The Ashes Thread

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No we're not laughing if it rains the other 4 days I have tickets for Monday bought in March!!

 

Jammy is the word, BA... A friend's mum won them in a newspaper competition, and isn't able to go on account of being on holiday. As said friend is also on holiday, and she felt guilty about selling them on on ebay (apparently, the only people bidding were touts ) she kindly passed them on to us. Me and my flatmate are debating the best way to say "thank you"... personally, I see flowers as the best option, but it may depend on how the day goes for England!

 

Nice friend's you've got there mate! I wish I had friends who'd give me free Ashes tickets .

And nice one DarkStrider - I reckon I'm the only one not going .

Hope we can close this series out .

HB- I saw that, that's a good result for NZ, even though Tendulkar is out (I think?) India still have a team brimming with quality. How did Vettori do?

 

Vettori was the one who stopped India in their tracks when they were 150-1 after 26 overs and heading for 300+. He ended up with 2-35. The Indian batting line up still had Sehwag, Ganguly, Dravid, Kaif, and Yuvraj so was no bunch of mugs.

It had better not bloody rain for this last Ashes test! I want to see a close game!

But I see that England have already booked Trafalgar Square for their victory parade so they must have seen that rain might ruin the climax to this fantastic series.

 

Barmy, I really think you should revise your opinion of Bell. He's crap - that Duck brings his average down to 19.

According to the BBC weather website, It's supposed to pee it down in London tomorrow with Storms on Saturday. Err.. only not in Kennington.

 

He's struggling a little bit lately, I'll admit.
But let's not forget the 'greats' Damien Martyn, Matty Hayden and Adam Wingnuts only have averages of around the 20 mark. His catching is brilliant though (unlike Big Kev who's dropped all his catches this series). I still think he has all the shots to make a top class batsman who'll average 40+ given time. I say persevere(sp?) with him a bit more and if he still struggles for runs in the next series we play, make his position available. Maybe Collingwood would be good? Although his 7 today didn't exactly send great messages and he'll never be a no.4. No, stick with Bell for a bit, he'll come good. Have faith .

Not a brilliant day for England today, but it could have been much worse. We've got to expect Aus to come at us like crazy. They need to win. It'll be interesting to see how we bowl on this wicket without Simon Jones, who has been our best bowler so far this series. I'm a little worried. Bring on the rain.

 

I reckon England have done enough today to secure the Ashes at last. Australia really need to roll England for 200 and start batting to have any chance, given the impending rain and the fact that the Aussie batting has been rubbish so far this series.

How useless would Australia have been without Shane Warne? He has been their one and only consistent performer in this series, with Ponting, Lee, and McGrath being only good in patches.

Get rid of Bell, I say. You must be able to find another batsman, surely.

Also, good to see that the England boys don’t wear their underwear suits while batting.

 

Not sure what anyone else did to deserve a mention really. It was the Warnie show from start to finish. He showed yet again what a class act he is, but i'm sure the Aussie management, and indeed Warne himself, will be wondering when someone else is going to step up. I thought the rest of the bowling was average today, and Ponting's field positions were overly negative. Warne was playing us on his own, and luckily for the rest of the team, he did a very good job of it again.

 

He's said he is determined to never lose an Ashes series but I suspect even his efforts will not be enough this time.

 

The following was just published in my local paper this morning concerning the first four tests:

• Australia has made 2439 runs
• England has made 2254 runs
• Australia has lost 79 wickets at an average of 30.87 runs
• England has lost 73 wickets at an average of 30.87 runs
• England has scored at 3.96 runs per over
• Australia has scored at 3.72 runs per over

Anyway although the the Aussie batting line is not up to its regular standard, it is far than hopeless and have scored more runs this series than england this series so far - just not in the right places.

Also in my paper today it reported that Warne trigged the security alarm when exiting an up-market English store. It turned out that a rouge anti-theft device was floating around in the bag in which his purchases were in.

Anyway, how nice was Pietersons dissmissal! - it must have drifted two feet before spinning back in line to his mid stump.

 

It was a good ball, but hopefully that'll teach Kev for playing across his line. He's TOO aggressive sometimes.
I was disappointed with his, Vaughan's abd Bells dismissals.

