The Ashes

Originally posted by karoly aczel
Oh ye of little faith!!
Lets address acouple of points you've raised here-
1.Clarke is a great player and will rise to the occasion. Remember when he broke up tih Bingle and the media circus surrounding that? Whyat did Clarke do the following day? He went out and made 168!
2.Ponting, yoo will rise to the occasion and eaverage above 50.
3. North ...[text shortened]... nce up with a bag of wickets or a hundred, it could set the tone for the rest of the series.

And my prediction isn't looking too flash after Siddle gets the first hat trick for Australia in the Ashes since Shane Warne in 1994. And on the 1st day of the first test no less!

😀

Originally posted by obsesschess
And my prediction isn't looking too flash after Siddle gets the first hat trick for Australia in the Ashes since Shane Warne in 1994. And on the 1st day of the first test no less!

😀

Looking outthe window the second morning I bet the poms are hoping this rain continues.
It was a surprise that England chose to bat, but the conditions were nearly not as threatening as I had imagined them to be.
What a day. Strauss out in the first over. (Thats was my present for you, Robbie). And then Siddles hatrick .
If they play today I can see a few decent scores coming and the Aussies at about 4-300 by the end of the day🙂
But hey, the English cricketers are gentlemen, and for that I am grateful.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
Looking outthe window the second morning I bet the poms are hoping this rain continues.
It was a surprise that England chose to bat, but the conditions were nearly not as threatening as I had imagined them to be.
What a day. Strauss out in the first over. (Thats was my present for you, Robbie). And then Siddles hatrick .
If they play today I can se ...[text shortened]... the end of the day🙂
But hey, the English cricketers are gentlemen, and for that I am grateful.

Thankyou Karoly it was a perfect present! I was listening and nearly woke the street up at around midnight UK time.

260, they say the Australians are looking for today...really hope that pitch is a tad greasy after the rain 🙂

Beautiful spell from England, Anderson and Finn look gooood with three wickets between them 🙂 Looks like 260 may be a good target after all for the Aussies...

Originally posted by RevRSleeker
260, they say the Australians are looking for today...really hope that pitch is a tad greasy after the rain 🙂

No excuses for the Aussies. The pitch is fine.
England bowling well so far today... I actually see this (and the next 2 partnerships)
as vital, not only for this game, but the whole series.
If Hussey and Clarke can get through this tough bowling and the aussies get to about 5 or 6 down at the end of the day, the English will have to call on their sports psycologists to get them through the rest of the series😀

Originally posted by RevRSleeker
Beautiful spell from England, Anderson and Finn look gooood with three wickets between them 🙂 Looks like 260 may be a good target after all for the Aussies...

If the Aussies dont get to 260 then it will be thier own doing.
I cant see any of the English bowlers swinging this game around that dramatically.

All right, now that I've put my predictions out there, I better not get too far ahead of myself.
I have to remind myself that Siddle just picked up a hatrick just yesterday and totally changed the course of the match...😕

Geez man, I just checked your profile. Me like!! what would it take for you to join my clan? 🙂

Thats it. Clarkes out. No more posts for Charlie until the end of the day🙁

Rain has validated (😕) a poor umpiring decision to come off for bad light at the end of day 2.
Did I mention Hussey is my favourite player?
Go Huss!!!

Originally posted by karoly aczel
Rain has validated (😕) a poor umpiring decision to come off for bad light at the end of day 2.
Did I mention Hussey is my favourite player?
Go Huss!!!

Hussey looks to be Australia's Herchelle Gibbs. Every time people start talking about him losing his place he'll play a knock that keeps the selectors interested.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
If the Aussies dont get to 260 then it will be thier own doing.
I cant see any of the English bowlers swinging this game around that dramatically.

