The Ashes and Cricket World Cup Discussion Thread

Australia are 134/4 off 59 overs

It was a rain hit first day but at one stage Australia were 105/1 but lost a few wickets so its pretty much in the balance i must say.

1 more wicket and were into there tail

Yeah hope we can get it nice and early. Apparently according to Sir Ian there won't be any more rain at the SCG over the next few days, so the rest of the game should be clear to progress without any further interruption.

The Aussies are going nuts about Usman Khawaja in the papers today, getting excited over a bloke who comes in and makes 30 odd just shows how low they are.

England has a new super medium pacer.
Collingwood has managed to get the ball past the inside edge of Hussey's bat on two occations.
The 2nd time Hussey got an inside edge onto his stumps.

And there are critics who say that he should be dropped.

(03-01-2011 20:42 )rocksaviour Wrote:  The Aussies are going nuts about Usman Khawaja in the papers today, getting excited over a bloke who comes in and makes 30 odd just shows how low they are.

He looked the part though, that's the point, regardless of the number of runs he scored. Compare it to Hilfenhaus's innings for example (tailender admittedly) who made a very similar score but played and missed constantly and could have been out countless time before he actually was. Anyway, at the tea interval today things are looking good for England, who are on 73-0 in reply to Australia's 280 all out.

Match interestingly poised with England 167 for 3 with Trott already out. If ever there was a time for Paul Collingwood to get some runs its now. If he or Cook or maybe both get out early England could be bowled out shy of 280. England need to get some sort of lead as they are due to bat last on that wicket which could be tricky.

Over Khawaja, of course he looked the part and performed well and has a decent first class record behind. And yes that Hilfenhaus innings just happened, in terms of quality they were on different planets but they always were going to be. Now at different points in their respective careers Khawaja's innings had nothing on Trott's knocks at The Oval back in 2009.

Anyway onto tonights play. Hopefully Colly can have one of those innings to 'save' his career or though I think they may get someone else in the Test side once our Summer season starts. Before that it would be great to see Anderson hang around and get a few runs with Cook. This match and the series win isn't won yet but I feel by the end of today we will have a very good idea on who will be picking up the final win of the series.

Over the fourth innings since we will be batting, I'm thinking why did they leave Beer out for so long. Okay he isn't special but he did alright and if it hadn't be for a front foot no-ball he would of got a wicket. Appears obvious that Clarke didn't want to face Swann in the fourth innings on this pitch.

At this stage i would say England are in a slighty better position as there are only 113 runs behind and with 7 wickets in hand however cricket is a funny game and things can change.

i think england will bat all day, cook and bell centuries and colly for a 50, anderson 30 odd come on england lets have another day of aussie bowlers toiling

hopefully a maiden fifty for the burnley lara