*Official* Tour Matches

[Howe_zat]

England's batting performance in the warm-ups, then, is as follows:

Cricket Records | England tour of Australia, Nov 2010 - Feb 2011 | Records | First-class matches | Most runs | Cricinfo.com

So only Trott and Prior have missed out for far. KP and Colly's averages look pretty good when you consider the strike rate, which is pretty aggressive across the board. 5 of the top 6 have made fifties. Strauss' figure are damn good.

[Noble One]

England's batting performance in the warm-ups, then, is as follows:

Cricket Records | England tour of Australia, Nov 2010 - Feb 2011 | Records | First-class matches | Most runs | Cricinfo.com

So only Trott and Prior have missed out for far. KP and Colly's averages look pretty good when you consider the strike rate, which is pretty aggressive across the board. 5 of the top 6 have made fifties. Strauss' figure are damn good.

The Australia A v England XI game will give a better reflection on how the batsman are travelling. Scoring runs against Duffield, Hogan, Beer, Edmondson, Lang, Haberfield and O'Brien is very low on the list of challenging bowlers to face.

[Howe_zat]

Fair point Noble, but any state attack is going to be better than any county attack - I notice you left out George, who got smacked around a bit in the second innings.

These figures are encouraging but not brilliant. I'm not going to go nuts. It's just refreshing to have England actually start a tour well, usually they're getting embarrassed by the state sides at this point.

[Pothas]

Strauss scoring runs is very encouraging, he had a very poor summer without anyone really noticing and he is obviously key to England doing well.

[Noble One]

Fair point Noble, but any state attack is going to be better than any county attack - I notice you left out George, who got smacked around a bit in the second innings.

These figures are encouraging but not brilliant. I'm not going to go nuts. It's just refreshing to have England actually start a tour well, usually they're getting embarrassed by the state sides at this point.

I find that very hard to believe. The attacks turned out by South Australia and Western Australia are well below a decent standard.

The reason England has started to the tour well is because the fixturing has been relatively kind thus far. Last tour you started FC games against this team. Hard to find form when playing against McGrath, Lee, Clark, Bracken, Hauritz, Casson and Henriques (not that England played poorly either).

I guess that is why everyone is looking forward to the 'A' game. Australian fans are so eager to see how our backup players are going, and England fans want to see if England mean business.

[Son Of Coco]

Nice innings by Strauss and Cook today. I'm sure England would've liked to have more of a bowl, especially when Anderson started off with 2. I think that sort of scoreline is more like what is expected of them (and I don't mean that in a bad way, they're building up nicely so far) against teams like WA and SA.

Will be interesting to see how they go against Australia A, if they continue to gain momentum into the Gabba I'm sure more than a few Australian supporters (including me) will be a bit nervous.

I do like the way they're giving both the bats and the bowlers a chance to get some game time in.

[flibbertyjibber]

Very good workout.Shame the weather denied the win.

Great to see the side scoring runs now and all bar Trott have made runs and the bowlers are all chipping in as usual.Things have gone well,lets hope for more of the same next week whatever side we put out.

[Howe_zat]

Here's the England bowling figures btw.

Cricket Records | First-class matches | Records | Most wickets | Cricinfo.com

Ought to be remembered that Swanny's really been cleaning up the tail, the seamers have done the hard work. Pleasantly surprised by Jimmy. The jury's still out on Finn, I remain uncharacteristically optimistic.

[Howe_zat]

So I just found this

Cook, Strauss tons light up draw | Cricket Photo Gallery | Cricinfo.com

on cricinfo's gallery of the SA match. Is it just me, or does #5 remind anyone else of -

http://i53.tinypic.com/2r5uki0.png

?

[Nate]

No official word as to who is replacing Starc then? Big opportunity for Copeland, at least for NSW.

[treamcast34]

Great to see Anderson in the wickets; looks indeed like a wet summer this year which is what we would've been hoping for no question. If he can get some reasonably consistent swing, what a change to the dynamic of the series it will impart.

[chalky]

England resting the 1st choice bowling unit for the last tour game against Australia 'A' who does that leave to pick Monty, Tremlett, Fat Tim ???. Could get a bit ugly definately not the way I would have went.

[superkingdave]

England resting the 1st choice bowling unit for the last tour game against Australia 'A' who does that leave to pick Monty, Tremlett, Fat Tim ???. Could get a bit ugly definately not the way I would have went.

I suppose it gives them a chance to put the Phil Tufnell amongst the Glenn McGraths.

Presumably someone from the performance squad will be used to augment the attack, perhaps Shazhad.

[Prince EWS]

England resting the 1st choice bowling unit for the last tour game against Australia 'A' who does that leave to pick Monty, Tremlett, Fat Tim ???. Could get a bit ugly definately not the way I would have went.

I don't think England really want to give Khawaja, Ferguson or Smith a chance to put their first choice attack everywhere and get the perfect boost of confidence before an Ashes campaign, particularly given I think they'd be pretty happy to see Hussey and North play.

At first I thought it was a silly way of doing it, but the more I think about the more it makes sense. Australia are the team with selection problems that need answering, so a game between a full-strength England and Australia's bench strength would benefit Australia a lot more than England. For England's bowlers it was just a matter of getting used to the conditions, which they were able to do against South Australia and Western Australia as much as they'd be able to do against Australia A, but without the opportunity for all Australia's fringe players to shine.

[Howe_zat]

I don't think England really want to give Khawaja, Ferguson or Smith a chance to put their first chance attack everywhere and get the boost of confidence before an Ashes campaign, particularly given I think they'd be pretty happy to see Hussey and North play.

At first I thought it was a silly way of doing it, but the more I think about the more it makes sense. Australia are the team with selection problems that need answering, so a game between a full-strength England and Australia's bench strength would benefit Australia a lot more than England. For England's bowlers it was just a matter of getting used to the conditions, which they were able to do against South Australia and Western Australia as much as they'd be able to do against Australia A, but without the opportunity for all Australia's fringe players to shine.

This is basically the point. It's a win-win situation for Australia if England put out their full side - either Oz A do well, in which case they get a confidence boost and England are embarrassed, or they don't, in which case hey, they're playing the test side, no surprises.

This way, it becomes an audition match for both sides. That takes the pressure right off England. Meanwhile, the main bowlers are in Brisbane acclimatising.