Australia v England, 1st ODI, Melbourne, Jan 16, 2011

Right. Here's where the wheels fall off. Haddin throws it away and now Clarke will stink the joint up.

Trembers isn't a one day bowler at all. Samey length, and very hittable if it's flat. I reckon Shahzad is just about inked in for the World Cup now, with Jimmy, Broad (if fit), Bresnan, and possibly Woakes as the other fast men.

How slow do you wanna bat, underwear man?

Seriously someone has to teach Watson how to run between wickets. Even the commentator picked up on the fact that he hit a ball straight to a fieldsman and called yes and just set off. Clarke said no as he would have been run out by 10 metres.

Watto man!

So, Steve Smith gets to bat two places ahead of Mike Hussey!

With wickets in hand Australia should win this.But if they lose, than it is Clarke's fault, he just batted too slowly. What was the purpose? Watto was already there to anchor the innings and be there at the end. So Clarke should have been trying to go at a run a ball, instead he ate up delivery after delivery. Useless man.

Game over. Meh, we have the Ashes.

oh no, Mussey

England have been very sloppy in this game.

We'll be out of the world cup very early once again based on this performance.

We're missing our top two bowlers in this format, this is an inexperienced attack. Still no excuse for failing to defend almost 300 under lights though.

Well there was always going to be a hangover- remember England winning the ODI tri series last time after getting tonked 5-0 and Oz are a far better ODI than test team. With their two bowling spearheads not available as well a convincing Oz win is more than likely.

Quite instructional though. Looks like Tremlett is still not a one day bowler and surely Yardy's improbable ODI career is in jeapardy. No more than a useful bowler and doesn't offer enough with the bat and in the field at this level. Even the Aussie commentators are describing him as "limited". With Jimmy and Broad back and dare I say Tredwell as second spinner, England should be far more competitive in the world cup.

Watto gets us home despite Clarke's crabby no. 3 effort. Classy knock. Well done him. Highest individual Aus score v England.

Henry wrote:Game over. Meh, we have the Ashes.

Tart but touche.

Can Zog set up a Watto Watch for the remainder of the summer?

Superb innings from Watto, but I think we would have got over the line with another 15 runs or so.

Trembles is not an ODI bowler, and the tactics were too predictable - short to White and pitched up to Watson.

Eric Air Emu wrote:Well there was always going to be a hangover- remember England winning the ODI tri series last time after getting tonked 5-0 and Oz are a far better ODI than test team. With their two bowling spearheads not available as well a convincing Oz win is more than likely.

Quite instructional though. Looks like Tremlett is still not a one day bowler and surely Yardy's improbable ODI career is in jeapardy. No more than a useful bowler and doesn't offer enough with the bat and in the field at this level. Even the Aussie commentators are describing him as "limited". With Jimmy and Broad back and dare I say Tredwell as second spinner, England should be far more competitive in the world cup.

Agree with everything except for Tredwell. I don't like the idea of two offies in the same side, especially when one of them is him. Yardy is good in the T20s because 7 an over is considered a good return. In ODI cricket it's too expensive, though. And he doesn't take wickets. KP should be told to take his offies more seriously. We could get 10 overs out of him and Colly in the Sub Continent. And for this form of the game I think Bopara ahead of Trott would have been the way to go also. He wont get picked now, though. Oh well.

Perhaps-

Strauss(c)
Davies+
Bell
Pietersen
Morgan
Collingwood
Bopara
Broad
Bresnan
Swann
Anderson

Super Watto to the rescue again, and in record breaking fashion.
NSP to "rest" him from the next match

You know, they just might. He hasn't missed a game for Aus this Summer, has he?

Well overdue to do a hammy.....

Well batted the big Queenslander.

One of those games for England. Mr Cool so laid-back drops a catch, while the charged-up ones get overexcited, etc. The strengths this time as weaknesses.

Good experience for Shahzad - I think he is getting there.

The main moral of a game which is mainly to be forgotten for England is: "Don't bowl even half a centimetre on the leg side." Eccentric rules, interpreted by eccentric judges, meant "wides" were punished on both sides that were at best marginal.

And otherwise: keep the scoreboard ticking at all times, and don't get in a flap over a couple of boundaries conceded. It's like most vehicle crashes (excluding those where the driver is blind drunk, stoned or unable to drive): the crunch only comes beyond the point where you lose it, and give up.

In retrospect, Trott was not a happy drafting this time, and I'm not yet sure Davies is any improvement on Prior, either with the bat or (improbably) with the mitts either: not fast enough hands. Until he comes into his own, he seems to be a bit of a Bob Cunis with gauntlets. But who knows?

Paul Keating wrote:Seriously someone has to teach Watson how to run between wickets. Even the commentator picked up on the fact that he hit a ball straight to a fieldsman and called yes and just set off. Clarke said no as he would have been run out by 10 metres.

Are you Roebuck in disguise?

Excellent chase from the Aussies. Great batting from Watson. Clarke deservedly got booed for his go-slow. White looked a slogger. England was pegged back after looking set for a 300+ total. Couldn't believe how ordinary the bowling, apart from Lee, was early. Bollinger was atrocious. He was saved by returning later to bowl a lot of his spell to the ordinary looking Yardy.

Australian fielding was sloppy at times headlined by Haddin's appalling work with the gloves.

Ordinary crowd by Melbourne's standards.

England were poor in the middle overs. It was like watching England pre 2010- Too many pre-meditated sweeps and dabs, not enough simple drives down the ground. It didn't make sense especially when the short boundaries were straight.

Zat wrote:

JKLever wrote:Fancy Aus to win the ODI's comfortably. No woofing....

Dello wrote:Word. Also no woof.

OK, you two, take your consistent woofing 'but it's no woof, honest, guv' BS and jam it fair up your respective clackers. Nobody falls for it any more, you do it every time England play. Just piss off with it.

You were saying?

I never thought I'd see the day when a former pea-heart was the core our batting. Well done Shane Watson. Mick must have a viagra-like woody.