The Ashes http://www.cricinfo.com/engvaus2009/content/current/story/412965.html Brett Lee may miss the first two tests. Massive boost for England but a shame for the Ashes in general as you want to see the best players on display. If he's missing they'll need Stuart Clark to really step his game up and hope Mitchell Johnson's form improves from the tour games so far.
great news about lee in my opinion! he's a fuckin menace when he's on his game!! pretty gutted big harmy didn't make the first squad, i wouldn't have bothered with panesar personally, i'd have went Swann, Broad, Anderson, Harmy and possibly Onions. Swann and Broad can be quite handy with the bat too! I'd not play panesar simply because of his celebrations
Todays the day. Gutted im in a course all day so cant even keep uptodate online via cricinfo. Gonna have to eat my lunch in Corals and try watch a bit on my lunch and see if i can get a flyer about 4 and watch the last session of the day. Looks like Monty's in from Strauss's comments yesterday and Onions will miss out. At least the Aussies are weakend and look to be going in with a 4 man pace attack with Siddle and Hilfenhaus in with Clark and Johnson.
No Stuart Clark Hauritz and Hilfenhaus in for Clark and Lee, if we put a big score on the board and bowl well with 2 spinners and bowling last we could take an early lead.
still think we're brave going in with two spinners. onions has been playing cracking and harmison did brilliantly in the warmup, i expected one of them to get the call. poor morning session from us, alastair cook's wicket was weak. thankfully kp and collingwood have settled things down a bit. a good score from each of these two should set us up alright, matt prior is a bit nifty with a bat and flintoff, swann and broad can add a few more. 450 would be a nice total.
Pieterson being Pieterson has thrown his wicket again with a stupid fucking shot. He either gets a big score or gives his wicket away playing daft shots when he's in.
reckon i might have jinxed that. expected 200+ from the middle and bottom order seems ambitious. we might have done ourselves in here...
I'd want at least another 150 it's atainable but relies on Freddy doing somthing with the bat but with him and prior if they can bat the day we can still get a decent score. Broad seems to always get a few runs. At least the pitch is turning and there's been some swing. Should have Jimmy and Swann licking their lips and it's only gonna turn more come day 4-5 so Australia wont relish batting last.
Our tail is actually alright for a change. Broad and Swann are decent, and Anderson looks a lot better. Might actually get above 400, which is a half decent score.
Seems we are flying this morning and Australlia have lost the plot. If we can get to 450 that's a great score on a pitch that by Saturday should be crumbling and spinning. Looking goof after an hour today for us.
spoke too soon? worrying this, 208-1 with no sign of any wickets, and they still have a few decent batsmen left to come. good wicket by flintoff earlier on but it's just not working for us so far this afternoon/evening. we need a few quick wickets by tonight or we'll be done in/draw.
swann even said that he didn't even know why it wasn't turning or swinging. might have been a bad idea going with two spinners on that wicket, but we're only two days in so hopefully they can find the "happy place" tomorrow.
The worst part is even IF we get Ponting and Katich early today we then have to deal with Hussey and Clarke It shows the importance of getting in and converting your chances. We still have a decent lead but it's the fact that they still have 9 wickets left that is the most worrying. One wicket in 2 and a bit sessions is just not good enough. It's typical of Ponting as well to show no form in the warm up games leading up to any test series never mind the Ashes then when it matters he always gets runs. I hate him so much but what fantastic player he is. I'm gonna pray for a few early wickets and an England style collapse.
Well that amused me greatly Collingwood is a leg end - that is exactly what he's in the team for - fuck me- over 5 hours is a massive effort. A lucky escape but doesn't stop it from being very very funny. Why on earth did ponting let them bat to 674? could have declared long before that and been reasonably safe
what an effort like, Collingwood, swann, anderson and monty were all gret this afternoon, the last hour was immense to watch, literally every ball meant something. happy days BUT - we're massivley celebrating a draw which says alot about how poor we have over the last 5 days, if their are no changes it will be the same same old story at Lords and i dont expect mitchel johnson to be quite as shite on the lords pitch, its meant to be like lightening. Onions and Harmy or Bresnan in, Monty and Broad out
i'd hate to drop broad as i think he's developing into a real all-rounder, but he was poor this test and i think onions and harmison would both be better options as seamers. i'm not sure how the wicket will work at lord's on thursday, perhaps it would be better suited to three seamers and swann. i've intently watched this test for the last four days and i missed all of today because i was stuck at a christening all day! i'm glad we got the draw but we seriously need to sort ourselves out if we're going to win this series. collingwood seems the only one who's had a good batting session today. 31 is a good score from swann and anderson's 21 is a good contribution considering how horrendous he is with a bat. bopara for 1 and pietersen for 8 is awful though.
