The Convicts Return

[Timmy]

I was to young to remember the 1981 ashes, for those of you who can remember how does the present series compare ?

[jim mk2]

1981 was better than this year because of the heroics of one Ian Botham, the best white cricketer I have seen.

Neither are as good as the 1953 series though.

[Dr Rich]

I assume you mean Custer? The comparisons aren't there, unless the Aussies were slaughtered due to the arrogance of one man

342649[/snapback]

His name is Ricky Ponting and he put England in to bat in the second test.

Seriously, Australia's batsmen have been woeful in the series, bowlers like Warne and Lee should not be top-scoring in any innings for suppossedly the best team in the world. England deserve to win 3-1.

[MCMC1875]

Gripping stuff!

Series like this one come along once every generation. Roll on the fifth test.

[Alex Rover]

it's like Custards last stand with these aussies...

342645[/snapback]

I assume you mean Custer?

342649[/snapback]

LOL, I bet he got his just desserts

[Flopsy]

oh god.

Jim I dont remember '53, was it good?

Also who was the best non white cricketer? and was he better than Botham?

And is not Flintoff getting up there?

And Also should Warne (and lee for that matter) not be counted as all rounders

2 years ago England would have lost this test, the edgebaston test and probably the old trafford test. Now we are upset when we draw

the king is dead, long live the king.

That being said I quite expect Austrailia to come back at the oval all guns blazing, with an extra bowler and get rid of a batsman (Hayden??)

McGrath should be fit, hopefully Jones will be too, if not Tremlet or Collingwood?

Football, who cares???

[rog of the rovers]

Im actually Gutted because there is only 1 test match left!!

Its so good to be able to give it back to the Aussies after a decade of dominance from them!

However I still feel that the Australians could ruin the party, Lee and Warne showed in the second innings that they are class bowlers and England have to be aware of this!

Hopefully Jones is ok! and we can wrap up the series!

[SouthAussieRover]

Australia to win the Oval Test and retain the Ashes.

[neekoy]

Good win by England, finally the aussies show what they normally play like

Hand the mantle over? I don't think so, Australia to flog the English in the fifth (after a few minor changes)

Kaspa out McGrath in, Hayden out Hussey (who is currently playing county cricket!!) in

[Flopsy]

pray what do they normally play like?

Youve only had three consistantly good players this series

Lee, Warne and when fit McGrath

The rest of your team have been average at best disapointing at worse

Where as England have always seemed to find someone to step up to the block when needed.

Dont forget Austrailia have now been bowled cheaply in 3 test matches. And hit for 400+ in two innings. Only one of your players has hit a ton.

But I think you will scrape a win at the Oval, and is you do fair play - reward for great bowling at Lords, a fantastic Innings from Ponting at Old trafford and Shane bloody warne.

What you going to do when McGrath and Warne retire???

[Ste B]

It should have been all over by now. We have totally dominated 3 tests apart from 3 sessions where the Aussies managed to show some fight. We should have done better at Lords, but McGraths spell was simply out of this world.

As a captain Ponting has been totally clueless when its been going wrong. When its been going ok for him, then Lee and Warne have made him look reasonably competant. Warne is quite obviously the best cricket brain in their team, and should be captain. If it wasnt being for the drugs ban, then he probably would already be. Whereas, Vaughan has looked calm throughout as captain except his batting deserted him when we needed it most.

This final test is going to be a great test of character and we need some of Tim Flowers famous bottle, but whatever happens, this is the best test series I can EVER remember, do not be surprised it this turns into another 1981 headlingley Botham/Willis type performance.

As for this test, if Simon Jones would have been fit then I would suggest that we would have faced a total of around 50 less to win. Good job that the ICC laws allow people to nip out for a 10 minute rest after a hard spell.

[pg]

Any word yet on whether or not Jones will be fit for the last test? England's superior attack has given them the advantage, and if he misses the last test it wil be very interesting to say the least to see what effect it has on the English team balance. They are currently playing with five bowlers, seven batsman and half a keeper!

