1st Test England vs Australia

[stan]

Personally cant hear it!

Johnson has bowled carp in both matches so far. He had bowled real puss so far.

I think the side could go and should go in unchanged

Yes I would agree with you there. the interesting thing was the pitch was pretty flat which nows shows how good Australia's bowling in the first dig was.
Also another intersting point is that Pieterson who was undone by some good swing bowling, yes thats right swing bowling although not a lot but still some, seems to have a problem with that ball just outside off. I know he got done by a pretty good ball, but he was very uncomfortable about leaving the delivery or playing at it. Something that I found very interesting, because it was brought about with him being defensive.

Also a side note to Broad, yes Hughes has a problem with the short ball.......but not a problem when its short and wide.

All in all the Poms were luckly to get out alive, but they did and the series is nil all, hence they are still in it up to there eyes even if there body language says otherwise. On a deck with a bit more punch I can see Broad and Flintoff being alot better than what they were. Anderson will be solid but thats about it. the danger in my mind is Flintoff, I feel hes the man that needs to take alot of wickets.

[Dogwatcher]

Ughhhhhhh - listened to the last 15 overs on the radio.
Soooo frustrating.

Why did Punter keep Johnno on? Why North two overs at the end, instead of Pup?

Well done England. Fought it out.

BTW - Boycott and Blofeld should not be allowed to commentate together. Sound like the two guys from the Muppets - one's permanently grumpy, the other's permanently forgetful.

[Adelaide Hawk]

Ponting is the man of the match

His poor captaincy should exclude him from getting it no matter how well he batted.

he was BY FAR the better captain throughout this test match.
Two errors in my view.

Overbowled johnson (underbowled Hilf)

Bowling North at the end.

Strauss captain carp though

Ponting the better captain, but what did he have to beat? Strauss just stands at 1st slip with that stupid grin on his face and playing with his nose. He couldn't captain the Popeye.

Ponting does a reasonable job, but he just gets too many things wrong, especially at vital stages of a game. In this Test, after the pacemen put Australia ahead in the first session, he then bowled Hauritz right through the second session when it didn't suit him. He even had Hauritz and Clarke bowling in tandem for about 10 overs! Result, a wicketless session, and England back into the game.

Then on the final day, when Hauritz began to get on top of the Poms in the 1st session, he turned to the pace attack in the second. Result, played Collingwood and Flintoff in. Ponting's weird. Great batsman, but no real idea how to use his bowlers.

As for Johnson, he bowls way too much crap for a front line bowler. His perfromance with the 2nd new ball was so unbelievably poor it was laughable. When Ponting brought him back for a 3rd over after 2 of the worst overs with a new ball imaginable, I went to bed. Somehow I just knew Ponting was going to blow it ... and he did .... yet again.

For the rest of series, unless they prepare some pitches that give the bowlers something, we could be headed for 5 draws because both sides need all the help they can get to win.

[mal]

SWANN LBW HILFENHAUS with a new hard 2nd new ball cherry
HILFENHAUS spelled after a long 2 or 3 over spell [and was it 1 more over after Hilfs wicket he was rested ?}
Disgusting captaincy to take the Hilf off
It was like AFL footy a player kicks a goal and off to the Interchange


JOHNSON + HILF outstanding bowling efforts on a featherbed pitch
MJ 5/131
HILF 5/114

HAUR 6/158 continues to do his job

In the end the contibutions of the AU part time bowlers was a mittigating factor
NORTH/KAT/CLARKE 0/60

It is my opinion that had MJ/HILF/SIZZLE bowled out the last 15 overs wth the new ball we would have won

2ND TEST
Do they play a 4th quickie Mcdonald/Watson and drop Sir Mike Hussey ?
Playing that one bowler short is a problem
Too often in the post Warne days our inabilty to bowl sides out is a factor

[wycbloods]

We didn't win because they had 5 centurions and we only had 4 .

[Groover]

We didn't win because they had 5 centurions and we only had 4 .

haha nice one!

