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Cricket VI


Stubby

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I think England actually have this in the bag now. Leading by 6, with only 5 overs left in the day. The change of innings is 3 overs. So they only need to really survive one more over, and a boundary in this next over will probably settle it.

If England do pull this off - which they should - it will be in no small part due to Paul Collingwood.

I thought it was 2 overs for the change over? Anyway, the commentators are saying they need the wicket in the next 10 minutes if Aus are to win.

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Chasing 13 runs is probably too much now, and I don't see spin getting the wicket.

Last possible over I think. After this over, change of innings won't happen.

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Ah well.

Well done England, batting over 100 overs in the final innings was good work. Australia really did stuff themselves by not winning this, and I think it has killed some of the Aussie momentum to have the series at 0-0 still. It's the great escape, and England should be very heartened by how they've managed this in the end despite all the problems throughout the Test.

And there you go, Hereward and Paxter - you can still maintain the faith! :)

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Amazing finish to the match. All those fatalists who said this was done and dusted, you needed to hang in there until 3:45am Sydney time! ;)

This is good for the series, and I'm trying not to feel disappointed. ;) Johnson has got to fix whatever went wrong with him today.

I had better go sleep.

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Sweet Jesus that was nerve wrecking!!!! :stunned:

Praise be to Collingwood but let's not overlook the fact that our bowlers have as much bite as a new born baby and the majority of our batsmen are imbeciles.

End of test report for England: Must do better. E+

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Thank God for that. Test cricket is alive and well. ;)

I don't mind waiting 10 months for the next T20 WC now...as long as England don't play so badly at Lord's.

And BTW Jeor, the fatalism was merely well thought-out reverse psychology...I would go so far as to attribute the draw to pessimists like myself and Hereward... :D

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Well done England. Naturally, I dozed off after Flintoff got out, and I'm glad I did, otherwise the hair pulling frustration would have kept me awake all night. Once again, the Aussies struggle with getting a tail out, a worrying trend over the last couple of years.

Overall though, I'm not yet convinced we have an exciting series on our hands. England lost a lot of confidence during that match, you could practically see it draining out of them during the Australian innings. Maybe they can bounce back, but confidence is a tricky thing.

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It is funny how Ashes tests recently have had such a tendency to produce such dramatic moments. I don't think many people would have given England a chance of surviving after that lamentable performance in the morning, but Collingwood's determination was immense and I hope it relieves some of the traumatic memories he must have of watching the rest of his team fall apart to lose at Adelaide the last Ashes after his double-century. Admittedly, he did play a pretty bad shot to eventually get out, but I think we can forgive him for that after so much resistance.

Guts from an England tail. Who'd have thought it?

I just wish some of the top order (except for Collingwood) would show the same determination not to get out.

Ponting's captaincy didn't help the Austrailians.

Yes, it did seem poor. Why didn't he have a second slip with such a huge lead when the ball flew through there (admittedly off a no-ball, so it didn't actually make any difference, but still bizarre field placing)? Why did he bowl the unthreatening Marcus North so much when better bowlers were left not doing anything? He didn't put as much pressure as he could have on England at some stages of both innings.

I wonder what changes might be made to the sides for the next match? Two spinners is probably unnecessary at Lords, so I guess Monty is probably getting dropped (which is a poor reward after his heroic effort with the bat, but he didn't bowl well enough). The replacement is likely to be either Onions or Harmison, which seems basically a choice between a consistently competent but unexceptional bowler and an incredibly erratic bowler occasionally capable of being vicious and unplayable. Given that they need to take wickets somehow, I'd have to say that they should take a risk on Harmison even if I wouldn't be surprised if that selection went horribly wrong.

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Well done England. Naturally, I dozed off after Flintoff got out, and I'm glad I did, otherwise the hair pulling frustration would have kept me awake all night. Once again, the Aussies struggle with getting a tail out, a worrying trend over the last couple of years.

Overall though, I'm not yet convinced we have an exciting series on our hands. England lost a lot of confidence during that match, you could practically see it draining out of them during the Australian innings. Maybe they can bounce back, but confidence is a tricky thing.

Neither side has a bowling lineup to write home about, though I do take something from the fact that the most inexperienced Aussie attack in a generation was one wicket from handing England an innings defeat. Sure their batsmen contributed, but Johnson aside our greenhorns did really well.

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All in all, both sides faced around the same number of overs in the match, and ended up scoring around the same amount of runs. The big difference was that England only took 6 wickets while Australia took 19.

England's bowling attack was meant to be better, but the spinners were a huge disappointment. The pitch didn't offer too much to seamers so I suppose to some extent we can make an excuse for some of their poor figures, but for Australia not to be able to bowl England out on a full fifth day's play (plus some of the fourth day) was a poor effort as well. They were very close, but didn't ever take two wickets in a row due to some excellent resistance from the tailenders. Everyone (Broad aside) lasted more than fifty balls for their innings, paired up with Collingwood this meant that they were chewing up lots of overs.

I thought Ponting erred by bowling North so much. He was tidy but never looked like taking a wicket. Toward the end of the match he bowled both North and Hauritz, which I can only assume must be because he wanted to cram as many overs in before the end of play. But I tell you what, when Monty Panesar is facing, I would easily have taken six balls of Hilfenhaus or Siddle over 12 balls of North.

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I fear we may see Onions, who is not a Test bowler, IMO. I do understand that they are trying to reward guts and consistency, a message made more difficult by picking Harmison when he has fluffed the excessive number of opportunities he's been given, but we need wickets and Onions will not provide them. Harmison might.

I think our attack is better than it appeared. Anderson and Broad were awful. Anderson will recover, especially if Harmison is brought in to do the roughing up, allowing him to concentrate on pitching it up and swinging it. Broad had made such progress since last summer, but it looks like the Aussies have targeted him. Could that work to his advantage if he bowls a better line and shows a little more variation? Doubtful.

I agree it was weird to see Monty facing spin at the end. He's a decent player of spin. It's short-pitched quickies he can't play.

PS I take it back about Collingwood. Sort of. He still looks like he's not sure which end of the bat to hold, but you can't say it's not effective at the moment, ugly though it might be. It's Bopara and Cook I worry about.

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