The Ashes 2010/11

[Jeor]

Also, Siddle's pace seems to be down...he's rarely gone past the 140kph mark today and is usually around low to mid 130s. Not sure why, seeing as a season ago he seemed to be regularly 140kph or higher. It can't be the pitch being slow since Harris has easily hit mid-140s.

[Stubby]

Fuck I hate cricket.

[sh_wulff]

Where's Paxy???

I need to commiseratecelebrate with my compatriot ( hope he's somewhere he can get these results)

[Jeor]

Fuck I hate cricket.

Ok, assuming this match goes the way of England (I foresee no other conclusion with three days left) we basically have to win two of the last three Tests without allowing England a win. I think we can probably draw some Tests if the batting clicks, but winning them is going to be hard if the bowling continues to be as ineffective as it is now.

Basically we have no strike capacity. The only person in the lineup who I'd consider as a 'strike bowler' would be Bollinger. Siddle and Harris are more workhorses than wicket-takers (Hilfenhaus is a wicket-taker with his first spell but a holding bowler for the rest) and Doherty is a nonentity. It's harsh on Doherty as I'm sure he's trying his best, but basically he has offered no extra wicket-taking ability and has served up plenty of loose balls. In effect you could have had North bowl all his overs and there would have been no difference in quality. Johnson would have been a strike bowler except he's so out of form the only wickets he'll provide are when he's batting.

Much as I'd hate to rotate the bowlers yet again, I think Hauritz has to come back in for Doherty - the experiment has failed, and at least Hauritz has slightly better batting ability and offers some more reliability, if not wicket-taking ability. And I'd want Hilfenhaus to come back in at the expense of Siddle or Harris. Siddle has looked innocuous and his pace has been down, I'd be tempted to even drop the hat-trick man.

[Hereward]

I demand that Strauss and Trott be dropped. Not getting a century against this attack is unacceptable.

[Jeor]

I demand that Strauss and Trott be dropped. Not getting a century against this attack is unacceptable.

Trott made a century last time, so you can probably forgive him. ;) And Pietersen must be thanking his lucky stars...he's been in a long slump, nothing better to hit his way into form than a harmless Australian attack on concrete pitches.

This is going to be a loooooong summer...I can see us winning one Test at best through freak circumstances.

[Ser_not_appearing_yet]

I demand that Strauss and Trott be dropped. Not getting a century against this attack is unacceptable.

Lay off mate, after the Gabba they are just being charitable to the rest.

Cook is such a glutton.

Oh btw, people are acting like this is surprising, why? Adelaide has always been a total runfest. Australia's attack IS pretty poor, but they did miss chances. Doherty is the weakest part of their attack. He's a one day bowler, offers absolutely nothing with the ball. And he can't even bat.

Mindless selection. Hopefully we declare at 600/3. Would be funny.

[Xray the Enforcer]

So now the idea is to bore England and me to death with consistent bowling outside the off stump, and a heavy offside field.

Ha! That was pretty much my feeling of the overs I saw as well.

[ljkeane]

They were doing it against the two England batsmen probably least likely to fall into that trap as well. Not the best of tactics.

I agree with the general consensus that Doherty really isn't up to the standard required for test cricket and will have to be replaced. Going back to Hauritz will be embarrassing for the selectors but I don't see that they have much choice, he's a solid reliable bowler at test level even if he isn't a world beater and he adds a bit with the bat. Some of the Australian commetators seemed to favour Smith but given the shelacking Bell gave him in the warm up match I don't think that would be advisable.

Alastair Cook is averaging 438 in this series at the moment. I absolutely would have predicted that. :leaving:

[Slick Mongoose]

Ha! That was pretty much my feeling of the overs I saw as well.

The sad thing is that it was much, much better than their previous tactic of chucking it down the leg side to let the batsmen get their eye in.

Why didn't they just bowl normally? :dunno:

It's great to see an England scorecard looking like that. At this rate I might start getting used to it.....

[Confalume]

I remember before the series started there were a lot of question about whether Anderson would be able to be a threat in Australian conditions. It's only six days into the series but I think he's comprehensively answered those questions, he is bowling brilliantly at the moment.....There was an air of inevitability about Clarke's dismissal, he hadn't looked at all comfortable in the previous over. Whatever his problem is at the moment, I would think there should be a few question marks over his place for the next match unless he scores a decent number of runs in the second innings.

Anderson is bowling really well. He has just devolped so much in the last 18 months. Clarke doesn't need to be dropped, he needs to put his hand up and admit he is not fit to play (but he won't so he should be dropped (and if he doesn't he should be dropped)).

He's got a back problem. From what I've seen of his movements on TV, he cannot stretch it without pain.

So he shouldn't be playing. Presti and the mirror.

