England v Australia, 1st Test, Cardiff, 8-12 July, 2015

Shiiiiiiitttttttttttttt

No Rashid or Finn. Same XI from the NZ series.

Rogers and Twatto in for Aus.

Four down by lunch then?

Jontyh wrote:Areet everyone! Thought I'd pop back for th'Ashes..  

G'day Jon. It's been a while. 

No OT test this time round sadly.

Ballance still slated to come in at three.

I think we'll see him (briefly) this morning.

Jontyh wrote:Four down by lunch then?

Moral victory, that.

Aus: DA Warner, CJL Rogers, SPD Smith, MJ Clarke*, AC Voges, SR Watson, BJ Haddin†, MG Johnson, MA Starc, JR Hazlewood, NM Lyon

AKA: f*ck off, Marshes.

Nothing like the Ashes to round up a few 'lost sheep'.

Jontyh wrote:Four down by lunch then?

I honestly expect so. With the forecast how it is, combined with the apparently decent amount of grass left on the pitch, it seems like a mong-faced decision, really, from here. It's not a brave decision either, it's standard. Still, what do I know.... he's a good captain, so I'll back him.

Dello wrote:Ballance still slated to come in at three.

I think we'll see him (briefly) this morning.

Typical Watto, apparently selected on the strength of his bowling.

Still if Cardiff dries out and the poms put runs on the board it could be a good toss to win.

Dello wrote:Aus: DA Warner, CJL Rogers, SPD Smith, MJ Clarke*, AC Voges, SR Watson, BJ Haddin†, MG Johnson, MA Starc, JR Hazlewood, NM Lyon

AKA: f*ck off, Marshes.

Just like the sun rises in the east & sets in the west, Twatson will fail. Expect to see one of the Marshes in by test 3.

Watto Lotto. I told you they wouldn't pick Mitch Marsh

JGK wrote:

Jontyh wrote:Areet everyone! Thought I'd pop back for th'Ashes..  

G'day Jon. It's been a while. 

No OT test this time round sadly.

I know - it's a sickener, J! Only the one day in September so I'll have to make do with that..

I'm so scared that we're batting first.

Last time up our strong suit (if you can call it that) was that we tended to bowl well to their top order and have them in a bit of trouble with relative frequency.

Our weakest suit was our top order batting.

Big gamble to go with that - could hand the initiative to Aus straight from the off and put us under huge pressure.

At least if we bowl and they make 500 we've got 2 days before we find out how abject our batsmen still are against seriously quick bowling.

what the ****** is that pre-match "entertainment" bullshit? god-awful!!!

F*ck me, get on with it. What's all this bullshit?

We're actually losing time from the day now.

A farce before it's even started.

It's Wales - home of Charlotte Church. Nuff said.

I think the phrase 'Absolute thunderqunts' goes some way to describe it......

Is Langer going to scurry on and do his Southern Cross song?

It's still f*cking going on.

This will last longer than Gary Ballance's innings.

Urrrgghhh - this anthem stuff feels so out of place in cricket.

In a contact sport - such as rugby - it feels spot on to have rousing rendition to stir the blood of the players and the crowd. Anthem, kick off, collision of players - awesome.

Anthem, stroll to middle, mark out your runs, mark your guard, move the sightscreen, face first ball - awwww shit.

Thank f*ck Britt Lee has retired..

Still, on the upside, like the millennium bug scare I see that the world hasn't ended even though our Ashes clock has reached zero.

Fark!

SOS to Aussie forummers.

How do I watch this?

My satellite Foxtel does not get GEM and I don't have a normal antenna.

No Ashes for me it looks like!