England expects that every man will do his duty
 

I have to admit, I'm getting pretty nervous.

I think Collingwood would be the wrong option, I hope they go with Anderson... this isnt the time to change the format of a winning formula.

Australia are vulnerable, they are an old team and I think they have lost some hunger... but their pride will be stung and they will be dangerous.

Ideal situation is we are 900 all out somewhere on day 4... realistically its a big toss to win and we need to bat first and bat as long as possible... bowl wide and defensively as possible... try to nullify the game. Vaughan has to SAY he wants the win... but we all know what we really want is five days rain.

I'm looking forward to the next test, finally the ashes will be coming home!!
I was on the edge of my seat for the end of the last test, I tried to get down there but couldn't get the time off work :(
To be honest, I don't care who bowls, we can't lose with Freddie in the side!! :)

I don't think I'll ever understand cricket

LOL. I saw a documentary about some American orphans and the carers were teaching them to play cricket. But they told them the batter had hit the ball into the stumps at the other end! I thought that was hilarious!

my girl is from England and she's tried and tried to explain it.. but .. it just doesn't sink in..


here's an article relating to what you crazy people are talking about I think :p

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cric...nd/4221924.stm

advantage England ... I think, but its slight.

Hopefully we can make Australia really work for the last three wickets, and then they are going to be under pressure straight away.

For those of you who are mystified by the noble art of Cricket, here are the rules explained in simple form:

The Rules

You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he is out. When they are all out, the side that's been out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out.

When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out, he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who are all out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have been out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game.

Who Wins and more importantly, HOW?

The team that is in has to make as big a total as possible.Tthe team that is in may then declare on a total that they think is good enough to win the match, this can only happen if your team is not all out. If they are out or declared then the runs they have made becomes the target of the team that was out previously and they have to go in to score the runs. The team that is out trys to stop the team that is in scoring the runs required. The team that is in has to score as many runs they can too, preferably higher than the team that is now out but was in to start with, If the team that was in does not get very many runs at all then the team that was out can enforce the "follow-on". When the team that is in gets out then the the team that was out go's in again.
The team that is now in has to now add to their total to set a target for the team that is now out. After the team that is out gets the team that is in, out, then the team that is out go's in. The team that is in now has to get the total posted by the team that is currently out. The team that is out now has to either bowl the other team out before they get the runs or, depending on the amount of time left in the match bowl defensively and stop the team that is in getting the runs in time.
If the team that was just in made the required amount of runs then they are victoriuos and obviously if they don't then they lose. However if the team that was in gets the exact amount of runs that the team that was out then the game is called as a tie.

OK. Work with me here.

How do they make runs? There is a pitch and a hit and a running back and forth, right?

Thanks for listening.

By pitch you mean 'ball'. The ball is 'bowled' and there are 6 balls in an 'over'.
The player batting doesn't have to hit the ball to get any runs, they just have to make it between the stumps without being 'run-out'.
Basically you get one run for each time you run between the stumps, 4 runs for hitting the ball over the boundary and 6 runs for hitting the ball over the boundary without it touching the ground. (What you might consider as a 'home-run' :D)

Just found this vid, I thought it was real funny, but then I am English!
Good to see that Brett Lee could smile about it! :D

<embed src="http://grab.orsm.net/php/movies.php?file=update20050908/brettlee.wmv"></embed>

-->LINK<--

do what?!...

I hope the weather stays away, we have a good chance of holding on to the Ashes if it does :)

In saying that, day 2 was just cut short due to bad light and rain :\ ffs

Don't try and explain the glorious game to a Yank , oh ffs, they play baseball. LOL
we called it rounders at school and thought it a girly game :D

Yes come on England. The weather is our best player I reckon :thumbsup:

Now that Australia is batting half decently, it is raining. Oh well the rain saved Australia in the second test but I still hope it stops raining soon.

Im pissed off with the horse racing! i know its raining but the good thing about such an amazing event is the banter by the comentators and the stories about the ashes from past times. come on England :thumbsup: I liked the story about the England football manager sven not going to the test because there was an outcry that he would put a jinx on the English chances :lol:

rain glorious rain!

:)

for me it's more like :(

Here Here lol just loved the look of the rain pouring off the covers and making it water logged :D :thumbsup: :lol: there is a god :cool:

And he is ENGLISH!

Well do you think he would want to be Austrailian :lol:

Hi,
Play has just finished for the day, and the Aussies are just over 100 behind.
I wish the crap English weather would be kind for the next two days, because I think Ricky will bat till the middle of the final session, and hope to bowl England out for about 200, and not have to bat again. This should hopefully be enough for Australia to win and retain the Ashes.

Cheers,
Moo

If England are skittled out for under 200 in their 2nd innings I will commit suicide in protest by impaling myself on the stumps at the Oval. ;)

Well I'll be pretty upset! I don't have a ticket so they won't let me into the ground anyway. :(

Let's torch the Aussie's bus if they win!! :crazy:

It's gonna be stressful watching again.....

brilliant morning for England. Now the batsmen must do their duty. Lets hope for darkness and rain however.

