***Official*** 2nd Test at the Adelaide Oval

[Goughy]

Originally Posted by silentstriker

Warne has a cricketing flaw?

If you look at the beginning of his career, yes he did.

It took people with a lot of faith in his ability (and a lot of hard work by him) for him to become the cricketer he is now.

[FaaipDeOiad]

Originally Posted by Goughy

I know Tait can bowl, but to me he is not an Aussie player. From an outsider the modern Australian player seems very polished at the beginning of their career with many of their cricketing rough edges already shaven off.

You think so? That's sometimes true, but there are plenty of examples which don't fit that theory at all. Quite a lot of the highly successful Australian batsmen in the last 10-15 years came into the side as unfinished products and struggled a lot early in their careers. That's not true so much with bowlers, but Hayden, Martyn, Langer, Waugh, Ponting etc all got dropped early on and worked their way back into the side, and didn't peak until their late 20s or early 30s.

Tait is by no means a complete bowler, but he is improving and he's a pretty good option to have as your 4th or 5th choice seam bowler. While he is erratic and, more importantly, has a tendancy to bowl one very good spell and then go missing for the rest of the day, there's no reason that he can't work on the less polished aspects of his game and turn out to be a very good player. He's still young after all, and his record is pretty clear evidence of his talent, especially for someone such as yourself who rates first class achievements so highly.

[Burgey]

Originally Posted by Matteh

Someone put a pin in his shoe..

[Laurrz]

both times McGrath missed last year we loss



i really hope he is fit... if not then i'd go with.... well Tait or Johnson IMO both are pretty equal... they'd make good replacements... but McGrath is McGrath and is irreplaceable

maybe even fly MacGill over and play 5 bowlers

[Josh]

I'd say it's Johnson to debut tomorrow; can't wait.

[PhoenixFire]

Ponting said that the only way McGrath wouldn't play was if he had his leg amputated.

[Tomm NCCC]

Originally Posted by PhoenixFire

Ponting said that the only way McGrath wouldn't play was if he had his leg amputated.

Wouldnt that be a lovely sight?

[silentstriker]

Yea, there is no doubt that with McGrath the Aussies would have won the Ashes. The games were close enough as it is, and McGrath would have been a huge upgrade over his replacements.

This time around, the Aussies have much better bowlers if McGrath were to go down, and their batting lineup is looking better as well, so even without McGrath the Poms have very little shot.

[PhoenixFire]

Originally Posted by Tomm NCCC

Wouldnt that be a lovely sight?

Right on Brother

[PY]

May as well come home now.

[chalky]

Sky are reporting that England have named an unchanged side for this test

[BingLeeElectric]

Originally Posted by chalky

Sky are reporting that England have named an unchanged side for test.

Good lord.

Are you for real?

[chalky]

Yes unfortunately so - no Monty & more Giles makes Chalky a sad boy.

[pasag]

Haha wtf? That can't be true.

[superkingdave]

Originally Posted by chalky

Sky are reporting that England have named an unchanged side for this test

unbelievable if true. Fletcher really nailing his colours to the mast. It's likely Panesar will now get his first bowl of the series when England or 3 or 4 down.

It's not going to happen but Fletcher should go after the Ashes. If he doesn't go after the WC its a disaster.