[the saint]

Walddk, on Nov 23 2006, 09:31 AM, said:

This could easily turn out to be another South Africa for Steve Harmison. Far away from home and his mind seems to be somewhere else (in Durham I presume). The bowling he produced on day 1 was, well hopeless is hardly an exaggeration.

When did you last see an opening bowler being asked to have a rest after 2 overs!? And when Flintoff finally decided to go for the new ball, he also let Harmison stay in the deep. Deep trouble?

I am not sure how England expect to take 20 wickets in a match when their main strike bowler aims at hitting the slips and fine leg.

Roland

Time to bat for a draw.

[akhare]

Walddk, on Nov 23 2006, 04:31 AM, said:

I am not sure how England expect to take 20 wickets in a match when their main strike bowler aims at hitting the slips and fine leg.

Roland

The only thing to hope that is that the batsman don't follow suit, i.e., keep aiming for the slips and fine leg .

All said and done, Ponting is in amazing form...

[nickf]

did I say 5-0? sure looks that way after day 1 of the summer. Yawn, the english looked like just another lamb lining up for an aussie slaughter.

nickf
sydney

[jikl]

I don't know whether you get to see this on the other side of the world, but there is this new "Hot Spot" infrared camera. It will be interesting to see whether it is ever allowed to be used by the 3rd umpire.

(With the hot spot camera it is using infrared to determine friction spots which create heat, ie the ball striking the bat or pads or gloves etc)

Sean

[Walddk]

the saint, on Nov 23 2006, 08:02 PM, said:

Time to bat for a draw.

Indeed, but that takes better batsmen than England has. I couldn't have put it any better than Sir Geoffrey Boycott did after day 2:

"With three days to go, I don't think they've got a cat in hells chance."

Roland

[FrancesHinden]

Monty, Monty, Monty....

[the saint]

Time to get Beefy, Boycs and Gower out of the commentary box...

[jikl]

I'd try to get Michael Holding too, there must be some way to claim he is English

Sean

[Walddk]

the saint, on Nov 24 2006, 07:42 PM, said:

Time to get Beefy, Boycs and Gower out of the commentary box...

Let me rephrase that so that it becomes more accurate:

Time to get Beefy, Boycs and Gower out on to the field!

And Frances, with all due respect, Monty is unlikely to score a double hundred. He will need around 30 innings to get a total beyond 200. You can hardly blame Giles for England's pathetic performance in the field.

With Harmison on, it won't be long before the slips need to wear helmets too!

After only 2 days of the series it is as clear as it gets: this time Australia are superior in all aspects of the game. You need to be biased beyond anything reasonable if the English can't see that.

Roland

[keylime]

The internet viewing has been very smooth. Only had 1 minor network blip on the 600 kbps feed (Channel 9 - Direct TV feed from down under); the 350 kbps feed to this point has been rock steady.

The video quality has been suprising good - here at work we have integrated Intel 910GL and at home an oldie but goodie ATI 9000/9100 IGP chipset on the laptop. With the higher feed, the picture quality has been splendid with the right resolutions used - with the lower speed, you notice at 200% zoom some graining. Full screen is not as bad you might expect.

I'm eagerly awaiting the 3rd day - I have a feeling either a massive collapse or a dogged day of batting is coming.

[nickf]

Walddk, on Nov 25 2006, 04:46 AM, said:

After only 2 days of the series it is as clear as it gets: this time Australia are superior in all aspects of the game. You need to be biased beyond anything reasonable if the English can't see that.

Roland

I'm furious at the english team, they may well spoil my summer. Honestly, there's no sport in dispatching minnows like this. I may take up shooting fish in a barrel. The english remind me of how Guus Hiddink described the Socceroos earlier this year, as comparable to "an enthusiastic 3rd Division Dutch team".

nickf
sydney

[the saint]

Trust me boys and girls, we aren't happy with it either. After last summer we were ordinary in Pakistan, played OK in the tests against India, faded at home to Sri Lanka and then played well against Pakistan, albeit against a side with a reduced bowling attack. We have, however, been completely shocking at 1-day cricket over the last couple of years and now the general malaise that has afflicted us in that form of cricket appears to have spread to the test forum. Fletcher's selections have been mysterious (Giles for Panesar when the former hasn't even played in a year, Jones for Read when the former has yet to prove he can provide the extra runs and not drop everything that comes his way) to say the least. English Cricket need to take some of the blame for not giving Troy Cooley the contract he wanted - Harmison has not been the same bowler since, indeed Harmison needed to play more county cricket last summer to sort his head out, get his confidence up, his rhythm going and become the Grievous-Bodily-Harm we so love. The batsmen need to dig in more, and we can't keep relying on Flintoff to produce heroics out of nowhere.

