Same lineup as the Ashes team in the main. Except they are away against a tough Pakistan team on a slow pitch and hence the Aussies only took one wicket instead of skittling out the whole side in two sessions like against the hapless Poms.
Was wondering about the bowling lineup looking at the score. Lads have been on the ale.
Shane Warne RIP. 
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The Greatest Cricketer of All Time 
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shocking
Crazy. I remember his first Ashes test watching him bowl Gatting. An iconic player who transcended the sport
his last tweet
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That Australian Cricket Team were iconic really.
Ponting, Warney, Langer, Gilchrist, Mr. Cricket, Clarkie, McGrath, Lee. They had that lovely mix of ignorance and arrogance, and Warney typified it in a really cool manner.
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The 2006/7 Ashes series was iconic. After a lucky win for the Poms in 2005 when McGrath tripped over a ball and Lee was dismissed agonisingly short of a famous chase, the baggy greens ground them into the dust on home soil.
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Was that not Kasprowicz that was dismissed.
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2005 was one of the greatest sporting contests of all time. I didn’t have Sky Sports in 2006/7 so used have to rely on the 8.20 sport on Sky News before school for updates on the previous nights action. Warney retired after the MCG test if I remember rightly?
Channel 4 was something back in 2005 with Richie Benaud and Mark Nicholas on commentary. Halcyon Days.
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Yes you are right. Lee was consoled by Flintoff
@ChairmanDan needs to be reinstated, at least for this thread.
The passing of one of the sport’s all time greats cannot be appropriately marked otherwise.
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RIP warney
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I didn’t pay much attention to the first test of the 2005 Ashes. I was aware Australia won it but did not watch any of it and assumed it would be the usual plain sailing.
I started to twig the series might be different to what everybody was expecting when I turned on the box one Friday early evening and saw Flintoff and Pietersen smashing the Aussie bowlers all around Edgbaston. That was the one England won in the ridiculous finish.
Test 3 was one of the great draws of all time. The roar when Ricky Ponting was dismissed with a couple of overs left was primal. The Aussies still hung on. But it was ON.
By Test 4, what was happening was dominating even the All-Ireland football championship. There was only one thing to watch that Sunday evening of the 28th of August and it wasn’t Kerry v Cork. As was confirmed by a high profile Irish sportswriter who revealed that the entire GAA press pack were glued to events in Trent Bridge almost as soon as the final whistle at Croke Park had gone.
By the time of Test 5, the series had become box office to the extent that I was having cricket conversations with people who had been largely unaware of the sport previously. The hour and half or so wait for Billy Bowden to remove the bails and call a halt to the series was unmissable.
“Ashes” by Embrace was released that summer in probably the greatest moment of synchronicity between music and sport ever.
A great summer.
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I was at a day of that. I had either 9 or 10 pints and realized that, even sober, I couldn’t see the ball.
Cricket took over from GAA in 2005. You talk some rubbish but that tops it all.
I was at the final of the Nat West one day series in Lords that year between England and Australia, the game that ended in a tie.
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Great oul atmosphere by the afternoon. Actually all day.
That series was iconic alright.
I remember Harmison splitting Ponting open in that first test at Lords.
That Sunday morning finale of the Edgbaston test was incredible. I think England had kinda collapsed in their second innings the day before but Flintoff salvaged things somewhat by smashing the Aussies around with only the tail for company. That gave them a total to defend then. Warne applauded him off, if I recall correctly.
Old Trafford was the draw with the Aussies hanging on this time, as you mention.
Great drama at Trent Bridge in the fourth test. I think it was the Saturday when Ponting went nuts after being run out by the sub fielder whose name escapes me. His view was England players were going off in rotation with spurious issues/niggles so these local club players who were fast/athletic/fielding specialists could practically be fielding all the time. I think England really stuttered in the run chase on the Sunday, which was gripping sporting theatre again.
I was working in Stokes Kennedy Crowley at the time and the series denouement at the Oval went the full five days to the Monday in early September. Myself, lapsed forum moderator @The_bhoy and the audit partner who led up our group went to The Harbourmaster for a liquid lunch to watch it and remained there for the day and into the night. Another drama filled day’s cricket with Pietersen’s century securing the series clinching draw for England. Ironically, Warne dropped him at slip at one stage when the game was still in the balance. Didn’t he get nearly 40 wickets in that series? It was something outlandish anyway.
That Australian team was one for the ages, as @peddlerscross mentioned. When I think of that cricketing era, post the Waugh brothers being in the team, that Australian side might be the greatest one ever. I’m trying to think of a definitive Aussie side from that time without recourse to Google.
Hayden
Langer
Ponting
Martyn
Clarke
AN Other
Gilchrist
Lee
Warne
Gillespie
McGrath
I’m probably leaving someone obvious out and there are probably other bowling options that could come in for Lee or Gillespie. They were absolutely unreal. The rare time the top order would fail, you’d get Gilchrist coming in at 7 and scoring a run a ball century or 150 to completely turn games around. The fuckers would go from 160-5 where you’d fancy bowling them out for less than 250, to 390-6 and then end up declaring on 527-8 or something.
Warne was also responsible for bringing in the separate acknowledgement/ovation for bowlers. He noted that batsman received acclaim for hitting a 50 or 100 so introduced a thing where any Aussie bowler who took 5 wickets in an innings would be given a guard of honour off the field when the opposition was bowled out. I can see him now in my mind’s eye, holding up the cricket ball and saluting the crowd as he was being applauded off the field by his comrades.
Im crying now. RIP Shane Warne.
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