*Official* First Test at Trent Bridge

[Furball]

Bell's free to piss off any time he wants as far as I'm concerned.

 

[sphynx]

Agree with that, but even though It's hard to claim it as Englands day I'd still rather be in our shoes than theirs right now.

England have only done half the job so far and need to finish the innings off with no fuss or tail end heroics........looking at the Aussie batting to come we've got to be realistic and realise the next 6 Aussie wickets are going to be every bit as hard to dislodge as the 4 we've already got. If the suns out in the morning and Broad is no good, it's gonna be tough, very tough.

Yeah, im not thinking it's going to be match winning or anything, it's going to be increadibly difficult to bat last on this pitch. Not so much for Swann, the bounce is already up and down, i'll hate to see it when it crumbles and Finn and Anderson get a few to keep low on the pads, but in saying that, this match will be over by lunch of day 4 imo.

The first session is absolutely massive, so many scenario's. England could skittle Australia for a lead, could be a steady flow of wickets and end up relatively even or Smith or Hughes or Haddin could stand up and have a career defining innings, one of the bowlers might even do it.

Going to be awesome

 

[NUFAN]

Well I'll stick my hand up too, I'm on record as saying Siddle was the least likely to rip through us of all your bowlers........<facepalm> NUFAN must be very happy with his lad this morning.

But.......

I stopped reading after the But....

Siddle against England has:
6/54
6/75
5/21 and now
5/50
+ a Test hat trick.

Say what you like about his failures on occasions to take a wicket, but doubting his ability to run through England, must surely be put to rest now.. Only the 5/21 really was one of those 'got a bit lucky' sort of 5 fa's, but in saying that, when you only go for 21 runs, you can't really discredit it so much as its not as though he did a Starc and went from 1/120 to 5/124 or something.

 

[NUFAN]

Australia's issue at number 3.

This decade, I'm starting it from 01-01-2010 really shows how dire we have been at number 3.

RT Ponting 861 @ 34.44
PJ Hughes 372 @ 37.20
SE Marsh 301 @ 30.10
SR Watson 228 @ 28.50
UT Khawaja 203 @ 29.00
EJM Cowan 24 @ 12.00
DA Warner 23 @ 23.00
RJ Quiney 9 @ 3.00
MJ Clarke 0 @ 0.00

 

[Nate]

Please put Clarke back at five dammit.

 

[social]

Well I'll stick my hand up too, I'm on record as saying Siddle was the least likely to rip through us of all your bowlers........<facepalm> NUFAN must be very happy with his lad this morning.

But.......

Lets not get too carried away either.....he bowled excellently yesterday no doubt about it. But that is the first innings of a 5 test series, he followed up his Michelle in Brisbane with 0/90 in the second innings and 0/121 in Adelaide, although I do think he is a much improved bowler since then.

Haven't read all the pages since tea last night so not sure if this has been mentioned. Patto and Starc were getting incredible amounts of swing especially early but were struggling to control it, I was very surprised to see Jimmy and Finn bowling a shorter length than the Aussies. Not complaining because what they were doing clearly worked, but we certainly weren't getting the ball to hoop like they were........deliberate plan you reckon??

Think it was more a case of Oz being determined to pitch the ball up rather than anything else

You need to remember that Starc and Patto are basically novices who would have been told that they need to bowl a fuller length in England

Sometimes they got it right, other times it went wrong

Siddle is different as his improvement is due to him pitching the ball up more in all conditions and moving it around

 

[Ruckus]

Lets not get too carried away either.....he bowled excellently yesterday no doubt about it. But that is the first innings of a 5 test series, he followed up his Michelle in Brisbane with 0/90 in the second innings and 0/121 in Adelaide, although I do think he is a much improved bowler since then.

Yeah I mean look, Siddle definitely bowled a lot better than I expected yesterday (and a lot different too - was bowling like a proper swing bowler) and I doubt Harris or Bird would have bettered his figures, he just had an excellent day. But just because Siddle had success doesn't disprove the idea that Harris or Bird could have excelled in the conditions as well, which I think would have been right down Bird's alley especially (and I think they really missed a trick by playing Starc ahead of him, who was the real problem with the selections in the first place, not Siddle). At the end of the day, Siddle came up with the goods though so the selectors have to applauded for showing faith in him despite his poor form leading into it.

We also have to remember this game isn't over yet. I'm not so certain how well Siddle will bowl if the sun is out and there isn't much swing etc. in the second innings. If he can ramp up his pace, I think he'll be fine, but he hasn't been able to in recent times for whatever reason. Another thing as well is all of the bowlers will need to bowl far less loose stuff if the conditions aren't so conducive to swing. We pretty much got away with it this time because there was simply enough good stuff in between that the wickets were falling fast, but I'm a bit concerned about how this attack will go without such assistance.

