Freddie’s cleaned up Hauritz for his 4th wicket of the innings. Hopefully he’ll get the Michelle as it would be apt for him to appear on the Lord’s honours board in his last test there.
Go Freddie !! Looks like they’re leaving him in for a little longer. Perhaps to give him a chance at getting his 5-for.
Swann just dropped what would have been a very acrobatic c&b of Johnson.
With Clarke and Haddin gone, it’ll take the weather to save the Aussies now.
[quote=“Shadow”]Go Freddie !! Looks like they’re leaving him in for a little longer. Perhaps to give him a chance at getting his 5-for.
Swann just dropped what would have been a very acrobatic c&b of Johnson.
With Clarke and Haddin gone, it’ll take the weather to save the Aussies now.[/QUOTE]
Freddie getts Siddle’s wicket and he has his 5-for!! His first since the '05 Ashes I think and appropriate for his last Lord’s Test.
He’s still bowling and perhaps he can take the winning wicket as I cannot see how Australia can escape now.
As they said earlier on the TMS website “It would take a braver man than Strauss to tear the ball from the Flintoff fingers now.”.
Game over, Aussies all out for 406
Great stuff from England this morning. The key was to break the partnership and the rest would follow quickly enough. Freddie will get most of the plaudits and deservedly so. Swann redeemed himself in a big way after the debacle of Cardiff. That was a real beauty to dismiss Clarke.
Difficult to know where Australia go from here. Hughes & Johnson must be up for the chop. If Brett Lee is fit, he’ll come in for Johnson at Edgbaston. Don’t think there’s any other openers in the touring party? Maybe on the back of his impressive 63 this morning, Johnson should be opening the batting instead of Hughes.
Translation?
E&W won by 115 runs
Outstanding stuff from Flintoff this morning. He was still 90mph + after 9 overs, which is no mean feat considering the injuries he’s carrying. Got out to watch the end of it and saw a montage of his spell this morning - sensational. A well deserved win for England and Wales - they played much the better cricket over the match.
The Convicts have run out of wickets. England got 10 of them out and they had reached 406 runs, which was still 115 behind Englands total.
England win by 115 runs.
It was much closer than it looked like it would be thanks to a solid performance from Clarke and Haddin, and Johnson put a little bit of wag in the tail also. But overall, it was a dominant England performance (even Ponting agrees) and a very different Test from Cardiff where the Convicts dominated but couldn’t get the English tail out.
There’s been a lot of talk about the Aussie opener Hughes but I reckon he’ll be lucky to hold his spot. A lack of alternatives might save him but that’ll suit England.
[quote=“Shadow”]
There’s been a lot of talk about the Aussie opener Hughes but I reckon he’ll be lucky to hold his spot. A lack of alternatives might save him but that’ll suit England.[/QUOTE]
Nearly all of it coming from Australia. Limited player and a flat track bully.
Super. 36, 4 and 17 in 3 innings so far. Keep him in then and Freddie will have him out twice sub-25 at Edgbaston.
Now if only Bopara and Pieterson could do what they’re supposed to do …
Hughes just flails the bat at everything - he’ll pick up his share of boundaries but Harmison figured him out at Worcester and Flintoff’s carried on from there. A couple of short ones into the ribs to soften him up and then a fuller ball outside off stump and the slips and gully need to ready to snaffle up any chances that arise.
[quote=“Fitzy”]The EW tail wagged well, Aussie bowling was pretty insipid against it, so their total was very good, given no one had a particuarly big score. EW should be happy enough that pretty much everyone got a start.
Hughes did well against a flurry of bouncers I thought. They threw everything at him and he didn’t fail. Ponting will be quite happy to see bowlers tire themselves out against Hughes for the rest of the series. Hughes will be happy to do this as well. It gives Ponting and Katich plenty of room to score, which is precisely what happened. Aus should bat through day 3 to about 550-600, unless a collapse happens.
Good chance for a draw, but at the moment I’d say adavantage Australia. Ponting has to be big now and absolutely drive Australia for a victory.
Bandage - Hughes as a flat track bully? FFS, you obviously have not seen him play much. This guy has strokes everywhere. He’s a naturally gifted and very intelligent batsman. He’ll keep sucking up the bouncers. They’ll stop at some stage, and then he’ll be off. He did very well yesterday.[/QUOTE]
Any prospect of Hughes achieveing lift off any time soon? Not much evidence of a naturally gifted talent or even some intelligence so far.
He looks like a little lost boy out of his depth.
“Every time I see him I think, 'Jeez, I wish I played with Andrew Flintoff.”
High praise indeed from Shane Warne in commentary today:
[quote=“Manuel Zelaya”]Any prospect of Hughes achieveing lift off any time soon? Not much evidence of a naturally gifted talent or even some intelligence so far.
He looks like a little lost boy out of his depth.[/QUOTE]
Be patient Evo! Look, the guy’s 20 years old, his first Ashes series. He’ll come good. There’s plenty of steel there. Believe me, you’ll know it when he achieves lift off. I have the utmost faith in him, having watched him play plenty of times. The way he got his maiden test century against SA was outstanding, brave and audacious.
Hughes will definitely start the third test, I don’t think there’s an alternative, unless they bring Brad Hodge out, but this is highly unlikely, as Hodge and the ACB have a terrible relationship. Otherwise they could stick Shane Watson in and get Hussey to open. But I can’t see Watson playing a test here.
Lee is not going to be fit for the 3rd or 4th test, possibly the 5th. So lets stop talking about him. Stuart Clark may come in. They’ll probably bring Dougie Bollinger out as cover. But I can’t see them changing the attack or the team for the third test.
Ponting himself and certainly the selectors are loath to make changes and will back themselves and the players. If they lsoe the third test, they’ll have to though.
Fair play to England, fair play to Strauss, great knock from him.
As for Freddie, do I really need to add anything? We will sorely miss him, and he was outstanding yesterday, a fitting end to his test career.
Two tests with some very large innings. Its been very good so far. England in a great position, but they have to push on and win it now. Australia have to regroup, realise they have real quality and talent. I was very very impressed with Clarke and Haddin, the next capatin and vice captain of Australia. I’ve had my doubts about Clarke’s leadership qualities, but his innings was total quality.
I’m very happy for the England and Wales supporters here. I’m sure you all had a nice chorus of God Save the Queen at the close of play. :rolleyes:
The last time the Tans beat the Aussies at Lords in 1934 [acc to SSN yesterday] the Australians went on to win the series 2-1. I predict the same thing here. Headingly will be a pudding pitch as usual leading to a boring draw. Australia will win at Edgbaston and all boil down to the Oval then.
It was the opening partnership on day 1 that won it for England not Freddy, Australias opening salvo in attack was just not good enough.
Huh?
Nice to see Phillip Hughes has his priorities right anyway. The only man in both squads with an active up to date twitter account.
[quote=“Special Olympiakos”]The last time the Tans beat the Aussies at Lords in 1934 [acc to SSN yesterday] the Australians went on to win the series 2-1. I predict the same thing here. Headingly will be a pudding pitch as usual leading to a boring draw. Australia will win at Edgbaston and all boil down to the Oval then.
It was the opening partnership on day 1 that won it for England not Freddy, Australias opening salvo in attack was just not good enough.[/QUOTE]
The biggest worry for Australia is the attack. Can they take 20 wickets? On this form, you’d have to say no. Thats what the real problem is. Attack’s win test matches.
Whassup MBB?