England

England have been bowled out for 180 and have lost by the crushing margin of 239 runs. Anothe dismal showing which bodes ill for the rest of the series.

Gut instinct says the selectors won't make any changes for the next game - too close to an admission that they got something wrong this time. Personally, I'd go for the extra batsman, probably Collingwood, with Vaughan (they wouldn't dare drop him) as the part time spinner. And another keeper. But it'll be the same 11.

Very dissapointed in the boys approach to today. They obviously went out there with very little game plan, or just to bat and hope the rain falls. They need to start believing and backing their own ability. I belived England could have one that match, today. If you have seen KP bat you will know he is a special player - who knows.........he could have scored all 250 or whatever runs needed himself...........he is that good. I wish England at least tried instead of playing for a ridiculous draw.

what do you mean, another dismal showing? We got beaten by a better team but that doesn't mean we've slipped back 5 years

Vaughan is having problems - but his average over his last ten test innings is just over 45, even after this match. If you exclude the 'gift' runds from the bangladesh matches his last eight still average around 33 - not up to his previous standard but not disastrous.

Mike

Apologies for posting twice - NOT trying to create emphasis!

Mike

Nobody likes losing, must most of the blame lays at the England batters.As good as McGrath and Warne are, the rest of the Australian bowlers are not better than Englands. Jones should be dropped, his batting and wicket keeping are not up to the standard.What shot was Strauss trying to play when he got out in the second innings? Bell, unfortunately looks out of his depth. Vaughan, even though England captain is doing his best to get himself dropped. Flintoff, great bowling, but his test batting recently has been very poor.Why is Pietersen the only one who's not scared of the Australians, especially McGrath and Warn? He didn't seem to have any problems playing either of them. As for Ashley Giles, he has to be dropped, walking on to his wicket in the first innings last ball of the day for a ball he never ever needed to touch. Second innings, another poor shot. Mathew Hoggard, as good as he's bowled in the past(especially in SA), from what I've seen of him cannot bat, he should be coming in at 11. Even Mcrath has 2 test 50's for crying out loud at number 11. Simon Jones and Steve Harmiston bowled their arses of this test match for England, and at least can bat and score runs.Englands batting and fielding was very sub standard, and they should be embarrased for some of the catching, especially Jones, and unfortunately, Pietersen needs to improve. Unless the top order of England's batting change their mental approach, we will lose every test match.

How about (other than KP) a few more plyaers who can move their feet. Make Mcgrath, Warne think more about there line and length istead of allowing them to do their thing time after time. Take away our six dropped catches and we can compete on the evidence of this test at bowling them out but the batsmen continue (except KP) to accept to be dominated and hope they get through it.

Why

I am not sure why there is this wailing and gnashing of teeth. 6 months ago I offered someone 10 - 1 against England winning the series, as the simple fact is Australia have the 2 best bowlers in the world, another 2 who are probably in the top 10, the best wicket keeper/batsman in the history of test cricket and 5 other batsmen averaging over 50 in tests! They are clearly a very much better side than England and I think the result fairly reflects the gulf between the two teams.