*Official* Tour Matches

[TumTum]

Cook hasnt fixed any of his technical flaws, Trott's weakness against the short ball was exposed for the 3rd match in a row whilst KP's wretched form continues

Nonetheless they are currently looking better than any of our batsman

 

[social]

Nonetheless they are currently looking better than any of our batsman

Pfft

Get Strauss early (and his game isnt particularly well suited to OZ anyway) and we'll see what happens in the tests

 

[TumTum]

But in these type of conditions, English batsmen play worse but their performance doesn't drop as dramatically as ours does (our batsmen just see the ball swing and decide to **** themselves and play all around straight deliveries).

 

[morgieb]

Pfft

Get Strauss early (and his game isnt particularly well suited to OZ anyway) and we'll see what happens in the tests

Not even sure that it's down to his game - I feel he'll get attacked easily as he's the captain.

 

[Jayzamann]

Trott's weakness against the short ball was exposed for the 3rd match in a row

Would have been not out if Bowden were umpiring, tbh

 

[tooextracool]

Pfft

Get Strauss early (and his game isnt particularly well suited to OZ anyway) and we'll see what happens in the tests

Would think if theres one place in the world that Strauss's game is suited to it would be Australia. Likes the extra bounce, just not very good when bowlers bowl around the wicket to him.

 

[tooextracool]

Personally, I am quite surprised that Morgan wasnt given a go this game. Im not sure the likes of Collingwood needed the extra batting practice.

 

[Uppercut]

I thought about that but then decided it's probably best to give the starting XI as much practice in Aussie conditions against Aussie bowlers as possible. A lot depends on how quickly the batting lineup can adjust.

 

[tooextracool]

Well I think some of these guys like Strauss and Collingwood have enough experience in Australia and were able to get sufficient batting practice and form in the first 2 games to be prepared. If one of the batters gets injured during or after the 1st test, would they really be comfortable throwing Morgan in there as a replacement given that hes never played an FC game in Australia or an Ashes test?

 

[Uppercut]

No, not really, but Colly and Strauss will benefit from the additional practice too, and are much more likely to play. It's a reasonable trade-off. None of the first-choice English batsmen are known for regularly breaking down, so it's a calculated risk.

Also if you don't play Strauss, someone else has to captain the side in their last game before the Ashes. It's not ideal.

 

[tooextracool]

Pietersen has been injured fairly often and missed most of the last Ashes series. Bell is just returning from injury. I see what you are saying and no doubt that is the logic that Flower has gone with but Im not sure I agree with it.

Getting Collingwood or Cook to captain a tour game doesn't exactly seem to me to be very disruptive. Especially when you consider that we already have split captains for t20 and test cricket.

 

[Howe_zat]

Watching highlights on SS1. Monty just hit a lofted straight drive for four.



No, really.

 

[King Pietersen]

Watching the highlights atm too, and has to be said, this is the best Cook has looked for a long time. Well balanced at the crease, getting his feet into position early and picking his shots very nicely. Been impressed by him. Really looking forward to seeing Bell's innings too, love watching that guy bat. Can see him having a fine series.

 

[Howe_zat]

Cook looks to have got the better of George here, George's short stuff being repeatedly pulled away. Cameron much more dangerous so far.

Benaud de-constructing George's action is pretty telling.

 

[Howe_zat]

Trott's dismissal was just bizarre. Was looking good, tries a weird forward-pull thing outside off. No idea what he was trying to do there.

147-5 at tea. So they put on 188 in the final session. This should be good.

 

[King Pietersen]

Love the way the commentators are desperately trying to find faults in Ian Bell. None of them appear to rate him particularly highly. I could actually watch him bat all day. Such a good player when he's in this sort of form. This is the Ian Bell we've been wanting to see for years.

 

[zaremba]

Sorry I didn't find a standard joke funny. I'll squeeze a giggle out later if that'll make you happy

I'm not bothered by the sense of humour failure, but I am surprised that you think it's a "standard joke" - I'd not heard it before - in case an explanation is needed, the key is in the word "second"

 

[tooextracool]

Think the one thing about Ian Bell is that he has no shortage of talent. With Bell and Pietersen, you know that the only thing that's limiting them as players is what happens in between the ears and you can always hope that on certain days when their head is clear that they can both achieve the unthinkable and perform miracles. I don't think that is the case with the rest of the batsmen in our side, you know what you will get from most of them and their output and accomplishments is pretty much on par with their abilities as players.

 

[zaremba]

Not all roses for England either

Cook hasnt fixed any of his technical flaws, Trott's weakness against the short ball was exposed for the 3rd match in a row whilst KP's wretched form continues

Deciding point of this series could well be who does a better job of finishing the other's tail off as it looks as though runs will be mighty important

You're right about lower order batting. It's bloody vital for England (as we saw in 2009 and have seen since), and important for Australia too. It's one area where England are now much stronger than they were before.

The main thing for me is that I'm not as bleakly pessimistic as would normally be the case in the run-up to an Ashes series Down Under. We're doing much better than normal, while Australia are giving a good impression of being in disarray.

Now, the Aussie players are still trying the "if we win the first game, old wounds might start to open up" line. I really don't think that'll be the case. This is not an Aussie team that's remotely good enough to steamroller an England team as happened in years gone by, and we saw in 2009 that England are quite capable of coming back after adversity. In fact I rather suspect that if England do well at Brisbane, the psychological wounds that would start to open up would be Australia's, as the realisation sinks in that they're not the team they were, and even their fortresses (cf Lord's 2009) are starting to crumble.

 

[Furball]

Ian Bell's "weaknesses" against Australia are massively overstated - he had a reasonable tour last time we went to Australia. A series average in the mid 30s, with 4 50s to his name, whilst not outstanding, is certainly a lot better than his reputation would suggest. A lot of his rep stems from the 2005 series, where he was new to Test cricket and struggled.