The Ashes Thread

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Watching Moto GP today, (at Donington Park, UK) the commentator said that today wasn't the bikes the most important thing in UK but a cricket match (or some such) called something like 'Ashes' and I remembered this thread, they said that this match or championship is celebrated every 18 months? just when is summer in England and in Australia? Is there a reason for this? How many teams play there?
I would like to watch some matchs but I can't, when I had ESPN they didn't show a match ever and here at Spain I have no hope on ever watch a game.

 

The Ashes is a historic event and the biggest thing on the cricket calender. It's a test series between England and Australia. The winner takes home 'the Ashes'. A little urn barely 6 inches high and falling apart because of its age.
Australia are without doubt the best cricket team on the planet, and the team they have now is arguably the best cricket side ever. England have not managed to win the Ashes since 1987 I think. This year we have the best chance of reclaiming the Ashes since 1987 as we have a brilliant test side that hasn't lost a test series in over a year. Unfortunately, as I say, Australia have one of - if not THE - best cricket sides ever.

The series' are 5 test matches long. Australia have won the first one - on a pitch that we have not beaten Australia on since the 1930's. People will be saying 'Oh, here we go again, Australia will win 5-0', but we were the mechanics of our own defeat in this match and I think if we stop making silly errors, we will stand a great chance.

 

Flattering? Both of England's scores were less than Australia's first innings and it would have been an innings defeat if Australia had had their second innings first.

This test reminds me of the recent series between Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand had patches of domination (like England on the first morning) but Australia would always come back with one or two good sessions and win the game easily. I remember bloody Simon Katich scoring a 100 in similar circumstances to his 50 yesterday when we thought we had them on the ropes.

The lesson is that to beat Australia you have to play well for the whole game. If you give them even one session, you're done for.

As for Ian Bell, I haven't seen much to justify the faith you seem to show in him, Barmy. He didn't seem to have a clue.

 

Yes, flattering. We missed 6 dolly catches, which would have meant we would be chasing closer to 250 rather than 420. Normally, we would bag them no worries. We were very slack in the field for almost the entire innings. This will not happen again. We did not lose the match because Australia out-classed us. We lost because we made silly mistakes.

And Ian Bell is a good batsman, you will see. He has been unlucky so far, especially in his second innings. If you're going on the 'clueless' idea, then Vaughan and Flintoff have easily been mor clueless with the bat. Bell got out to a piece of magic from the 2nd best spin bowler of all time. Vaughan and Flintoff have been out to standard balls.

The rest of what I mean is in my post, if you fancy bothering to read it our kid. I am confident we will do better next time.

The only weak link in our side right now, is Ashley bloody Giles. I have never seen a more negative spin bowler. For one, he never actually spins the ball; for two, he never looks like he is actually trying to take a wicket, more preventing runs, and for three; his average is atrocious. The selectors really should replace him with Graeme Swann. Not only can he actually spin in the ball and play aggressively, he can bat a little bit as well.

 

And your fielding. And your reliance on a debutant to score all your runs. And your inability to score more than 200 runs in an innings.

But I do agree that Ashley Giles is a bit pointless and has long owed his place in the side to a lack of competition. I mean, how often was Graeme Hick played purely because you needed a spinner? We had that problem in the 1990s when Dipak Patel got loads of games because we had no other spinner.

Well, you did predict that Australia would beat you inside 4 days in one of the tests. Maybe the rest of your prediction will come true as well.......

I very much doubt that Australia will win 5-0, but it's a tough road for England from here to win at least 2 tests to take the series.

 

Yes, but that fielding will sort out, we've had no problems with fielding. And the batting will sort out as well. We are talking about Vaughan, Flintoff, Strauss et al here. Real quality batsmen. You honestly believe they will go for single figures in the other games as well?

And yes, Ashley Giles is pointless. As I saym, Graeme Swann should be in, he's a great player and still very young.

Hey, I tell you this, the future of England cricket is bright. We have some superb talent coming through; we will have our time .

It's definitely going to be tough from here on in, because the Aussies will feel really confident about things now. They will really have the winds under the saild after such a comprehensive win.
I think Australia will win the Ashes, but not 5-0 like Magraa said they will.

 

Well only England have the bowlers to seriously threaten Oz at the moment. Just missing a quality spinner that's all.

NZ have Bond and Vettori, but need two more that aren't fodder.

 

It's funny seeing how one-eyed you are! Do you also think that Adam Gilchrist will fail twice again? Or that Justin Langer will run himself out again? or that Australia will score less than 200 again?

Also, dropping McGrath twice hardly changed the course of the match.

Everything you've said about dumb things England did can be said about Australia as well, but they still won comprehensively.

Usually I don't like watching sport when I don't support either of the teams, but The Ashes is riveting. I look forward to the next test.

 

Except for one decent knock in a one day, we've pretty much got Gilly sussed.
Langer, yes that was a poor run out, but I'm sure we'll get him out another way. Harmy is bowling superbly well and no batsmen is safe when he is bowling like this.

You underestimate England mate. I think I'll risk my nuts on the chopping block and say that you'll notice much closer tests now that away are away from the Aussie hunting ground that is Lords. We now know a few weaknesses and will work on sorting them out. Obviously, Australia will do the same, but I feel that they threw everything they had as us in this test and it ruffled our feathers a bit. Whereas, we were well under-par.

Yes, the Ashes are absolutely riveting. What you have here is the best 2 teams in world cricket having at each other and it makes for compelling viewing.

 

I love your optimism! Especially about a man who has a batting average of over 55 from 69 test matches.

I still think everything you've said can also be said about Australia:

Strauss, yes that was a poor shot, but I'm sure we'll get him out another way. McGrath is bowling superbly well and no batsmen is safe when he is bowling like this.

