Well it’s all set up for a great final day. Which means it’s probably going to bucket down all day.
Damn that was quick - went out to lunch and come back to find Australia all out. Well done England
Given the Aussie bowlers are taking about 3 wickets per day, and will need to take 20 wickets in say 3 days twice in three remaining Tests to win, the prognosis is not good.
Oh God, the shame, the shame.
I reckon get Glenn McGrath & Shane Warne out of retirement, and they’d still do a better job than our current crop of ‘bowlers’. (Plus the pom’s would probably collapse just knowing those boys had the ball in hand
)
The only good thing about this defeat is maybe finally the selectors will get serious and make some proper changes to the squad.
Doherty -> Gone
Hauritz may not be a genuine match winner but he’s a good sight better than Doherty.
North -> Gone
He’s got nothing, scored nothing, bowled nothing. I think if you insist on having an ‘all rounder’ in the team, Cameron White deserves another shot. But I think would rather see a specialist batsmen in his spot. Let Clarky and/or Katich be a fifth bowling option if you really need one.
Bollinger -> Gone
He apparently can’t stand up to a bowling in five day game. He’s a an OK bowler, but might be carrying an injury so give him a rest. Give his spot back to Johnson.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Katich have a rest if his injury is as bad as I’ve heard suggested.
And I would like to see the Australian team doing extensive fielding drills for the next 10 days. Australia hasn’t dropped that many catches in the last two games since the bad days of the 80’s.
Good stuff England, a thoroughly professional job all round.
Good to see Swanny getting a five-fer and confident in the depth of our batting. Roll on the next test.
I think The difference in the teams can be seen in the choices now in front of the various selectors.
We’ve lost Broad but have a choice of quality ready-made replacements. (and Broad has not been a critical person as yet)
Australia have lost Katich but this merely compounds the difficult decisions they have to make about their line up. How do they replace him and similarly refresh their bowling team?
Very difficult and I don’t envy their task.
Good to see the dominant performance converted into a win. Six wickets in 19.9 overs this morning. Can’t see a way back for Australia now, given that England only need to draw the series to retain the Ashes. However, anything less than an outright series win would be a disappointment for us now. I’m not expecting things to be entirely straightforward though, England are a mid-ranked side for a reason.
Just the thing to destroy what’s left of their morale. The drops are unlikely to be a skills problem, they are a result of being left to fry out in the field for days. If Australia get a couple early wickets in the next game I’m sure you’ll see an improvement in the fielding.
Broad out for the series, he is likely to be replaced by the steady but very average looking Tim Bresnan, rather than Tremlett or Shahzad. The England selectors are big on stability, and Bresnan seems to be next in line.
Katich also looks to be out for the series, I guess Phil Hughes will come in now? Could be interesting if he gets going. We may only have Finn to test him out with some short-pitched stuff.
Doherty has to go, I guess Hauritz will come back since he just took career-best figures in a domestic match. North likely to go as well. The stat that keeps being bandied around is that he’s failed to make any runs when he’s come to the crease with Australia in trouble. Wouldn’t be suprised to see the pace bowlers get shuffled again as well.
Until the selectors accept that Australia currently doesn’t have a world class spinner, we’re effectively playing 10-a-side cricket.
Hence, I’d drop Doherty for White (opening bat would be Watson/White), and I’d drop North for Khawaji.
Hilfenhaus should never have been dropped, so he reclaims his rightful place in exchange for Bollinger/Harris.
The posts in this thread seem to be written in English. I recognize a word or two here and there. The posts even seem to be lucid. Still, I am left with one basic question: What the hell are you folks on about?
Well, there are two batting spots, opener and #6
Katich is out for the season. Hughes most likely but I’d prefer a classical tight defense bat at the top of the order, probably LH. Don’t think there’s one out there. To hell with it, co-opt Brad Hodge. Opening with Watson/White is something you’d do in a 20/20 game.
North is a flat track bully, would like to see him replaced by Usman Khawaji, though he hasn’t scored the runs to really demand his place.
