***Official*** 1st Test at The Gabba

[Nate]

Surprised it hasn`t been commented on tbh, but a key feature between the two teams was the deliveries left outside off-stump. Ponting and friends were not at all fussed at leaving a vast amount of deliveries. The Australian bowlers were tighter and fuller, while the English bowlers were shorter and too wide too often. That continual pressure by Australia - having the English batsmen unsure whethere to play or not - is surely the difference.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Surprised it hasn`t been commented on tbh, but a key feature between the two teams was the deliveries left outside off-stump. Ponting and friends were not at all fussed at leaving a vast amount of deliveries. The Australian bowlers were tighter and fuller, while the English bowlers were shorter and too wide too often. That continual pressure by Australia - having the English batsmen unsure whethere to play or not - is surely the difference.

Fair call. A lot of the leaving is probably due in part to the Oz batters growing up on the truer, bounciers wickets for me. Hussey on the first day left a couple on length that would've been absolute insanity over here, but they went safely over the top of the stumps.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Just on the subject of the follow-on and the psychological impact of Australia setting England 700 or something to win, anyone else see Langer and Pietersen's little clash in the evening session? Quite amusing I thought.

Langer scrambled through for a single and made it fairly easily, and Pietersen took a big shy at the stumps, missed by a couple of metres and sent it away for four overthrows. Langer grinned and gave him a round of applause with his bat. Pietersen didn't look too impressed afterwards, and Simon O'Donnell took it as cue to ramble on for 10 minutes about how he'd come out and score 400 or something in the second innings and leave England full of confidence in Adelaide, and it was the wrong move to stir him up.

Nevertheless, the whole incident summed up England's effort in the last session of play, as well as the clear desire on the part of the Australian team to rub it in and make sure it's a real flogging.

 

[shortpitched713]

This is the bit of the complaint I don't get. Sure, it was pretty pointless to bat again, but I don't see how it is "lose-lose". Australia will have 5+ sessions to bowl anyway, and even if they only bat until stumps tonight they will still have added 100-150 runs to the target, which is certainly not a loss, given it would turn the chase from extremely difficult to impossible. And if Australia bat until lunch and really dominate the bowling and score a few hundred runs and then win with most of a day to spare, it's obviously a huge psychological advantage heading into the next test.

Don't really see any need for a phsychological advantage at this point. I just don't see how there's anything to gain by not enforcing the follow-on, and there definitely is the slightest risk that it might backfire.

 

[shortpitched713]

From the CricInfo bulletin. First two on McGrath.

"...an unconvincing performance on the flat tracks of India last month"

"...two cheap scalps last night"

"...with a full 45 overs of the day's play remaining, a three-day finish was a very real possibility."

Just as hilarious as any of the McGrath is past it stuff. Do these guys even watch the cricket?

 

[shortpitched713]

The most worrying thing was how it looked plumb to pretty much everyone in the world (Except TEC), yet hawkeye showed it missed off stump..

Does that show how poor the human eye really is? Or how bad Hawkeye is? Or how mediocre TEC is as an individual?

Don't like to agree with TEC, but it looked clearly not out to me. If anything, shows how the human eye can fall for optical illusions. Hawkeye is 99% accurate, so it couldn't have been off by that much.

 

[Nate]

Fair call. A lot of the leaving is probably due in part to the Oz batters growing up on the truer, bounciers wickets for me. Hussey on the first day left a couple on length that would've been absolute insanity over here, but they went safely over the top of the stumps.

Most definately. The Australians are more likely to read the bounce off the pitch, being at home.

 

[tooextracool]

Just finished the first session. McGrath and Clark bowling brilliantly together. Clark's drop was pretty bad and Bowden getting hit was hilarious. Bell was impressive, especially the way he played Warne. Flintoff really unlucky there, but he looks a bit off, depressed almost. He needs to hand over the captaincy to Strauss, massive weight on his shoulders.

i wouldnt be surprised if he dropped the captaincy to Strauss after this test match. Never should have taken it up ITFP.

 

[tooextracool]

The most worrying thing was how it looked plumb to pretty much everyone in the world (Except TEC), yet hawkeye showed it missed off stump..

Does that show how poor the human eye really is? Or how bad Hawkeye is? Or how mediocre TEC is as an individual?

Because of course it looked so plumb on the replay didnt it? Believe it or not, it wasnt even close on the replay, hence theres no questioning Hawkeye or my judgement, both of which were spot on.

 

[tooextracool]

Don't ever remember saying I preferred Freddie to Strauss ?? But that decision was made by the management so get over it and move on!

Regards the injury situation, well thats all hypothetical, anyone can get injured, yes with his ankle its perhaps more likely to be Freddie, but you can't dismiss a captain just in case he gets injured! If Vaughan is back for the next series, do you think he'll be captain despite his knee problems ?
He's made blunders a school child would have got right ? OK, thanks for your time.