You underestimate Australia mate. I think I'll risk my nuts on the chopping block and say that you'll notice much closer tests now that we are away from that dodgy batting track that is Lords. We now know a few weaknesses and will work on sorting them out. Obviously, England will do the same, but I feel that they threw everything they had as us on that first morning and it ruffled our feathers a bit. Whereas, we were well under-par in not having our top order fire.

 

Yes, but England were well under what they coukd play at. And other than Langers run out and Gilly getting out by Flintoff (again), there weren't many more errors of note.
England made many errors in the way dropped catches, general poor fielding and bad performances with the bat. Australia didn't do a great deal wrong all test. That was the difference between the teams.
It'll be interesting to watch when both teams are flying on all cylinders.

Whenever I back my home country, I get called a blind fan lol.

 

I have to say, I am very impressed with Pietersen. As the only batsman to stand up to Australia, I'm guessing that if anyone else can hold it together to support him (Bell, perhaps), this could be a very tough series. The first Test will not be the yardstick for England and I think that predictions of a 5-0 drubbing are extremely far-fetched.

For the first time in 16 years, England can put up a decent fight. The problem is that at Lord's, they went down with hardly a whimper. Without that thug Harmison or Pietersen, they wouldn't have even managed that.

Without wanting to sound like a smug Aussie - we didn't outplay England, they just couldn't get the job done. They made simple mistakes and it meant they got utterly embarrassed. The Australian press is having a couple of pot-shots at the umpiring (I don't put much stock in that) but is avoiding the point that Australia almost certainly didn't play at its best. They didn't make too many mistakes, but the batsmen in particular were a far cry from peak form. Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne, though... Pigeon may be getting older, but he's still the best fast bowler in the world, bar none.

 

I agree with NonSequitur that there is no way that Australia were playing at their best. Another example: none of the Australians scored a 100 and they didn't reach 400. Yet another example: Gillespie's bowling was not particularly threatening.

The main reason why it won't be a 5-0 whitewash is because there will be some games drawn due to inclement weather (as almost happened in this match).

I'll repeat what I said before: in order to beat Australia in a test match, you can't let them dominate you at any point because it seems to only take Australia one session to take control of a game. In this test, they did at the end of the first day. England never recovered from Glenn McGrath reducing them to 21-5. In another test, it will be Gilchrist smashing 150 from 75 balls to take them from 100-6 to 300-6. The Australian team has 11 such game breakers whereas England only has 2-3 players who can completely wrestle the control of the game from the opposition (Harmison, Pietersen, Flintoff). THAT is why Australia will win this series.

But, I am not as sure about the next Ashes series when this England team will be more experienced and the current Aussie stars will be gone.....

 

You enjoyed Harmy's bowling I take it, NonSequitur .

It was refreshing to see that. As Lee was sending his usual beamers and showing his great array of balls; the aggressive bouncer followed by the slightly more aggressive bouncer - we had Harmy sending balls down prety much intended to cause injury and upset. Lovin' it . I think Harmy is now a better bowler than Brett 'c*nt' Lee.

And Harbs, I pretty much agree with what you said there. All except that Australia have 11 game winnings players. I'd say they have 6 or 7 players capable of turning a game, where as wer have 3 or 4. But that is not the reason why they will win the Ashes. They will win because they have those legends Magraa and Warne. Our bowlers have shown that we can bowl the Aussie batsmen out twice; something that we have not often had the firepower to do. The only problem is that Magraa and Warne are just too hot to handle when they are playing this well. You could have a line-up of Tendulkar, Lara, Laxman, Afridi and Ganguly, but when you are talking about a pair that have more than 1050 test wickets between them and are playing at their best. There's not much you can do. Although, have faith in Bell. I told you about Big Kev before he 'made it' and Bell is a few years younger - now I'n telling you about him . He'll come good, he was just a bit bamboozled by Warne moving the ball allover the place then giving his a dead straight slider. He's only young and has never had to play against that kind of world class spin bowling before. He learns quickly though and I think you'll see his talent before long.

 

Surely he plays against Warne in county cricket?

 

Well, only occasionally when he plays Hampshire. But, seeing as Warne doesn't take all that many wickets in county cricket, considering, I would suggest Warney doesn't try quite so hard as he does in the Ashes. Even Chrissy Tremlett takes more wickets than Warney for Hampshire.

 

Well, almost time for the second test. I see that England are comfortably second on the latest test rankings (but still miles behind Australia) although they are only 6th on the one day rankings.

I predict that this test will see the first centuries of the series, one to Adam Gilchrist, and one to an Englishman.

 

You should seek Gilchrist out and suck his dick mate; you'd love it.

He won't get a century in this next test, I'll tell you that for nothing.

BAD mistake leaving Collingwood and giving Ashley 'useless' Giles another un-earned nod. Giles has done NOTHING to deserve his spot, Collingwood has 3 centuries in a week.

Shocking.

England need to win this, or bye bye Ashes. Damn work means I'll miss most of it...

 

Damn sleep means I will miss most of it, unless I get up in the middle of the night again.

I hate Adam Gilchrist but he smashed us to pieces earlier in the year (straight after I laughed at him for failing in the first few games) so I'm expecting him to do the same to you.

What's the point of Ashley Giles?

 

Not exactly fair, but McGraths absence appears to be showing in Englands favour. Up comes 111 without loss, I guess neither of these umpires is likely to do the silly dance though.

Edit:

I'm going to have to steer clear of this thread. Everytime I open my mouth we get a batting collapse.

[ August 04, 2005, 16:42: Message edited by: Carcaroth ]