2006 Ashes

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Well, both NZ and England have survived the day at least, but both still look doomed to a sizable defeat.

 

KP's got 1 not out in 38 test innings so far, he hardly ever finishes not out because of the way he plays. If he can stay in with a decent partner for a few hours, it could mean fireworks towards the back end. KP really comes into his own when he's got a target to aim at and the spotlight is on him and he's got his eye in. Extremely unlikely, but we'll have to wait and see.

 

He's got a great average. Wish some NZ batsmen could have an average like his.

 

Bell, Cook and Pietersen to form the spine of England's batting line-up for the next 5 or 6 years at the very least. That's 3 batsmen who should be able to maintain an average of around 50. Looks quite promising. Monty's still only young, too, we've got a few good young players.

 

The best batsman in our team is Stephen Fleming and his average is 39. We suck.

Well, NZ are all out and have lost, but England soldier on. Only 253 more runs to get and the Ashes will be free from Australia's grasping hands for a bit longer. 253 is easy! They do it in one day games all the time.

[ December 18, 2006, 04:19: Message edited by: Harbourboy ]

 

Pietersen and Flintoff smashing it to all parts.

 

222 to win. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

If you saw a team on 335-5, you'd say they were odds on to get to 500 in a normal test match. Shame that superbat Geraint Jones has proven to be hopeless so far, so you can't really count on him.

 

And there you have it. Aussies clean up the Poms for the third match in a row. Can we make it 5-0 series?

 

Some of this could be attributed to having too few batting partners. There's no way he would have gotten out in the way that he did in the 1st innings if he had a decent batsman out the other end.

Good game - bad luck Barmy - bit of a tragedy for the English side really - they win it for the first time in 16 years and then loose it only 15 months later (the shortest reign in Ashes history).
Lets keep our fingers crossed for two more good games!

 

Ah well, we had a good crack at that. The England team should not feel too bad at that, 350 was higher than any winning 4th innings score in history, and at times they looked like they may avoid losing this test.

Brilliant cricket by the Aussies though. They've got 3 batsmen averaging over 100 in the series so far, and they've bowled really well too. We've competed as much as we could, but made too many mistakes in times and in other times simply weren't able to compete with these Aussie legends.

It'll be interesting when Warnie and McGrath retire though and Ponting's tactics don't consist of 'throw the ball to those two' . We'll be back!

 

The commentators reckon Warne will be around in 2009 but say the McGrath is close to retirement.

Might have been a different story had Panesar been at Adelaide. He's got a pretty decent arm on him.

 

I think we could be looking at a whitewash here. Australia really are in a different league to England on this tour. It hasn't helped that Flintoff hasn't really fired with the bat apart from a hopeless situation today.

 

Eh, I wouldn't bet against that the way the Aussies are playing. That would be seriously embarrassing, I think that's only happened once in over 100 years. Ouch.

It's going to get even worse in the one day series as well, because we've no idea how to play ODI's. Then there's the World Cup not too far away that we'll get pummeled in. It's going to take some time before we get a chance to string a few test series' together and sort the team out a bit.

 

Are there going to be any 20-20 matches in between the one day games or during the World Cup?

 

No idea - there's a England vs Australia 20-20 at the SCG on the 9th of January! Hope that plays well! (there's a NSW vs. QLD 20-20 at the Gabba on Jan-5 if thats more convenient).
I think England really need to review their whole selecting thing - perhaps going Australia's way of hiring a dedicated selector would be a goer.
I think Warne has at least a few years in him - his bowling action isn't particularly demanding and he has quite a bit of drive in him. If not, the there are plenty of aspiring spinners in the state game

 

That and the fact that Warnie is almost always 1st slip and does very little running

 

Warne will probably retire before the end of the current series. Without Warne and McGrath the odds will be evened out a bit.

 

I thought they'd both pretty much announced their retirements today.

 

Yup, Warne's supposed to anounce his retirement tommorow but knowing him he probably won't just to cause a stir. Not sure about McGrath but he looks like an old codger out in the field.

 

Yeah, Warnie's retirement pretty much caught me by surprise, McGrath's I was sort of expecting. McGill is more than capable of being test leg spinner and Stuart Clarke has already proved himself as a destructive medium pacer.