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Cricket VI


Stubby

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:lol:

...the ne'er-do-wells herein convinced Fursuit Nation Mania to join the 2007 WC fantasy league, where I came in dead fucking last. :lol:

Fixed that for you. Blame it on the Meds. ;)

3/194 looks a lot better for England than 3/97 did.

Hauritz is bowling shit. A spinner bowling bloody no-balls? I despair.

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We can blame this thread -- the ne'er-do-wells herein convinced Fursuit Nation to join the 2007 WC fantasy league, where I came in dead fucking last. :lol:

That was good fun! Surely there would have been one for the T20 World Cup, why didn't we think of doing the same sort of thing again?

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Hauritz needs to toss the ball up a bit more. He's constantly bowling in the mid 90s (kph), dart-like offies, which he's not going to take any wickets with.

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England have overcome a nervy start to reach 194-3. As is often the case, it is Collingwood and Pietersen to the rescue. Collingwood is the perfect man for these situations - whereas Strauss and Bopara looked agitated and uncomfortable at the crease (especially against the bumper), Colly has been dour, determined and composed. He now has 531 runs @ 88.5 in his last 8 test innings. Pretty good for a man out of form eh Hereward? ;).

Australia's bowling has been fairly inoccuous today, apart from a couple of good spells of swing bowling from Hilfenhaus and the occasional good bouncer/slower ball combination from Johnson. England will be kicking themselves if they don't reach 400 on this track. It's a slow wicket, not a great deal of sideways movement off the pitch or in the air (and no sign of irish swing either) and they are facing an offie with a first-class bowling average of nearly 50 and a SR of nearly 100. 'Nuff said.

ETA: That was unlucky for Hilfy, who has been the pick of the bowlers today. Pietersen plumb in front but Doctrove says not out. Referrals are officially being introduced to test cricket after the Ashes...

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Yes, that LBW looked pretty out.

Hilfy gets a wicket anyway, this time Collingwood caught behind. I can't help but think that Pietersen LBW would've been the nicer wicket. ;) Anyway...now the match will liven up a bit, it was meandering a bit. With Prior and Flintoff to come, there should be either some quick runs or another wicket.

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Australia got lucky. In all honesty the Collingwood-Pietersen partnership should still be going; both of them threw their wickets away. Collingwood sparred at an average ball that was slightly widish and parried it straight to the 'keeper while Pietersen played that absolute shocker of a paddle sweep to a ball that was a metre outside off stump. To Hauritz's credit he might've been bowling that to a plan (or pushed it wide when he saw KP go down for the sweep) but still, Pietersen was rather silly to still go for the shot when he could have just pulled out of it instead.

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Good partnership by Prior and Flintoff there, I think England is more likely to be the more happier of the two with the present score.

edit: More like evn now that Prior just got out.

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That was a fun day, and it's about even now. There is something in this pitch, so I think 350 is about par if England can get there, and if Broad and Swann can get some runs we could push for 400. Which would be great.

I think Cook, Pietersen, Bopara and Collingwood all got out cheaply. If they'd kept their head it could have been a big score. Australia didn't bowl all that great, they don't inspire fear any more.

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Intriguing day's play, though without fireworks. I'm disappointed in Pietersen's dismissal, but not as disappointed as in his "so what?" reaction to it. As Michael Holding said, the truly great players don't throw their wickets away like that. Good to see Prior and Flintoff in form. Flintoff was unlucky, but Prior was the victim of an excellent ball. Plenty of swing with the new ball; Anderson must be licking his lips. Honours just about even, I suppose.

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I missed the evening session but it looks fairly even at this stage, maybe with a slight advantage to the Austrailians with Flintoff and Prior getting out. I've got no idea what England were doing sending out a nightwatchman to protect Broad, what's the point?

The amount of spin we saw on day one will be encouraging for England though.

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Colly has been dour, determined and composed. He now has 531 runs @ 88.5 in his last 8 test innings. Pretty good for a man out of form eh Hereward? ;).

It can be quite difficult to tell whether Collingwood is in good form or not, since his batting looks about the same in either case ;)

I missed the evening session but it looks fairly even at this stage, maybe with a slight advantage to the Austrailians with Flintoff and Prior getting out.