All right, now that I've put my predictions out there, I better not get too far ahead of myself.
I have to remind myself that Siddle just picked up a hatrick just yesterday and totally changed the cour ...[text shortened]... Geez man, I just checked your profile. Me like!! what would it take for you to join my clan? 🙂

It's all gone rather quiet here ...now why is that, the Aussies have a very, very good day, got to be looking at retiring tomorrow afternoon and give England a vast chase, will they risk less than a 400 lead if they do ?? Not sure whether to laugh or cry, so I'll cry just for now 🙁 EDIT: Naaa, I'll semi rescind that, why would they retire on day 4 afternoon I ask myself, maybe last hour, last session...BUT what about the weather gods if they leave it all to day 5 ??
I'll consider 'it' 😉

The weather gods will hold.

Enlgland have staged a first rate fightback via Cook and Strauss.
All results are possible on the last day but I doubt Enlgand will give Australia a sporting declaration. They'll bat 'em out of the match and Australia will bat on day 5 for a draw.
That will be like a win for England.
Still, the aussies have failed to produce.
Most worrying is Mitchell Johnson. The partenership breaker has been getting slapped around and without him, the aussies attack seems mush less potent.

C'mon Mitchell, line and length buddy. You have the pace and the experience, the ausssies expect you to take a couple or at least set a up a couple of wickets at the other end.
Anyway, I think the pitch will play fine enough on the last day, and Australia will have no excuse not to play well and save the match on the last day.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
The weather gods will hold.

Enlgland have staged a first rate fightback via Cook and Strauss.
All results are possible on the last day but I doubt Enlgand will give Australia a sporting declaration. They'll bat 'em out of the match and Australia will bat on day 5 for a draw.
That will be like a win for England.
Still, the aussies have failed to pr ...[text shortened]... t day, and Australia will have no excuse not to play well and save the match on the last day.

Have to agree, I thought Ponting's face was a picture in the last 10overs 😉 Johnson just lost confidence I thought, the 'easy' dropped catch just made it all the worse..I caught a highlights radio show that had a microfone up close to the boundary, where he was fielding at deep mid wicket or long on, a member of the crowd was heard saying, 'c'mon mate, it could be worse you know' and a heckler saying, 'REALLY ???' lol. He's a great bowler mind, the pitch has nothing in it for him, it won;t be too long before he has impact...I was thinking also, never can I remember an overtly tattooed Test cricketer, I know a few have had them, certainly hidden affairs and fewer in the past, Viv Richards comes to mind..but his whole arm is a first, just an idle observation.
I doubt England will retire before the afternoon session, unless of course they fancy their chances throwing caution to the wind with a biiiig hitting session, too risky...as you said, this a virtual win for England. Cook, thank goodness he resorted back to his old technique, throwing away what coaches had tried to instil, only Tendulkar and Bradman have more Test centuries than Cook BEFORE turning age26, he has a month and four innings to gain something rather special !! Forgive me the England bias there 😛

Originally posted by RevRSleeker
Have to agree, I thought Ponting's face was a picture in the last 10overs 😉 Johnson just lost confidence I thought, the 'easy' dropped catch just made it all the worse..I caught a highlights radio show that had a microfone up close to the boundary, where he was fielding at deep mid wicket or long on, a member of the crowd was heard saying, 'c'mon mate, d four innings to gain something rather special !! Forgive me the England bias there 😛

Well done Cook. Man of the match.
Australia were terrible on last day. We goto Adelaide now and I see a similar result looming if everyone bats sensibly.
If the
Ausssie selectors start changing the bowling squad too much they will be in trouble.
Its going to be tough for all bowlers in Adelaide and both teams will have to step up and take catches to have any chance of winning the match.

The poms look really good, actually.
I think Ponting should retire gracefully. He's just going through the motions now.
So many catches going through the vacant second slip position...boy, oh boy...what a horror.
Clarke???? C'mon man.

Isn't it about time the balance was restored to test cricket?The game is biased towards the batsmen because of the pitches that are prepared and the technology - including the high tech.bats they use these days.Without help from the prevailing conditions there's no chance of any side taking 20 wickets in Adelaide.Big scores for few wickets is BORING!!.The name of the game is TEST cricket- and it just isn't TESTING enough.
If we went back to uncovered pitches the players who could REALLY bat struggling for every run would be far more interesting.There's enough of the "crash bang" stuff in the one day games for those who want to watch it.