The Ashes

[peetee]

Whose going to win this Summer's Ashes.

England will be raring to go and they have a good chance but i feel the Aussies will have the edge. ( Hope I'm wrong)

[specialone]

Brett Lee out of first test, good news. Thought he looked back to his best against the Lions.
Shaun

After a promising first day for England, Australia have now wrested the initiative and will probably end up with a 100-run lead.
England will now need to stonewall in their second innings and play out to the end for a draw (unless the weather does the job for them).

Too early to say if England can win the series - if they capitulate now, they could go on to suffer a series whitewash. But starting off with a well-fought draw could make it tight, and with just a bit of luck at the right time could maybe edge the series 1-0.

One thing's for sure, there's a lot of mileage left - and it's been captivating so far.

Jul 10, 2009 20:12:22 GMT tommo III said:

Australia have now wrested the initiative and will probably end up with a 100-run lead.
England will now need to stonewall in their second innings and play out to the end for a draw (unless the weather does the job for them).

Oh b****r ! It's all gone pearshaped now. Four Aussie centurions and the highest Ashes innings score post-war. Cook and Bopara out.
Only rain can save us now. :'(

[BB Warrior]

Yes, certainly not the start to the 2nd Innings that England would have wanted.... let's hope for rain tomorrow down in Wales as that's probably the best chance England have got of getting a draw.

The Aussies (as always) are obviously up for the Ashes and look in ominously good form considering the players that they have lost since the last series against England...... we need our front line batsmen to make centuries (rather than 50's) when they have played themselves in and I think that we need to make changes to our bowlers..... with the possible exception of Freddie, none of them put the ball in the right place on a consistent basis.... ::)

[peetee]

Who needed the rain ;D brilliant performance by Collingwood and a brilliant rearguard action from the No 10 & 11.who somehow survived. A great match roll on the 2nd Test at Lords.

A fantastic role reversal in the 2nd Test..........England likely to declare first thing Monday, and the Aussies, facing a target of 500+ to win, will be the ones trying to hold on.

My man of the match so far is Matt Prior: a fantastic authoritative knock of 61 off just 41 balls. Next to him Pietersen looked decidedly shaky.

[Chris_Sav]

Excellent performance so far!!

I cannot understand the modern vogue of not enforcing the follow-on. If you've got them by the jugular then wring their necks in my book!

Who's praying for rain this time!! ;D ;D ;D

Sav

[NigelS]

England have declared this morning.. and lead by 521. We have given the Aussies a sniff here 521 in 2 days is not impossible.......

Feet up, cricket on the radio, open golf on the tele, bliss

Oh and as I write this Katich has gone.....17-1 come on England!

......and talking of Open Golf, come on Tom Watson !

At 59 years old, "still life in the old dog yet" ! ;D

[scooner]

Absolutley tommo. would love to see Tom win his 6th Open and equal Vardons record.

And talking of old dogs,thought it was fantastic to hear seve speaking on the telly this morning.

Well, the success in the Second Test seems to have rendered most of us speechless. On this particular occasion the decision not to enforce the follow-on seems to have been vindicated.

Now into day three of the third test, one in which our bowlers have covered themselves in glory. Aussies are once again on the back foot, and if Strauss can keep up the good work with the bat and England manage a first innings total in excess of 400, that will be pressure....

This must be, as Jack Nicholson once said, 'as good as it gets'. ;D

Aussies saved the Third Test in some style and have outplayed us in every department - bowling, fielding, batting - and bowling and fielding again in the Fourth: We are now staring down the barrel of a gun with 5 wickets down and still over 200 behind.

Today was a real "Oh, bugger !" moment.

Unless a miracle happens, we are faced with the daunting prospect of having to win the Final Test to regain the Ashes. Now looks very much as if they are beyond our reach. >:(

[BB Warrior]

Three disasterous days for England :'( ...... poor shot selections by the batsmen and the bowlers not putting the ball in the right place often enough ::) ...... but you have to give credit to the Aussies who have fought back superbly and totally outplayed us in this test.

All to play for going into the last test then..... 8-)

[peetee]

Yes I Agree
The all round team performance was poor which England can't afford to do again in the last Test at the Oval. Hope Freddie is back, but i have that feeling the Aussies will retain the Ashes, but you never know, let's hope the weather keeps fine it's our only chance. Dont forget they only need a draw.

Assessing the difference in teams from all that has gone so far, there has been a drastic weakness in England's middle order batsmen - although our lower order (Prior, Broad, Anderson) have excelled.

Seven Australian centuries to England's one would seem to bear this out.

There is now talk of 39-year old Mark Ramprakash waltzing ;) back into the team. He has been on brilliant form for his county this season, and could prove to be the colossus we need if we are to make any sort of impact at The Oval.

[BFG]

I would love to see Ramps back in the team!
Just had another good weekend and an out and out top bloke!

[davemay]

This team I think would do us better than the lot that "played" at Headingly.

