The Convicts Return

[Manchester Blue]

Oh diddums.

Cricket watchers the world over are praising the standard of umpiring in this series, and rightly so.  But the resident convicts can only scrape around for excuses and this is the best you can do??!!

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In fairnes Tris it is only Neekoy whining about the decisions. All the knowlegable cricket fans seem to appreciate it is part and parcel of the game. How on earth you can call Ponting & Jones' decisions poor is beyond me. It took 30 mins to get a camera shot that proved a nick, Jones' still hasn't been proven. How can you blame the umpires on those.

Martyn has been very unlucky all series but the decisions do even themselves out. Accept you are being outplayed in all departments and have the good grace to admit it.

[Ozz]

We can still type when we are pisse.d 

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whadda mea m we?

[MCMC1875]

This is getting ridiculous, we have three umpire decsions that could possibly affect not only this match but now the entire series

First ball after lunch Jones is gone caught behind.  England are then six down and we are into the tail end but instead they go on to make another 100 runs.

Ponting and Martyn are given LBW for big inside edges and now we are on the ropes.  England are playing better but Australia must have smashed a mirror over a chinamans head before coming on tour

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What goes round comes around.

No one mentions that the Aussies have been at full strength for 20 years, whilst for some of those series England have been depleted by injuries of up to 5 first choice players (eg Gough etc).

ps. I must say that umpires Buckner, Bowden and the Asian gent have been first class and possibly the best in the modern era, with respect to Messrs Bird and Shepherd.

Edited August 27, 2005 by MCMC1875

[pg]

Why Hodge isn't playing is beyond me.

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'Cause he's a Victorian that's why!

Well played to England, they have deserved all the luck they have made for themselves and will** go on to win the Ashes.

Geoffrey Boycott called it on before the first session of this test, and I think he's right. The Aussies and their supporters are in denial. They keep waiting for things to turn around... but it ain't gonna happen!

I thought Boycott was right on the money last night with most of his comments and I'm really enjoying listening to him.

I've been very impressed with the English bowlers ever since Lord's. They have essentially hunted in packs..and if one bowler is having an off-day, the others have always been willing to step into the breach. All of them have had 'big days' where they have turned the tide of a test, and yesterday it was Hoggard's turn to make his killer contribution.

Contrast this to the Aussie attack, which has often only had one or two effective bowlers per match.

Yes the Aussies have received some bad decisisions, but you don't lose a five test series on a few bad calls. You lose it because the opposition bowls and bats better than you do.

Congrats to Lee, and Bryan and other long-suffering English cricket fans. I know how you must feel, as I had similar feeling of elation when the Waugh twins made hundreds in the last test of a series in the West Indies to beat them for the first time in my life. It's nice to finally put one over a team that has constantly smashed you and bullied you...now you can put the shoe on the other foot!

Where to for Australia now? Will be interesting to see the fall-out. When Waugh lost 2-1 to India in a very close series (after thrashing the Indians in the first test and narrowly losing the third), the team didn't implode. Remember that the Aussies have just managed to beat India away, one of the toughest assignments in world cricket. Although it is interesting to remember that they did this under Gilchrist's captaincy. Ponting flew out for the last test (he was injured previously) and the Aussies lost the dead rubber. Howevery, they still have loads of talent at their disposal, it's all about putting the best XI out onto the pitch and getting balance right in the batting and bowling departments.

I said at the start of the series that Australia's fortunes depended on our bowling attacks wobbly-old joints, and with McGrath missing two tests and Gillespie making almost no contribution to the series...its proved to be a hole too big to fill for the rest of the squad.

Which is in contrast to Taylor's side which beat the West Indies away. They lost their two front-line bowlers before the series began, but with McGrath, Reiffel and Julian...still managed to bowl to a plan and maintain enough pressure on the opposing batsman to take wickets.

So enjoy your success England, but don't get too carried away. After all, it's still only a 'home' win. Let's see how you guys fare in two years time ... and whether you can grab an 'away' ashes series to become one of the great English teams in Ashes history.

**except if one or all of the following situations occur :

a) Rain of Noah-like proportions over the next month

The Aussies are subjected to the biggest form-turn around since Lazarus

c) The Aussie selectors take a do-or-die gamble and completely re-jig the team for the Oval.

[MCMC1875]

pg

Hang on, it's not over yet.

Catches win matches and in England the weather always has the final word.

Finger nails for breakfast methinks!

[pg]

pg

Hang on, it's not over yet.

Catches win matches and in England the weather always has the final word.

Finger nails for breakfast methinks!

 

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Catches do indeed win matches and the current Aussie's rate of 'dropsies' is another reason why they will lose the series!

[dave birch]

Believe me, there are quite a number of first class cricketers in Australia privately hoping that the Poms win this series. The shake up in Cricket Australia will be huge.

It has been said that it's harder to get out of the Aussie team than to get in. The selectors have been making one or two strange decisions over the past couple of years.

It's not over yet, but the signs are definitely there.

[broadsword]

Congrats to Lee, and Bryan and other long-suffering English cricket fans.  I know how you must feel,

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I'm not sure if you do mate!

I shall have to have a party if we win them back. Not that we ever let you have them in the first place!

Unfortunately, I've missed a lot of the play and had to follow it on the internet (been working like a dog recently), but one of the things that's really pleased me (other than us being very competitive, natch), is the sporting spirit in which the series has been played. When we won at Edgbaston, the England management etc, muted their celebrations as the Aussies were sat right next to them.