The bottom line is though, this test ain't over yet, and neither is the series, so rather than being so reactive and short-sighted let's just see how things turn out in the end before handing out premature tastin's.

 

[Riggins]

i quite like that rev metre, but its too big and annoying. it should just be below the bowling speed and without the ****ing coloured zones.

 

[Adders]

Yeah, can't blame NUFAN for adopting a bit of a "I told you so" attitude today though.

He backed Siddle to the hilt when a lot (myself included) didn't think he should have been a lock in for a spot. I think it's fair to say that at this stage anyway all of his prior comments and arguments have been fully vindicated..........and take that cloud cover away and none of the bowlers are going to look as good either.

 

[Ruckus]

yeah that's fair enough

 

[Nate]

Bird would've taken 5/49 just saying.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

He's been good for Pfeiffer's before is he good enough to finally bag 10/M? It certainly looked possible in that innings and I'd love to see it, here's hoping he doesn't have to try for another day or so though

 

[NUFAN]

The bottom line is though, this test ain't over yet, and neither is the series, so rather than being so reactive and short-sighted let's just see how things turn out in the end before handing out premature tastin's.

But isn't that exactly what the Siddle sceptics did due to a few quiet warm up matches with the ball (he did score his maiden first class century in the warmups).

- Officially the highest ranked bowler from both countries.
- The only Aussie bowler to have bowled a ball in a Test match in England before
- 150 Test wickets @ a very respectable 28. something
- A Test hat trick against England
- A five wicket haul in his second last Test match
- The only Australian squad member to score 50 or more in both innings of a Test this entire year.
- Durability which is always important with so many back to back Tests.
- Experience (yeah I sort of mentioned this one earlier).

As, I've been saying since I heard Starc was the likely inclusion, he is the bowler most up for debate.

BTW, its not only me you was right in the Sid camp, LHC and Heef are big fans of the big heart.

 

[social]

It's also worth considering that while he did get Bairstow out late in the game, he's certainly not part of the tail, nor would he have played that any differently if England were only 4 down. It does suggest to me that it's partly coincidence or a mental issue.

IMO, it's a mental thing as he seems to lack patience

Take his bowling to Root as an example

Root stays legside, doesn't move his feet when playing "forward" and plays with an angled bat.

That should be a walk in the park for someone with Starc's attributes as all he needs to do is to keep it fullish around off stump and any movement either way will do the rest.

However, rather than keep it simple, he chops and changes between over and around the wicket, short and full, etc

He is making the typical young bowler's mistake of trying to get a wicket every ball and that is purely mental

 

[watson]

Please put Clarke back at five dammit.

Yeah, but what a ball by Anderson! (unfortunately). If England win this Test match then surely that has to be a defining moment - 75 for 2 at the close of play, with Clarke 30 not out, and Australia feel confident. On the other hand, 75/4 puts England in the driver's seat with Swann to bowl in the 4th innings.

 

[Adders]

- Officially the highest ranked bowler from both countries.

OK, I've paid you your dues (and Sidds) but you really need to stop using the rankings in your case for the Big Heart........Jimmy > Sidds. Fact.

Pay everything else you said though.

 

[Jono]

i quite like that rev metre, but its too big and annoying. it should just be below the bowling speed and without the ****ing coloured zones.

Yep. Good concept, horrible execution.

 

[Philhughesisbes]

Australia's issue at number 3.

This decade, I'm starting it from 01-01-2010 really shows how dire we have been at number 3.

RT Ponting 861 @ 34.44
PJ Hughes 372 @ 37.20
SE Marsh 301 @ 30.10
SR Watson 228 @ 28.50
UT Khawaja 203 @ 29.00
EJM Cowan 24 @ 12.00
DA Warner 23 @ 23.00
RJ Quiney 9 @ 3.00
MJ Clarke 0 @ 0.00

I know I won't get a lot of fans for saying that but Usman Khawaja and Hughes should be our
3 and 4 respectively. They are the two most talented bats in the country.Clarke should bat at 5. Warner has done a good job at the top of the order, so he and Rogers should bat there( that's assuming Warner gets form under his belt).

 

[Arachnodouche]

I'd like to see how many English boundaries were scored off balls pitched up. Australia really did put it up there..it might have seemed profligate at times but they'd take 215 AO every single time this series.

As far as Agar goes, I don't think it's such a bad idea throwing kids into high pressure situations. The key thing is to stick with them once the series is done with regardless of how they go. If you think they have talent, you have to stand by them through the growing pains.

 

[Handsome Harry]

Time for Boof to pop around to Sam Robson's house and present him with a Baggy Green!