England v WI, 2nd Test, Chester-le-Street, May 14 - 18

I think Fidel at 8.5 is a tad generous, seemed more like 8.34 to me.

vilkrang wrote:I think Fidel at 8.5 is a tad generous, seemed more like 8.34 to me.

Okay vilks, deduct 0.16 points for him having a go at Jimmykins!
8.34 it is then!

Congrats England, seems like a very solid performance.

Very disappointed by WI


p.s where is tino best?

A close friend of his who he has known since he was 14 years old died just before the 1st test. The poor guy must associate trips to England with pain as his childhood sweetheart died from a sudden illness during his first tour in 2000, he dislocated his shoulder really badly during the last tour here and now this.

I don't think it was a coincidence that the team that whined the most in both test series lost the series. The English players were moaning about the pitches and lost a test series they probably should have won. The WI players came whinging about the cold and was promptly dispatched in both test matches without a whimper. How the heck can you go to England and not expect to be freaking cold. They get paid to play cricket, stop complaining and just freaking play.

WIFAN wrote:A close friend of his who he has known since he was 14 years old died just before the 1st test. The poor guy must associate trips to England with pain as his childhood sweetheart died from a sudden illness during his first tour in 2000, he dislocated his shoulder really badly during the last tour here and now this.

horrible :|

kkf wrote:They get paid to play cricket, stop complaining and just freaking play.

But not as much as they get paid for doing mostly SFA in the IPL. Which may be the nub of the problem.

Perfick. A soft win against a soft side as we lead into the Ashes.

Zat wrote:

kkf wrote:They get paid to play cricket, stop complaining and just freaking play.

But not as much as they get paid for doing mostly SFA in the IPL. Which may be the nub of the problem.

Well KP got paid for doing absolutely SFA in the IPL

skully wrote:Perfick. A soft win against a soft side as we lead into the Ashes.

Come on, skull, we lost the dead rubber . . so it wasn't all as we might have hoped . . .

skully wrote:Perfick. A soft win against a soft side as we lead into the Ashes.

At least we have now played some test cricket since March.

taipan wrote:

Zat wrote:

kkf wrote:They get paid to play cricket, stop complaining and just freaking play.

But not as much as they get paid for doing mostly SFA in the IPL. Which may be the nub of the problem.

Well KP got paid for doing absolutely SFA in the IPL

Like Sooky. Only has done it for longer. Daylight robbery!

Henry was a tad generous to Strauss awarding him seven.

Scores of 16, 14* and 26 against dispirited opposition when his teammates were generally scoring big. As skipper he was barely challenged by his opposite number and had much the superior team. He was captaining in home conditions.

Can you ever distinguish between the emissions produced by your two predominant orifices, Redski?

Ask a neutral to preside over the test ... though I doubt very much if the result will cause you much discomfort (unless preceded by a vindaloo).

skully wrote:Perfick. A soft win against a soft side as we lead into the Ashes.

Hmmm... England can only beat what is put in front of them and they did that clinically, with their feet on the gas all the way. At this rate they will have a powerful side in a year, but Australia will retain the Ashes in '09.

I wouldn't over-analyze these 2 tests. Apart from it looked like there was a decent team spirit.

Bare facts are Aus are number 1, England ranked 5 and Aus won 5-0 last time. They'll start as huge favourites and rightly so...

I just hope we compete (as I think we would have in 06/7 if Adelaide doesn't happen)

Merlin wrote:Can you ever distinguish between the emissions produced by your two predominant orifices, Redski?

Ask a neutral to preside over the test ... though I doubt very much if the result will cause you much discomfort (unless preceded by a vindaloo).

So you thought that Strauss batted well?

And Mr Lever I don't think that Australia should be raging favourites.

The 5-0 thrashing is only relevant in that it might play somewhat on the minds of some of the English players involved. But England is playing at home in conditions in which they prevailed during the last series between the two countries, give or take a new venue such as Cardiff.

Personnel on the Aussie side has radically changed. Warne and McGrath tended to have a hex over many of the pommy batsmen. For them not to be there takes away the psychological advantage that went with the territory. The makeup of the batting lineup will be different. It's interesting to note that Hussey didn't play during that series and many thought he should have. He will play this time but is in inferior form.

No Warne & McGrath but I expect Clark,Siddle & Johnson to bowl well in our conditions.

It's not all about batting or bowling or banging your bish, Redski.
The sooner you grasp the fact, the better.

Johann captained the side well and has injected a camraderie, a purpose and a self-belief amongst both the old hands and the newbies. A factor all in the English dressing room agreed with. Err, he caught a few snorters in the slips too ...

Anyway, all that merits half a point .... the rest of his score was for getting right into Crystals face.

Merlin wrote:It's not all about batting or bowling or banging your bish, Redski.
The sooner you grasp the fact, the better.

Johann captained the side well and has injected a camraderie, a purpose and a self-belief amongst both the old hands and the newbies. A factor all in the English dressing room agreed with. Err, he caught a few snorters in the slips too ...

Anyway, all that merits half a point .... the rest of his score was for getting right into Crystals face.

Or even camaraderie. I agree with that re. Strauss. But after the KP/Moores debacle, it wouldn't be too hard to improve morale. More significantly, it looked like Gayle didn't even want to be there, so I doubt he had to get in his face too much. Windies were a hiding waiting to happen.

Rob I wrote:

skully wrote:Perfick. A soft win against a soft side as we lead into the Ashes.

Hmmm... England can only beat what is put in front of them and they did that clinically, with their feet on the gas all the way. At this rate they will have a powerful side in a year, but Australia will retain the Ashes in '09.

Rather than have many Englishmen do a Farky and claim all sorts of nasty skully deeds (particularly if England win Ashes 09), I'll fess up now. Twas a mere poke at me Pomgolian comrades. Well done and as you'll find a number of times in this thread, I said exactly what Rob said above.

Well played and all that.

When I look at England and Australia, I see 2 sides with fragile confidence. The series could go either way, imo. The pace attacks are probably about even, England have the superior spinners, but Aus probably have a better batting lineup. If you go through the head to heads, there really is very little difference

Strauss-Katich
Cook-Hughes
Pietersen-Ponting
Prior-Haddin
Broad-Johnson
Anderson-Siddle

2-2, I reckon.

Fark Trev, England have no hope.

Fanciful!

I love how the Aussies are talked of as mighty still.

By Englishmen here.

Aus are probably 2-1 favourites. But that is all.

I don't think England will take two tests. I don't think the bowling is enough. If Fred and SiBo got fit, maybe...

Brass Monkey wrote:I love how the Aussies are talked of as mighty still.

By Englishmen here.

Aus are probably 2-1 favourites. But that is all.

Hmmm, lets see. They're still ranked 1 and just beat SA in SA. Meanwhile we've lost every series of the last 4 against top 3 sides (albeit narrowly) and lost the last series 5-0.

I'm thinking 3-1 after us having a poor start. But like 2005, at the start of the series I just want to see us compete. Can't think too far ahead about this series.