England in Australia

[RoboRocks]

England looked seriously rusty in the bowling dept the best they can hope for is a draw after a poor first day england must must get harmy to fire. as for oz well took their chances ponting looks good!

You never know, we could still get a bunch of wickets.
Then we would have to bat well and take the lead.

 

[zub2005]

harmison only 12 overs come on, that's not right besides filntoff none of the pace bowlers played well. top batting by aussies

 

[angryangy]

Seems the tactics haven't changed much...

Probably what should be of most concern to English supporters. Attrition has hurt, but the resources are still there to be used properly. They're just in no position to be behind the game mentally, when the Australians have improved in those areas.

 

[JamesyJames3]

I really doubt our bowlers would have bowled anything like as poorly as your first three, the pitch didn't score us 350 on its own.

I am going to have to disagree with you there Brad, when you say our top 3 bowled poorly. Dont get me wrong, they were nothing special but 'poor? No.

You will probably say something like, we were 40-0 off 7 overs, but about 4 of the boundries were through the gully/slip aat catchable heights. Ourr bowlers created problems. We could have quite easily had you 2 or 3 down early on.

 

[brad352]

I am going to have to disagree with you there Brad, when you say our top 3 bowled poorly. Dont get me wrong, they were nothing special but 'poor? No.

You will probably say something like, we were 40-0 off 7 overs, but about 4 of the boundries were through the gully/slip aat catchable heights. Ourr bowlers created problems. We could have quite easily had you 2 or 3 down early on.

And where was the fieldsman for those catches? Out at square leg or cover or point because your bowlers were spraying the ball everywhere and making it impossible to set a field to. The rest of the day was even worse, you've got one guy bowling slow mediums that don't move an inch and another with about equal control to what I have bowling left handed. KP was probably your third best bowler today, Flintoff bowled well and Giles was relatively tight but anything but threatening.

If England had won the toss and batted they would not be 3 down right now.

 

[The_gas]

I wouldnt be to worried chaps, just look at our performance at lords last time. Things can only get better, not only did the aussies play well, but we had no luck. This will change at somepoint, it always does. Sure we could have bowled better, but it was a top track. The main problem i had was that we wasted the new ball.

 

[JamesyJames3]

And where was the fieldsman for those catches? Out at square leg or cover or point because your bowlers were spraying the ball everywhere and making it impossible to set a field to.

What? No they weren't. We had 3 slips and one gully where as we should have set 2 gullies as that was where the ball went through everytime.

 

[brad352]

What? No they weren't. We had 3 slips and one gully where as we should have set 2 gullies as that was where the ball went through everytime.

You started with 3 and a gully as well as a short leg, in Harmison's second over you were down to 2 and 1, in Anderson's first short leg went out to square. If Harmison in particular was competent and those first two overs consisted of 5 dots and an edge Flintoff may well have been able to use the knowledge that Langer was going hard at the ball and put in a second gully, instead he had to worry about plugging gaps and setting fields for bad bowling.

 

[Simbazz]

Matty Hayden himself said that the Brisbane pitch can one day be your best friend and the next be your worst enemy!

If they are going to get a bit of confidance into the squad, then they will need to bowl out Australia for less than 450 hopefully. I think Hussey will go early on, and i dont think the tail will wag!

 

[Cricket_god]

Matty Hayden himself said that the Brisbane pitch can one day be your best friend and the next be your worst enemy!

If they are going to get a bit of confidance into the squad, then they will need to bowl out Australia for less than 450 hopefully. I think Hussey will go early on, and i dont think the tail will wag!

Yes against india It was a similar situation in 2005 where zaheer khan destroyed the middle order AND the test ended in a draw

 

[Sureshot]

I've lost all respect, confidence and faith in Fletcher now. Giles averages nearly 40 and over 55 in his career against Aus, Panesar won us the summer was brilliant and got dropped.

For some reason I don't know why, I don't want us to win. You have to pick your best team, if you think that includes Giles over Panesar then you shouldn't be making those choices. Seriously on here who agrees with them that Giles > Panesar? It'll be in single figures.

PS: Apologies if this has already been brought up and a mod has said to not talk about it, not read the prior 10 pages yet.

We were poor today. Bowling short to Ponting? What's that about? Freddie was the best and Giles did ok but didn't threaten the batsman. KPs bowling made me laugh (for the turn not his ability with it).

Day 1 to Australia, I think I'll be repeating that alot this series (barring the number obviously).

I know I have no objections to Saj Mahmood bowling against us.

Saj > Harmison, based on current form.

Infact for the next test I'd swap the two around, barring of course Harmison grabbing a load of wickets.

Yes collingwood is a better bowler than Bell and straight away Bell was smashed for 2 boundaries ....Ponting into the 90's

Ponting could easily have gone in that over ironically, that ball he tried to square cut that could've gone anywhere.

Well done Ricky today, despite getting help from our bowlers bowling short.

Giles seemed to go down in installments for that stop.

He looks as mobile as an inside out hedgehog doesn't he?

His bowling action is very different also, it always looked quite pleasant now it looks horrible. This may sound horrible but....I hope his hip gives up somepoint soon.

 

[evertonfan]

Well, I can't be bothered reading over all the pages i've missed so apologies if you've seen something like this before;

I don't really think we bowled as poor as most people are suggesting. Fair enough, we started abysmally and gifted runs to Australia, but since then we began to bowl well but unfortunatley, there was no swing at all and what little movement there as at the start was completley missing as that time came. When David Lloyd told the Sky viewers that Giles was playing, I honestly felt my stomach turn inside. Yes he's experienced, yes he can bat but who cares when Monty is by far the better spinner?

I've wanted Flether out of the management for ages now, and picking Giles over the bowler who has bowled so exceptionally in the summer is beyond me. Fletch needs sacking.

And Sureshot, I agree with what you say, but I always want England to win nevertheless. As much I disaprove of Giles' inclusion, I still want him to do well because he's wearing the three lions.

 

[Sureshot]

Haha wfdu. Nice predictions. Will be interesting. I think Ponting having a cheesy grin is a pretty obvious one though.

I think playing Giles on a non-spinning pitch is a better option to Panesar.

Ooh explain that, come on this will be fun

Matt don't get me wrong I'd love for him to make me eat my words but it won't happen. We have to attack Australia and we've gone for the defensive option, we've already made our task even harder than it already is.

Of course I want England to win, but if we win the series Giles won't be dropped for 2 years even if he averages 60 odd.

 

[Simbazz]

As a spinner its your sole job to make sure that ball moves, causing trouble for the batsmen. As a spinner aslo it isnt going for wickets that is the most important, its causing doubt in the batsmens mind, if you bowl to get wickets you'll get hit - simple as.

Panesar bowled to cause trouble, especially against Pakistan, he continually bowled the same line and length, varying pace, spin, dip and bounce, thats what a SLA is out there to do, and Giles can do 3 of the four there, he gets a bit of bounce, which i suppose decieve Martyn, who in all rights should have a big series, but that in all fairness was a terrible shot against a mediocure bowler.

Im not as much out of favour of Giles as some guys are on PC, but i just think he isnt as skilled as Monty. Giles does certain things right as a SLA, but just doesnt have them all right, like Panesar does ball after ball.

 

[RoboRocks]

Thats what I was thinking actually
I feel Monty would have been a threat on that pitch looking at how much KP was turning it.
I hope Fletcher's happy now, Giles isn't threatening and Australia are dominating.