I hope we can reach 350 today, then I hope to God that the ball moves about for Freddie, Hoggy and Harmy, otherwise we are in for a looong day...

Worried!

 

I'm confused. Knowing they need to win this match, why have the Australians taken the light and stopped play? Can't complain though, nor about Haydens run rate.

 

I think they knew that light was pretty bad and there was likely to be a lot of swing and movement on the ball, after the bad weather.
They were in a strong position at 112-0, the last thing they wanted to do was lose 3 or 4 quick wickets because of the light and go in 150-4 and hand the initiative back to us.

Saying that though, I can only assume that they are confident of being able to up the run rate tomorrow (if there is any play, looking at the forecast).

Jonah was badly missed today for England, nobody in our side can work the reverse swing quite like Jonah. It's also about time Harmy got into the wickets more. His economy rate is very good, but he's meant to be a strike bowler, it's about time he broke some wood.

Yours,
Barmy *currently doing a rain dance*

 

Well, it was a bit disappointing to have the day's play curtailed as it was - especially when they tease us at 4pm like that, with the players half way down the steps when the drizzle starts - but I can't understand why the Aussies didn't bat on. Sure, the conditions were on the shift, but at 112-0, what the hell did they have to lose? Only time. If the weather's right, and tomorrow is mostly wet, then I can't help feeling it was a mistake. Still, time will tell.

From our point of view, we couldn't capitalise on any half chances that came our way (most noticeably Andrew Strauss seemingly ducking out of the way of the ball ), so the openers go on. Langer looked in good nick from the off, but Hayden was very nervous, until the last 15 minutes of play when he began to find a bit more confidence. Whether England'll be made to pay for their wastefulness may be down more to the conditions overhead than the play on the field.

Still, it was awesome to see the whole thing live and soak up some of the atmosphere - just a shame we couldn't see some Aussie wickets tumble. And I almost stepped on Ian Hislop trying to get to my seat!

/me joins BA in his raindance

 

Bah, it's going to a damp squib of a finale to this epic series. What a shame. England now need to hope the rain stops in time for that victory parade they have already booked. I'm sure England has never had a victory parade for the Ashes before.

 

It was a good days cricket today, Gaz! I don't think this series has had even 1 bad day!

It's a shame about th stoppages and i'm sure the Aussies will moan and groan about British weather costing them dear. But, what needs to be remembered is that the series would already be over as a contest were it not for the weather costing us a win in the 3rd test (I think it was anyway). So, swings and roundabouts.

What a series though. Hopefully, the Aussies have just about ran out of time. Tomorrow, they need to skittle out remaining 9 wickets, then cahse whatever total we manage to put on, all in one day. Achievable, but unlikely, although nothing would surprise me this Summer! Should make for interesting viewing at least.

 

Quite. The cricket's been best watched from behind the sofa at times this summer; I've a feeling it's going to be another nerve wracking 5th day tomorrow!

 

I'm not complaining about the weather robbing Australia, I'm just disappointed that I didn't get to watch a full five day contest.

I still think the victory parade is a bit over the top though for a series win over one country, great achievement though that is. I'm sure this would be a first for any Ashes winner and it's difficult to argue that this victory is any more momentous than any of the others throughout history, other than that it has been a gripping series from start to finish. All you're doing is highlighting how inferior your team has been for the last decade.

Wait until you win the soccer world cup before you start parading in the streets.

Anyway, well played England. You should also be feeling confident about making it back to back Ashes when you come up against a probable Warne and McGrath-less Australian team down under in a couple of years.

 

Yeah, well, after another minority sport, Rugby Union got a victory parade after we won the World Cup, people were screaming out for a parade for the cricket team.
Both seem a complete waste of time and money to me, but there it is.

I reckon winning the Ashes would be a bigger achievement than winning the rugby world cup though to be honest. Every single player in our side has made a contribution to being on the verge of Ashes success and the entertainment has been non-stop. It's easy to forget that man-for-man, Australia are a far superior side to England. I think that this achievement would eclipse Jonny kicking us on our way to rugby success and everyone else being there for the ride!

 

Hmm, that's not what you said at the time, when you were claiming that everyone in the England rugby team was quality, even Jason Robinson.