The Ashes...

And so begins an intriging series. Which England side will turn up? And which Australian side will turn up? I reckon an early bet on the English isn't looking too bad...

The controversies are starting early. No Vaughan!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10580207

No suprise re Vaughan, its a step backward to keep selecting him imo. I think Aussie will dominate this series, Lee has alot to prove, and Mitchell Johnson will dominate, and the batting is still pretty strong. Only weakness is spin in tests imo.

Hughes
Katich
Ponting
Clarke
Hussey
Haddin
Lee
Clark
Johnson

will be the obvious core, with 2 to add, likely a spinner and an allrounder. Hope its a good series!

*Reaction*....how about double or quits on that hundy for the Ashes?


I want England

btw Aussie are clear favourites ....so I get England win and drawn series...so if Aussie win by any margin, I ship you $200 IMMEDIATELY at the conclusion of the series




Are you in? Or are you buckbuck?

Why on fucken earth would I want to support/back Australia.

On paper that Australian lineup looks good no doubt. The only thing you can be on and I hate to say this is MJ ripping it up, he has come a long way over the last 2 years.

Honestly can't pick a side but I can assure you I'm supporting England.

pussy

If you're so sure Aussie are gonna win Maestey, why don't YOU take Aussie...

reasonable hit out against the Lions, good to see Brett Lee back in form, and swinging it both ways at 90mph. I didnt realise till the other day, but Johnsons test batting ave is 34.7! Wondered about it because he scored runs again in the warm up. Only batting concerns would be Hughes and Ponting, and bowling imo they will use North as a spinner with Clarke, and try to blast England out with quicks.Im going for Aussie in this as a/ I hate Pieterson more every day, and b/ Chappell and Greig are mad hating on thier own squad, and there are few things better than seeing a Chappell getting pwned.

3-1 to Aus

Heard it here first.

fair enough....homo


I just thought since this Aussie side TOLD your beloved Proteas AT HOME, I might be able to take advantage of how you horribly over rate your team. Semms you dont over rate as much as I thought

Understand why you wouldnt to have a decent chunk of coin on Aussie winning though

errrrrm. wot. dalai

For the record I think it will be a pretty close series, weird how the 1st test in in Wales tho

JUst gimme my $100 ...

Lee GOOOONEEE!!!!

oh ohh, Brett Lee's out.

http://www.cricinfo.com/engvaus2009/content/current/story/412965.html

Email bank acc details if I cant goad you into a saffa pride bet then SRSLY. So you now think England is better than South Africa?

Brett Lee is shit/past it anyway

btw. Jibes aside. I fully repect and understand your decision not to want to back Aus

I just want to see you forced into supporting Australia. ^_^

England to perform well.

2-2.



gc.

Ads on the stream I'm watching:

'AXE deodourant: voted #1 deodourant in INDIA'

Hmmmmmm

:>

gc.

I dont know if either side has the capability to go 5 days. Im thinking England 3-2 ...

Good start for them and the pitch is looking good. With 2 spinners in the team I bet they hope for some sunny days.

One area where England could lose it is behind the stumps, prior is a poor wicketkeeper by test standards. Yes he's improved a lot from a year ago when experts were seriously suggesting he should give up the gloves and just concentrate on his batting, but he's still very suspect, and England can't afford to miss their chances if they want to win the series.

TBH I don't think having a 'great' glove man is that important in modern day cricket (in any form). All you need is someone solid, and their run scoring capability becomes paramount. I don't think the series will be decided on a sharp stumping, for instance.

Prior scores millions of runs in county cricket and is routinely in the top run getters, including this year. I believe he averaged 80odd over the season. Also had a good series v the Windies. Definitely the right choice, IMO.



gc.

Yeah his batting is very good but he's known to drop some shockers, hence why people were suggesting he give up keeping. If he does suddenly go through one of his horror spells and drop a couple it might not lose them a game, but it might cost them a chance to win it.

o yeh dalai now I getcha heh sif

Shame about those 2 late wickets. Cricinfo says honours even but I kinda like Englands position after winning thos toss and inlcuding two spinners

REally have no idea what you mean about these sides not having the capability to play out 5 days *Re-Action* ???


Im picking England either 2-0 or 2-1

Enjoyed watching Bopara bat

shite ...didnt realise Sidebottom was injured, is it permanent for the series? (I assume he's injured) He would have thrived on a shot at the aussies

I meant I don't think any of these test will go a full 5 days so unless it rains we will have 5 results.

