2006 Ashes

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Apparently the selecters are trying to keep Gilchrist, Hayden and Langer on for another year as well because they dont want the team to go to the dogs. They are also apparently close to retirement.

 

The game will be poorer for Warne's retirement. It's the end of a era and the decline of the latest cricket empire. Australia will take a lot of time to rebuilt when McGrath, Warne, Gilly, Langer, Hayden are gone. Let's see if someone else can step up to the plate. Probably India for me.

Other news, Steve Harmison has retired from One Day cricket. That was coming for some time, he's like Hoggard in that he doesn't like the white ball. Monty has been called up and Vaughan will likely play a part. Will be good to see him back,

 

It wont be *that* bad - Stuart Clarke has proved himself as suitable McGrath replacement, Stuart McGill has never been that far behind Warne, Haddin's current form is probably better than pre-Perth Gilchrist form and Phil Jaques is more than competent as a opening batsman. Ok, this list isn't quite as good as the current lot and I'm yet to come up with another opening batsman, but Australia should be fine for some time yet.

It seems a bit on an odd time for Harmison to retire from one-dayers considering he hasn't played any for a while and there's still a couple of tests to go before that changes. I guess there are quite a few of the short games coming up (I think Australia has to wait 11 months until its next test)

 

Well, the Brits copped a floggin today. Lets hope we can keep it up.

 

Depressing isn't it. All that hard work, and it is back to the drawing board.

I just hope than the Selectors do not panic when they get home. Essentially this is a good team, Oz are just better and have made full use of every small piece of luck that has come their way. England haven't. What would we give for Simon Jones?

 

It's the Shane Warne show out there at the moment. He'll probably score a century now, to complete the fairy tale.

 

What about those two LBW decisions turned down for Hoggard? That's as plum as it's gonna get. Seriously I don't know how Hayden gets away with all these LBW decisions to be honest.

 

Oooh, Ponting and Hussey both gone! It's a miracle. Somebody in England has been praying to the right gods, because only mighty divine magic could have achieved the impossible feat of sending those two back to the pavillion cheaply.

But that Shane Warne century is still to come.....

 

I dunno about that century but I reckon Hayden, Symonds and Gilly will do their fair share of Brit Bashing to get our score up.

 

Were making a good fight of it which seemed impossible after yesterday. I'm listening to the radio so I can't comment on Hoggard's lbw decision but Geoffrey Boycott did say 'a man with one eye would have given that out', 'nuff said.

 

Yeah, those 2 lbw decisions for Hayden were pretty bad as well as that one against Symonds. Had those 2 actually been given out, it would be a completely different story at the moment but as it stands, England is copping a hiding from these 2 Queenslanders.

What a way for Roy to get his first test 100.

[ December 27, 2006, 06:38: Message edited by: TrueBlueAussie ]

 

This is pretty awesome - going from 5-84 and bringing up a 250 run partnership. Hayden's doing pretty well, he is already past his 4th highest test score (the first being 380).
The umpires are being pretty critical of Freddy's field placements - are the English commentators saying the same things?
As for Roy - that was (or is) a good knock. It looks like he may have finally grasped the concept of building an innings!

 

All good things must come to an end. But better things may come about with Gilly coming to the crease.

 

Some flid has leeked our team plans out to the press. That's just bloody great. As if we needed more downers.

 

The English team has plans? Is it something like "play well for one session, then play crap for two"? Good to see Mahmood get a couple of wickets. He's been a bit of a whipping boy so far, even though he looks as useful as any of the other bowlers.

EDIT: Here is what Matthew Hoggard says his plan is: "I just close my eyes and whang it down anyway, so there's not much planning there." Classic.

[ December 27, 2006, 21:41: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

The Aussies are kicking ass. Still, thats pretty rough how the umpire is giving those calls for lbw out when the English probably had better ones when the Aussies were batting but were knocked back.

 

An innings defeat. What an embarrassment.

 

Dearie me. On top of the world one year, and abysmal the following year. Hey, just like the English rugby team!

I'm looking forward to the tri-series. England and New Zealand should be equally hopeless, so should be a good match!

 

There was an article in today about England being perhaps the wort team in ashes history (provided they lose the last test and become the first team to loose 5-0 and suffer an innings defeat) - I though that to be a tad unfair given Australia's current form. I mean we have Ponting averaging at around 110 for the year, Hussy 85 odd, the greatest leg spinner of all time, the (statistically) best paceman of all time in McGrath, the best bowling partnership (Warne and McGrath), Clark bowling just as well as Shane and to top it off the fastest bowler in the world (in Shoab's absenece), even if he isn't bowling his best.

England's batsman specific plans: http://www.theage.com.au/news/news/england-investigating-plan-leak/2006/12/27/1166895361664.html
btw it says Blue=Bails (this didn't read too clearly in the paper I had delivered)

[edit]I checked the scorecards for the 1922 tests and it appears that the author of the article that I read was completely incorrect. In the 1922 test England did loose a game by an innings (and 91 runs - slightly less than the 06 loss - but still an innings). Other losses were by 377 runs, 8 wickets, 9 wickets and 119 runs. This makes me think that, even if england does loose the last test, they will still have had lesser loosing margins than in '22

[ December 30, 2006, 15:44: Message edited by: Stu ]

 

I'm just praying that we wont lose the last test, we have a pretty good record in Sydney so with a bit of luck we might get a result. We've played very poorly but I don't think we deserve the whitewash, if we did lose all 5 it could give English cricket a kick in the teeth after 2005 series which captivated the nation. Before we regained the Ashes not a lot of people I knew even liked cricket and that changed overnight, so I really don't want that to be undone.