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Ok, its a topic about the Ashes. So I’m just going to chuckle and not say a thing 
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Ponting: closest Ashes yet
By Will 4 years ago, at the end of March Leave a comment on this post
I know, I know - it’s only March, and here I am getting swept up in Ashes fever already. But it’s about 8 degrees outside, with a thick grey blanket, and drizzling light rain. I need an Ashes fix.
And Ponting provides it with one of his Mark Taylor-esque interviews. The two sound identical to me in how they talk and the manner of what they say. It’s the usual stuff (”"But this England side have a different feel to them. They have a bit of a winning habit and winning culture which they haven’t had for a while.”"), but Stephen Fleming sums it all up rather nicely:
“England are going to have to play extremely well,” said Fleming, who captained New Zealand to a 3-0 series defeat in England last summer.
“It’s about playing the game under the least amount of pressure and you’ll win it.
“England always play under a huge amount of pressure. Australia are used to dealing with it and they just roll on.
“If England start well, then they’re in with a sniff.
“But if Australia start well and get them down, then all of a sudden you’ve got the press, the public and basically everyone who watches England cricket on your back.”
Meanwhile at the Bloody Bullsh*t Corporation, they’ve done what only the BBC can do: compile a player comparison table, AND IT’S NOT EVEN APRIL YET. They conclude with:
Player for player, the Aussies remain stronger than England.
But there is still plenty of time for everything to change.
Well well well.
Tags: ashes, australia, bbc, england |
6 Responses to “Ponting: closest Ashes yet”
March 30th, 2005 at 2.55 pm
March 30th, 2005 at 8.35 pm
A good old fashioned player match-up is always good for a debate but Tres better than Hayden? If the Home Office could sort out a passport I’m sure Duncan Fletcher would happily swap. Having said that I think it’s a bit more of an even match-up than 8-2.
For me the key is still going to be in the spin department. Even if Giles plays superbly well and gets lucky he hasn’t got the ability to rip through the Aussies but it will only take a few overs of magic from Warne to undo the England batsmen.
Now if only I could find her mobile number I could get Warne’s mother to send him some medicine…….
March 30th, 2005 at 10.18 pm
Indeed. The Tres/Hayden comparison is a joke. Trescothick’s stats always suprise me - he’s a good player, we know this, but he’s been allowed to be. Lack of footwork was his undoing last time against Australia, where he went home a very jaded, depressed and disillusioned person - especially since his opening partner, M.Vaughan, couldn’t stop scoring hundreds. No, Trescothick’s only hope this summer is to just banish the demons to the back of his head, go out there and smash it around and get lucky.
The spin debate is interesting, albeit one-sided. I still hate Giles - but I’ve come to respect him as a person, if not a bowler! He makes useful 30s down the lower order, and can tie up an end - but, really, he’s going to be absolutely MURDERED this summer. It’ll be fun to watch his facial expressions, if nothing else.
I’m not too worried about Warne. He’s still awesome, but there’s no mystery as to “what will he do?” and so on. He’s great. We know that. He’ll rip through us a couple of times. England just have to attack Kasper and the other support bowler (erm…Katich?!). Anyway - tried Yell for Warne’s mum’s number…?
March 31st, 2005 at 10.16 am
Why trying to get Warne’s mum’s number ? May be you can get some blonde’s number and send that Warne. That will keep him busy !Couldn’t resist.
Seriously,
If England has to win then I don’t see any other way other than attacking all the bowlers in this Australian setup. You need one or two Sehwag on top of the order.
March 31st, 2005 at 2.06 pm
I’m quite happy having A.Strauss up there at the moment thanks…;)
April 1st, 2005 at 12.57 pm
Yes its too early to predict the Ashes yet, but since England are (deservedly ?) second placed in the Test rankings, they should be the ones to give the best fight to Aussies, especially at home. Although I have a feeling its not going to be as close to the Ind-Aus contests of recent times.
Anyway, Eng do have a chance of winning atleast a match…and who knows what that might lead to. Its funny if you sit back and check out how Aussies have reaced to pressure of loosing in the recent past…umm…yeah I know they have lost only so few of those
..and many of those being meaningless dead ‘last matches’…
..but Will and Martin..let me be in the firing line…I think Tres-Hayden comparison is almost correct…going by recent form (and the BBC analysis was on recent form..otherwise Freddy wud be way better than Katich) Hayden is in a worse slump than…hold your breath…Ganguly ! Yes, thats true !!!…check out their records in past 20 innings !!
..and of course no team is better than Aussie in bowling…not just spin but pace also. But then…Eng need to bat way better than them and early in the series…thats the way to counter the Aus bowling…Strauss can do that…Sehwag is better in ‘unruffling’ though 
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