posted Nov 27, 2006

greytombat your dreamin.
a few points worth noting...1) its been mentioned england batted well on a 4th day pitch. maybe so, but they didnt bat well on a 2nd day pitch. the excuse of having to bat second counts for very little when the aussies out played the poms by so much it looked like they were playing on different pitches all together. 2) "england played well on day 4" - i stil think that day belonged to australia, and if your happy playing well one 1 day of each test match you may as well give the urn back now. 3) warne v KP added some interest to the series and i hope there is more of it. otherwise this series could turn out to be quite boring (not that i dont love watching the poms whinge about dodgy pitches, mean warnie, dads army etc etc etc)
aussies to win 5-0.
pray for rain poms

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posted Nov 27, 2006

Hey, Flintoff's a great player - so was Botham - but a captain - not really.
Listen to Boycott - we had the wrong coach, the wrong captain, the wrong first strike bowler, the wrong wicket-keeper, the wrong primary spinner. This whole gang was chosen on the basis of the 2005 success. Time has moved on - England didn't. It's too late to make the changes for this series, but next summer we need to think afresh.

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posted Nov 27, 2006

Nesflash - Must agree with you. Where do you plan to get 20 wickets from?? As for the Aussie's P__ing themselves, HarryHighPants might like to review what has happened over the past 12 months with boths sides.

Now that you've done that.. with no Simon Jones and Flintoff still getting back to match fit and Harmy with a jumbled radar and Panasar still not a selectors favourite (we all hope this changes for the good of the game), where are the wickets coming from. We intro'd a new guy for you to have a look at and Clark managed 7 wickets for the game bowlin much the same line as McGrath who also managed 7 for the game.
Can't beat experience with the odd heroics. Time for England to rally as a team/unit and all look for ways to have significant contributions and not leave it up to the next man!! Cheers

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posted Nov 27, 2006

Harry, OK I agree about McGill, considering he's a spinner he's a bit hot headed. One question, how high are those pants?

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posted Nov 27, 2006

Pretty High mi mum always told me to pull up mi pants.They are just under mi armpits.
McGill is a great bowler dont get me wrong.But he will be very lucky to get in.
I would stick with the same team.
Poms need to get their heads right, they batted like idiots.Collingwood twit, whats he thinking Strauss bigger twitsame shot every time.Flintoff goose..... stop trying to look good and get on with the game.Just watch the last Ashes DVD and get the head right thats all its about.I was down in the Rocks Sydney last Ashes it was brilliant.I have pics of all the sad faces after we won.

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posted Nov 27, 2006

Dream on Pom......

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posted Nov 27, 2006

Get Monty in! Burns no (would make the Aussie team on age grounds though), Panesar yes!

Sure he may cop for a few runs (what spinner doesn't), but isn't that worth it for the possibility of a few more Aussie wickets?

Hope to hear the Adelaide stump mic picking up "Bowling Monty!"

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posted Nov 27, 2006

A shame my earlier point about Harmison was misunderstood - in my present mood I would pick members of the England Ladies over almost all our men bar Pietersen, Bell and Flintoff. Anyway, more seriously, points made already in this discussion add up to how to get 20 wickets to win a match, and that raises interesting questions about whether e.g. a Panesar wicket is worth more than 20 extra runs on Giles's score. Given that the Aussies will score big against any kind of mediocre bowling, we MUST pick the bowlers who either look-like-taking-a-wicket, or at least will always try something new e.g. later in his career Botham would frequently get hit round the park by people like Lance Cairns, then just as he was looking too expensive, would take a wicket through some outrageous and apparently undeserving slower wide long-hop etc. which said batsman would get himself caught on. This happened too frequently to be just chance. The point is, even if you do not have the talent of Glenn McGrath, as the bowler you have the initiative and an opportunity of surprising the batsman, however good, or at least tempting them to overreach. But to keep doing this when you have gone for a few runs takes some Warne-style mental grit. It also calls for some fielding practice from your team-mates. Are you listening Fletcher?

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posted Nov 27, 2006

I really think that England have no chance in the Ashes. Ricky Ponting is just hitting them balls like bullets. I think that although Flintoff promises comeback Austrailia will outplay us. I think that England are always very unlucky, after every succesful competition England have we seem to be not as good in the next one!

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posted Dec 1, 2006

I think that altough we are batting well at the moment and warne doesnt look that effective, we may have missed a trick by not giving monty(the best left arm spinner)a chance to get his confidence and I believe that harmison doesnt deserve to be in the side on last years performance we should have picked saj mahmood he is a far better bowler at the moment and will get late swing on days four or five, we need to be realistic and we should ahve picked the best team possible and I for one dont think that we have.

its about time england started playing palyers on there merit and not whose friends they are, bob need to ber held accountable if we lose this test match. if we dont get a draw at the very least then we can kiss the urn good bye right now, untill next time anyway.

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