puddleduck
Chairman of Selectors
His wrist was mostly fine Manee, at least on his bowling arm it was, it was things like his head and front arm that were falling away.
To be honest you can't really compare our 1st innings and the Aussie 2nd innings. There is a big difference coming out to bat and bowl 600 runs behind, and 500 runs ahead. Doesn't change the fact that the Aussies have outplayed England at every point in this match, but England really seem to have just been going through the motions in the field thinking only about how they might bat out the match.
I feel Jimmy has to be dropped for the second test, he hasn't threatened at all, whilst Harmy despite bowling appalingly for most of the test has generated some pace at times and bowled more balls that have beaten the bat. Jimmy has however bowled 4 balls every over, not really had much discipline and generally struggled to fine the right length or threaten too much.
Also whilst only minor things, and they would have maybe only made the difference between being 600 runs behind and 500 runs behind, the little things haven't gone Englands way like the new ball on day 1 not swinging at all, but every other new ball in the match at least swinging for a few overs. Dropped catches, poor field placements and edges beating the cordon especially from Langer who I fail to understand how he has scored as many runs as he has, incredibly streaky in both innings up until the 20's. A couple of decisions and the toss.
As I said at the start of the paragraph I am not trying to say that the result would be any different as Australia have outplayed us regardless, but those little things will have eaten away at the team, and hopefully if a couple go Englands way in the next test combined with what would have to be far better performance then they can be much more competitive than this current mauling.
Anyway, well played Australia so far, not once have they let up, and I hope Fletcher is rueing his decision to leave out his most attacking spinner, yet again Pietersen spinning the ball more than Giles, and yet again a big partnership being build with no discernible way of breaking it.
To be honest you can't really compare our 1st innings and the Aussie 2nd innings. There is a big difference coming out to bat and bowl 600 runs behind, and 500 runs ahead. Doesn't change the fact that the Aussies have outplayed England at every point in this match, but England really seem to have just been going through the motions in the field thinking only about how they might bat out the match.
I feel Jimmy has to be dropped for the second test, he hasn't threatened at all, whilst Harmy despite bowling appalingly for most of the test has generated some pace at times and bowled more balls that have beaten the bat. Jimmy has however bowled 4 balls every over, not really had much discipline and generally struggled to fine the right length or threaten too much.
Also whilst only minor things, and they would have maybe only made the difference between being 600 runs behind and 500 runs behind, the little things haven't gone Englands way like the new ball on day 1 not swinging at all, but every other new ball in the match at least swinging for a few overs. Dropped catches, poor field placements and edges beating the cordon especially from Langer who I fail to understand how he has scored as many runs as he has, incredibly streaky in both innings up until the 20's. A couple of decisions and the toss.
As I said at the start of the paragraph I am not trying to say that the result would be any different as Australia have outplayed us regardless, but those little things will have eaten away at the team, and hopefully if a couple go Englands way in the next test combined with what would have to be far better performance then they can be much more competitive than this current mauling.
Anyway, well played Australia so far, not once have they let up, and I hope Fletcher is rueing his decision to leave out his most attacking spinner, yet again Pietersen spinning the ball more than Giles, and yet again a big partnership being build with no discernible way of breaking it.
