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

Henry wrote:Well what i'm clinging on to now is that we are always slow starters in ashes series. We got hammered at Lord's in 2005 and were on our way to being hammered at Cardiff last year before Colly and co dug in/Ponting started bowling part timers.

Cardiff first four days-

8 Jul day 1 - England 1st innings 336/7 (JM Anderson 2*, SCJ Broad 4*, 90 ov)
9 Jul day 2 - Australia 1st innings 249/1 (SM Katich 104*, RT Ponting 100*, 71 ov)
10 Jul day 3 - Australia 1st innings 479/5 (MJ North 54*, BJ Haddin 4*, 139 ov)
11 Jul day 4 - England 2nd innings 20/2 (AJ Strauss 6*, KP Pietersen 3*, 7 ov)


And we got out of this with a draw. Make anyone feel better?

ROFL...remarkably the parallel could be with 2006/7 and the 5-0 flogging the pomgolians received...

Was the Strauss dismissal in the first over off a very lame shot the equivalent of the famous Harmi first ball at the Gabba four years ago?

Those that know the pieman might be interested to hear that he has sitting behind the army & ordering in the square bears about 20 minutes before the hat trick. I offered him the contact details of a duty solictor mate.

Lara Lara Laughs wrote:Just seen some of the wickets on the news. Can anybody tell me WTF kind of shot Pietersen was playing? Horrendous.

Probably harsh on KP. He had spanked a number of beautiful drives, Siddle threw one up on a length, drawing KP into a drive, it moved away (0.9 degrees I think the protractor measured) to get the edge to be caught at 2nd slip.

Colly's was worse. It was a similar ball but he just hung his bat out to dry for an easy catch to 3rd slip.

it moved away

aye. Undone by one that pitched and moved perfectly.

Which is why Johnson's bowling was so damned irritating. Siddle and Watson pitched it up and it jagged around a bit. Midge and, to a lesser extent Milf, banged it in short of a length and wasted it. If Neilsen didn't slap Midge around the head at lunch and "say pitch the farkin thing up" then he's not a coach's @rsehole (which we know is the case anyway).

skully wrote:Which is why Johnson's bowling was so damned irritating. Siddle and Watson pitched it up and it jagged around a bit. Midge and, to a lesser extent Milf, banged it in short of a length and wasted it. If Neilsen didn't slap Midge around the head at lunch and "say pitch the farkin thing up" then he's not a coach's @rsehole (which we know is the case anyway).

Yep, yep, yep and yep.

Right, I'm off.

Gag on this you pommie princesses.

Dello wrote:It's not a contest of quality - it's who is the least crap.

Isn't every Test series like that at the moment? There certainly isn't a great side around, and it's questionable if there's even a particularly good one. Even WI and NZ are holding their own against the so-called heavyweights these days.

Having said that, England are less crap than we were at the start of the last Ashes series (we'd just lost in the Caribbean FFS, even if it was to a side who won the first Test then "parked the bus" in football speak) and put in one of the worst England performances I can remember - and there have been a lot over the years - in that Headingley craptaculation... and still somehow managed to win that series.

Home advantage counts for a lot though and I think Strauss's third ball slash of a wide long-hop to gully will go down as this year's "We'll have a bowl" (N. Hussain, 2002) or second slip fielding practice (S. Harmison, 2006) moment in setting the tone for the series.

There's a long way to go yet.

Harmison's loosener didn't lose the Ashes. With Flintoff's bad captaincy, Fletcher's bad selections and a semi-injured bowling attack even if he'd knocked Langer's head off first ball we'd have still lost.

Strauss dismissal didn't help, but England were 197/4 at one stage, Lets not give up hope, still a long way to go. First day of the 1997 Ashes England had Australia 51/8 - we still lost the series because Australia were much the better team.

Aye Gary. A nice philosophical point of view. This England side has plenty of talent. The big "If" is the bowling. "If" Swanny makes an impact England will win the series IMHO.

skully wrote:KP... had spanked a number of beautiful drives, Siddle threw one up on a length, drawing KP into a drive, it moved away (-14.1 degrees I think the Murali protractor measured) to get the edge to be caught at 2nd slip.

Fixed

We have a decent team, but so do Australia - there'll be plenty of twists and turns yet.

skully wrote:Aye Gary. A nice philosophical point of view. This England side has plenty of talent. The big "If" is the bowling. "If" Swanny makes an impact England will win the series IMHO.

Signs didn't look good yesterday (where the fark is the smiley whose face goes white? Wanted to stick that at the end of this sentence).

Also I don't think pointing to the great Australian side of 1997 managing to come back against the craptastic England of 1997 is a particularly valid comparison.

If England do as badly as they did yesterday over the course of this test, they won't come back, not in Australia.

Edit: The 1997 thing was aimed at Gary.

Not long to go till Day 2 starts.

My body is ready.

vilkrang wrote:

skully wrote:Aye Gary. A nice philosophical point of view. This England side has plenty of talent. The big "If" is the bowling. "If" Swanny makes an impact England will win the series IMHO.

Signs didn't look good yesterday (where the fark is the smiley whose face goes white? Wanted to stick that at the end of this sentence).

Also I don't think pointing to the great Australian side of 1997 managing to come back against the craptastic England of 1997 is a particularly valid comparison.

If England do as badly as they did yesterday over the course of this test, they won't come back, not in Australia.

Edit: The 1997 thing was aimed at Gary.

The point is the series isn't won and lost on the first day.

Keep the faith - Strauss, Pietersen, Bell, Prior, Swann, we've got some good players.

Not sure we can consistently take 20 wickets though.

I've got my eye on Steven Finn today.

He'll be the man to watch.

So, bowl Aus out for under 350 and we're still in the game.

Right. First task for today- Avoid all the collective orgasming over Peter Siddle's hat trick in the channel nine build up to day 2.

Or just wait for Zimmy to log in.

skully wrote:

I must be getting old, couldn't find it but it seems as clear as day now...

Had a little bet with a friend that Australia would get at least 50 for their opening partnership. Knowing my luck the fall of wicket will be 49-1, 240-2.

Here we go...

vilkrang wrote:Had a little bet with a friend that Australia would get at least 50 for their opening partnership. Knowing my luck the fall of wicket will be 49-1, 240-2.

You would be more shattered than Smerk when he discovered that Pet Shop Boy wasn't actually a vocation

But they made good music.

Sometimes.