wooly
At the time of writing my lads need 438 with only eight left. I’m ready to swap congratulations for commiserations any time you like. Pisser about those forest fires BTW - I hope nobody you know is involved and that they sort them out ASAP.
9-79; Jones unable to bat of course, so that’s that. Bloody hell.
Would this be a good time to play my Irish ancestral card in a vain attempt to pinch a bit of credit for the Rugby result?
Well well well. All out for 79. Kind of dissappointing really. Just 11 days to regroup and do it all again.
Poms all out for 79.
Aussies by 300 and plenty in four days … smeg. 
BTW everton, thanks for your translations. (must have hurt!)
Fires are a concern to the regions around Sydney, but the weather is giving some respite now. I’m on a peninsular in the inner west and a very long way from the action.
Good to hear you’re in a safe spot, woolly (I’ll spell your name right this time). You won’t be surprised to hear it’s raining here, but that’s no consolation to the firefighters. If I could send a few bucketfuls I would.
I must admit my fingers were wavering over that “…lasts five days” remark in my post to Buck The Diver, but 79 all out was beyond my worst fears at the start of play. The only consolation is that this team have been beaten heavily in the recent past yet have come back to win again. The last series against India was very strange - innings victories all round. Maybe Adelaide will be more to their liking?
It doesn’t seem to have been worth my while staying up all night to listen to the radio, but you’ve got to lend support haven’t you? Nasser is usually pretty good at rallying the troops but he does make some funny decisions along the way. Fielding first was not one of his best.
I’m taking heart from happy scorelines in the other sports I follow too. England beat the All Blacks yesterday (although the Kiwis won the Rugby League match v GB) and my own football team are doing pretty well at the moment too.
I hope the Barmy Army are behaving themselves, btw. But now I need a bit of a nap.
Good to hear you’re in a safe spot, woolly (I’ll spell your name right this time). You won’t be surprised to hear it’s raining here, but that’s no consolation to the firefighters. If I could send a few bucketfuls I would.
I must admit my fingers were wavering over that “…lasts five days” remark in my post to Buck The Diver, but 79 all out was beyond my worst fears at the start of play. The only consolation is that this team have been beaten heavily in the recent past yet have come back to win again. The last series against India was very strange - innings victories all round. Maybe Adelaide will be more to their liking?
It doesn’t seem to have been worth my while staying up all night to listen to the radio, but you’ve got to lend support haven’t you? Nasser is usually pretty good at rallying the troops but he does make some funny decisions along the way. Fielding first was not one of his best.
I’m taking heart from happy scorelines in the other sports I follow too. England beat the All Blacks yesterday (although the Kiwis won the Rugby League match v GB) and my own football team are doing pretty well at the moment too.
I hope the Barmy Army are behaving themselves, btw. But now I need a bit of a nap.
Thanks for putting it in terms even a Texan can understand, everton . That “sodas and longhops” line really had me scratching my head.
The Barmy Army are actually very popular here. One of the ABC commentators remarked that they must have the stoutest self image to be able to stay so upbeat while their team is being publicly humiliated. When I went to book tickets for the Sydney Test I found that 3 bays of concourse seating are reserved for the Barmy Army.
That’s good to hear. I did a wine tour of South Africa a little while back and apparently they’d been through like a tidal wave a few months previously which hadn’t gone down too well :D.
Their attitude to cricket seems to be “if we can’t out play you we’ll have to out sing you” and I’m not surprised that attitude is well-received in Australia. They always seem to bring home happy stories of their trips Down Under however the team has performed.
I went to every test in the last Australia Ashes series.
The high point was of course Melbourne, and particularly Alec Stewart’s 107 - his first ever ton against the Aussies.
I am hugely doubtful England can win, but I hope we get at least one Test.
I’m forced to recall that Stewart’s “pair” at Brisbane was his first ever in 123 Tests :(.
Well, not having Sky, I was forced to stay up as long as possible with just Radio 4 LW for company. I was in a less than good mood getting up at 6 for work friday morning (after day one) after a couple of hours sleep. I swear the Aussie commentators were having the time of their lives laughing at Andrew ‘If I bowl pies, maybe you’ll get yerself out’ Caddick. So I didn’t bother listening to day two and it went OK. So I did make the effort for day three. Big mistake.
So other than having a good opening pair, not much has changed. We have seamers who cannot get wickets on flat pitches, spinners who don’t turn the ball and batsmen who cannot bat under pressure.
It’s a bit like having a crap wildcard finalist in the FA Cup…you’d scrap it or get two good teams to compete, eg Australia vs SA.
I’m sure we’ll make a game of it in the fourth test though…once the series is lost and all 
That’s the frustrating thing about Caddick: he bowls a bit for the sideboard, but the balls he bowled to Langer and (particularly) Ponting were unplayable. His best is plenty good enough.
Know how you feel mate.
So it was all your fault then, you Manc twat :D.
Hussain’s performance at the post-match press conference wasn’t too encouraging either I’m afraid. If past performance is anything to go by that’s the only toss he’ll win for the series and he blew the decision. Poor bloke.
Did anyone materialize on the pitch on a Davenport? Was one of them wearing a dressing gown? Were there any robots that sounded like 100,000 people saying “whop”?
Having thunk and rethunk I’m not quite as drepressed as I was.
Firstly, the Poms were never going to get 200 in the 4th innings. I would have had serious reservations about the Aussies chasing 250 batting last. Vaughn got a stinker and Crawley run-out was farcical. Stewart showed how life kicks you in the goolies when you are down and being one short didn’t help. So I reckon that while the 79 is a very poor headline, 150 wouldn’t have sounded much better.
I thought their first innings showed greater depth than the Aussies, just they weren’t gritty enough. If the runs aren’t coming at four an over it was too hard.
So the issue is whether they can restrict the Aussies to under 300, preferably 250 on the first innings. They can do that with pie chuckers, provided they bowl the pies on a tight line and length (and field at an international standard).
The problem is that you can get optimistic about the prospects if and only if you and see them on parity in terms of mental toughness. Just like the Windies at their peak, put in one bad session and you’re in deep trouble. Go back through the records of the last couple of years and see out how many times the Aussies, when things aren’t going all their way and and under pressure, get a double breakthrough.
Any chance of getting V.V.S. Laxman a Euro passport pronto?
Hobart is a batsman’s pitch, as is Adelaide so high scoring draws are on the cards. It’s not over as a contest yet, though the Aussies have every right to assume there’s no need for brilliance, just keep doing the basics right.