[hearts on fire]

Great effort by the Aussies, we should have won, but just couldn't finish it off.

Also, well done to the Poms for playing out for a draw.

I would much rather see the Poms fight it out, rather than getting bowled out easily.

[silicone skyline]

i wouldn't. **** the poms

[wycbloods]

agreed SS not sure there is enough hate in young HOF yet.

[hearts on fire]

agreed SS not sure there is enough hate in young HOF yet.

this is only the 3rd Ashes i have watched, although i can't remember much of the 2005 one.

[Thiele]

Poms are Cheats

[hearts on fire]

Poms are Cheats

how?

[wycbloods]

Poms are Cheats

how?

I think Thiele is referring to their time wasting antics near the end of play.

I think they crossed the line as well.

[Dogwatcher]

Poms are Cheats

how?

They just are.

Another lesson for you young HOF.

[hearts on fire]

Poms are Cheats

how?

I think Thiele is referring to their time wasting antics near the end of play.

I think they crossed the line as well.

I didn't see the last couple hours of the game, but that sounds fair enough.

One thing i noticed when i was watching, Ponting seems to always over bowl Johnson.

[locky801]

Poms are Cheats

how?

I think Thiele is referring to their time wasting antics near the end of play.

I think they crossed the line as well.

Umpires should have stepped in as should have Ponting, I am sure the laws of cricket state that if a bastman wants a drink outside the allocated drinks break he has to ask for permission from the opposing Captain, (Ponting being the wuss he is a a captain probably would have agreed) hell they were having drinks after every over, physio's coming out for fake treatments the works, , maybe not straight out cheating but definately time wasting taken full on, probably cost Aust 2 maybe 3 extra overs if not more

[wycbloods]

Poms are Cheats

how?

I think Thiele is referring to their time wasting antics near the end of play.

I think they crossed the line as well.

Umpires should have stepped in as should have Ponting, I am sure the laws of cricket state that if a bastman wants a drink outside the allocated drinks break he has to ask for permission from the opposing Captain, (Ponting being the wuss he is a a captain probably would have agreed) hell they were having drinks after every over, physio's coming out for fake treatments the works, , maybe not straight out cheating but definately time wasting taken full on, probably cost Aust 2 maybe 3 extra overs if not more

the game i was watching Locky showed Punter saying plenty.

[Groover]

Umpires should have stepped in as should have Ponting, I am sure the laws of cricket state that if a bastman wants a drink outside the allocated drinks break he has to ask for permission from the opposing Captain, (Ponting being the wuss he is a a captain probably would have agreed) hell they were having drinks after every over, physio's coming out for fake treatments the works, , maybe not straight out cheating but definately time wasting taken full on, probably cost Aust 2 maybe 3 extra overs if not more[/quote]

the game i was watching Locky showed Punter saying plenty.[/quote]

and probably only cost us 1 over as they weren't that long a breaks.

[Squawk]

Not happy Jan. Staying up to 3.30am on a "school night" to see us allow the Poms to survive 69 balls or whatever was gutting.

(It did remind me of being at Adelaide Oval for the last session of the 95/96 Shield final though - only we didn't get the result we all wanted this time.)

I hated the fat physio carrying out his kit bag time and again. He gave Swann a stocking bandage for his bump to the elbow - wtf was that ever gonna do to help him feel any better? It didn't barely even have any compression in it!

The Sri lankans started this "art" of substitutes running out water bottles between overs. What ever happened to the basic principle of one drinks break between sessions, and extra one in extreme heat? I mean, fancy offering Anderson fresh gloves with 2 overs left, and then again with 1 over left?

That said, we should have found 8 wickets from the last 98 overs. In times gone by, with 11 overs to get one more wicket the Aussies would have been crawling all over the Poms mentally. That is something which surprisingly, I dont think Ponting has ever been able to exert with the team since he has been captain. He is still a very individually-oriented player on the field it seems.

[Dogwatcher]

Bring back Warney