I would probably say it is a day when both sides are slightly disappointed. England will feel that (yet again) many of their batsmen have got in and then lot concentration and played a foolish shot without getting the big score they should have got. Australia however will feel that they didn't take full advantage of this, and having had England in real trouble at 90/3 they let them get off the hook as they seemed to sit back and wait for the English batsmen to make a mistake, which did eventually happen but not before Colly and Pietersen had amassed a half-decent total. Overall, I might say slight advantage to Australia since the England total is a bit below-par on what seems to be a fairly unthreatening pitch, but England still have enough runs that they're definitely still in the game and their spinners might prosper later in the match. I don't think we'll really know who has the advantage until the end of the first Australian innings.

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I don't think England need to be too worried if they only post an average or even a slightly below average score for the first innings on this wicket. If we look at the English bowling line up compared to the Australian, and take into consideration the two spinners and the swinging potential of Anderson compared to Australia, then England should have a lot more success with the ball, particularly when bowling in the 4th innings when the track should really be helping Panesar and Swann.

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It can be quite difficult to tell whether Collingwood is in good form or not, since his batting looks about the same in either case ;)

Actually, I think it's quite obvious - when he's averaging close to 90, he's definitely in good form!

As the saying goes, it's not how that matters, it's how many.

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Hard to say who has the advantage at the moment. Nice setup for the rest of the match though. I'm feeling pretty nervous about the upcoming Aussie innings.

I wondered if Clark was carrying a niggling injury as well. Hilfenhaus bowled very well, so I suppose it was the right choice, but it's still a surprise. Since McGrath retired, I'd started to think of Clark as the senior man of the Aussie attack, the lynchpin. Johnston is earning a similar rep, it's been a joy to watch him really mature as a world class cricketer, but a healthy Clark in my mind is the first bowler picked.

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.....Since McGrath retired, I'd started to think of Clark as the senior man of the Aussie attack, the lynchpin. Johnston is earning a similar rep, it's been a joy to watch him really mature as a world class cricketer, but a healthy Clark in my mind is the first bowler picked.

I'm beginning to think this way of Siddle. I thought he bowled without luck yesterday. He probably set up the Pietersen dismissal after going through him like a dose of salts several times in the over before he got out. He is tireless, aggressive and accurate. Johnson is that rarity though - the guy that seems to have a knack for taking wickets, even when he's not bowling at his best. Clark is very good and I agree with you about him as the heir to McGrath, but I think the selectors may have been casting their minds back to the performances put in by Alderman in England when they preferred Hilfy - a similar sort of speed and swing bowler.

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Johnson's bowling yesterday was pretty poor. He might've taken two wickets but it was classic Johnson; every single over he had at least one ball go down the legside, or go at least one metre wide of off stump. He's a great wicket-taker but he always bowls bad balls. Until he tightens that up, I think international batsmen over the next couple of years will learn to keep out the good balls and score off the bad ones.

On yesterday's play in total...I agree it's too hard to call one way or another until Australia bat and England bowl, but I'd rate England ahead in this game. The state of the pitch - the ball is turning miles on day one and the rough is getting scuffed up already - tells me that a 7/336 scorecard in the first innings is pretty healthy. If Australia want to win this game they can only do it with a first innings lead. England hold all the weapons with two spinners bowling last on a deteriorating pitch, and the bigger England gets its first innings total, the harder it'll be for the Aussies to get that lead. That, and the fact the English bowling attack will surely outperform Australia's. If we could get the ball to swing, and Hauritz could get the ball to turn, then I'm 100% certain that Anderson is going to get the ball to turn around corners, and Panesar/Swann will have a field day. It really is a case of 'anything we can do, England can do better', at least as far as bowling is concerned.

England really could have put this game to rest if Collingwood and Pietersen hadn't thrown away their wickets. As it is, they're still in a strong position. But add another 50-100 runs to the total and that would have made a big difference.

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Is it wrong of me when I was watching the highlights last night, that everytime I saw Siddle bowl I thought, man he looks like a less chunky Rooney.

And that Pieterson shot was a delight to watch for the sheer stupidty of it :lol:

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