Yeah but these people are retards IMO. If he gives up keeping he loses the extra dimension to his game that keeps him ahead of his competitors. The fact that he's one of the most damaging batsmen in local cricket isn't necessarily enough to keep him in the team, because of where he bats. He bats lower middle, so any all-rounder (keeping or bowling) will take priority over him should his form drop. Having the extra dimension to his game means he'll always be first option because of the balance he gives the team. Already shown today, despite a fairly mediocre innings.



gc.

England is doing well with Prior in there. Great with the bat and his keeping has improved considerably over the past 2 seasons. Excellent series vs. West Indies and very chirpy behinds the stumps so high on confidance. I don't think he will let them down ...

Well thanks for that, Mr I have a degree in the bleedin obvious. I was hoping for some more indepth reasoning as to why the tests cant go 5 days?

FWIW I read someplace its supposed to be a bumper English summer so hopefully rain wont be a factor

Its farking great how it all starts at 10pm our time too, one session before bedtime is gold

England cruise past 400. I think this test will go 5... Depends on England's spinners I would think. Pitch is turning and bouncing!



gc.

Cricinfo reports suggest pitch was becoming more and more batsmen friendly.

FUCK I HATE AUSTRALIA

Well fuck me that pitch is looking good. I def thought the Eng bowlers would have more penetration and the spinners will put some pressure on the batsmen to do stupid things. There goes my theory that they wont last a full 5 days

You must be used to being wrong by now.



gc.

Im never wrong.

Siddle was getting some crazy spin from left to right....

I really liked how LeBron James hit got that awesome try in the last test match too.



gc.

This thread has now entered the twilight zone...

awesome.

lolz, Siddle will be well stoked to know he's spinning the ball

Still not rating Hauritz. England will be dissapointed with that score, some stupid outs there, Pieterson especially (hate him by the way, did i mention?). Im going to call a draw here, neither team looks paticularly penetrative with the ball, and imo Aussie will try not to bat again to avoid spin on the last day.

Fuck, I even went and looked at the scorecard to double check.


Who is the Aussie spinner who was getting some mean turn??

Can't be Hauritz surely....

hehe, can't be Hauritz if it was turning left to right.

Clarke maybe?

they were both getting mad turn and bounce, but yeah, Clarke is the off spinning guy

should read _ Clarke is the l/h orthodox guy

*Re-Action* = ownd by The Maestro for like the gazillionith time on sports matters

There is spin but it is way too slow to trouble batsmen, even the tail enders can wait for it and wack it

This test = boring draw. Aussie will get 550, England 330-2. Next!

Asking for a explination on my prediction that it wont last a full 5 days is not being owned by you.

How much money I have taken of you from sports betting? thats right ... fucken heaps.

ummm thats complete bs, its prob about even if anything. We havent really made many sports bets

Old age fucking with your memory. How much do you currently owe me? thats right big boy

Anyway, it was a prediction, we all make predictions and in your case they are usually incorrect where mine is spot on in the end!

OMG
PONTING
OMG

HAVE MY KIDS
OMG

FUCK TENLOSKAR AND LARALOSER.

Struggling with your left and rights there GB? Of course it's Hauritz... He bowls off spin. Which funnily enough spins from the left side of the pitch to the right!

He bowled several balls that turned square, some even beating Haddin down the leg side from outside off!



gc.

HAHA! What an idiot

I can't believe it took 5 hours for someone to call me up on it

Odd how nobody is posting now :>

North, Haddin, magic.

Odd how its weekend you fucken top.

Englands bowling is attrouches.

They have lost 55 overs now due to bad weather Eng might be a little lucky here, Australia would have piled on a few more runs if they had the time.

Since when did you become an Aussie buttlicker Z

Modus operandi for him to back the cunts that noone else likes. Yawn worthy IMO.



gc.

Haddin is a cheating bitch and I feel physically ill watching him do well. Fuck those cunts. I'm glad they were (just) denied a win.

Yeah grrrr thank fuck for the rain, if Aus had that other 50 overs it would have been a crushing defeat for Eng and I'm sure they would not have come back from that.

England were shit in most aspects of that game, mad lucky cunts. Cant see them playing that badly again this series, and i dare say Ricky will be livid at not being able to finish them off. Great 5th day to watch though!

Well Ive just read that Sidebottom isnt injured? wtf

He is such a fiery character, let him loose! Plus he is left arm so provides variety

Honestly I think Broad is shithouse, so I would dump him and Monty and play Sidebottom and Harmison

And get the coach the slap Pieterson about, a more chronic watse of talent in world cricket I cannot imagine. If he had half the application of someone like Kallis he would average 70 in tests

+1 for bringing Harmison in.

A gamble I know, but the English need to take 20 wickets and get in the Aussie's faces.

