*Official* Road to the 2010/11 Ashes

[GuyFromLancs]

Newsflash: The Ashes is only competitive when it's played in England.

Australia are now a second rate side. To be fair they were last year as well, it's just that it perhaps took a little time, and an ashes defeat, to fully realise.

If I were an Aussie, I wouldn't be worried about the mediocre performance of my team last summer, I'd be worried about the fact that despite dominating individually and statistically against another second rate team, the Aus bottled it at almost every key moment.

-Monty and Jimmy batting out in Glamorgan

-Flintoff knocking you over at Lords

-Broad knocking you over at the Oval

-Two run outs at the key stage of the series

-Trott coming in and scoring 120 on a difficult pitch, or at least one that the Aus made look difficult, to bat on.

Most unlike you guys to choke so often, and so badly.

 

[Streetwise]

Australia are now a second rate side. To be fair they were last year as well, it's just that it perhaps took a little time, and an ashes defeat, to fully realise.

If I were an Aussie, I wouldn't be worried about the mediocre performance of my team last summer, I'd be worried about the fact that despite dominating individually and statistically against another second rate team, the Aus bottled it at almost every key moment.

-Monty and Jimmy batting out in Glamorgan

-Flintoff knocking you over at Lords

-Broad knocking you over at the Oval

-Two run outs at the key stage of the series

-Trott coming in and scoring 120 on a difficult pitch, or at least one that the Aus made look difficult, to bat on.

Most unlike you guys to choke so often, and so badly.

wow I didnt realise that the last ashes was such a walkover for Eng, I guess England must have won it 4-0 or 5-0 with Australia playing so badly.

 

[Richard]

Australia are now a second rate side. To be fair they were last year as well, it's just that it perhaps took a little time, and an ashes defeat, to fully realise.

If I were an Aussie, I wouldn't be worried about the mediocre performance of my team last summer, I'd be worried about the fact that despite dominating individually and statistically against another second rate team, the Aus bottled it at almost every key moment.

-Monty and Jimmy batting out in Glamorgan

-Flintoff knocking you over at Lords

-Broad knocking you over at the Oval

-Two run outs at the key stage of the series

-Trott coming in and scoring 120 on a difficult pitch, or at least one that the Aus made look difficult, to bat on.

Most unlike you guys to choke so often, and so badly.

Some of that was more down to the excellence of England players - the spells of Flintoff and Broad especially - than Australian failure to produce the goods when most needed.

The failure to knock-over a tailender (or, let's be honest, even look terribly likely to) in the First Test and the run-outs at crucial times can indeed be characteristic of failure at pivotal moments.

 

[GuyFromLancs]

wow I didnt realise that the last ashes was such a walkover for Eng, I guess England must have won it 4-0 or 5-0 with Australia playing so badly.

I clearly didn't say that. What I clearly said was:

despite dominating individually and statistically............. the Aus bottled it at almost every key moment

 

[Richard]

When reading a "Streetwise" post, you're likely to get a better impression by disregarding the text that the letters appear to form and replacing them with the following:
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE AY AY AY

 

[Top_Cat]

Swing and a miss, padre. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie;

 

[GotSpin]

When reading a "Streetwise" post, you're likely to get a better impression by disregarding the text that the letters appear to form and replacing them with the following:
AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE AY AY AY

Yeah because guyfromlancs is clearly unbiased in his assessment of the Australian team

 

[andyc]

Yeah because guyfromlancs is clearly unbiased in his assessment of the Australian team

This. Absolutely no way England are favourites. I'd say Australia's bowling attack, with a line-up of Hilfenhaus/Bollinger/Johnson/Hauritz/Watson is is stronger, and at very, very worst on par with England's, while overall I'd say we've got the much better balanced side thanks to Watson at the top of the order offering a very competent bowling option, especially when it comes to reverse swing as seen vs. Pakistan.

Also not sure how apt the accusations of choking are after Australia managed to come back from a 200+ run deficit to beat Pakistan, considering that England folded for 180 and 169 in their most recent, must-not-lose Test against South Africa.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah I am certainly under no illusions that Australia are a better side than England, we have plenty of capable players and an attack that in the right circumstances and on their day can bowl sides out cheaply. However I don't think that many England fans would honestly believe that we can beat Australia over a five match series in Australia, think we will win at least one test match, would guess that it would finnish 3-1.