The whole bowling attack is in play. Australia has looked for genuine allrounders for decades and now has two (Watson/Johnson). The irony being that through it’s period of dominance they had no allrounder worthy of the titles, the short term flushes of Bevan and Reiffel being exceptions.
If Hauritz didn’t have the form or pedigree to play in Brisbane, I can’t see why he’d return. I’d stick with Doherty. Hilfenhaus regains his place. I think that Johnson should be included, but stocks don’t really allow him to be nannied back into form. The reports on Harris were good, but I think Siddle work ethic has a place.
Now if all that came to pass I’d have the same bowling attack as Brisbane and two changes in the batting. Go figure!
Regard it as a profound contribution to your sports lexicon, much in the manner of John Clark’s Farnarkling match report.
Now you know how we feel when you guys talk about baseball, or Gridiron or some other N American sport.
What the hell is a “shortstop”? Or a Linebacker?
… or tight ends but no loose ends and wide recievers but no narrow recievers.
It’s simpler to think of them as being character parts in a Warhammer 40,000 scenario, with advertising breaks
Genuine question or a joke? If you really want to know, I’m sure folks would be happy to explain everything. But if you’re just observing that people from outside the US are interested in things that aren’t popular inside the US, then we can all agree that that’s true.
Silly stats time.
Strauss has bottom scored in each of England’s three innings so far. His best score is 110, and he is averaging 37.
No batsman has scored a run from No. 8 in this series so far.
It’s pretty clear your commentators and selectors realise you don’t have a top-class spinner, but I don’t think an all-pace attack is the answer. It’s not all about the raw figures, a spinner helps you get the best out of your pace bowlers, as they can be rotated at the other end. They test out the batsmen in different ways, and exploit different pitches. A steady spinner can be a great asset. A good case in point is Ashley Giles (a.k.a. The Wheely Bin, a.k.a. The King of Spain, test bowling average 40), who was an important part of the England attack for years.
Hauritz has decent numbers to his name, and did a decent job in the last ashes series, although I understand he got murdered in India and Ponting has little faith in him.
Hauritz’s bowling average is a tick under 35. Not really that decent in my opinion.
Although Hilfenhaus’ is 32 and Siddle’s is 33.
I’m crying with nostalgia looking at the figures of our recently retired greats. Warne averaged 25 and McGrath averaged high 21s(!).
Vettori’s average is 34, and he’s very highly rated. There have been very few spin bowlers that average under 30, and average is a pretty crude measurement of a bowler’s performance anyway.
Bowling averages are somewhat inflated compared to a decade or two ago, as there are a lot of flat pitches around. Comparisons with Warne and McGrath aren’t that helpful either. Warne was a once-in-a-generation bowler, and McGrath in the top bracket of seam bowlers, and Australia’s batting line-up usually gave them a lot of scoreboard pressure to work with.
One thing I did notice from Anderson’s bowling was how consistent and steady the seam was in flight. He seems much better at that recently. I’d like to know if that is something they’ve been working on.
I’m sure someone can help me on this but it seems to me that if the seam is rotating steadily in an orientation that sets up a pressure differential, then the amount of turning force is maximised. If it “wobbles about”, less movement would result.
This is something I’d often wondered and prior to the super-slo-mo could never really pick up., but that steady seam appears to generate more movement.
It’s a joke, in a way. I have no frame of reference; I think you guys are discussing cricket, about which I know absolutely nothing. One of the smartest men I ever knew*, a South African for what it’s worth, tried to explain cricket to me once: He still believes I am hopelessly stupid and I still believe he is simply an inept teacher. I think I would have to attend a jillion games (if that is what they are called) and pay very close attention while an expert explained what was going on, using clear, distinct and very short words without using the vernacular.
*His name was, amazingly enough, Stanislaus; he was known as Stash.
You’ve got a guy with a ball, and a guy with a bat.
Have any number of 6-12yo merkin kids who come out here on student exchanges and are playing the game at a backyard/social level in a few minutes. You don’t need to understand the infield fly rule to be conversational about baseball.