England v Australia, 3rd Test, Edgbaston, Jul 30 - Aug 3

Henry wrote:Rubbish. If he gets a century here in an ashes test, when his team really needed it, with conditions suiting the bowlers, people will look back at that non lbw and wonder "what if?"

That's a pretty big "if" is what we are saying. He won't get a century.

I doubt he'll survive the opening burst tomorrow.

Then it will be down to Strauss and Wobbles to push on.

Rob I wrote:I doubt he'll survive the opening burst tomorrow.

Looking at the weather forecast, there might not be a tomorrow...

This game is definetly headed for a draw now. With Edgbaston's poor drainage, a morning of solid rain is likely to mean a complete washout tomorrow, especially considering how high the water table is already.

Well looks like England will have to get 500 by tea on Sunday assuming most of tomorrow will be lost and then try to blow away the Aussies the second time round. If tomorrow is lost, it's hard to see past a draw.

Only saw up to Bopara was out, so did Belly get a life from Rudi?

No, Rudi got the decision spot on as far as I'm concerned . I mean, hitting middle-stump halfway up is hardly conclusive . Bloody Aussies and their aggressive appealing, trying to cheat good, honest Umpires like Koertzen .

Rudi Koertzen OBE, I should say . Stupid Aussies need to learn the LBW law :laule:.

Eric Air Emu wrote:Well looks like England will have to get 500 by tea on Sunday assuming most of tomorrow will be lost and then try to blow away the Aussies the second time round. If tomorrow is lost, it's hard to see past a draw.

If most of tomorrow is lost, it really ought to be only England who can win the game. At worst they ought to reach parity or thereabouts with Australia, and then it'll be a draw unless Australia collapse horribly.

JKLever wrote:Only saw up to Bopara was out, so did Belly get a life from Rudi?

Unreal, mate. It would have blown middle and off to pieces. After the marginal decision against MJ. Aussies can afford to have the hump a bit, I think.

Rob I wrote:

JKLever wrote:Only saw up to Bopara was out, so did Belly get a life from Rudi?

Unreal, mate. It would have blown middle and off to pieces. After the marginal decision against MJ. Aussies can afford to have the hump a bit, I think.

Apart from the three that should have been given out against them, yes.

The Bell one was a poor, poor decision though. Notably, on first sight Shane Warne called the Johnson one plumb.

Rob I wrote:

JKLever wrote:Only saw up to Bopara was out, so did Belly get a life from Rudi?

Unreal, mate. It would have blown middle and off to pieces. After the marginal decision against MJ. Aussies can afford to have the hump a bit, I think.

Yeah I just saw it on the highlights, Rudi must've thought he hit it. To quote Geoffrey, 'unlucky........oh,unlucky you Aussies'

I did like the Crikey website's description of Mitchell Johnson's dismissal as "retired stupid".

Out all this afternoon so didn't see much apart from some highlights.

263 all out ...(77 for 6 collapse) .. Michelle for Jimmy and a fourfer for the Onionman. Presume the ball swung like a bullocks big 'uns ?!
Get stuck in fellas...

125 ish - 2 ... played Strausser. Now just GO ON tomorrow morning ... no "leaves" in the first over (as at Lord's) !

Dinga still in I see ...

Merlin wrote:Dinga still in I see ...

No-one's quite sure how.

To be fair, he's looked fairly solid - apart from being stone-cold-dead-in-the-water LBW to Johnson.

Don't fancy him to go on and make a score, though...

Graham Onions - Test s/r of 29. Mental.

Looks a very good bowler though, one of those guys who goes for some but bowls wicket-taking deliveries. The way he surprised Ponting today was brilliant.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:Graham Onions - Test s/r of 29. Mental.

Looks a very good bowler though, one of those guys who goes for some but bowls wicket-taking deliveries. The way he surprised Ponting today was brilliant.

I'd like everyone to make up their mind...

