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dkscotland

Listed below are comments made by dkscotland between Monday, 11th May 2009 and Monday, 24th August 2009.

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The Oval ratings 1:41pm on 24 Aug 2009 #18 - Rather unfair on Prior- He has proved the doubters wrong as a keeper in every match and was outstanding at the Oval.

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I'm a huge Prior fan and hope that his performance with the gloves throughout this series has nailed down the keeping slot for good and he retires after the 2017 Ashes, having had a glittering international career.

However, this game was one of the rare instances where he failed with the bat in both innings and his score should reflect that, so 6 is about right.

Were the rating for the whole series, I would give him an 8.
Edgbaston ratings 5:31pm on 04 Aug 2009 Harmison - yeh, without a doubt. He can bring the fight to Aus good and proper.

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Harmison bring fight? Exactly which alternate reality do you live in?

He will bring innocuous, wayward rubbish, along with his surly, disinterested attitude to Aus good and proper.
Second Ashes Test - player ratings 3:45pm on 20 Jul 2009 The only one I disagree with is Strauss. Yes, his ton and a half set England up for the win, but failing to enforce the follow-on for a second time, shows that he lacks the killer instinct a captain needs.

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What a totally stupid thing to say. Batting again is the thing to do if you have the killer instinct. Just ask Ponting.

He doesn't lack the killer instinct yet has had 9 chances to enforce the follow on as captain, and only chosen to do so twice, and both times in matches that were severely effected by the weather. Every time he has chosen to not enforce, Australia have won.

Even when he had a 400+ lead against England in the first test of the last Ashes he batted again. Ground us into the dust and destroyed us for the rest of the series.
Second Ashes Test - player ratings 2:40pm on 20 Jul 2009 oh and Collingwood deserved a 7 as well. He and Prior were excellent in shifting the momentum back towards England in that partnership

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Yes. I must have missed that. He was an excellent foil for both Prior and Flintoff's innings and still scored at well over a run every two balls himself.

If either he or Prior had gone cheaply, we may have been in a bit of bother, so an innings of equal importance.
Second Ashes Test - player ratings 2:20pm on 20 Jul 2009 The one thing I would say about Broad. Two lower middle order wickets, a stunning catch and the wicket of Ponting second time up is probably at least as good a return as what we could have expected from Harmison, so well done to the selectors for sticking to their guns.
Second Ashes Test - player ratings 2:12pm on 20 Jul 2009 For once I think the rankings are about right. It might be argued that everyone has 1 point too many, barring perhaps Strauss and Flintoff.

As the rankings stand, I'd have given Haddin 7.5 as his impact in the test was slightly less than that of Prior. Both their second innings knock were of about the same value to their teams at the time but Prior's keeping was much better.
Ashes player ratings - First Test 11:27pm on 12 Jul 2009 Hard to say what the lineup will be. I don't know what the wicket is like. I would assume the same squad with a choice between Panesar and Onions, depending on the wicket and Bell missing out unless injury to someone in the top 5. Could possibly see Broad lose his place to Harmlessone, but the latter underperforms so often, it would be a huge risk to actually pick him for the XI.

It is always best to leave the kneejerk reactions to the uninformed and the tabloids (usually a sub-set of the former), so I wouldn't give the heave-ho to anyone on one sub-par game. Before this test, many didn't want Collingwood in the side, and how stupid would they look now?
England player ratings 5:49pm on 18 May 2009 Pietersen scores the same as when he got the first ball duck!?

However, fair play to him. I was very critical of his playing across the line to that ball and this time he showed the full face of the bat regularly and played some beautiful straight drives because of it.

Pretty fair overall, though whilst I am a Prior fan and believe that he must be picked, I would dock him a point for having the weight on the wrong foot on the one he let through of Bresnan's.

Perhaps an extra point was due to Cook. 150+s don't grow on trees.
England player ratings 11:42am on 11 May 2009 Will give you a 7, tengearbatbike. You didn't get out. :)
England player ratings 06:19am on 11 May 2009 Rather than assigning arbitrary values, perhaps it would be better to rank the players from 1 to 11 on their performance.

If it were done that way, Cook's 49 runs in two knocks, out once and a couple of catches would be ranked way higher than KP's 0 runs in one knock, out once and no catches, rather than getting the same score. In fact, it would probably put him quite a few places above.

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