Smashing day’s cricket there. England and Wales will need to take 3 or 4 wickets in the first session tomorrow to put the shits up Australia.
Oz TV broadcaster uses truck screen jibes to promote cricket coverage
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Who ever watches SBS?
Hard to see them getting enough wickets early to make a result but it’s still possible I suppose. Australia have looked a bit brittle during this series with wickets coming in batches but if they’ve any class about them they should be able to bat for long enough to get the draw.
There’s a good chance here for EW to win this match, if they can tear through Australia early doors. There’s 98 overs to be played today, so every possibility. Fair play to England, they’ve batted well and their bowling has been brilliant.
Australia are in real trouble. Dropping Hughes was a mistake, they should have dropped Hussey. Decisions have gone against them and their bowling has not been good by any stretch of the imagination.
If they can get a draw out of this, then its game on, as Lee and Clark both look reaqdy for Leeds, and they will have got out of jail here.
But EW should be capable of winning this.
I see Murali has announced his retirement from tests next year,
Marcus North is probably under pressure as well. There’s every chance Hughes will be brought back and Watson filling in for North.
Will be interesting to see if Haddin makes it back for the 4th test. Manou has done well, he’s probably actually a better wickie than Haddin, but Haddin is the leading Australian run scorer.
[quote=“Fitzy”]There’s a good chance here for EW to win this match, if they can tear through Australia early doors. There’s 98 overs to be played today, so every possibility. Fair play to England, they’ve batted well and their bowling has been brilliant.
Australia are in real trouble. Dropping Hughes was a mistake, they should have dropped Hussey. Decisions have gone against them and their bowling has not been good by any stretch of the imagination.
If they can get a draw out of this, then its game on, as Lee and Clark both look reaqdy for Leeds, and they will have got out of jail here.
But EW should be capable of winning this.
I see Murali has announced his retirement from tests next year,[/quote]
Australia simply can’t even contemplate losing this. They were 140 runs behind after the first innings, not great but it’s not a massive gap. Then you’ve two days lost to rain to help them so a team with any sort of self belief and ability should see this one through.
Hussey was poor first innings obviously but he could be very important this morning.
Australia doing ok so far. Level on scores now without losing another wicket so England are effectively just the two wickets ahead.
Watson edged one behind just after getting his half century. 137-3.
Rocko reckons we can call this one a draw already. What are they? Effectively 60 for 4 and this next session’s going to be a 35 over affair. They’re down into the lower middle order and the English and Welsh will fancy their chances against the likes of North, Manou et al. It goes without saying that Clarke is the key wicket. But there’s still 65 odd overs left, they’re scoring at around 4 an over so England and Wales would be capable of chasing 180 odd in 30 overs. It’s still possible but the draw is favourite.
Edit: Does anyone have a link for the cricket? The neanderthals in my house will want to watch this Dublin-Kerry tripe so the telly’s out of commission.
[quote=“Fitzy”]
I see Murali has announced his retirement from tests next year,[/quote]
disappointed to see that, the man is a class act with a cricket ball in his hand…as good as spinner as there has been…
Heading for a draw by the looks of it…
Yeah, it’s looking very much that way now. Roll on Leeds this Friday.
Good batting by Australia today and they’ll be 1 down with 2 to go. England and Wales have been on the front foot for the last two tests so the law of averages suggests a top side like Australia will exert serious pressure at some stage over the final two games and they only need to tie the series to retain the Ashes.
They can take a few positives out of saving this match though - Hussey seems to have found a little bit of form, North batted well today after three poor innings following his century in Cardiff and Watson’s two half centuries at the top of the order were good knocks. And Clarke’s in magnificent form.
Their attack isn’t firing on all cylinders though and they’ll need to take 20 English and Welsh wickets in one of the two remaining games to tie the series. Brett Lee’s confident of being fit for Friday and Stuart Clark is also an option so they could give them some impetus.
The English and Welsh will know that if they can bat solidly in the last two games that they’ll be in a good position to take the series, especially with lots of rain about this summer. I still think they’re potentially a bit brittle in the middle order without Pietersen but Strauss has given them a good platfrom in the last 2 games.