It's either 3/41 at Lords & 4/58 here and he's the next best thing.

or its the 0-50 off 9 at Lords or the 0-21 from yesterday and everyone thinks he's tripe

It's pretty hard to make up your mind - today was the first time I'd actually seen him bowl and before then I had him down as a typical English filth-merchant. Having seen him bowl, however, he looked very good. Probably sometimes he will be a filth-merchant. Yesterday evening, without watching him, I said he seemed to be a passenger. But that's clearly not the case - Onions will be worth the passenger moments for days like today, unlike Broad who will always be a passenger.

I was surprised by his pace and accuracy and his ability to rough good batsmen up. Certainly the best bowler on show today from either side, and the one who hit the stumps most often.

I'm still not writing off either Broad or Ravi, but they're beginning for the first time to give me the sh!ts in this series.

Broad is only surviving because he strengthens the lower order batting atm.

And Rav still looks like he's on another planet.

I've missed every decent spell that Onions has bowled annoyingly so have never seen him bowl well. Every time I've seen him he's been bowling a decent enough length but too far outside offstump to be threatening. Sounds like he was bowling more towards the stumps today.

Alastair Cook ain't doing much better; scores of 10, 6 and 0 are only covered up by a 95 that was pretty much gifted to him.

Ravi's an arrogant c*nt who has been knocked down a peg or two. He's not even in England's top three batsmen so why he thinks he owns the world, god knows.

As for Broad, he just isn't good enough. That's all there is to it. He is no better for 20 Test Matches. He's a pressure-relieving bowler and a waste of a five man seam attack. Play another batsman if we want batting. You could probably find someone who could fill in some better overs than Broad too . . .


















































































. . . Rikki?

Chivalry Augustus wrote:It's pretty hard to make up your mind - today was the first time I'd actually seen him bowl and before then I had him down as a typical English filth-merchant. Having seen him bowl, however, he looked very good. Probably sometimes he will be a filth-merchant. Yesterday evening, without watching him, I said he seemed to be a passenger. But that's clearly not the case - Onions will be worth the passenger moments for days like today, unlike Broad who will always be a passenger.

I was surprised by his pace and accuracy and his ability to rough good batsmen up. Certainly the best bowler on show today from either side, and the one who hit the stumps most often.

That's what's been said about him all along, he's a bowler who bowls it at the stumps, makes batsmen play. He did that against the West Indies and got plenty of wickets, although probably anyone who could pitch it on the cut strip would have got wickets in that series... then when he came into the side at Lord's he seemed to change it and start bowling short stuff and wide stuff and it wasn't effective. Here he was back to what he clearly does best. Perhaps like Anderson he's a bowler who needs conditions to be in his favour but certainly looks someone who can do plenty of damage when he gets it right.

It comes down to what I said about bowlers stepping up a level needing to concentrate on what they do best, rather than mixing it up and gifting the opposition boundaries by constantly trying different things to find the magic wicket-taking ball, which seems to be what Broad is still doing at Test level.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:
Ravi's an arrogant c*nt who has been knocked down a peg or two. He's not even in England's top three batsmen so why he thinks he owns the world, god knows.

Does he though? Nothing wrong with confidence. Perhaps 3 is not his place though.

what kind of message would it send if we dropped him though? 3 succesive tons (yes v WI) and then a run of 20's in 5 innings.

Personally I think they'll only make changes if Aus pull back the 1-0, they'll be happy with the balance until a defeat would force them to look at it.

Edit: Are 3 'thoughs' enough?

Hmm, seems that Straws has our measure again. And Drunky only felt confident to give Midge 5 overs. FMD. And he went for 4 an over. So he's a farkin passenger. [shakes head in disgust at Gump being left out.]

skully wrote:. And he went for 4 an over. So he's a farkin passenger. [shakes head in disgust at Gump being left out.]

From the bits I watched that I recorded, he bowled a lot better and of course should have had Bell.

Just seen the forecast - looks like no play till afternoon tomorrow.