*Official Third Test at Edgbaston

[zaremba]

Missed posting all day due to being at the cricket and CBF reading through today's posts, particularly on this bloody iPhone. If I've missed out on another "Aussie is best" marathon from Ikki then the loss is obviously all mine.

Anyhow big congratulations to the Aussie batsmen for a performance that was full of both skill and cojones. A bit disappointing from our bowlers and I was surprised how little Jimmy bowled before the new ball was taken. But, as they say, take nothing away from the crim batsmen who played very sensibly and skilfully and could have stayed there for another week if they'd really needed to.

And so to Leeds. The only good thing about Leeds is that, unlike with Birmingham, you don't need to add "uk" when you google search for a weather forecast, there being no equivalent Yank interloper city that's nicked its name.

 

[zaremba]

message to England fans "You only sing when your winning"

To be fair you can accuse the Barmy Army of many many things* but this is not one
of them. I was at Sydney in January 07 (the final (cancelled) Test match of that series) and those bastards sang their hearts out throughout the whole bloody thing even though the team was disappearing down the plughole of a 5-0 humiliation. In fact if they were fair weather fans they simply wouldn't exist in the first place. Think about it: they support England ffs.




* eg tediousness, repetitiveness, chauvinism, baiting the opposition rather than appreciating the play, booing St Ricky in a horrid way, being primarily football fans, etc etc.

 

[JBH001]

Well played Australia, and well played Clarke. Really coming into his own in this series. Surprised by Strauss's decision not to open with Jimmy.

Isnt this the second consecutive test where the biggest partnerships have been on the 4th/5th day? So much for pitches....

 

[Burgey]

Yet another chances ridden century for Clarke. This century has a lot of similarity with the ass saving 100 he made at Delhi last year.

Honk if you're a goose.

 

[Redbacks]

Isnt this the second consecutive test where the biggest partnerships have been on the 4th/5th day? So much for pitches....

Pitch wasn't that worn today due to the rain delay. Looking at the puff of dust from the North wicket, batting may have go harder in the 4th innings (had we not been denied victory by the rain)

 

[Redbacks]

Not a bad start to the test career for North, could have had 3 x 100's in his first five tests.

 

[Top_Cat]

Pasag's pre-series call of Clarke being Aus' best batsman looking better and better. Two clutch tons so far.

Also, only 2 byes from a very wide ball + 3 catches for Manou for the game. As far as debuts goes, he'd be pretty happy with that. The lack of discussion about his 'keeping here is a mark of how tidy he was, really.

 

[howardj]

Yeah, yeah Manou mapoo...

Callum Ferguson and Nugget Rees - the only good things to come out of SA cricket for the next few years.

 

[91Jmay]

Pretty boring days play, Aussies scored slowly but did there job well. North batted superbly, Clarke looked classy but still gave chances. Hussey and Watson batted well. To be fair not a bad day for either side, as none of our bowlers got knackered. Despite the stupid biased Aussie comments, Broad bowled well today.

Positives for next test, Siddle and Johnson will still play

 

[Top_Cat]

Pretty boring days play, Aussies scored slowly but did there job well. North batted superbly, Clarke looked classy but still gave chances. Hussey and Watson batted well. To be fair not a bad day for either side, as none of our bowlers got knackered. Despite the stupid biased Aussie comments, Broad bowled well today.

Positives for next test, Siddle and Johnson will still play

Have an ugly feeling you'll be revisiting that optimism with regards Johnson by day 5 of the next Test.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Have an ugly feeling you'll be revisiting that optimism with regards Johnson by day 5 of the next Test.

Deju vu with this post.

 

[Top_Cat]

haha, well, he did bowl one good spell with Hilf at the other end. Consistent swing too. Was in the arvo when he lost his head to PrettyBoy Broad that he reverted to type.

 

[pasag]

To be fair you can accuse the Barmy Army of many many things* but this is not one
of them. I was at Sydney in January 07 (the final (cancelled) Test match of that series) and those bastards sang their hearts out throughout the whole bloody thing even though the team was disappearing down the plughole of a 5-0 humiliation. In fact if they were fair weather fans they simply wouldn't exist in the first place. Think about it: they support England ffs.




* eg tediousness, repetitiveness, chauvinism, baiting the opposition rather than appreciating the play, booing St Ricky in a horrid way, being primarily football fans, etc etc.

Yeah, stayed for about an hour at the end of the fourth Test in Melbourne singing after everyone else had left.

 

[Redbacks]

Yeah, stayed for about an hour at the end of the fourth Test in Melbourne singing after everyone else had left.

Maybe they are still at the ground now, to avoid posting

 

[Burgey]

haha, well, he did bowl one good spell with Hilf at the other end. Consistent swing too. Was in the arvo when he lost his head to PrettyBoy Broad that he reverted to type.

Think his last 3 or 4 overs went for 30-something. Before that he was quite tidy, at least compared to what he'd dished up previously.

 

[zaremba]

Think his last 3 or 4 overs went for 30-something. Before that he was quite tidy, at least compared to what he'd dished up previously.

Yeah Johnson looked pretty good on day 4 I thought.

 

[Burgey]

Yeah Johnson looked pretty good on day 4 I thought.

Worst thing they did was rest him from any lead ups to the first test. In fact, if they could have had hoim bowlong for a month solid beforehand it would have been great.

It's amazing a bloke who had so many injuries at such a young age has turned into a glutton for punishment. Last summer, despite playing however many tests from India through to SA, the longer the season went and the more he bowled, the better he got.

 

[Uppercut]

Worst thing they did was rest him from any lead ups to the first test. In fact, if they could have had hoim bowlong for a month solid beforehand it would have been great.

Bringing us back to my favourite rant, selectors using warm-ups as selection trials instead of giving their players a chance to find some rhythm.

 

[NUFAN]

Not getting why talk of back-ups when there's already one playing in the Test?

Hartley