Named in batting order

A Strauss
A Cook
R Key
M Ramprakash
P Collingwood
M Prior
A Flintoff ( if fit )
S Broad
G Swann
J Anderson
M Panesar

If Flintoff is not fit to play, then move the 4 players under him up 1 batting place ( except Monte ) and put S harmison in at No 10

I think we have to fear the worst, that there will be no Freddie.

Harmison in therefore, as you say, and I'd go along with your lineup, apart from having Ramps bat at number 3 to take any pressure off Key.

Well, no Key or Ramprakash, instead they picked Bell and Trott.
Both have acquitted themselves well so far.

England 332
Australia 108-5. (Four wickets to Broad)

Dare we think the unthinkable ? :o :o :o

[BB Warrior]

Aussies 160 all out...... :o :o :o

Good bowling by Broad and Swann 8-) which gives England a useful lead of 172..... ;D

I would like to say that England will now go on and bat all day tomorrow, a bit of Sunday morning and build a match winning lead before bowling the Aussies out in the last 2 days to win the Ashes! ;D ;D ;D

But, knowing England, there is every chance that we will be bowled out for next to nothing and the Aussies will romp home to win.... :P ::) :'(

So, it really is anybody's guess what will happen next...... but we can at least dream the unthinkable, even if we can't think it! ;D ;D

[NigelS]

This ain't over yet Eng 49-3 the lead now 221!

Some tentative moments to come, that's for sure.................

The best point in England's favour is that the Aussies have to bat last, on a pitch that is breaking up: Did you see those balls that cut back when pitched in the foot-holes by the off-spinner ?

I can't see the Aussies making 300 to win, so if England can just make another 100 runs we should be home and dry - weather permitting.

Just hope I'm not thinking the un-dreamable. ;D ;D ;D

[specialone]

This is not over yet. I know the pitch is obviously a 'result pitch', well done the groundsman, but at Lords they fell 115 short of the best run chase of all time, when 3 of the first 4 men out got 'shockers' from the umpires. Clarke and North look capable of batting for days. Just off to do battle with my daughter for the remote control.
Shaun

Aug 22, 2009 9:23:06 GMT specialone said:

Clarke and North look capable of batting for days.

"I'm an incredibly negative person, so any form of success is only ever going to be a relief to me and set my default position back to neutral."
- Catherine Tate, 2009.

You have a definite point, and we can add Ponting to the equation.
But providing we don't just roll over today, I'm keeping the faith. ;D

[BB Warrior]

England 180 for 5, giving them a lead of 350. 8-)

It would be nice to see them bat out the rest of the day and give the Aussies a real mountain to climb on a pitch that won't be easy on the last couple of days..... ;)

Just watched the highlights on Channel 5.

The England tail wagged yet again, and we set the Aussies a daunting target of 546 to win. Okay, they knocked off 80 without loss by the close of play but it still looks a bridge too far. Only rain (due on Tuesday) can prevent Strauss from getting his gloves on that little urn.

England's batting in the second innings was at the same time inspiring and heartwarming: a genuine middle order bat of considerable stature has been unearthed in Jonathan Trott, and Stuart Broad has emerged as an all-rounder of Botham-esque potential.

[BB Warrior]

Aug 22, 2009 19:23:39 GMT tommo III said:

England's batting in the second innings was at the same time inspiring and heartwarming: a genuine middle order bat of considerable stature has been unearthed in Jonathan Trott, and Stuart Broad has emerged as an all-rounder of Botham-esque potential.

I'm impressed with Trott, he looks as if he belongs in Test cricket, but the key to an England win probably rests with Graham Swann now who has also had a fantastic match so far at the Oval. 8-)

Stuart Broad bowled superbly in the first innings and is a very capable lower middle-order batsman..... but many good England all-rounders (including Freddie Flintoff & the much-maligned Derek Pringle) have been called the "next Botham" without ever reaching the same level. ::)

With the amount of turn on the pitch for the spinners, I'm just glad that Shane Warne isn't still playing for the Aussies...... although I bet he wishes that he was....... can you imagine how far he would be turning it! :o :o :o

Personally, I think that there is a lot more of this Test Match still to play...... England have proved (twice) that you can score runs on this pitch and the Aussie batting so far this summer has been generally better than ours....... there were a couple of very poor umpiring decisions that went against them in the 1st Innings and we can't expect the same luck again. ::)

80 without loss over night is a good start for them and if their openers can do the same this morning then they will start to believe that they can chase down the 546 required to win with the batting that they have in their team.... :o

Whatever happens, barring rain of course, there will be a result in this match...... I just hope that the England bowlers put the ball in the right place enough times and we can do it. 8-)

We've done it !

England win the Ashes ! And with a day to spare.....

Aussies finished on 348 with Hussey scoring a fine century, and I must admit to having some nagging doubts when they passed 300 with only five wickets down.

Great for our 'old warhorses' Flintoff and Harmison to play such an important part, Harmison on a hat-trick towards the end, and earlier Freddie had dismissed Ponting with a brilliant run-out.

This has been one of the most exciting series of Test cricket ever.

[Colemanator]

Marvellous 8-)