Australia v England, 1st Test, Brisbane, Nov 25-29, 2010

G.Wood wrote:

JGK wrote:And by the way, I've just fired one of my staff who called me in to a meeting during which Cot got his hat trick.

FFS you selfish git.

Retain him and get him to ask you to meetings more often

It was a her actually. But fark that. I missed history.

So we both played our part then JGK.

Excellent spell from Peter Siddle there, I think he saved Aus another 75 runs minimum. Why ?

Had Broad and Swann hung about for an hour or so each (which they're both capable of doing) - even if they only scored a dozen runs each - Bell at the other end would have been well through the ton.

None of the Aus attack looked even close to threatening him. That's the real bonus of Siddle's spell, the Belf ran out of company. Good play by the pair of them.


Game too close to call for me ... couple of quick wickets in the morning and we'll see if Aus can scrap it out .......

The wicket should be quicker tomorrow. The pitch was more like an English wicket today but with the benefit of a day's sun it should be more Gabba-like tomorrow. Obvious thing to say, but tomorrow could be a pivotal day in the series.

Just watched Siddle's hattrick on YT. What a class bit of bowling. Unfortunately it was by an Australian. Good on Cot though.

Ian Bell is slowly becoming my favourite cricketer, right now. What a guy.

It will be interesting to see if Broad manages to pitch the ball up tomorrow, or whether he gets seduced into bowling short rubbish.

It's also interesting to see the Australian media starting to cotton on to the fact that Mitchell Johnson talks a good game but very rarely in recent times backs it up with anything substantial.

Let's be honest- He's a bit soft.

Siddle's 6-49 is the second-best performance by any bowler on the opening day of a 'Gabba Test beaten only by McGrath's 6-17 against the Windies (Windies 82 all out) in November 2000. Well done the man after being out for a year.

I had the feeling we were being lulled into a false sense of security. Cunning plan, Punter. As for Pup's bad back, he'll probably make 200!

Henry wrote:It's also interesting to see the Australian media starting to cotton on to the fact that Mitchell Johnson talks a good game but very rarely in recent times backs it up with anything substantial.

Let's be honest- He's a bit soft.

More stoopid than soft ...he bowls fast all day ...just doesnt get "wrist position" and "upright seam"

Either way he hasn't performed for a while. Still living off that series in South Africa almost two years ago.

Watching the highlights online - did Bill Lawry say 'what a ball!' for the Strauss dismissal?

Yeah I believe he did.

What he should said was "What a flimsy cut to point, what a shot!"

The ball got too high on Strauss, but because he kept the bat face open and straight, he couldn't control the direction of the shot.

Or something like that, I don't know much about cricket

horace wrote:we are sooooo doomed...

Good lord, still reverse woofing despite taking us to the cleaners. You guys are pathetic!

Pity I went to bed before Siddle's hat trick, have never seen a hat trick live and whilst it would have been for the wrong team would still have been nice to see.

My original prediction of 272 was nearly spot on, Australia started well and look like racking up a big score (despite the shameful reverse woofing going on by the Aussies in this thread).

Really need a monumental bowling performance tomorrow to stay in the match. I'm hoping my prediction about Anderson being a total waste of space are going to be proved wrong.

I missed the first two balls of Siddle's hat trick 'cause I was in the lunch room and not at my desk

I recorded the day's play today so started watching again from the beginning when I got home from work. Siddle just picked up Swann - and I think it's time to call stumps on my cricket marathon today.

Go Katich!

Henry wrote:Either way he hasn't performed for a while. Still living off that series in South Africa almost two years ago.

2nd most Test wickets of all bowlers in that period (72 wickets @31.34 with 4 michelles)

17th best average in that period (>20 wickets)

The One wrote:17th best average in that period (>20 wickets)

7th best strike rate ...same qualification

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:

Henry wrote:

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:What's the pitch like anyone? Is Cook still looking all over the shop technically?

He's looking terrible. Likely to get out at any moment. We are so screwed.

Good to hear. Sounds like KP will be exposed to the new ball pretty soon, something he was never great at doing even in his pomp never mind now when he's become this overly - intense, technically-shot spastic.

Spiffing.

England all out for 250-300 with the tail doing most of the work.....again.

*ominous music*

Seems I got the ends but not the means.

I take no pleasure from it.

Predictions for Australia? 458 is my guess.

588.. And I won't be staying up all night to watch Jimmy pick up 2-185

I can see them registering a sub-400 score.

However, it doesn't matter what they do. England's batsmen have once again failed to score a hundred between them. Praise has been given to Cook and Bell, but their innings should be the support innings, not what holds the entire innings together. As usual batsman after batsman got in, threw their wicket away, and at the end of the day there was this feeling that Australia had blown England away. Well they hadn't, England blew themselves away. Prior's wooden foot-work contributed to a hat-trick that any decent batsman would have stopped at ball 2. How many times is that he has been bowled? How many times has he even scored a run against a good side?

The tail can be forgiven but the batsmen between them were poor. Barely a wicket was earned, though I think Trott got a little nip-backer after a couple of innocuous deliveries, which was unlucky for him.

I'll watch the morning session but if we don't take any wickets I will be going to bed at lunch.

I'm still bewildered about the Aussies in this thread and also before the ashes started being so negative. They've had 20+ years of battering us in their backyard, and for some reason they think an England team ranked 4th in the world who hasn't won a test series against a top 5 side in god knows how long (other than the 2009 Ashes series which Australia were 1 wicket away from retaining), would not only beat them but would beat them convincingly. It's utterly perplexing, I admit this Australian team isn't what it used to be but fark me, they are good enough to beat England at home.

I'm still just hoping that we can compete, which has been my position since before the test started, it's still only one day in and test cricket can change very quickly but if the first day are a sign of what's to come then we aren't even going to be competitive.

Here's hoping for a competitive second day, I'll quickly lose interest in this series if it reverts to form. Can't remember the last time Australia hasn't had the ashes in the bag by the end of the 3rd test in Australia, not even sure it's happened since I've been watching cricket. Would be nice to last until test 4 for once.

Chivalry Augustus wrote:I can see them registering a sub-400 score.

However, it doesn't matter what they do. England's batsmen have once again failed to score a hundred between them. Praise has been given to Cook and Bell, but their innings should be the support innings, not what holds the entire innings together. As usual batsman after batsman got in, threw their wicket away, and at the end of the day there was this feeling that Australia had blown England away. Well they hadn't, England blew themselves away. Prior's wooden foot-work contributed to a hat-trick that any decent batsman would have stopped at ball 2. How many times is that he has been bowled? How many times has he even scored a run against a good side?

The tail can be forgiven but the batsmen between them were poor. Barely a wicket was earned, though I think Trott got a little nip-backer after a couple of innocuous deliveries, which was unlucky for him.

Would you stop being so farqin chipper, Gus? that sort of puppy enthusiasm is a bit sickly ...

krikri wrote:588.. And I won't be staying up all night to watch Jimmy pick up 2-185

Amen to that. It's so inevitable it's not funny.

England's diehard supporters, eh?

Merls, Lever, the rest of you ... Where are you? Let's be avvin yew!

Where are you? Let's be avvin yew!