The Ashes Thread

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Hoggy has been always able to get something out of the pitch early, however he's not great when the ball is older. That is why we are lucky to have Flintoff as the extra bowler, or else all the work would go to Jones, Harmy and Giles, and in my oppinion this extra man is giving England a small advantage over the Aussies on the bowling front.

[lafunky xxvii]

Symonds' doesn't actually have a great first class average. They were looking at it during a Lancs game on Sky Sports once and I think he averages just under 40 in First Class, which isn't really good enough. Most of the Aussie's average 50 in Tests, which shows how good they are. Saying that, he's a fantastic fielder and can bowl a bit too, which is why he's always in the One Day side.

As for Hoggard, he CAN swing the new ball and is probably England's only swing bowler, but he hasn't really done much with it so far this series. He bowls some good inswingers to Hayden and Langer, but after those opening 15 overs he doesn't really look dangerous.

As for Katich I think they should stick with him, mainly because he adds balance to the line up. Hayden, Langer, Ponting to some extend, Clarke, Gilchrist are all stroke makers, whereas Katich and Martyn are the sorts of players who play a little less attacking and can normally stick around when things get tough. Saying that Hussey is an excellent player himself and I don't know why he never got a proper shot, even when nearly scored 2000 runs in England one season IIRC.

The thing about the Australian batsmen is that they're not really out of form. No batsman has totally failed this series, they've made some runs and got some starts, but they haven't turned them into big scores. England's bowlers have got to keep that up because our batsmen are in the same boat, but outside of McGrath and Warne we seem to be coping well. If all of Australia's bowler's start to take wickets we'll be in trouble.

Edited August 16, 2005 by lafunkenstein

[Farmer Reil]

Only swing bowler? Hello...Ashley Giles?

And isn't it just typical. I critisise Craptain Shitastic, and he goes and scores 150 and almost single-handedly saves the third test.

Right, let's experiment ahead of the Trent Bridge game:

Tresco, you fucking suck, you sausage eating, cider drinking, tractor-driving fuckmook.

There, four centuries for Tresco ¬_¬.

I also love how the Aussies are jumping all over Bucknor for one bad decision, conviniently forgetting the first innings, where Langer (or it might've been Clark, can't remember tbh) was out LBW twice in one over, but neither was given (and then when he WAS given out LBW, it wasn't actually out ¬_¬). And Ian Bell was "caught" behind without even hitting the ball.

Bad decisions happen in all sports. Get over it

[Liam]

I can't remember exactly who it was, but the weirdest one was when there was a slight nick from one of the Aussie players, and Jones caught it, but no-one appealed, as no-one seemed to have heard the nick. Can't remember who it was, but that just seemed pretty weird when they showed it again on Channel 4.

[lafunky xxvii]

Only swing bowler? Hello...Ashley Giles?

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[Sir Alan LCSugar]

GILO is the best damn finger spinner in the world. HE IS THE KING OF SPAIN FOR GOODNESS SAKE.

[Bonz]

Giles is shit

[Thrilla]

Glad to see I'm not the only one to think that. When Phil Tufnell is the best British spin bowler in the last three decades, it just shows how bad the situation is over here.

[Mongrel]

I would be HUGELY disappointed if they drop Kato for Hodge of all people.

Katich has to be dropped, for either Roy or Hussey. Both perform very weel in England, and have no troubles against England's bowler in the OD Series.

And as for Symonds' FC average being shizen, he averages 43 with the bat and 37 with the ball which is good for an all rounder.

I'd like to see.

IN: Hussey/Symonds, Kasper

OUT: Katich, Dizzy

[9 to 5]

Wow you poms are getting quite cocky aren't you?

And how!

[Dan]

Strauss just pulled off an awesome catch.

[NobBe Nobbs]

216-9. I can't actually remember the last time we beat Australia like this.

[Liam]

I think it's interesting with the Aussies talking about how cocky we are, considering all we heard on the build up to the Ashes was about how you'd destroy us (in the media, at least). At least we are doing the talking on the pitch, for the most part.

[botchedpiledriver]

We'll still lose.

[stokeriño]

We'll still lose.

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So....2-1 then. >_>

[R.W.]

I seriously thought we were screwed when Jones went mental and tried to paste Warne, and just got himself out instead.

And the what the hell did Tait think he was doing when he got bowled by Harmison?!!

C'MON ENGLAND

Let's pray for storms over the Oval for the next few weeks

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

My Gawd i thought we'd blown it today, but Hoggy and Gilo pulled us through. Bring on the Oval. THE ASHES ARE COMING HOME BABAY.

[Bonz]

I think it's interesting with the Aussies talking about how cocky we are, considering all we heard on the build up to the Ashes was about how you'd destroy us (in the media, at least). At least we are doing the talking on the pitch, for the most part.

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[Liam]

I think it's interesting with the Aussies talking about how cocky we are, considering all we heard on the build up to the Ashes was about how you'd destroy us (in the media, at least). At least we are doing the talking on the pitch, for the most part.

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The only serious comments were about how this would be the closest Ashes series for a long time. I don't know how your media spun it but most of the other comments from players were light hearted, see Mcgrath talking about the 5-0 whitewash, everyone knew he was joking but it could still be skewed to be a serious comment to make the pommy fans hate him.

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Irrelevant of whether they were jokey, they were stupid and arrogant....and Steve Waugh between the 4th and 5th test gave MacGrath and any others who made those kinda remarks a lambasting, as it put undue pressure on the Australian team.

And lmao at the missed snick by the umpire

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Ack, not been fun today.

Harmison has put some of his old form into it. THe over he got the wicket was hugely entertaining.

Giles has been bowling well too but I think they're just looking to slow the run rate down so the Aussies have to bat until tomorrow evening so we've only got a day or so to bat out.

Dangerous stuff though.