spindles

You'd have to think Stuart Clark is a shoe in for the next game. Johnson bowled better in this game and I'd expect Siddle would be the one to miss out. Guessing what the heck the Oz selectors are going to do is a bit of a fools game, so we'll have to wait and see.

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dlish

ended in a draw and a bit of a relief for the aussies.

the lost day due to rain was a god-send and saved the aussies ass and probably kept some heads from rolling..for the time being.

1-0 coming into game 4 of a best of 5 series...

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spindles

hmmm - I dunno - aussies were 260 ahead with 5 wickets in hand. Had there not been a lost day, they might've been pushing for a win. Oz in a better position than England at the end.

Still, our inability to dismiss England (tail especially), should be concerning.

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dlish

the aussies saw the end near, and pressed on. i didnt see them batting for two days, because that would have been their intention had there been an extra day. they've been crumbling under pressure lately, and this wasnt any different.

i only recall one win on the whole tour thus far, so their performance under pressure in concerning. the consistency that we once called upon on a him has eluded us, and our bowling has been intermittant at best. i do believe we are missing a specaliast swing bowling like the likes of damian fleming and a consistant fast bowler..and heck, throw in a consistant spin bowler.

currently we're paying the price for having our team grow old. our problem is that we had too much depth that the younger players never had a chance to make it into the bigtime until they were in their late twenties, which now sadly has shown its ugly head.

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Strange Famous

what a fucking shambles

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dlish

too right.. i thought i was watching pakistan play there for a second.

i do hope to see a fightback from the englishmen.

the aussies need to win both tests to keep the boks from taking their #1 ranking.

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Strange Famous

Another capitulation

It's 1-1 and everything to play for in the last test at least.

Swann and Bopara must be dropped, bring in Monty and Key

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dlish

without their prized #1 ranking to fight for, i think the aussies may slip to 3-4 on the world rankings.

monty needs to come back...

the last test will be a shamozzle..the poms have everything to play for and will go all out. the aussies will play defensive and slow to aim for the defence of the ashes and will only play aggresive if they sense the victory.

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spindles

Yep Bopara looks out of place at 3 - should definitely see the Axe. Bringing Harmison in for Flintoff really stuffed the balance of the side too - really bowler heavy. England have been lucky that Prior has actually scored some runs.

Stuart Clark definitely showed his worth and Johnson finally got his line and length right

Almost a 2 day test match. The positive for England is that they can't possibly be as bad as that again...

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Strange Famous

a bit of pride regained this morning... but lets not take too much from it.

a humiliating performance over the first two days.

no more warm ups playing football I hope after Prior's back spasm!

Team for the decider

Strauss
Cook
Key
Ramprakash (yes, seriously)
Collingwood
Prior
Flintoff
Broad
Anderson
Onions
Panasaer

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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
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hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

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spindles

Good win by us - finally the bowlers all clicked.

I think England's biggest worry is that Strauss is the only batsman who has really stood up - he would be the only one likely to make the Oz team as a batter. Choosing Harmison as Flintoff's replacement took a weak batting lineup and made it weaker. Broad and Swann are worth some runs, but are mainly there for their bowling - England still need a top six that is better than what they have. Bopara can't possibly survive until the next test. England really are in serious trouble if Flintoff is not fit enough for the last game, but I'm not sure picking a hobbling Flintoff is better than picking someone else that is fully fit. The problem is that England really need his bowling, but also rely heavily on his batting. Tellingly, Prior at #6 is England's second bext batsman in terms of runs scored. Haddin (batting 7 for Oz) is actually averaging more runs than the entire England batting lineup.

Oz have a nice headache to take to the next test - do we stick with the 4 pace bowlers or bring Hauritz back in (who has actually bowled pretty well). I'd suggest they'll stick with the pace attack. Funnily, Lee is now fully fit and won't get a look in. Or do we strengthen our bowling by dropping Hussey and bringing in 5 bowlers?

