1st Test: England v Australia

[Flintoff Rocks]

Swann and Broad to put another 30 or so. England to finish with 375-400.

England well in front on a 300-average pitch.

 

[SciD]

Aussies are in front for me. England will not going to get 400 and Aussies have enough firepower in batting to overcome England's total.

Hauritz - Done his work in first innings. Got KP.
KP - Likes to get out to pie chuckers.
Colly - Showed he loves to fight it out against Aussies again. Got a beauty to get out.
Anderson - Nightwatchman for Broad and Swann :rtfl

 

[pcfan123]

Broad will score more runs than Hauritz or Mitch Johnson

 

[Flintoff Rocks]

England will not going to get 400

Remember what Steyn and Duminy did to Australia last year?

That is Broad and Swann are going to do this year ^_^"

 

[SciD]

Duminy.

Whos Englands set batsman here?

 

[Flintoff Rocks]

Swann is a bit of an all-rounder, more than capable of making a quick 50.

 

[pcfan123]

Yea this is not comparable to the Dumminy Steyn partnership, No faith in Broad , Flintoff Rocks? I fancy him a future Flintoff esque batsman

 

[Flintoff Rocks]

Broad is good. A real prospect with the bat and ball.

He reminds me of the young New Zealander Tim Southee.

 

[SciD]

Since when Tim Southee became benchmark for great lower order batsman.

 

[pcfan123]

Broad is good. A real prospect with the bat and ball.

He reminds me of the young New Zealander Tim Southee.

I still remember Southees 70 odd against England, Had me scared for a bit that match!

 

[Howsie]

Broad is good. A real prospect with the bat and ball.

He reminds me of the young New Zealander Tim Southee.

That's probably Southee's biggest ever batting complement right there.

 

[angryangy]

Duminy.

Whos Englands set batsman here?

Anderson, of course.

 

[mattfb]

I fell asleep and missed the last hour but Matt Prior and Andrew Flintoff actually looked pretty good, mind you it was only the highlights that I caught. These two could form a pretty good combination during the ashes, both of them are very attacking and being at the crease at the same time they could take the game away from the Aussie's in a flash.

Yep, I did the same thing you did. I agree they looked good on the highlights, and Prior got out to a great ball as well so they both look promising. Prior and Flintoff could form quite the annoying partnership in the middle order later this series, especially when we know Broad and Swann are still to come.

Swann and Broad to put another 30 or so. England to finish with 375-400.

England well in front on a 300-average pitch.

There's not a lot in the pitch - No movement, no uneven bounce. Just a hint of swing. It's not all that slow either with the Aussies constantly at around 138. It is slowing down a fair bit when it hits the deck, sometimes upto around 8km/h but you don't need to force the pace. The outfield isn't bad either. I would say its about a 350-400 pitch for the first and second innings. England are on par atm.

 

[Owzat]

336/7 is about par I'd guess, the problem is the batsmen didn't look in that much trouble (bar Bopara) and most got in and then got out. But from 90/3 I think England would take that ten times out of ten. The thing that worries me is the mode of dismissals might lean towards 400 being a par or below total, will the aussies give their wickets away so badly?

Cook - rather poor push at a ball he should have left

Strauss - in two minds over pulling all the time he was at the crease and gloved

Pietersen - awful attempt to sweep from way outside off stump, reverse sweep or his 'switch hit' would have been better, playing properly even more so.

Flintoff - drove at a wide ball he could have left and played on

Can't really blame Bopara for being out-thought by the bowler, did quite well to get to 35. Problem is all but Cook got in, none got past 70 and that is a sign that there's not a lot wrong with the pitch. The ball did seem to be turning so hopefully Swann and Bopara will do better than Hauritz's Pietersen 'gimme' wicket.

Morning session is as usual crucial. Broad, Anderson, Swann and Panesar need to get England up to, and hopefully past, 400 to give the bowlers enough to bowl at and try to generate a decent lead of 50+ runs. One of the worries for me is the persistance with a nightwatchman, it didn't exactly "fail" per se, but now Swann is batting at 10 and I'd rather have him at 9 or even 8. Someone said on TMS that he could get a 50, that could very much depend on who he's batting with for the 9th wicket and Monty. When he's left stranded 21no then will people still say the nightwatchman is a good move? Broad still ended up out in the middle, trouble is it's reshuffled our batting order and 'demoted' Broad and Swann.

 

[aussie1st]

Siddle bowled fantastic spells but also bowled average spells too.

That is Siddle's way atm. Hes done that in all his games so far, with more experience he should become more consistent. The good thing about him is he can do everything, swing both ways, reverse swing, seam movement and extracting bounce.