Well, the NAB Cup is in February ;)

Bring on the footy season!!!!!!! This is going very poorly. And the Dees are finally going to play finals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where's Paxy???I need to commiseratecelebrate with my compatriot ( hope he's somewhere he can get these results)

He might be better off not hearing the results.

Not looking good for this test, but the second day in Adelaide is always the best day to bat in all of Aus. Again a few missed chances are going to prove very costly. I think dropping Hilfenhaus was a bit premature. The spin problem can be solved by bowling the mighty Kat man more (not really but he should bowl more overs).

There were some pretty damning stats about M. North in The Age today. From the 14 innings when he has come in with the score under 150 he has averaged 8.29. Clearly not good enough for a middle order batsman. The kids can have their go after this series but right now they should get rid of North and bring in D. Hussey. Or drop Clarke and bring in D. Hussey. The point is just get D. Hussey into the team. Or they couldv'e just given Brad Hodge a proper go but that deservers a whole other thread.

4-0 is looking a bit dicey :shocked:

[The Winged Shadow]

He might be better off not hearing the results.

Nah, Paxy, like Sh-wulff, is a pomy lover! So they are enjoying Australia's horrendous performance. :stillsick:

When did Australia become so bad? <_<

[williamjm]

Ok, assuming this match goes the way of England (I foresee no other conclusion with three days left) we basically have to win two of the last three Tests without allowing England a win. I think we can probably draw some Tests if the batting clicks, but winning them is going to be hard if the bowling continues to be as ineffective as it is now.

I don't think you should give up hope of Australia managing to get a draw here. As we've seen it is a great pitch for batting, and aside from Anderson the England bowling has been OK but not really all that threatening. If the Australian batsmen can survive Anderson's overs with the new ball then they might have a decent chance of batting out the last couple of days, although they'll have to play a lot better than they did on day one. I think the crucial factor might be whether the pitch starts to help the spinner, if it does then Swann will start to be a real threat.

Much as I'd hate to rotate the bowlers yet again, I think Hauritz has to come back in for Doherty - the experiment has failed, and at least Hauritz has slightly better batting ability and offers some more reliability, if not wicket-taking ability. And I'd want Hilfenhaus to come back in at the expense of Siddle or Harris. Siddle has looked innocuous and his pace has been down, I'd be tempted to even drop the hat-trick man.

I agree Hauritz should come back into the side, I think the selector's decision to drop him for Doherty has proved to be the mistake many people thought it would be. The plan of hoping Pietersen would get out to any left-arm spinner doesn't seem to be working too well.

Are there any other pace bowling options for Australia? I seem to remember some other names were being mentioned in the build-up to the series.

This is going to be a loooooong summer...I can see us winning one Test at best through freak circumstances.

I think you can rely on at least one catastrophic England collapse in any series. Even in the last series against Pakistan where they often completely outclassed Pakistan they still manage to lose one test.

When did Australia become so bad? <_<

I think it was about the time all your good players retired ;)

[The Winged Shadow]

I think it was about the time all your good players retired ;)

Even the 2 years ago, they weren't this bad...were they? I mean, i don't remember it being this horrible.. :uhoh:

[ljkeane]

Even the 2 years ago, they weren't this bad...were they? I mean, i don't remember it being this horrible.. :uhoh:

I think it's a combination of Australia being worse, England being better and conditions exacerbating Australia's problems.

Pietersen's got his century which is a great sign for England for the rest of the series, with all of the top for getting big scores early. Ian Bell is probably England's best batsman at the moment but he might not get too much of an opportunity at this rate.

ETA: I probably shouldn't have said that, Cook finally out.

[Slick Mongoose]

ETA: I probably shouldn't have said that, Cook finally out.

Drop him.

[Slick Mongoose]

Fun, quick scoring session from England. If Pietersen stays in we'll have 600 by tea. :)

[ljkeane]

Fun, quick scoring session from England. If Pietersen stays in we'll have 600 by tea. :)

Yeah it's a good reminder of how much fun watching Pietersen bat is when he's on form, it's been a while but he's picked a good time to turn it around.

Was Bollinger always this slow? He's been struggling to to reach 80 mph but I thought he was a quicker bowler than that.

[Xray the Enforcer]

OK, my grasp of Test rules/strategy is a bit shaky. So, England will continue batting until they are either all out or they declare, correct? Is there a specific point at which they must declare? Is there a balance between scoring more runs vs. being ahead by more wickets? And then...Australia have another chance to bat after England declare, correct?

[ljkeane]

England can bat as long as they want but they'll want to declare with more than enough time to bowl Australia out (who will bat twice). They'll probably give themselves a couple of days plus maybe a few overs in the evening session.

ETA: The number of wickets don't matter, it's just if you're chasing a total you're said to win by however many wickets you have left and if you're defending a total you win by the margin of runs.