Watching the 2009 Ashes box set

I'm currently watching the 2009 Ashes DVD. Having been one of the many disenfranchised cricket watchers out there I saw surprisingly little of it, so a lot of it's quite new me. I thought everyone would like a bit of an Ashes memory lane thread to keep them warm & glowing this time of year so I thought I'd give my thoughts after watching the first test:

-Ravi played one good shot in the first innings and took a good boundary catch at the end of the Aussie innings

-Marcus North may well be a very good batsman but despite hitting a century and being a maligned choice of bowler at the end he seemed like a film extra.

-Ricky Ponting's captaincy is imaginative and unorthodox if not very effective.

England win. Sorry, have I spoiled the ending for you?

That's far too urealistic to be true Shoey.

I suppose. Bet Ponting has a tantrum at some point though.

Shoeshine wrote:England win. Australia lost. Sorry, have I spoiled the ending for you?

FIXED

The result was the same pleasing ending whichever way you like to paint it.

Now if I tell you Stuart Broad wins the Ashes by actually pitching the ball in the batsmans half you're not going to believe me are you?

In my version Australia lost the Ashes because they collapsed to a fast medium bowler while worrying that not including a spinner on a "spin friendly" pitch would be THE problem

Ok have "done" the second test and my observations are:

-Those were some pretty legendary performances by Strauss & Flintoff. Fair and indeed play to both of them. Particularly like how the only blemish in Strauss's innings took out their main slow bowler for the innings (breaking poor Hauritz with a sharp caught and bowled) .

-Ravi was somewhat sh*thouse. Good flick over square leg to start his first innings but thereafter... His ropey partnership with a one footed KP in the 2nd innings was one of the lowlights of the series.

-Haddin looks a bit like a young Alf from Home & Away

-Overall England have nothing to apologise for in the 2nd test- they played some good cricket and bossed the game and only some After the Lord Mayor's show batting kept Australia from getting a hiding.

I'm on the third test of this great boxset.


So far, Jimmy has hooped it round corners, Bell is on his way to a half century and Mitchell Johnson is bowling some beautiful pies.

Oh and I just remembered the "Fanatics" who I was sat near when I went to the Lords test (dressed as the Duke of Edinburgh...). Who willingly calls themselves fanatics? Al Qaeda and the Taliban don't but Aussie cricket fans do. It could be that the war on terror is misdirected.

Graham Onions is class.

Right have now done tests 3 & 4...

3rd test:

Bell was a lucky man- Mitchell Johnson seemed to be hitting his pads at will. Was a good old last hurrah by Flintoff with the bat and England bossed it until the last two sessions of the game. Great catch by Jimmikins to end North's innings.

4th Test:

Fortunately the DVD was kind enough to play up for most of England's 1st innings. When Australia came to bat Jimmikins was plainly injured and ineffective and Harmison was pretty poor. No surprises they got over 400. The LBs were interesting against Australia- all seemed to be just clipping leg stump when my judgement told me that with the swing and the angle they were going down leg. Can Hawkeye actually read swing?

Weak performances by Bell & Bopara- although felt for the latter with his 2nd innings LBW. A real gut wrenching moment for a man down on his luck.

Thought for sure someone in my family would get me this for Christmas.

They don't know me at all...

Me too. Especially with the hint that buying it for my Dad offered to everyone.

£11 from Amazon - not bad for 11 hours worth. Pretty sure i'd be skipping through all the Aussie tons though.

How about a discount for not including Headingley? Can't imagine it'll be high on the viewing agenda.

OK have now done the fifth test...

-Bloody tragic to see Anderson's duck

-Bloody funny to see Ponting cop one in the mouth when fielding at silly point helmetless

-Trott seemed to favour the back foot and front foot on-drive quite a bit

-Agent Ponting? It's a given that he's not brightest energy saving light bulb in the socket but during this series and the '05 one you have to say some of his decisions were just plain suspicious. Obviously in this test there's the Hauritz omission which looked all the more damning seeing S Clarke & North looking like forlorn bowling eunuchs. At crucial points as well in the match he chose some strange bowling options- an off-colour Watson when England were 7 down in the 1st innings and more pertinently he just gave up the ghost in the 2nd innings. If England were bundled out for sub-200 2nd time round, given Australia's strong 2nd innings batting performance it would have been a close run thing. At 30-odd for 3 there was every chance of this but come the next morning there was nothing to be seen of Johnson who was Australia's most potent bowler. Looked like Australia were bowling for boundary catches by the earlyafternoon.

Is he in the ECB's pay? The question must be asked.

He was probably behind the over rate