Look you have to consider the options here. At the time Vaughan was made captain, he wasnt an injury hazard as he is now, and even now if he returned hed be captain because quite frankly hes amongst the top 2 captains in the world today.
When you have 2 options and) its quite obvious that you go for the one thats less likely to be injured.

 

[PhoenixFire]

If Australia didn't care about winning, then I could see them getting a lead of over 1000. England shouldn't just give up hope yet though, it's only one test so far.

 

[tooextracool]

I'm not sure Sky really knows what they're talking about...although if Ponting does bat until lunch tomorrow then I guess they probably do.

It was interesting (read 'perplexing') to see the way the English bowlers bowled today after seeing the Aussie bowlers (namely McGrath and Clark) make it look like a minefield. Anderson was rubbish (again), and as much as I'd dearly like to see Harmison bowl well, he only improved slightly. As a test level cricketer is it really that difficult to bowl more than one ball in a good spot? (I'm taling about the English bowlers in general here, not just Harmy).

We've got an extremely accurate spinner in our squad. But we thought it would be a good idea to leave him out and go in with 4 bowlers who have struggled with injuries all year.

I've never seen any side that wasnt bangladesh or zimbabwe get so outclassed by any opposition in a test match. Its quite sad really,on the same wicket where the England batsmen looked like they were dodging bombs, the bowlers made it look like it was an absolute road. I wouldnt be surprised if Duncan Fletcher went in with no changes for the next match, but tbh this defeat isnt the same as Lords last year(where we outclassed more in the field than anywhere else). At least Panesar has to play now, and unfortunately so does Sajid Mahmood. id replace both Giles and Anderson, the latter of whom has been the biggest disappointment for me at least as i really thought he might finally have been test material. I wouldnt tinker with the batting lineup too much yet. I think one of the issues that Atherton pointed out, and also something that i have noted in the past is that our bowlers simply havent improved since the last Ashes. You can put it down to injury and what not, but Harmison if anything has gotten worse, hes made no attempts to add any sorts of variations to his bowling. Hoggard's seam position has been woeful for several years(hes been bowling with a wobbly seam), you'd think the bowling coaches would have done something about it by now and even Flintoff hasnt really added too much to his armoury. Losing Troy Cooley was a big blow to English cricket, but the bowlers dont seem to have made any of their own effort to improve.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I agree with TEC. It's been a real shame that England have been so outplayed in every department. I think the worst part was the way in which the batting just crumbled and disintegrated without a fight.

 

[tooextracool]

Five or six sessions? It'll take a hell of a lot more than a couple of batsmen "getting in". Even if England managed a partnership of Dravid/Laxman proportions, they'd still have to have some really strong support to bat for tha tlone.

If i were England captain, id be showing them clips of this performance:
http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=1820

Quite similar to the current situation in more ways than one. Certainly should be fresh on their minds considering it happened not too long ago and hopefully it will inspire them today. i dont expect anything other than a complete thrashing today, but i do hope that they at least go down fighting and perhaps even take it to the final day.
Edit: i wouldnt be surprised though If our captain decides to play Johnny Cash songs instead.

 

[superkingdave]

If i were England captain, id be showing them clips of this performance:
http://www.howstat.com.au/cricket/Statistics/Matches/MatchScorecard.asp?MatchCode=1820

Quite similar to the current situation in more ways than one. Certainly should be fresh on their minds considering it happened not too long ago and hopefully it will inspire them today. i dont expect anything other than a complete thrashing today, but i do hope that they at least go down fighting and perhaps even take it to the final day.
Edit: i wouldnt be surprised though If our captain decides to play Johnny Cash songs instead.

Looking at that scorecard again one has to wonder how on earth Panesar didn't get more overs.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I found this article very interesting.

 

[tooextracool]

I agree...were you even watching it TEC? If you think it was a straight ball outside off then I have no doubt you would have suffered the same fate as KP.

i was, were you?
KP ended up with both his pads outside the off stump, that in itself would suggest that the ball would have to do a lot for it to hit the stumps. Like i said earlier, it merely came in on the angle, not off the seam so it was a straight delivery and considering how close Mcgrath gets to the stumps it should be pretty obvious that the angle wasnt significant, certainly nothing like Makhaya Ntini would generate.

 

[Nishant]

Im not an england fan...but i really was hoping that they would give a good performance against the aussies! This is one of the most one-sided test matches u will ever watch! I am not trying to rub it in even more.....but its as if the aussies are playing bangladesh in a tes match! I don't see england saving it...and after this test match...5-0 is on the cards! But, 3-0 and then 4-1 is also possible ( The aussies may feel sorry for them!)

 

[Nishant]

If Australia didn't care about winning, then I could see them getting a lead of over 1000. England shouldn't just give up hope yet though, it's only one test so far.

Thats true...but they cant make riduculous selections like Giles over Panesar!

 

[Langeveldt]

Food for thought, this time next year, Zimbabwe will be playing test cricket, and they can't play Bangladesh forever..