 

[archie mac]

Still a long way to go, but I think Aust atm clear favourites, and I am hoping England put on a much better show then their last Aust tour

 

[pasag]

Australia are a better side than England. Better batting line up, better bowling lineup. The fact they lost the last Ashes? That's sport, upsets happen. This Australian side has its weaknesses no doubt, but they really arent far off the best side in the world and there's not much separating them, India and South Africa.

 

[pasag]

Australia are now a second rate side. To be fair they were last year as well, it's just that it perhaps took a little time, and an ashes defeat, to fully realise.

If I were an Aussie, I wouldn't be worried about the mediocre performance of my team last summer, I'd be worried about the fact that despite dominating individually and statistically against another second rate team, the Aus bottled it at almost every key moment.

-Monty and Jimmy batting out in Glamorgan

-Flintoff knocking you over at Lords

-Broad knocking you over at the Oval

-Two run outs at the key stage of the series

-Trott coming in and scoring 120 on a difficult pitch, or at least one that the Aus made look difficult, to bat on.

Most unlike you guys to choke so often, and so badly.

See, if anything it's the opposite. If we were just structurally poor then losing the Ashes would be a cause for concern. But winning key moments comes with experience and that won't be an issue going forward.

 

[inbox24]

Basically England's bowlers are one dimensional. If it swings then they might be able to catch us on a very good day. If it doesn't then any team should be able to dominate them, there's no halfway.

Our batting is miles ahead of their's. The only English bat who would get in the team would be Pietersen and even he would only fill the number 6 role.

The only reason we lost last year was through diabolical selections. Siddle to this day is still not test standard, and Bollinger should have been in the team since the beginning of 2008. North I have maintained from day 1 is a flat track bully at the best of times and a guy like Hodge or Hussey would've done ten times better.

Probably the only things we have to worry about are Swann because Australian conditions rule out any English quickie doing big damage, and maybe the South Africans.

 

[wfdu_ben91]

Basically England's bowlers are one dimensional. If it swings then they might be able to catch us on a very good day. If it doesn't then any team should be able to dominate them, there's no halfway.

Our batting is miles ahead of their's. The only English bat who would get in the team would be Pietersen and even he would only fill the number 6 role.

The only reason we lost last year was through diabolical selections. Siddle to this day is still not test standard, and Bollinger should have been in the team since the beginning of 2008. North I have maintained from day 1 is a flat track bully at the best of times and a guy like Hodge or Hussey would've done ten times better.

Probably the only things we have to worry about are Swann because Australian conditions rule out any English quickie doing big damage, and maybe the South Africans.

Siddle not Test standard? His better then any of England's bowlers.

 

[Jono]

How is Siddle better than Broad?

 

[zaremba]

My God this thread has already descended into the pit, hasn't it? Let's hope for a bit of improvement in the coming months.

 

[pasag]

My God this thread has already descended into the pit, hasn't it? Let's hope for a bit of improvement in the coming months.

Nah, it's half the fun tbh.

The 2009 Ashes wouldn't have been the same without the intense rivalry and back and forth with rivera, pizzorno, king peitersen etc.

 

[vic_orthdox]

As a bowler? Don't reckon there's much in it. Siddle didn't bowl as poorly as his figures suggested throughout the home summer. I'd take him in Australian conditions over Broad.

EDIT: To Jono, RE: Broad vs Siddle.

 

[Jono]

As a bowler? Don't reckon there's much in it. Siddle didn't bowl as poorly as his figures suggested throughout the home summer. I'd take him in Australian conditions over Broad.

EDIT: To Jono, RE: Broad vs Siddle.

It's not definitive though. Siddle looks like at his best he could be better, but at the end of the day, as much as I hate Broad, he wins his team test matches.

 

[Top_Cat]

Agree with Jack, in Aussie conditions, I'd back Siddle more than Broad. Siddle's definitely got some development to go and his figures didn't show how well he bowled, especially in Adelaide.