I think Langer has consistently played well this series, along with Lee and Warne. He's taken a lot of stick, endured lots of physical punishment, but has never really given his wicket away.

Current team averages :

Australia - battting (M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 50's 100's Catches Stumpings)

RT Ponting 4 8 0 324 156 40.50 59.34 1 1 3 -

MJ Clarke 4 8 0 310 91 38.75 55.65 - 2 1 -

JL Langer 4 8 0 289 82 36.12 55.36 - 2 2 -

SK Warne 4 8 0 249 90 31.12 72.59 - 1 2 -

SM Katich 4 8 0 247 67 30.87 47.59 - 2 2 -

B Lee 4 8 3 152 47 30.40 65.23 - - 2 -

England - batting

ME Trescothick 4 8 0 355 90 44.37 62.72 - 3 3 -

KP Pietersen 4 8 1 301 71 43.00 66.88 - 3 - -

A Flintoff 4 8 0 322 102 40.25 77.77 1 2 3 -

MP Vaughan 4 8 0 270 166 33.75 60.53 1 1 1 -

SP Jones 4 6 4 66 20* 33.00 67.34 - - 1 -

AJ Strauss 4 8 0 263 106 32.87 56.80 1 - 4 -

Australia - bowling (Matches O M R W Ave B-B 5WI 10 WM SR Econ)

RT Ponting 4 6 2 9 1 9.00 1-9 - - 36.0 1.50

SK Warne 4 176.5 29 551 28 19.67 6-46 1 1 37.8 3.11

GD McGrath 2 81 14 283 14 20.21 5-53 2 - 34.7 3.49

B Lee 4 148.1 18 640 19 33.68 4-82 - - 46.7 4.31

England - bowling

SP Jones 4 102 17 378 18 21.00 6-53 2 - 34.0 3.70

SJ Harmison 4 138.3 20 462 16 28.87 5-43 1 - 51.9 3.33

A Flintoff 4 160 22 577 19 30.36 4-71 - - 50.5 3.60

MJ Hoggard 4 98 13 376 12 31.33 3-70 - - 49.0 3.83

AF Giles 4 137 17 502 10 50.20 3-78 - - 82.2 3.66

[Blueboy Downunder]

was watching sbs coverage through channel 4 last night and after the game had finished greg matthews could not have put it better if he tried.....

"our discipline is not good enough, we are not gracious losers (bad losers) and england have totally out played us in 3 test matches"....now i never thought i would see the day when an australian would actually admit to something that most other folks already know.....being bad/sore losers. pigs are flying in the skys above australia today and it's gonna be a blue moon tonight.

[Blueboy Downunder]

They are currently playing with five bowlers, seven batsman and half a keeper!

well mate....5 bowlers, 7 batsmen....and half a keeper, well so far this test series...half a keeper is all we need to be infront of your lot!

[pg]

Yeah, was thinking along similar lines last night Blueboy. When Ponting has to have over the urn at the end of the series, I hope he does it with good grace and say that he lost to a very good team.

Unlike Richie Richardson who spat the dummy saying that it was the worst Australian side he had ever played against when they lost a series for the first time in over a decade.

BTW another aspect of the cricket in the UK that I really enjoy is the party/dress-ups aspect

Darth Vader and Chewbacca at a cricket match!!

[neekoy]

pray what do they normally play like?

What you going to do when McGrath and Warne retire???

342700[/snapback]

Flopsy you been missing the last ten years or what?

The same thing when Lillee and Thompson retired or Lawson and Alderman or Hughes and McDermott....

we will find someone else to take wickets, I don't see why everyone is acting like we have no one to fill the gaps.

We have excellent youth coming through who have been sitting by in the local scene ready to burst into the test team.

[Paul]

I've been trying to think when was the last time our whole family sat round the telly watching cricket on a Sunday afternoon. Quite astonishing and a real shame it's all going to Sky next year.

[pg]

  They are currently playing with five bowlers, seven batsman and half a keeper!

well mate....5 bowlers, 7 batsmen....and half a keeper, well so far this test series...half a keeper is all we need to be infront of your lot!

