran himself out, none of the English bowlers took a wicket. The English bowlers technically only took 9 wickets all match for a total of 804 runs, compare that to the Australian bowlers performance of 20 wickets of 527 runs. So while their batting showed some spirit, it is their bowling that they really need to work on.

[panix04]

indeed, although the comentators did state after the 1st day that (and this made me chuckle a bit) "even England would have scored quickly on this pitch" I do think one of Englands strong points in the bowling attack is the reverse swing that people like Hoggard and when he's fit Simon Jones can garner. Unfortunatly for England the pitch did not seem to lend itself to swing bowlers, Hoggie didn't seem to get much regular swing on the ball (which he usually does) it's bizzarre really, because hotter climates tend to lend themselve's to reverse swing, so hopefully the pitch in Adelaide will more appropriatly suit swing bowling, its also supposed to be a good pitch for spin bowling which means if Monty gets a call up could see a bit more spark in Englands wicket taking department, unfortunatly it also means a certain Mr Warne will get more joy than usual. I tell you what, as much as that guy is a constant thorn in the side of the English i love him, he's a cricketing legend and possibly the best bowler to have ever lived. I feel honoured to have seen him at his best, I always feel kinda sad that i never really got to see people like Pele at there best because of my age and in the cricketing world Warne comes in that class of player.