Also, watching first balls of test matches going to 2nd slip is well funny

yeh true re Sidebottom, not sure why he's not there considering how well he performs in big games. Though, a good point brought up by Ian Botham, its not so much the bowlers lack of ability, but they seemed to lack a plan for each batsmen that they stuck to. Aus a streets ahead in their homework. Pietersons a good example, you can either get him early through the corridor of uncertainty where he squares up, or if he battles through the first hour or so of his innings, just keep it tight with spin and strong leg side field and he'll get impatient. You can see a new line and length brought in straight away when a new batsmen comes to the crease, targeting their percieved area of weakness. I think England had Hughes pretty sorted with the rising delivery, but thats it.

Not sure what the deal with Sidebottom is, but he's completely out of favour, so he can't be playing that well. I doubt the selectors would be picking Broad just cos they feel like it. They might pick Harmison in the next test, as he just picked up a 5-fer.

Classic test. Yes, England were very lucky to escape- but that's what test cricket is about! Epic last hour battles with #10 & jack to get you through. Monty has a pretty good technique tbh, surprised his average is only 5ish. He looks much better than the McGraths, Martins etc of the world.

Go England!



gc.

Eng is in a hard position when it comes to Broad as they rely on him making some runs down the order and that might be the only reason they give him another go. As for Monty he needs to go and prob be replaced by Onions. Four good seamors Flintoff, Harmy, Onions and Anderson is the only way I can see Eng taking 20 wickets at Lords.

Yup... Forgot about Onions too. That means Sidebottom is at least 3rd in line to get into the team (as in, no gonna happen).

If they drop Panesar and keep Swann then they *should* have enough of a middle order to not worry about Broad. As you say they need wickets, and Lord's isn't going to be a dry turner like Cardiff was. I still doubt they'll being in Harmison just yet though. Very tough call.



gc.

Heh now Harmison called in to cover potentially injured Freddy,

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/414084.html?CMP=OTC-RSS



gc.

He has played better than Onions leading up to it, and this article after the Lions game makes it even more confusing:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/cricket/international/england/5743525/The-Ashes-Ryan-Sidebottom-ahead-in-race-for-final-England-spot.html

maybe has something to do with this?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/32513-cricket-englands-ryan-sidebottom-needs-some-anger-management

Was away for weekend so only saw news coverage last night, girl thought it was funny as when I yelled at TV

"waaah waaah waaah, shut the F*CK up ponting ya F*CKIN crybaby sore loser"

when he was moaning about Englands so called "not in the spirit of the game" comments



fuck I hate Ponting

I was just coming in here to post that





I want to kill him

Not really the case, Onions has been doing well and bowled well against Aussie in a warmup game. Sidebottom is injury prone according to reports very unfit because of this. He can give you one good game and then nothing for ages. Eng will be looking at getting someone to consistantly performs and take them forwards. Talk are that Sidebottom might not even have his CC contract renewed if he keeps his current form up.

Also Freddy Flintoff seriously wtf ... he is Englands Shane Bond. Always breaking down. Problem is they always fucken rush him back into the side and never gets the rest he needs to recover.

Looks like he'll be okay, but yeah, he's missed 25 of the last 48 test matches, very Bond like. And Oram like. And Chris Cairns like.

If stats tells a story here is something for the English selectors to think about.

Stats in the CC so far this season.

Anderson 11 @ 9.90
Onions 40 @ 13.02
Broad 7 @ 15.14
Flintoff 8 @ 18.62
Harmison 35 @ 18.68
Swann 6 @ 21.16
Plunkett 19 @ 22.15
Mahmood 24 @ 24.08
Rashid 10 @ 27.30
Hoggard 28 @ 27.50
Sidebottom 10 @ 30.20
Pattinson 7 @ 46.28
Bresnan 8 @ 59.50
Amjad Khan 2 @ 78.00
Panesar 6 @ 86.66

Also whats everyones thoughts on Hussey? Will Australia look at replacing him at some point soon or just be happy that he might score big in the future?

His hasn't scored a 100 in more than 20 innings and only 3 times passed the 50 mark.

I fkn love it how "Mr Cricket" career is tumbling down around his ears

He's old too, 34, hasnt got much time to sort himslef out

good list re-action, lolz at Panesar bringing up the rear, whats happened to him i wonder.
re Hussey, yeh thats a tough one, his techniques still fine, its whether he can sort his head out, which is way more difficult. IMO he'll play the whole series, but his results will dictate if its his last. Who to replace him though? There's rumours about that Watson will take his spot if needed, but that makes no sense. He'll be right, im going to put 10 bucks on him to score a ton this test.

