England in Australia

[puddleduck]

At this point with Harmison being so out of form I just plain wouldn't play him. He won't get anything out of Australian Pitches

Rubbish! Sorry I don't normally respond like that, but you can't drop one of the players that England will be relying on to win us this test series. No bowlers will get much out of the Aussie pitches except with the new ball, but they will be hard and with some good bounce, so you have to play the bowler who hits the pitch the hardest and likes a bit of bounce.

He picked up 3 wickets in the current tour match, and after a poor first day, looked much better on the 2nd morning. There is no way you can't play Harmison for the first 3 tests at least. With Freddie possibly still not at full pace, we need someone to bowl a 90mph spell at the batsmans throat ever so even, and he's the only one that can do that. If he's having no joy after 3 tests and looking worse than maybe consider dropping him, but I am pretty sure the Aussie batsman would rather see him not playing, then trying to hit them in the helmet.

Kev mentioned it a few pages back, but people seem to forget he still took a fair few wickets against Pakistan. Also people seem to under-estimate the effect that he had on the last Ashes. He may not have taken too many wickets, but he set Englands intentions out in that first session when he hit 3 of their batsman in the first hour.

 

[Octavius]

great to see Harmy in the wickets, and Giles got two critical scalps, pushing his name further forward, Id hate to be in Fletchers shoes, some tough choices. Bell failing might give Collingwood an edge if he can bat and bowl well. But seeing as how he didnt bowl at all in the game so far, i think its safe to assume he isnt going to play the first test.

that means the likely batting lineup will pretty much reflect the one we see facing NSW.

 

[wolf]

According to the BBC there has been an extra game added to the tour CA Chairman's XI at Lilac Hill on Decmeber 8th, a one-day game.

Any confirmation on this?

 

[RoboRocks]

Its good to see Cook get runs against a powerful NSW side.
I was worrying about him a bit.
He may still struggle against Wrane and Macgill.

 

[RoboRocks]

Monty Panesar has been racailly abused in Englands warm ups.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6145104.stm
That is pathetic. :
Monty Panesar is english, he is a sikh but he is english.
The twat who is responsible should never be allowed to watch another match again, if found.

I hope we don't see anymore of this.

 

[rickyp]

Whats more pathetic, the fact that someone did say that stuff, or the fact that the BBC talk it up the general crowds in Australia being like this. I'm getting really sick of how the media blows this up out of proportion, you would have to be an idiot to not know that it is just a select amount of people who are racist, not everyone in the MCG.

 

[Inbox24]

Damn looks like Strauss, Bell, Cook, Pietersen, and Flintoff will be the dangermen with the bat. Eng's bowlers are shaping up much better than expected as well particularly Harmison. A few months ago I would have predicted a 4-0 or at least 3-0 for us but will McGrath, Lee and Bracken so wayward it's gonna be pretty close.

 

[aussie1st]

Dam run out just killed Jaques run against the English. Cowan has a chance to show his worth while Katich can show the selectors hes still got it.

 

[angryangy]

Whats more pathetic, the fact that someone did say that stuff, or the fact that the BBC talk it up the general crowds in Australia being like this. I'm getting really sick of how the media blows this up out of proportion, you would have to be an idiot to not know that it is just a select amount of people who are racist, not everyone in the MCG.

Yes, racism is an issue for everyone who isn't racist. That guy who taunted Panesar probably has a huge smile on his face because of the media beatup. He only did it to put the guy off and look, turns out it worked! Now expect more idiots to try it.

 

[puddleduck]

It was brought up on the last page Rob

Nice to see Geraint Jones continuing to display the sort of form that seemed to both cost him his place, and then win it back!

I really feel this was the wrong decision, if they had started Read and he had failed they could have brought Jones back in with almost no pressure. Now he gets thrust back in without the performances to back it up, and under intense pressure to try and justify Fletchers decision. At the same time Reads confidence must be shot to pieces, so all in all I feel both keepers have now successfully been destroyed by Dunc. As I keep saying, I hope I'm wrong, but it's not like Jones has shown on too many occassions that he handles pressure well, especially when left batting with the tail.

Finally we've got Jaques out.. albeit run-out

 

[genghis_khan]

Well it looks as if Mitchell Johnson will be bowling first change at the Gabba next week. Unless of course Shaun Tait slaughters the english again in the SA tour match.
I am concerned with the form of Brett Lee, he was superb in the DLF Cup but has really struggled since, being our spearhead we're going to struggle if he continues like this.

 

[aussie1st]

We better hope he finds form in the Ashes, McGrath hopefully will do his usual hit form at the right moment. But for those 2 reasons we need a Johnson/Tait instead of a Clark in our team. If our spearheads were at their peak then we could play Clark but thats not the case.

 

[cricketmad09]

Really, England shouldnt be using rustiness as an excuse. They just came back from the champions trophy. 3 games, plus a couple of warm ups. No more rusty than us Aussies are.

 

[RoboRocks]

It was brought up on the last page Rob

Oops sorry, people post fast.

The Australians know that Monty is a threat and will do anything to put him off his game, if that means saying racilly abused comments then thats what it looks like they will say.
Sound like a desperate act to me

England are making a better fist of this bowling effort.
170 for 6 is brilliant considering that there have been 2 scores of over 300.
Good Monty is still bowling after that abuse, he will need to keep it up.

 

[CricketFan999]

Whats more pathetic, the fact that someone did say that stuff, or the fact that the BBC talk it up the general crowds in Australia being like this. I'm getting really sick of how the media blows this up out of proportion, you would have to be an idiot to not know that it is just a select amount of people who are racist, not everyone in the MCG.

Whats more pathetic is that it was predicted. I don't think in any other series it has been predicted before the series that a certain player or players will recieve racist abuse from the crowd, whether it be one person or one hundred. Unfortuntaly you will always get some idiot who goes to far and gets out of line. The problem though, is when it happens on such a regularity that it can be predicted.

Don't get me wrong, I know it's not the whole crowd and certainly not the whole of the Aus population but it's still somewhat bad that it was predicted and a 'fan' came through to prove it. I just hope it doesn't happen again.