The Ashes and Cricket World Cup Discussion Thread

For me this series will be decided on how the top 7 of the England batting order perform. If England avoid collapses, bat well as a unit and score consistently in the 1st innings then they will give the team a foothold in each match. It is particularly important when you bear in mind that it looks like England will go in with a 4 man bowling attack which while strong on quality may be compromised if any bowler gets injured. The bowling and fielding I have no worries about but I always worry that away from home Englands batting frailties might resurface. If England bat well I expect them to retain the Ashes, if not then it could be trouble.

Not a good start for England. The conditions looked good for batting, so 260 isn't much of a total.

England partnerships
3rd wicket: 76 - KP Pietersen (43) AN Cook (30)
5th wicket: 72 - AN Cook (24) IR Bell (39)
2nd wicket: 41 - IJL Trott (29) AN Cook (9)
8th wicket: 31 - GP Swann (10) IR Bell (18)
9th wicket: 26 - IR Bell (19) JM Anderson (5)
4th wicket: 8 - PD Collingwood (4) AN Cook (4)
10th wicket: 6 - JM Anderson (6) ST Finn (0)
7th wicket: 0 - SCJ Broad (0) IR Bell (0)
6th wicket: 0 - MJ Prior (0) IR Bell (0)
1st wicket: 0 - AJ Strauss (0) AN Cook (0)

I think this tells the story of England's innings. Only 2 partnerships that resisted the Aussie bowlers for long and 5 wickets only added 14 between them. England could have done with another 100 runs.

I feel that if KP doesn't fire at all in this series then it means he's mentally shot and England need to look elsewhere.I still think we can win 2-1 but I think we will lose this one as the Gabba traditionally has been a poor venue for us recently.

Anyway looking forward to Swanny taking a 5 for tomorrow morning

Good points by speedybert, as is shown by these stats:

Kevin Pietersen has not scored a test century since March 2009. Since then he has scored 904 runs at an average of 36.16. Up until then he had scored 4,445 runs at an average of over 51.

In 6 tests at the Gabba since 1990, England have passed 300 only twice in their first innings. In 2002 England made 325 and lost and in 1998 the total was 375 and the match was drawn.

(25-11-2010 10:21 )speedybert Wrote:  Anyway looking forward to Swanny taking a 5 for tomorrow morning

I think if Swanny takes 5 wickets tomorrow Australia will still get past England's 260. England would have been hoping for 400.

it was a disassssssssster darling!! Overconfident, cocky batsmen. very little lateral movement, nothing in the pitch, a bit of turn, but nothing dramatic and we manage to capitulate. Barring a stunning comeback, we're battling to save this game. Positives to draw, pieterson looked gd, which he hasn't done for a long time, Bell was fluent, cook scored runs and of course jimmy's brilliant reverse sweep! lol

260 on that wicket will, I suspect prove to be well below par. A lot of the batting frailties that have worried me for so many years remain a concern. To win the toss, bat first and then get bowled out in under a day is only going to give the opposition a major lift

Poor batting performance on a wicket which has done very little.
No batsman managed to reach 100 against the worst Australian bowling unit that I can remember.

It needs turning around 1st thing tommorrow or it will be tough match to save.

wheres freddie when you need him?

(25-11-2010 14:17 )bigguy01 Wrote:  wheres freddie when you need him?

doing cheesy coronation street ads and taking part in poor imitations of They Think It's All Over or just being wasted