KP should be knighted.

COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!

The greatest series of cricket I've ever seen. I think that Athers was right in what he said in the presentation too... the word "Great" is very overused in sport, but the Shane Warne should not be called anything else other than The Great Shane Warne.

It's a sad, sad day in Australian cricket.
We have lost the Ashes...
Bad light at 3:30 in the afternoon. Is it really that dark in England? It is difficult to tell on TV.

Moo

Yes, Shane Warne is one of the greatest cricketers to ever walk the Earth.
It's a pity that Glen McGrath injured himself in the warm-up before the second test. Things may have been different...

Moo

We lost the Ashes...............

YAY! :D





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Well Pieterson got worked over and came back brilliantly and yes he had some luck. Everytime he smashed the ball for 6 I thought he was going to get caught!
Well done Ashley Giles as well in his best innings. A brilliant series and a wonderful match. I watched it all and loved it.

England is going into cricket fever now. After this brilliant ashes series, everybody loves cricket!
http://media.tiscali.co.uk/images/ga...rge/ashesh.jpg

Yep everyone is a cricket fan now, next week it will be something else. The best series ive ever seen :thumbsup: lets see if we can retain them next year and prove it wasnt a one off wonder :p

Would you rather people didn't jump on the bandwagon?
I've loved Cricket for about 22 years and am happy for anyone else who can get into it.
If it's the same team -3 that we'll be fine. OK so long as it's not Flintoff, S Jones and Pieterson who are out! :eek:

Ian Bell has probably played his last test match... maybe they will go back to him, but he looked hopelessly out of his depth, and while there are people like Robert Key on the sidelines... its hard to justify.

Jones really cannot go on making so many mistakes behind the stumps. if you average 55 you can get away with a series like that... if you average 30 you cant.

As for Ashley Giles, he is a solid, intelligent cricketer, a good fielder, a brave and resolute batsman... but the fact remains that he just doesnt turn the ball enough, but I dont know if we have anyone else that is any better.

I don't disagree with anything you have just said :)
The only thing is while in the past the Selection Board so loved to pick players for 1 match and then ditch them. Now I worry they will let players have too much of a chance to 'get going' :eek:

for me, it is pretty obvious Bell is going to have to move out... he had a terrible average, and was just not able to contribute. He is a talent, and he has all the shots, I just dont think he is ready for text cricket. Its easy to hide in county cricket (Ramprakash and Hick...) I'd say the sooner we get Key back into the team, and Vaughan at 4 where he is more comfortable, the better.

The selectors have shown a lot of faith in Jones... but for me the biggest problem is his age. He is a good batsman, and he seems like a strong character, and if he was young enough you could say "well, his keeping will get better".. but he is in his late 20's, and he has very obvious technical flaws (the numbers of catches he tried to take one handed...) To be honest, I dont think Chris Read is as weak a batsman as people think, he would be the natural choice imo. Bare in mind, Jones averaged 25 and is being kept in the team for his batting. Gilchrist averaged 22 and everyone was saying how he failed badly this tour, and he put down a LOT less chances.

as for Giles... it is hard, because he does a lot of things well, he is an intelligent man, and lets not forget he played the innings of his life when his country needed him, and had a huge impact on us winning the Ashes... very good fielder, a tidy bowler, but he just doesnt take enough wickets. He can tie down an end, but he is not a threat. There is no question he tours India and Pakistan... but we need to replace him quickly. He is not a strike bowler, and all of the great teams have great spin bowlers.

Saying that, a lot of plus points.

KP played magnificently - with courage, heart, vitality... he will learn how to pace his innings better, his raw talent is immense.

Freddie has emerged as a genuine all rounder, in every sense of the word. His bowling performance in the 5th test was absolutely massive.

Tresco and Straus is a good an opening partnership as there is in the world

Jones, Harmison and Hoggy are as good a seam bowling trio as any team has.

Vaughan - a good tactician and brilliant motivator. Some signs of finding his batting form again, moving to no 4 can only help him. Having 3 natural openers above him should free him up to play his natural attacking game a bit more. Unless you are someone like Lara, it is pretty hard for a stroke playing batsman to come in 3.

I agree with nearly everything you have said. I won't dispute Hick as being a brilliant country cricketer and a flawed Test one! :(
I so wanted him to be brilliant and had seem him play for Worcs (only on TV) and he was so awesome. What a horrendous let down against the mighty (then anyway) West Indies! But unlike some people who hated him I am normally a nice person and I always felt sorry for players that got so humiliated at Test level. It must be so depressing for them.
Anyway, I follow cricket less now (working full time, girlfriends etc takes their toll on following sport)

I'm not sure who is waiting in the wings other than what I read in the Guardian. I too hope they drop Bell and Giles is no way a great slow blower. He's average. I so hope England enjoy success in the Winter. They have been laughed at for many years and it's great to see them feared again!