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spindles

Bopara has finally got the Axe. It will be interesting to see what the England batting line up is. Assumptions are that Bell and Collingwood will move up to 3 and 4 and Trott will bat at 5.

Oz seems to have the good dilemma of which bowling attack to use, with Lee taking 3 wickets in the tour match. I'd stick with the four pace men (with Lee missing out), unless the wicket looks like a real turner. Second guessing the Oz selectors is a fairly pointless exercise, as they've managed to bamboozle me before each game thus far.

Thursday can't come fast enough!!

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spindles

You ask what I'm doing? Dancing......a rain dance to be specific

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dlish

i'm doing the same dance. that was dismal by the aussies but credit to the Poms

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Strange Famous

Its not over yet, but we're in the driving seat!

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Strange Famous

Glorious weather, no forecast of rain... if the Aussies win this they'll have played the best innings in test history so fair play to them. But I'd rather be in our position right now. Remember my prediction at the start of this thread!!!!

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Strange Famous

COME ON!!

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highthief

Never pay any attention to cricket - except during the Ashes. Always good to beat the "old enemy"!

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Daniel_

We won, we won, we won.

Hooray! HOO-fuckin-RAY!

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dlish

c'mon aussie c'mon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we should have lasted at least till the end of play. the last 5 wickets fell cheaply in my opinion. two runouts and a stumping on a wicket like this? what were the aussies thinking! its bad enough as it is just trying to survive.

next time we'll beat you 5-zip again. until next time pommies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Strange Famous

Oops, I made a mistake in my last post.

I meant to say England 2 - Lostralia 1



In all seriousness, it was a tight series between two teams who werent at their best... you really have to question Punter's captaincy... his failure to go for the throat in Cardiff (and some brave batting by Monty) was the difference in the end.

Maybe some decisions didnt go their way, but I dont think there were a LOT of shocking ones... at the end of the day they couldnt consistently take 20 wickets, and thats why England were able to stay in the series and win through in the end.

Punter is a great batsmen, but you have to question him as a captain... not that I care!

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hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."

The Gospel of Thomas

spindles

I don't necessarily think it was a captaincy issue. I think our bowling was generally poor. We might have the bowlers that took more wickets, but they were obviously expensive, and there really is no excuse for the horrid batting collapses.

I really question our selectors
- how do they justify Watson as the 'spare' batsman? His numbers just don't justify this position and he has a serious technical issue with getting out lbw. There are heaps of better batsmen than Watson that didn't make the touring squad. His position (if anywhere) is as a lower order batsman who bowls a lot of overs. Unfortunately, his bowling looks ordinary at this level.
- bowling selection. Clark should've played earlier, but maybe shouldn't have played in the last test at all. It is amazing that Oz have a frontline spinner and didn't choose him for this last game...

In reality, though, Oz aren't the side they were with Langer, Hayden, Martyn, Warne and McGrath. I think it is going to take us a fair amount of time to get out of the wilderness. Our ranking is now 3, and will be 4 if Sri Lanka beat NZ (as expected).

Maybe Ponting is not the best captain, but Oz has never been a country to cut a captain. He really has the job until he retires. He would need to really lose form to be dropped and while there are hints that his batting is no longer at its peak, he is hardly struggling.

All credit to England - Trott played well on debut - maybe you guys just need to drafta from more saffers and you'll be world beaters (seriously, I am joking - he qualifies for England and you pick the best you can...)

Well done to England - can you hold onto the urn for us until 2010/11 Summer?

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highthief

We'll stop poaching SA as soon as you guys stop poaching Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, etc for half-decent rugby players!

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spindles

Point taken.

OT, but rugby really is a free for all. I read somewhere that at the last world cup South Africa was the only pure home grown rugby side. I don't remember the source...

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dougalputt

The ashes really was a yawn fest - any sport where a little light drizzle can win you the match is not a sport in my book!