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The Ashes 2010/11


Stubby

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Well that's not helpful. I think this is shaping up to be a long night. :frown5:

For Ponting's sake, I hope he can get a good score in this Test. He's been in decent form (three half centuries in two matches in India I think it was) and I think he usually starts a series well, although I haven't really looked into the numbers on that. Also, I think it would be personally good for him - he's shouldered the blame for the last two Ashes series defeats. He isn't the greatest captain around but he has been one of the world's best batsmen and in what may be his last Ashes series he deserves to have some positive memories.

It would be a shame if Australia loses this series (which I still think is the more likely outcome, btw) and fingers get pointed at him again. A nice century would at least get some people off his back.

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For Ponting's sake, I hope he can get a good score in this Test.

So long as all the other Australian batsmen get out for a combined score of about 10 I'd be ok with that.

To be fair to Ponting I don't think he's a paricularly good captain but he perhaps gets more criticism than is warranted. Australia were always going have a difficult time with so many great players retiring and I don't think Micheal Clarke is going to represent a great improvement in the captaincy stakes. The big loss for Ponting as captain was obviously the 2005 Ashes when he still had all the great players but I don't think they actually performed badly on that tour, England just played to a very high level.

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Well, we start tommorow with the new ball, so hopefully Jimmy does the business and we bowl them out for around our score.

Game is still in the balance. Australia's tail is actually quite long; Johnson can get the occasional score at 8, but he is a nervous starter and can easily go down cheaply. Doherty, Siddle and Hilfenhaus can hold a bat but they aren't going to scare anyone. Certainly it's a much more brittle tail than England's, so Haddin and Hussey are going to have to stick together for at least another hour tomorrow if Australia wants to get any sort of lead.

Really once the two openers and Ponting go, no one else in that lineup gives me a reassuring feeling when they come to the crease. North is pretty much an automatic wicket, Hussey has been in a slump lasting years and Clarke could barely hold a bat with his back injury. The batting lineup is quite a lot weaker than England's and one innings doesn't change that; I expect England will be able to consistently put up better scores in this series.

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Well done Hussey! Great stuff to wind back the clock. And excellent innings from Haddin too - he is the only thing standing between a good score and a lower order collapse (which I believe would probably happen with Johnson, Doherty, Siddle and Hilfenhaus). Those last four should probably only be counted on for 50 runs for the innings. They could do much better (Johnson for instance) but it's just too inconsistent to expect to squeeze runs out of the tail.

It's a definite comedown from the days when we had bowlers who could really bat (Warne, Lee, Bichel, Gillespie) and it's one of the small ways the Australian team has slipped. The lower order batting and the catching have weakened and it's those little slippages that can make the difference.

Still dangerous territory for England. Hussey and Haddin are really accelerating right now and Cook has just dropped Haddin at long-off. It is by no means out of reach yet though - all England need is just one wicket and then they are into the fragile tail. However if Hussey and Haddin stay together for much longer the lead is going to increase. Any lead under 100 is manageable for England (Australia have to bat last and England have the better spinner), but once it starts getting much over that it's going to be tough.

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This is getting painful. Apropos of nothing, why are there only 2 reviews for each innings? Time cannot be an issue, although I understand the need to have an upper limit. From what I understand England and Wales could have used one this morning.

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This is getting painful. Apropos of nothing, why are there only 2 reviews for each innings? Time cannot be an issue, although I understand the need to have an upper limit. From what I understand England and Wales could have used one this morning.

No doubt they could have used an extra review for the Hussey LBW this morning. I think they probably have a right to feel aggrieved given that the Clarke review earlier in the innings seemed a good one but there wasn't the evidence they thought should be there to overturn the decision. It's small comfort to English supporters but if there were no review system they would have had to stick with a not-out anyway.

I think 2 is probably about right. Any more and you will start getting reviews used up for lots of things. Already we see when it's near the end of the innings and reviews are still there, tailenders and others send up ridiculous challenges despite it clearly being out etc. If there were 3 or 4 wrong reviews allowed per innings I think you'd see a lot more frivolous ones go through.

Generally I think the UDRS actually works ok. There are times (like yesterday with Michael Clarke) where the system doesn't work perfectly, but I think the general idea is right...it's certainly an improvement over nothing, but it also retains the seniority of the umpire's decision in close calls and so forth. Used sparingly like this may cause some consternation with things like today and England having burned theirs already, but I think if they gave more it would start to become a bit much - both for reasons of farcical reviews, and for slowing the game down, and disrespecting umpires more.

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