2009 Ashes Series - England vs. Australia **Spoilers**

Unless we get some quick wickets with the new ball, looks like it'll be a draw.

I dunno about ripping apart the English bowling Spawn, it was more a case of knocking the ball around because it wasn't doing anything. They only hit 8 boundaries each in their centuries!
 
Spawn said:
LOL ok fair enough ripping is the wrong word but unless England get these 2 out and quickly tommorrow...they arent going to win the game...more chance of the Aussies winning it imho. But loolks like its going to be a draw by the sounds of it.
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Aye, but unless England's batsman all get themselves out cheaply in the second innings, I can't see us losing this.

Having said that, you can never rule that out!
 
elmuzzy66. said:
Anderson when the weather suits his style is very good but when it doesn't he is quite tooth less. i would a have gone for onions, Harmy, Flintoff, swan and broad attack.
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Can't agree with that at all. When the ball is swinging Anderson's one of the best bowlers in the world - problem was yesterday, as can happen sometimes in cricket, the ball didn't do anything, and with the outfield so lush it was never going to reverse. If it swings with the new ball this morning though he'd be top of my list of English bowlers to get wickets if he can get his lengths right.

elmuzzy66. said:
England selectors have to be more ruthless in their team selection. Austrailia have the right selction policy, clarke getting droped is proof of it. It feels like its the same old faces everytime, aren't there any other good players in england. I wonder if a player like huges would have been given a chance to play for england being so young.
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Hughes isn't a very good example, but speaking of young players, how about Stuart Broad? Most of Australia's players didn't break into the team until late 20s/30s - look how old Mike Hussey is now and he's only been playing test cricket a few years. Dropping players after 1-2 bad games doesn't always work, those policies failed us throughout the Atherton era and it wasn't until Fletcher came in that we started having continuity in selection that we started to get success.

Besides, I really can't understand who you'd want to drop. You've suggested Anderson who is our most consistent bowler in the last few years - his test bowling ranking, plus the complements of South Africa after he was our leading wicket taker against them last year goes to show this. Broad, statistically is probably our worst and I would have considered playing either Onions or Sidebottom instead. Dropping Anderson for Harmison would have meant you had 3 hit-the-deck bowlers in the side and only one swing bowler - not exactly an ideal balanced attack!
 
Spawn said:
PMSL:D...about time England got a wicket lol.

They need to get Ponting out, hes looking far too comfortable and could well be on his way to making a double ton.
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Yeah just need Ponting, Hussey, Clarke, Haddin, North, Johnston, then we're right into them... :(

It's annoying how our bowlers have been. Swann and Panesar bowled the odd quality ball but their length was too inconsistent.
 
The whole point wasn't that we're celebrating the fact that we drew the game, it's the fact that Australia didn't win it, which considering the way we batted, I'd call that a good result.

And yes, I think most of the blame for this game was down to our batting. The Australian bowling attack, bar Hilfenhaus and the odd spell of hostility from Johnston/Siddle was pretty average. The ball wasn't swinging, the turn was slow and nearly every single one of our batsman got out. I don't think I'll even bother getting the calculator out but if you look at the runs scored from 6-11 compared to 1-5 it doesn't look good.

Bowling wise, I think Harmison should be given the chance at Lords at the expense of Monty. Swann was excellent over the winter and I'd back him to come back stronger in the next test. I would think about bringing Onions/Sidebottom in for broad as well but that might mean too many changes right now. As for the batting - I can't see any obvious candidates to drop because it's not like we've got a form batsman to come in. Bopara was dissapointing though - he's really starting to look like another Ian Bell, scores stacks of runs when it's easy pickings but looking out of sorts in high pressure situations. If he doesn't score runs in the next test they should look at bringing someone else in, or at least do so before the winter.

It was also a good change to actually be on the other end of one of these results. How many times in the last 5 years have we failed to bowl a side out on the last day, handing them a draw in the process preventing us from drawing/winning a series? SA 2004, Australia 2005, WI 2009...

Edit: I expect Lords will be a draw too, but should get results at Edgbaston and Headingly. I could see this ending up 1-1. We really missed a trick not playing at Old Trafford, out of all the grounds in the country I'd have thought our best chance was there.
 
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marscay said:
I had to laugh when i heard one of the sky news reporters saying England are going into the Lords test with the momentum - i love the non biased approach to reporting in this country.

The writing is already on the wall and going forward the Aussies will only get stronger especially with Lee back. I think England will retreat into their predicable shell like days past and get well and truly pasted at Lords.
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I guess you were one of the people saying the same thing 4 years ago then?

If lords is anything like it has been over the last 3 years, it'll be a bore-draw.
 
dirtydog said:
Australia have had much success over England there in the last several encounters IIRC so I'm not sure why you are so confident of a draw.
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I was about to point out it's usually a batting paradise, but it seems the stats don't back that up. From 2006 to the beginning of this year, the average first innings score is only 370.

Will have to see how the wicket behaves and how the weather does!
 
SMN said:
Harmy has to play, even if its just for Lords and his bounce and he gets dropped for the rest. I'm not sure Onions is quick enough to play the aussies, its a shame Sidebottom is low on match time as he could be effective up the slope.
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Onions was bowling around 86-90 last time he was playing for England :confused:

Speaking of speed, did anyone else notice how on the first morning all our bowlers were going at 90-94, and by the evening they barely hit 90? I know there's tiredness to take into account but it didn't seem to happen to the Aussies when they bowled?
 
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