5th Ashes test at the SCG - 3rd to 7th Jan 2011

[locky801]

Poms are 7/million with smith bowling pies and the umps abandon play due to bad light.
Showers hanging around sydney tonight, if they get a bit of rain tonight id declare overnight and throw aussies back in. They wont bat the day out.
My feeling is that england will just bat it out and grind us into the turf, they dont need a result

I think they do need a result, if they win this one, every player gets a huge cash bonus from the ECB, they will be out to win it

[smithy]

An article and debate about the no-ball referral.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/the-ashes/vote-and-discuss-should-cricket-umpires-refer-no-ball-uncertainty-or-should-non-striker-accept-the-responsibility/story-e6frf3gl-1225982308556

[stampy]

Would Smith's straight breaks bother a D grader? I'm with REB here, just pick White, at least he would have put together one reasonable score with the bat.

Regards,

Broken Record

If Smith is a D grader
Is the other spinner a BEgradER ?

white should be in there as skipper, i have been advocating that for a while

[stampy]

4/134 is about par for us, reckon we will double that and the poms will reply with about 450ish and will win comfortably

might be a hundred with the pommy score

[Bulls forever]

Ponting only passed 25 once this series - the dead 2nd innings at the gabba in the 1st test, Khawaja does it from first crack

Might be a bit late with this, but Dusty Khawaja, standing ovation when he came in, made 37 in reasonable style and received a standing ovation when he left. WTF are we back playing U14's cricket. Looked outstanding against the quicks on a difficult deck, but looked very ordinary against the Swann and didn't know how to score.

[Q.]

Ponting only passed 25 once this series - the dead 2nd innings at the gabba in the 1st test, Khawaja does it from first crack

Might be a bit late with this, but Dusty Khawaja, standing ovation when he came in, made 37 in reasonable style and received a standing ovation when he left. WTF are we back playing U14's cricket. Looked outstanding against the quicks on a difficult deck, but looked very ordinary against the Swann and didn't know how to score.

How much pressure is the media heaping upon the kid, virtually implying he's to carry the Aussie side for the next decade

[Bulls forever]

Ponting only passed 25 once this series - the dead 2nd innings at the gabba in the 1st test, Khawaja does it from first crack

Might be a bit late with this, but Dusty Khawaja, standing ovation when he came in, made 37 in reasonable style and received a standing ovation when he left. WTF are we back playing U14's cricket. Looked outstanding against the quicks on a difficult deck, but looked very ordinary against the Swann and didn't know how to score.

How much pressure is the media heaping upon the kid, virtually implying he's to carry the Aussie side for the next decade

Q, good call, I guess it shows how desperate we are to find the next bunch of Test players to take us back to the top. Having said that, he looks like he has good head on shoulders, good pictures when he was batting, his mum just about crapping herself.
Had a look at Houghton Oval the other day, couldn't believe how good it was, whoever is looking after it - great job.

[Phantom Gossiper]

white should be in there as skipper, i have been advocating that for a while

i think if your going to pick another captain apart from Clarke its got to be either Haddin or Dave Hussey from left field. Dont think White really offers much to the side.

[mal]

At least 393 becoz of the blokes in this batting order

8 WA
9 VI
10 TA
11 WA
12TH MAN NSW ...

I'm thinking 519.

EG 7/488
IF they make another 31 exactly ....

[Pup]

white should be in there as skipper, i have been advocating that for a while

i think if your going to pick another captain apart from Clarke its got to be either Haddin or Dave Hussey from left field. Dont think White really offers much to the side.

Huh why?

[smithy]

white should be in there as skipper, i have been advocating that for a while

i think if your going to pick another captain apart from Clarke its got to be either Haddin or Dave Hussey from left field. Dont think White really offers much to the side.

Huh why?

What he said

[Jim05]

I can see paine being a future captain. Think haddin might be a year or two left only. He captains his state and i can see him stepping up. Just need to find an interim skipper, maybe watto

[Jim05]

Everyone agrees smith is not up to it. Heres an idea i floated a few months ago. We know haddin isnt the best gloveman. Why not usr haddin in smiths position and bring in paine. I believe paine is the best wicket keeper/batsmen in australia. We could make haddin a specialust 6 or 7,he has a good technique and is a far better option than smith. Just a thought

[lebron]

Everyone agrees smith is not up to it. Heres an idea i floated a few months ago. We know haddin isnt the best gloveman. Why not usr haddin in smiths position and bring in paine. I believe paine is the best wicket keeper/batsmen in australia. We could make haddin a specialust 6 or 7,he has a good technique and is a far better option than smith. Just a thought

You obviously have never tried taking gloves away from a lifelong gloveman! Do not try it!