But, as I say, there’ll surely be a period over the next 2 games where Strauss will fall cheaply and they’re forced on the back foot at 30/2 or something and it will need Bopara and Bell to steady the ship with a hundred partnership or something. That will be the true test of them. Same goes for the likes of Prior - lovely attacking knock setting up the declaration at Lord’s when they were already on top but he played an ill advised shot to get out when the pressure was on in Cardiff. What would he be like coming in at 100/4?
Broad’s taken a couple of wickets today but he’s looked the least threatening of their bowlers. That said, I can’t see them bringing in Harmison as they like Broad’s batting at number 8 and he provides more depth to the order. If they were behind in the series and needed to attack and take wickets then Harmison would be well in the frame. But I expect them to be conservative enough as they know solid batting will make it very difficult for Australia to force victories.
The ball hasn’t done anything today but they’ve toiled away and Flintoff’s pace, Anderson’s swing, Onions wicket-to-wicket style and Swann’s spin has given their attack a decent level of variation so England and Wales are in decent enough shape despite not being able to force the win today.
I think you’re generous to E&W for this test Bandage. While they had the early momentum, Australia had built a nice enough score today and could have gone on to make 500 or so and then pour pressure on England. Obviously it was all academic but the notion that Australia were saved by the rain in this Test is something a few commentators have mentioned, while the reality is that Australia saw that through comfortably and were very much in command today.
It is well setup for the next couple of tests though. Depite Fitzy’s call for Hussey to be dropped he made an important half century earlier and only Ponting disappointed in both innings for the Aussies.
Whether their attack is good enough to take 20 wickets cheaply enough is debatable but there’s a couple of good contests in store.
Headingley invariably tends to be a result pitch, so unless the rain intervenes, there’s likely to be a positive result.
Still like to see Big Steve back in. Broad is good for a few runs but not offering much to the attack.
Much better balance to the Australian bowling order with Watson in for the internetting drunk.
The internetting drunk? Jesus Evo, you have it bad for Hughes. Funny thing, I haven’t seen anything about Hughes being drunk anywhere apart from your posts. Funny thing eile - it was common knowledge in Australia hours before the twitter that he had been dropped, the Australian newspaper had already published it.
Watson won’t bowl much. Johnson mighten’t either, looks like he’ll be dropped for Lee or Clark.
Great to see Watson doing well, and very surprising. I just hope he doesn’t get injured, but thats pretty invariable with him. Ditto Hussey, about fucking time, 15 tests without a century, he fired at precisely the right time. Clarke continues to improve, I’m still dodgy about his leadership qualities, but he’s a brilliant batsman.
Some questions have to be asked about the preparations of pitches here. They’re dead. England seem to be constantly hoping for cloud to get the Duke to swing, and most of these tracks offer batting possibilities far beyond the norm. Even Strauss was complaining about it yesterday.
The other question of course has to be asked about Rudi Koetzen. He’s lost it completely, terrible decision after terrible decision.
Roll on Friday…
It’s game on now. I think Australia’s batting line up is less brittle than England’s and yesterday could have been a momentum shifter like Cardiff. GBH may be in for Flintoff or Swann. Reckon Aussies will keep Johnson and will drop Siddle.
Thats two matches in a fortnight that ended a draw even though the score were not even remotely level.
What kind of a sport is this?
Edgbaston is the last Test venue not to have had its field relaid in the newer fast-draining style. Apparantly it was due to be done this year but they weren’t able to fit it in. It’ll be done before next season and that will complete the lot.
Australia started well, but England dominated the middle. Yes, they couldn’t see it out, but Australia were playing for the draw and had the possibility of an Aussie win been on the cards then they might have played more aggressively and actually given England a better chance. Plus, England had yet to bat and there was no reason to believe they couldn’t have put on a good 2nd Innings score.
[quote=“HBV*”]Thats two matches in a fortnight that ended a draw even though the score were not even remotely level.
What kind of a sport is this?[/quote]
I’m not even going to try to explain …
Sidebottom and Trott added to the england squad for the 4th test