Yeah Watson but then again he is so injury prone Aus might look for some fresh talent.

Flintoff retiring from test cricket

Best thing he can do for his career, or whats left of it. Body just cant handle it!

So I'm on top of my league for ashes fantasy cricket.

Couple of tough choices to make for the second test though.

A weird thing about this league is that you have to pick your team before you know the final squads. I picked Stuart Clark in the first test, but he was left out, meaning I was a player short.

Also, Flintoff is in my team, and he's in doubt for this test as I understand it.

I can only make two changes to my team.

Potential changes I could make are:

Flintoff
Clark
Broad
Hussey

I can pick any of the other guys from the squad, but have to pick an allrounder to replace flintoff, a batsman to replace hussey, and a bowler to replace broad and/or clark.

But I can only replace two.

What would the Biggie sportsfans suggest?

I wouldn't replace Flintoff or Broad they will both be playing and I def think Broad will be bowling better at Lords than what he did on Cardiff.

Cook
Strauss
Bopara
Pietersen
Collingwood
Prior
Flintoff
Swann
Anderson
Onions
Harmison

That will be my team for Eng however I doubt they will replace Broad with Harmison. Make of that what you will ...

Aussie will be the same team unless they drop Clark in there but I very much doubt they will change that team.

How SHIT is Mitchell Johnson. Never rated him at all. I think South Africa were desperately unlucky to have played him in the one series where he has genuinely fired and showed himself capable of leading an attack.

He'll always look good against sides like NZ, who can't really handle anything over 145kph without looking like school kids... But man he looked absolutely appalling out there today. I don't think I've ever seen a worse day of test match bowling. Did produce a miracle ball to remove Prior though. In fact the wickets of Cook and Prior were from 2 out of probably 7 or 8 balls that Johnson managed to direct at the stumps ALL DAY.



gc.

Yeah heh it was funny when he got Cook out. He bowled 4 crap balls then got the wicket and the commentators said "it was due to shock from seeing a straight one"

1st ball to the new batman, short and 4 feet outside leg stump

"back to business"

Yeah much commentary surrounding how 'unlucky' Cook and Prior were to receive straight ones!



gc.

Did you guys see the three bowler comparison with the seam release????


Truly showed how shit Mitchell is.

*Quick paint example...





Siddle at top, left line is his arm, double lines next to that is the seam release... Not bad.

Bottom is Mitchell's arm- far to low and the double line is the seam releas- Horizontal FFS!

wtf

That is probably the best animation I have ever seen.



gc.

Which bit don't you understand????


(I've used paint about five times in my life!)


:>

Hardly suprising that Mitchell's seam position is all fucked up with his arm that low. Would love to see what someone like Malingas position is.

lolz thats awesome heh. Johnsons a shoulder bowler though, so no suprise, his weapons is full and fast not swing, so no suprise. But yeah he was shit, but still rate him. Anyone want to put a fiver on him cleaning up the tail today rendering Strauss good effort yesterday pointless?

so no suprise.
so no suprise.
so no suprise.

Just watched the highlight package, zomg not only is Haddin a cheating c*nt and a fuckwit. He's a shithouse cowardly keeper who wont get behind the ball

Opposite fast bowlers take note imo

Cheating fucking Poms.

Geoff Boycott would spit on them

Cheating Aussies def getting it handed to them this makes me so happy.

Must really suck to be you vadz no sports team you support is doign well

Can you name anything any English player has ever done that matches Haddin Z?

No? Didnt think so. STFU then, Aussie Ass Licker

Please England dont take your foot off this time

Yeah but the Warriors are still worse, which makes me x 100

Worst ever vadz comeback? I think so ...

How about 'that' catch...


Flintoff screaming them in early on.

Eng needs one wicket here and they can hammer down on that tail. Fuck yeah this is aweseom!

Should be an excellent last day.

If Haddin and Clark can put 50 or so quick runs on the board, Strauss and co. will start shitting themselves. :>

FUCK MY LIFE FOR NOT HAVING SKY

hurrah for sky !! lolz

Massive no-ball to remove Katich
Theres no way Strauss caught Hughes, why didnt the umpires go upstairs?
Tonight is going to be epic, another awesome test match Thank you cricket gods offers sacrifice

Bad call on the Katich out but that is cricket for you, Im sure Aussie had their fair share of luck. Very doubtfull on the Strauss call. Rules state that the umpires should only go upstairs when both of them are uncertain or the unsighted. Doctrove was in clear view and had no reason to go upstairs. When he asked Strauss he claimed it and thats where they should have left it.