The Bigger Ashes Achievement for England?

[Gnske]

2010 was like ripping the limbs off someone with leprosy.

2005 was the real achievement.

 

[Burgey]

How did they cheat?? Anyway, 2005 for me. Eng actually beat an atg team which was very very rare at the time.

I dunno mate. Every side gets it reversing on the green awards of Blighty inside 12 overs....

 

[Hicheal Michael]

2010 had some of the most bizarre selections i can recall.

Doherty picked over Hauritz, and O'Keefe, only to then be dropped for Michael Beer.

Bollinger being picked for Adelaide despite not being fit, whose only real contribution in that game, apart from bowling Strauss early, was creating footmarks big enough for Swann to bowl Australia out before the rain.

Hughes being recalled at Perth.

This Steve Smith quote re his role in the side "I've been told that I've got to come into the side and be fun," Smith said at the WACA. "For me, it's about having energy in the field and making sure I'm having fun and making sure everyone else around is having fun, whether it be telling a joke or something like that. It's to make sure we're all upbeat and we're ready to go. I think that's something I can bring to this side."

 

[Prince EWS]

This Steve Smith quote re his role in the side "I've been told that I've got to come into the side and be fun," Smith said at the WACA. "For me, it's about having energy in the field and making sure I'm having fun and making sure everyone else around is having fun, whether it be telling a joke or something like that. It's to make sure we're all upbeat and we're ready to go. I think that's something I can bring to this side."

Haha yeah that was the highlight for me.

 

[cnerd123]

I dunno mate. Every side gets it reversing on the green awards of Blighty inside 12 overs....

just because your lot needs sandpaper doesn't mean everyone else does Burgey

 

[trundler]

Some are more clever with bottle caps and such. Sandpaper was just so ****ing stupid.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Some are more clever with bottle caps and such. Sandpaper was just so ****ing stupid.

Results have shown us that using sandpaper, bottlecaps etc. is nowhere near as effective as simply using sweets to shine the ball, but it's clearly much more obvious and easy to get caught. Another reason why it was so dumb.

 

[mr_mister]

2005 easily. There was so much hype surrounding the series and it lived up to it

 

[Tom Flint]

2005 was gladiatorial stuff. What an epic series. First time we'd seen the Australian team intimidated since the early 90s, and the first time I'd ever seen an English team able to intimidate. So many points:

- Flintoff, Jones, Harmison and Hoggard all bowled so well as a unit.
- The coming of Pietersen and the power hitting of him and Flintoff which must have showed the Australians what it'd been like to have to confront someone like Gilchrist in the opposition. There was some big hitting.
- The lack of batting firepower from a declining Gilly, Hayden, Martyn and sub par returns from Clarke and Ponting (in spite of Ponting's one epic knock).
- Lee's was ok (just) but it was the beginning of the end for Dizzy, who'd been so good for a long time.
- The Ponting run out
- McGrath missing two tests (literally would have changed the series result)
- The absolute immenseness of Warne as a cricketer.
- Solid opening combo from Strauss and Trescothick
- Good leadership from Vaughan

So close too.

How can you say the result would have been different? Impossible to say aus didn't win every test McGrath ever bowled in

 

[trundler]

Yeah but they won the test he did bowl in. He was easily easily best in the world at the time. Would've lifted the others up too.

 

[mr_mister]

McGrath's record against English batsmen speaks for itself. Nearly every generation of English batsman who faced him failed. Only in his first series way back in 1994 did they remotely put up a fight

 

[trundler]

He's in the top less than a handful for English conditions ever.

 

[mr_mister]

I don't understand

 

[trundler]

What I meant to say is that McGrath is probably the most successful bowler in England. He mastered the seaming conditions very well. The perfect tourist.
I ****ed it up with bad sentence structure though which I attribute to lack of sleep.

 

[fredfertang]

McGrath did bowl against some poor England sides in 97 and 01 though - in English conditions I think Terry Alderman was a better bowler

 

[Tom Flint]

But Australia didn't win every test they ever played against England when he was playing. So it's literally impossible to say they would have won the tests he missed that series

 

[Bijed]

Fair to say though the margins that we won the 2nd and 4th tests by were close enough that the step up in the bowling from Kasprowicz/Tait to a fit McGrath (if he hadn't gone down injured he'd likely not have been below his best in the 3rd/5th tests either) would most probably have meant that Aus won them.

 

[Tom Flint]

Yeah of course I agree McGrath would have given them a much better chance of winning. But the fact is he played 3 out the 5 games and aus only won one of them. The other 2 he played in was part of attack which couldn't bowl us out and ended in draws. We even declared one of our 2nd innings he bowled in

 

[Tom Flint]

Personally I think McGrath is the best pace bowler that's played since I've been watching cricket since 1990. But I don't think him missing two games out a 5 match series is an excuse for losing. Aussies always go on about their conveyor belt of fast bowlers in the shield ready to get a go in the tests. Well this was their chance to show it and they came up with kasprovics ?

 

[TheJediBrah]

How can you say the result would have been different?

You'd have to be a very brave man to bet against it