Only disappointing thing is the reports of the crowd going over the top in their remarks to Aussie fielders.

But all in all, happy days!

[modes98]

What a catch by strauss!

Aussie's feeling the heat!

Some good batting prior to the loss of the first wicket though!

[pg]

Time for Vaughn to enforce the follow on now..

[MCMC1875]

Henry Blofeld on R4 is currently championing the delights of variously sized 'Manx knobs'! Priceless.

[sumps]

Langer gone for 61

[sumps]

Ponting run out

[Exiled_Rover]

Martyn nicks one to G. Jones, 161-4.

[brfcshabba]

C'mon a wicket before the close will do nicely

[Shaddy]

If the allegation that Ponting's rant at the England dressing room was because of a greivance over England's use of substitutions, I will be extremely disappointed. He was starting to win me around recently too.

I understand his frustration at the events surrounding his run-out... certainly to pile on to all that's been going wrong, he might be feeling that Pratt, and his fielding, was an unknown quantity . Coupled with any pre-existing grevience over England's use of substitutions, he may have felt that he shouldn't have been up against Pratt as an unknown quantity.

But to be honest, that that is all glossing over the facts:

1. that this was another costly error in an error strewn series for Australia. And in this instance, he had a good portion of fault, even though Martyn may have put him mostly "in it".

2. the subsitutions are with-in the rules of the game, and Australia have done as much as any team (non-Aussies may feel more) to cast aside any "gentleman rules" that Ponting might have felt were applicable to the England substitutions.

3. following on from 2., the subsitute is entitled to try and get the batsmen out as much as any other fielder... except perhaps for bowling.

Actually, there is a point I am unsure of. Is it prohibitted by rule, or by gentlemanly conduct, to deny a substitue fielder a bowl?

Otherwise, someone asked how Hayden is responsible for the top-order failure. Of course it is within the power of any of the other batsmen to overcome the poor start. But I believe it is a commonly held view that the openers set the tone in most innings. Hayden has done nothing to set a positive tone. It's not going to matter, as I think there is a very good chance he will lose his spot.

I agree with pg that he is talented, and his past exploits suggest a stronger character than I accused him off... but the only way to explain him now is that he may have lost his nerve. He's had too long to try and recover it, and this test was one too many of patience by the selectors.

[Shaddy]

Oh... and if what I've said above is right, he should apologise for his behaviour. If he feels strongly about the substitutions, he should take it up with the officials after the match.

[neekoy]

In fairnes Tris it is only Neekoy whining about the decisions. 

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I am not whining about the decsions, fair play to England for being the better team in the last couple of tests BUT I am simply saying that the decisions WERE incorrect, and having loked at the replay of the not out given when Flintoff was on 7 (or 8) when Warne trapped him plum in front has had consequences in this test.

If the English are happy with hollow victories then fine...

I guess after being on the end of hidings for so long they will take all they can get

[neekoy]

Oh... and if what I've said above is right, he should apologise for his behaviour. If he feels strongly about the substitutions, he should take it up with the officials after the match.

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He has already apologised Shaddy. Good call though, we don't need the Australian captain behaving in such a way.

[Eddie]

Neekoy, over the course of the series we've all had some bad decisions. What about when Pietersen was given out caught behind after the ball had hit a few body parts, none of which were bat or glove, or when shortly after Bell then was given out caught behind when he hadn't got anything on it? Even in this test, though Strauss was actually out there was an inproper use of the third umpire. The third umpire can only be used to see if there was contact if the umpire is completely unsighted, which he was not, so he would have had to give the decision without the aid of the replay, meaning that he should have given the benefit of the doubt to the batsmen, meaning Australia don't look like getting a wicket, meaning Flintoff never even has to come into bat.

It's always been thus in cricket. There will always be bad decisions, but they usually do equal themselves out over the course of a series, if not simply over the course of the match.

[neekoy]

I don't see how it has evened up really, in my opinion, England get a bad decision when they are 2/426 Australia get two in a row when they are 1/36 and 270 runs behind.

Now granted the English have done well to get them in that position through very very good cricket, but the not outs given to Flintoff (on 7) and Jones (first ball after lunch yesterday) added over 180 runs to the English total.

Yes I am sore we playing without any luck and form, but I would rather lose because of a Flintoff yorker then a dodgy lbw decision.

[Rovers_4_life]

I don't see how it has evened up really, in my opinion, England get a bad decision when they are 2/426 Australia get two in a row when they are 1/36 and 270 runs behind.

Now granted the English have done well to get them in that position through very very good cricket, but the not outs given to Flintoff (on 7) and Jones (first ball after lunch yesterday)  added over 180 runs to the English total.

Yes I am sore we playing without any luck and form, but I would rather lose because of a Flintoff yorker then a dodgy lbw decision.

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Now you know how we have felt for the last 20 years!!!

[FourLaneBlue]

I am not whining about the decsions, fair play to England for being the better team in the last couple of tests BUT I am simply saying that the decisions WERE incorrect, and having loked at the replay of the not out given when Flintoff was on 7 (or 8) when Warne trapped him plum in front has had consequences in this test.

If the English are happy with hollow victories then fine...

I guess after being on the end of hidings for so long they will take all they can get

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I've no idea where people get the idea that Aussies are bad losers from...

[SouthAussieRover]

I think there may be a few more twists in this Test.

Would be interesting to see how England chase a total of 200 plus in their fourth innings.

[SouthAussieRover]

Clarke caught behind off Hoggard.