342710[/snapback]

That's cause we've only been playing with two and half bowlers and about four batsmen

Regarding the use of TV replays at grounds. I'm actually surprised that they give slo-mo replays at the grounds, as in Australian grounds you don't get a contentious LBW decision replayed five times after the event. You'll probably get one replay and that's it.

But surely it makes sense to start the replay AFTER the batsman has actually left the field?

I'm beginning to think that with the current level of technology and the hysteria surrounding some of the decisions, that on-field umpires will be obselete within a decade. And all decisisions will be made by TV/computer.

Whilst on the one hand, this will slow down the game, on the other I think it will encourage walking. More batsman will walk after snicking it because they will know that they'll just look silly standing there when in ten seconds the TV replay will clearly show them to be out.

It may also stop excessive appealling. For the same reason, the fielding side are going to look stupid jumping in the air for everything, when a TV replay 10 seconds later shows the batsman got nowhere near it.

Of course, there are implications for the future of umpiring and for lower grades of cricket...

...but if you really worried about the future of umpiring you wouldn't have invented 'hawkeye' would you?!

Edited August 29, 2005 by pg

[stuwilky]

Flopsy you been missing the last ten years or what?

The same thing when Lillee and Thompson retired or Lawson and Alderman or Hughes and McDermott....

we will find someone else to take wickets, I don't see why everyone is acting like we have no one to fill the gaps.

We have excellent youth coming through who have been sitting by in the local scene ready to burst into the test team.

342717[/snapback]

There was an excellent article in the Times yesterday on this very subject.

[MCMC1875]

Regarding umpiring, Steve Bucknor seems to be calling on the 3rd umpire most, whilst Alim Daar seems to have made the most mistakes, including losing count of an over. Most impressive has been Daar's stand in at Birmingham and Manchester, NZ's Billy Bowden.

[pg]

Regarding umpiring, Steve Bucknor seems to be calling on the 3rd umpire most, whilst Alim Daar seems to have made the most mistakes, including losing count of an over. Most impressive has been Daar's stand in at Birmingham and Manchester, NZ's Billy Bowden.

342748[/snapback]

Actually, I thought Daar had a great first test, and Billy was looking a bit rattled by the end of the Manchester test!

Daar didn't have a great test at Trent Bridge though.

[bellamy11]

If every appeal had to be referred to a computer umpire then the bowling side could appeal every bowl to completely slow down a match if they were, say, looking for a draw.

I don't think they'll ever do away with two human umpires. I've been impressed with how well they've done all summer. Bowden, for example, could have easily given us a bad decision with so many close appeals at Old Trafford under the pressure of the crowd and the situation of play, but he was justified in his not outs.

I think Australia will come out all guns blazing at The Oval. Despite the way we've performed in the pressure situations of the last three tests, this will be our greatest examination. I refuse to believe that Hayden and Gilchrist are going to play an entire series with such a pathetic whimper.

[Shaddy]

I refuse to believe that Hayden and Gilchrist are going to play an entire series with such a pathetic whimper.

342763[/snapback]

Why not? I've accepted it and I'm Australian. I think he may get lucky enough and play on in the fifth test, but Hayden deserved the drop before this fourth test IMO.

Gilchrist is Gilchrist... besides being the vice-captain and wicket keeper, it would be difficult to drop him, based on his potential to damage the opposition, and the lack of a like for like replacement.

I don't want him dropped. But for mine, Hayden's show too many chinks on this tour (in the one-day series included).

Edited August 29, 2005 by Shaddy

[Manchester Blue]

Aussies could win the Oval test but on the basis of what we've seen so far in the series you would doubt it. There was a correspondent on Sky last night from Oz who was pretty gracious and said that many Aussies have accepted they have been beaten by a better team.

The stats don't lie, more centuries, more century partnerships, better bowling figures. If you do that over the course of a series you will deserve to win. Can't wait for the Oval and like others will be gutted when the series is over.

[MCMC1875]

There's only one topic currently on the first five pages of the message board with more replies than this topic. Says a lot about the state of football right now.