Ashes!!

wolf · Tennis legend

Ashes!!

Salmon · Tennis legend

Sun shining brightly, too. Don't think there will be anything adverse for cricket (barring mass streaking, maybe) in the next 30 minutes.

philwrig · Hall of fame

That's it , so easy in the end, what was I worried about.

Salmon · Tennis legend

It'll be awesome if the rain starts now and continues all day...

indiana · Tennis legend

Tremendous stuff. I was pretty confident but didn't quite expect them to be rolled over that quickly smile

Apparently it chucked it down a few hours afters after England clinched victory, more fun if it had been a bit closer than that wink

Real pity about Broad, I think he had a pretty impressive start to the series without much luck.

So shoot out now between Bresnan, Tremlett and Shahzad for Broad's place. If Bresnan shows up well in the bowling department I'd be tempted to go for him because of what he can offer in the lower batting order as a more direct replacement there for Broad. Though I guess we are assuming the Aussies will reach the lower batting order smile

I know there is some theory that if Hughes is brought into the Aussie team Tremlett's really the man to test him out with the short ball, and to be fair the Aussie tactic of picking a ( random ) left arm spinner to get at Pietersen worked well with Doherty snaring KP on 227 biggrin

Think I'd want more in Tremlett's favout than just that, but he could well force himself in on performance since he is most likely overall the best pure bowling option. May be a close shout.

Think the rest of the team is worth giving another chance to wink

-- Edited by indiana on Tuesday 7th of December 2010 12:45:18 PM

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

We could always just let KP bowl and throw in another batsman ;)

wolf · Tennis legend

Shazhad has a better first class batting average than Bresnan.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I don't see Bresnan's batting as a replacement for Broad's. The thing about Broad is that he scores tough runs in difficult situations. Bresnan is nowhere near Broad as a batsman - he's okay for a good 20 or 30, but if the ball is doing something, he looks to be about as good as Jimmy. England don't need someone who can turn a 550 all out to a 600/8. They need someone who'll turn a 200 all out to 250 all out and Bresnan can't do that from what I've seen.

Given the form of English batsmen, I think wickets are much more of an issue here than runs, so the hierarchy should be Tremlett, Shahzad and Bresnan. I'll be annoyed if that changes after the Victoria game, unless Bresnan takes 8/73 or something, because Perth should suit Tremlett more than the others.

People have been spoiled by having Broad and Swann at 8 and 9, I reckon! That's just so much better than your average tail end. Tremlett can bat a bit, so a lower order of Swann, Tremlett, Anderson and Finn doesn't sound too bad.

Vandenburg · Futures level

Criwolf wrote:

Shazhad has a better first class batting average than Bresnan.

Cricket can create false statistics more than any other sport,

shahzad only has 900 first class runs and usualy bats 9-10 and is often not out at the end of a innings, so his average goes up and up, if you look carefully is his hole life he as only scored 2 50s, which is nothing compared to bresnan. Having watched yorkshire for a few years now, i can without a doubt say bresnan is a far superioir batsman

Salmon · Tennis legend

Kind of agree with you. Every time that I've seen Shahzad bat (I've seen all of his England innings and zero of his Yorks innings, so that's three times), he has looked like a number 10. But he has played the odd good innings, so he must have some promise. He is very much a work in progress, mind it.... just 34 first class matches and he's 25.

Meanwhile, the Aussies have called in spinner Michael Beer, who has played 5 FC matches in his life. Apparently Warne suggested his name.

There must have been some misinterpretation - knowing Warne, he probably said "I think they should have beer during the third test" or something like that, and the selectors thought he was referring to a player.

wolf · Tennis legend

Yeah I know Bresnan is the better bat, but I just put that to point out the difference in their batting isn't so great that it justifies putting in Bresnan ahead of the other two.

Salmon · Tennis legend

The Treminator - what a bowler!

England messed it up, though. After having 5 wickets down with less than 70, conceding 200+ is criminal.

philwrig · Hall of fame

But then you could say we massively outperformed to get them 5 down for so little in the first place. Still a great position and one you would have taken at the start of the day. I smell a total in XS of 400.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Fair enough, I suppose. England would have taken 300 all out at the start of the day, so this is fine.

Given that they have already collapsed once this series, England should get 450. (Now just watch them collapse - I jinxed Ryan Harris and now he can't buy a run.

)

England have become freaks on the field! If today one made a rest of the world fielders' XI out of active Test players, I reckon England would outfield them by a bit. A lot of credit goes to Richard Halsall, of course.

Salmon · Tennis legend

See what I did there? ashamed

Now I'm going to attempt the opposite.

Swann, Tremlett, KP and Colly are hacks and should retire.