[Grahaml]

Ive banged on about but swing is the key. When england bowl the bend it like a banana and we keep edging them, when we bowl its straight up and down. Whats this cooley fella doing? And how can another aussie in saker teach the poms how?
We are still struggling to master the art. Maybe we could offer anderson or bresnan a coaching contract

We are swinging the ball, have been all test. What game are you watching? There's a lot more to bowling than just swinging the ball. Especially when you're up against test batsmen.

Must be watching the same game as the abc crew. Just driving home and okeefe,maxwell and alderman were saying how the aussies cant swing a ball and how poor we are at it.
I know there is more to it but its a good start

Hilfenhaus swung the ball consistently and a reasonable amount basically the whole game, often does, yet he's the worst performed bowler we have (of the regulars). Glenn McGrath rarely swung the ball. What hurts us most at the moment is we don't have the bowlers who can bowl in good areas for long enough. 2-3 reasonable balls then all of a sudden a ball that can be worked away onto the leg side for a single at least, with far too many balls the batsmen can put away for boundaries without taking too many risks. We are just totally unable to build pressure on the batsmen and try to force them into a mistake or get them playing a rash shot to relieve the pressure. Most of the time wickets will fall to poor shots to ordinary balls after a number of decent balls. Few wickets fall to really good balls, the batsmen tend to play and miss, get an edge onto the pad etc.

[Grahaml]

Everyone agrees smith is not up to it. Heres an idea i floated a few months ago. We know haddin isnt the best gloveman. Why not usr haddin in smiths position and bring in paine. I believe paine is the best wicket keeper/batsmen in australia. We could make haddin a specialust 6 or 7,he has a good technique and is a far better option than smith. Just a thought

You obviously have never tried taking gloves away from a lifelong gloveman! Do not try it!

Only works if both are in the best 7 batsmen we have. If Paine isn't, his spot would be better off being taken by a specialist batsmen. Haddin doesn't miss too much, replacing him with Paine behind the stumps will add little, but the runs a specialist batsmen would add regularly would add a fair bit.

[Jim05]

Everyone agrees smith is not up to it. Heres an idea i floated a few months ago. We know haddin isnt the best gloveman. Why not usr haddin in smiths position and bring in paine. I believe paine is the best wicket keeper/batsmen in australia. We could make haddin a specialust 6 or 7,he has a good technique and is a far better option than smith. Just a thought

You obviously have never tried taking gloves away from a lifelong gloveman! Do not try it!

Only works if both are in the best 7 batsmen we have. If Paine isn't, his spot would be better off being taken by a specialist batsmen. Haddin doesn't miss too much, replacing him with Paine behind the stumps will add little, but the runs a specialist batsmen would add regularly would add a fair bit.

Paine definately top 7 batsman. Nz have done it with mccollum and the lankans have done it with sangakarra. Both were fair keepers who now solely concentrate on batting and allowing another batsman/keeper to come in. Id like to get paine in, the guy can bat and i can see him as future skipper

[nuggety goodness]

Everyone agrees smith is not up to it. Heres an idea i floated a few months ago. We know haddin isnt the best gloveman. Why not usr haddin in smiths position and bring in paine. I believe paine is the best wicket keeper/batsmen in australia. We could make haddin a specialust 6 or 7,he has a good technique and is a far better option than smith. Just a thought

You obviously have never tried taking gloves away from a lifelong gloveman! Do not try it!

Only works if both are in the best 7 batsmen we have. If Paine isn't, his spot would be better off being taken by a specialist batsmen. Haddin doesn't miss too much, replacing him with Paine behind the stumps will add little, but the runs a specialist batsmen would add regularly would add a fair bit.

Paine definately top 7 batsman. Nz have done it with mccollum and the lankans have done it with sangakarra. Both were fair keepers who now solely concentrate on batting and allowing another batsman/keeper to come in. Id like to get paine in, the guy can bat and i can see him as future skipper

Here's an idea, put Paine in as keeper and sit Haddin at second slip, that covers the slip cordon and opens up more opportunities for catchers in the outfield....

now what to do about our bowlers?!?!?

[Dutchy]

Interesting wagon wheel graphic on TV yesterday showing where Cook has scored his 700+ runs, it showed it a very even spread apart from the straight (mid on/mid off) drive which less than 40 runs had been scored. Surely then you just bowl full and straight to this bloke?


As for Paine, maybe let him play a couple of tests to see if he is up to the level before letting him toss the coin!

[Jase]

Just wondering, having only seen the Hughes "catch" on the news this morning, I need to ask those who called Prior a cheat for appealling to much... what does that make Hughes?

I also seem to remember Strauss being called a cheat not that long ago for something similar...

As I said, just wondering?



I personally don't think he is a cheat at all... and he didn't really appeal vociferously, but there seem to be some on here more than willing to throw the "Cheat" label around and now the shoes on the other foot are nowhere to be seen...

Jase (the happy Pom)