Ah balls, Warne stumped by Read off Panesar. 393 ao. Knew he had to gamble with only Pidge left with him. That 70 odd partnership between Warne and Clark may have taken the game awy from E&W. Lead now 102.
It’s like whatever Collingwood said to Warne has riled up the whole Aussie team.
Ponting went up and started sledging Strauss there as the 2 E&W openers were walking out to bat! Strauss started shouting back at him then.
All the fielders are in the batsmens’ faces. They’re some ruthless fooks, I love their attitude, they’re already 4-0 up ffs.
Lee has just got Cook, 4/1. Just too quick.
Lee has just hit Strauss in the head with a 93mph bouncer!
He’s lying on the ground and frankly he doesn’t seem to know where he is.
Anyone who thinks cricket’s for bitches would be advised to take a look at this clip.
Physio now on. He might have to retire hurt.
43/1 at tea. Bell playing nicely, Strauss battling on with a bruised head.
Join rocko here at 6am for the last hour and half of play.
Sorry I didn’t get to do live text updates this morning due to lack of proximity between my pc and the NTL connection. Did manage to get up just after 6 though and caught the last hour’s play.
Some last session from Australia really - 60odd for 4 and they’ve crucially got past Flintoff so they can tear into the lower order. Panesar came out as a nightwatchman for the last couple of overs and survived a few balls - Gilchrist shouted “What a bonus lads they’ve sent Monty out!” when he was coming to the stumps. Great stuff.
Didn’t see Strauss getting out. Collingwood edged a leg-cutter to gully. No idea what a leg cutter is (please explain Bandage or Preshy) but the commentators were well impressed because it’s a rare delivery these days. Flintoff was then decidedly amateurish in getting stumped by Gilchrist. Warne bowled one past him and he was a few inches outside his ground, playing defensive. He inched back really slowly not realising he was outside the line and Gilchrist stumped him. It was terrible play for two reasons:
- he wasn’t attacking Warne so he should have had one foot back in the crease
- he should have realised he was out of his ground and he’d have made it back if he’d done it with urgency.
5-0 on the cards now. Gutted I missed Warne’s knock. Australia’s bottom 5 batsmen outscored their top 5 which is an excellent contribution. No danger of that happening to England unless their top order don’t score double figures.
Pietersen gone already!
Monty run out now. It’ll be over by midnight.
Nice for McGrath to get KP twice in his last match seeing how Pietersen was a bit disrespectful to him throughout the series.
That was quite emotional watching Warne and McGrath walking off for Australia for the last time ever.
Arm in arm. 2 absolute legends.
Over the line at last. Off to bed and delighted with that.
The Poms are a downright disgrace, their lack of ability is something that possibly can’t be helped and the Aussies are an awesome outfit but…some of the efforts by the E & W players have been pathetic. Drops, lazy run outs and poor concentration have marred the series.
Fools, I know of people who went to Melbourne for Day 4 and 5 and the fooking thing was over. Useless cooonts. And Freddie should leave the captaincy to someone else.
Spot on Appendage England and Wales were a disgrace. All the build up the past two years was just hype. They didn’t back it up at all. The way Flintoff lost his wicket, the way Pietersen couldn’t last an over, the run-out, another stumping not given, it was embarrassing. They were nowhere near as skillful as Australia but the lack of basic professionalism was appalling.
Full marks to Australia though. It takes some effort to win a series 5-0, especially when your opponent scores 580 odd in one innings. They resolved to hammer them and they really did.
Watching the Barmy Army going mental at the end and giving the England and Wales team a massive ovation was really ridiculous.
It reminded me of rocko in Frazer’s after Celtic had played shamefully in Copenhagen.
Sometimes being quiet is the best thing you can do as a supporter. Let them know they have let themselves and their supporters down.
There’s a fucking difference and well you know it. The Barmy Army = Jack’s Army = singing “You’ll Never Beat the Irish” when we’ve just been beaten by Italy. Fools.
Singing You’ll Never Walk Alone at the end of a game is different. It’s not necessarily even saying you are proud of the players and how they performed. It’s reminding them and yourselves that you are a follower of the proud institution and you will remain so.
I thought you’d bite before now. I was referring to applauding them off the park that night rather than the singing of YNWA.
20/20 tomorrow morning at 8am. Not really bothered with this to be honest. Never really bother with one day cricket either but might watch a bit of the forthcoming series if only for the fact it’s world cup year and it’s getting very close now.
Some of us have administrative work to do around the forum Bandage - we can’t be clicking into every topic immediately.
Anyway I didn’t know it was a round of applause, I thought it was singing? If it was a round of applause I may concede I was wrong.
I think I was so pissed off I refused to sing or applaud. You sang and applauded.
If you admit you were wrong to applaud then I MAY admit I was wrong to sing.
Then we can get closure.
I nearly agreed on that. Then I read [URL=http://www.thefreekick.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=37&topic=272.msg3486#msg3486]this and I got confirmation that the dispute was about singing. So no closure from me.
That’s farmer’s interpretation of events. There was singing and clapping involved. I distinctly remember making the point that I didn’t applaud Wexford off the park against Clare in Croke Park last July when they equally as shameful.
E&W are reaching new depths of embarrassment in the 20/20.
They’re 79/6 after 12 overs chasing Australia’s 221/5. They need 142 to win from 43 balls! Joyce opened and made 1.
Ha. That’s appalling. They’ve stifled every attacking batting instinct for the test matches though so it’s no surprise that they can’t attack well when the 20/20 comes around.
That’s a very decent score from Australia I presume?