Credit where credit is due. The Aussies were really hurt by losing to us last year, and they have picked their game up. Its annoying that considering how often we lost to them over the previous 16 years, it took so long to pick our game up.

[jikl]

OK, the first test has come to an end. Whilst England did fight back and add "some" credibility to the result. Let's be honest, it was a thrashing.

So, let's get down to the team changes...

Who do we think England will drop?

a) Giles for Panesar?
Jones for Read?
c) Anderson for Mahmood?
d) a combination of two of the above?
e) a b and c?

I am sure they will keep Harmison and just hope he remembers how to bowl.

Now for the Australian changes. Here things get really complicated. Ponting, McGrath and Watson are all fit. Australia also like to have two spinners in Adelaide.

I can't really make this just a list since some of the changes are for three and 4 people.

So, will Australia change their team structure to have 5 front line bowlers and bat Gilchrist at 6? (in the process dropping Michael Clarke)

Will Stuart Clark and Michael Clarke be dropped for Stuart MacGill and Shane Watson?

Or unchanged team?

Or something else completely?

My suspicion is that it will be the 4-way swap.

Sean

[jikl]

Shane Watson has been ruled out as his hamstring injury is not sufficiently recovered.

Sean

[the saint]

I think the only possible change is Anderson for Panesar. Jones will be retained, and England need Harmison at his best. He has one more shot, then Mahmood will be in to replace him. Adelaide is more suited for attacking spinners than the Gabba, so Monty is likely to play.

[the saint]

The press here have been mooting that Symonds might be used as a spinning all-rounder for the second test.

[jikl]

Noone has mentioned Symonds here at all. However, media here has speculated that Lee may be dropped.

This would be a weird team. Especially with McGrath and his heel as he would have to bowl a lot of overs. Going through the Australian list, the best batsmen that can bowl a bit, do not any more due to back problems; Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke (who has the extraordinary best bowling figures of 6 for 9 runs against India with his left arm orthodox). Other than that Damien Martyn can sort of bowl, but there would be a lot of balls going over the short sqare of the wicket boundaries if he did. He bowls medium/medium-slow and a lot of them bounce well short of a good length

Sean

Edit: The other possibility is no change if Michael Clarke's back is up to it.

[Walddk]

Australia can shuffle their cards as they please. I give England absolutely no chance of winning one of the remaining four Tests. Australia 2nd XI would be good enough to hold England.

England had a different team 18 months ago and they were on home soil. I wouldn't be surprised if the Aussies whitewash them, but let me generous and award the English one draw (rain stopped play). 4-0.

Roland

[the saint]

Walddk, on Nov 27 2006, 08:36 PM, said:

Australia can shuffle their cards as they please. I give England absolutely no chance of winning one of the remaining four Tests. Australia 2nd XI would be good enough to hold England.

England had a different team 18 months ago and they were on home soil. I wouldn't be surprised if the Aussies whitewash them, but let me generous and award the English one draw (rain stopped play). 4-0.

Roland

Nah, the Aussies always throw one of the dead rubbers.

[jikl]

Quote

Australia can shuffle their cards as they please. I give England absolutely no chance of winning one of the remaining four Tests. Australia 2nd XI would be good enough to hold England.

Trying to think what the 2nd XI would look like...

Phil Jaques
Simon Katich
Brad Hodge
Mark Cosgrove
Adam Voges
Andrew Symonds
Brad Haddin
Nathan Bracken
Shaun Tait
Stuart MacGill
Mitchell Johnson

I am sure others would come up with something else.

Quote

England had a different team 18 months ago and they were on home soil. I wouldn't be surprised if the Aussies whitewash them, but let me generous and award the English one draw (rain stopped play). 4-0.

Most of Australia is in drought at the moment. The Gabba was best chance for rain.

Sean