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By Will last year, mid-July Add your comment below
God. They can’t do it, Australia, can they? Can they? Oh dear god. I honestly might start watching football if they do.
(Quite brilliant innings from Michael Clarke. He said Australia were going for the win today and, sure enough, he batted like someone intent on heaving his side over the line.)
Tags: 2009-Ashes, ashes, Michael-Clarke, the-ashes |
The way I’m choosing to think of it is:
Imagine we’d been bowled out, leaving them chasing 322. If they were currently 113-5, we’d be feeling pretty chipper. As far as tomorrow is concerned, it’s the same. (This is the sort of optimistic management bullshit Flower and Strauss are no doubt preparing right now)
It would be justice for Cardiff, if nothing else.
But don’t worry, justice rarely happens. You’ll win. The team will all get knighthoods ( before the 3rd Test) and be so up yourselves (even more than usual), that you’ll stuff up the next three.
In which case, you’re better off losing this match, so that Ponting won’t come over all the angel of retribution and recall our real bowlers, and grind you into the dust in self-righteous rage (if only, sigh)
It is an unsettling thought. Probably why I’m still awake now. As they edge closer they would surely tense up a little bit. And with 200 runs in the bank, one wicket should seal any residual aussie dreaming. Bloody hell this new ball is important.
hats off michael clark
will every kangaroo has his day
Hey Spry, the wicket isnt in too bad a knick, not your normal day five mess…
Also Mitchel Johnson has a test match hundred to his name against a much better bowling attack…
We’ll do it, Clarke for a double hundred, Haddin 100 odd with a few chipped in from Johnson.
On a side note Billy Doctrove should be sacked or retire from International Umpiring, he is a joke…
Rusty, who ARE the real bowlers, then?
(What the hell’s happened to Mitchell Johnson — can’t be all his damned mother’s fault?)
this currently looks like Edgbaston 2005…
Yeess! Oh, thank God it’s over! Good show all round. Well played the Aussies. Isn’t it great when a game gets this exciting?
Well done England. But, did you really think Aus would pull it off? They were beaten black and blue. It was not really exciting as it is made out to be.
I’m in love with a Fred
Well done England, despite a heroic innings from Clarke, you have been all over Australia in this match (the opposite of what happened in Cardiff in fact).
The Aussie attack is pretty toothless though and Johnson should be sent to practice line and length for the next 9 or so days, just to get the basics of bowling right instead of trying to bowl a killer ball every time.
On that subject, if Johnson is to be kept in the team, then I would take North out of the batting line up and replace him with Lee.
A fired up Brett Lee and some more disciplined batting in the first innings should take Australia a long way. Both teams could do with some decent umpiring as well – Doctrove in particular is not up to it.
Well played, Freddy. Hats off to a five-for at long last.
Just don’t get another!
England outplayed Australia completely and it was only some Australian cussedness that held off the end of the game.
Maybe Hussey could be made to open as I would rather have North in than Hughes and would like to see Mitchell given one last shot to hit the cut strip regularly. (Jesus, hasn’t he been horrible?) He is so very handy with the bat as well as with the ball if he can get his shit together. If Lee is in the team, he might relax and not feel so freaked out.
Lou, you could be on to something there about Hussey opening – I think Hughes needs some time to learn as the English new ball bowlers appear to have gotten wind of his deficiencies.
Don’t agree about North though – I thought his two dismissals were incredibly ordinary and I think we need to stiffen the bowling attack albeit at the expense of another batter.
If Hughes was dropped then, Watson could come in at 6 or Haddin at 6, Johnson at 7 and Lee at 8. Hughes looks very, very nervous (much like Mitch, though it seems MJ brightened up once he started middling some.)
That way we strengthen the bowling and I don’t see that we lose too much on the batting. Phil Hughes natural arc of play on the off side is going to leave him up shitcreek against even half-decent captaincy more and more.
Talking about ordinary dismissals, what about Katich with the loose shots? And he is practically our best batsman just now.
I have been generally unhappy about the level of hype around Hughes since SA. It seemed so unreal to heap this kind of crap on a kid who would probably get dropped at some point and come back a better player for it like most of the Oz players.
Yes true, both Katich dismissals were reminiscent of 2005.
We need the Aussies to regroup quickly – they should be hurting and they need to respond appropriately.
It would be nice if Punter could win the toss next time round and a big score is put on the board – to give what will hopefully be a stronger bowling attack something to go at.
England also have a habit of believing their own hype – and whilst they were clearly the better of the 2 teams they got virtually everything their own way in terms of batting conditions and dodgy decisions – they have a few weaknesses themselves if Australia can only get the opportunity to exploit them.
Yes, I noticed the conditions as I am a Londoner, I was starting to laugh about it by Thursday. But that is no excuse for the comedy batting on Friday. Or the comedy bowling on Thursday.
I meant by yesterday!
Well I hope no one’s thinking of dropping North. Yes he had a bad Test this time, but he scored a century in his previous innings, and getting rid of someone after just one bad game is not only knee-jerk, it’s scapegoating. And I don’t think scapegoating should have any part in a cricket team.
zicoinexile and everyone else,
If the Aussie bowlers are so toothless, useless, and outclassed, how come the stats show that -
Hilfie and Hauitz got 9 wickets, each
Johnson 8
Siddle 7
Flintoff 7
and the rest, less wickets? over 2 tests.
Hauritz also had the best economy rate of anyone.
Not bad for a bowler that asshole Lloyd didn’t even have the grace to call a spinner.
Congrats to England for their performance, Freddy was awesome, what ever happened to bowling some looseners when you start a spell, he didn’t bowl a bad ball at all and was nicely backed up by Anderson and Swann.
Hughes won’t and shouldn’t be dropped he’ll come good and whoever suggested dropping North should wake from dreamland, he’s a great player and is very experienced in English conditions.
I don’t think Lee should be considered unless he has a blinder in the tour match (which he’s tipped to not play in)
Marcus is right knee-jerk reactions are the last thing we need and the only change I see being a possibility is Stuart Clark if he plays a blinder in the tour match, thing is who does he replace? Only option would be to drop Hauritz and use part time spinners but Hauritz has done well so far and picked up important wickets so I can’t see that happening.
Rusty – the “great” bowling attack you refer has failed to take 20 wickets in either test match. Its bowlers who win matches and if Australia lose the next one then its goodbye to the Ashes.
Richo – not anything personal against North, I just think that we need to strengthen the attack, particularly if they don’t drop Johnson. I think there is still sufficient batting in the side if we drop a batsman, but I think that Lou might have the better idea – move Hussey up to open and drop Hughes (kneejerk no – he has technical issues that he needs to work on IMO).
Rusty, Lloyd was just playing to his audience before the series. I think a lot of these commentators don’t watch international cricket apart from England so they don’t really have much of a clue about players until they play England. The tripe spoken by Bob Willis and Ian Botham makes that obvious. And they have been harping on McGrath and Warne as though they retired yesterday. They honestly don’t realise that the Australian team has been without these players for two years.
Lloyd has now toned down the shock in his voice when he realised that Haurtiz was actually a reasonably intelligent, if not the most talented, bowler going around.
The TMS crew due to the inclusion of Boycs (not that I am a fan particularly but he is very knowledgeable about international cricket) and Angus Fraser are usually far more up-to-date with players from other countries and neither of them say the kinds of utterly clueless things you get from the Sky team.
Holding excepted. He usually has his wits about him.
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