***Official*** 1st Test at The Gabba

[tooextracool]

Remeber my Crazy £5 bet of the week.

Geraint to make a century in Brisbane.

well if you go by the warm ups, it certainly appears as though hes finally trying to not play like an idiot. Potentially hes one of the best batsmen in this England side. Tempermantally and when it comes to shot selection hes the worst.

 

[Woodster]

Think people are seriously jumping on the 'Flintoff is a bad captain' bandwagon!
Lets be fair he is still learning the job, ok its a tough and unforgiving place to learn and any mistakes he makes will be magnified due to the vast content of the occasion. This is only his 3rd series as a captain, and credit where its due, he inspired a very good result in India. He will improve and continue to learn.

 

[tooextracool]

Wouldn't Mahmood for Harmison be a like-for-like switch? And could Mahmood really bowl WORSE than Harmison has?

I'd drop Harmison and bring in Paneser and go with the two spinners for Adelaide. As I've already said in this thread, I think if your best three seamers aren't enough to do the job, what is your fourth best quick going to add to the equation except more dross?

Would be the stupidest move possible. Neither Panesar and Giles are likely to win a single test match in Australia. Nor for that matter is Matthew Hoggard or Andrew Flintoff(theres a reason why he only has 2 5 wicket hauls). Ive mentioned it before and i'll say it again, THEY ARE ALL SUPPORT BOWLERS. Hoggard if the conditions suit him can be the dangerous, same with Panesar, but its unlikely that any of them are going to get the conditions to do so in Australia.
Last Ashes Jones was the one who ran through Australia, Flintoff merely played the supporting role(something quite easily forgotten). Harmison is the only bowler in this side(although im praying that Anderson can step his bowling up a notch), that can run through sides and even in the 2nd innings of the super series we saw what hes potentially capable off in Australia. Im surprised nobody has mentioned Kevin Shine here, but to be honest, ive never seen Harmison bowl as poorly as hes been bowling in the last year or so since Shine has come into the setup. I know Harmison wasnt exactly earth shattering as a bowler before either, but he was never wayward in Pakistan or in the last Ashes series. He often bowled too short, but rarely did he bowl 2 balls down the leg side and 2 10 feet outside off stump every over. My question is what on earth is Kevin Shine being paid for?

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

What was this bull**** from Healy yesterday talking about how involved Flintoff has been. He rambled on for about three minutes, no one understood him, saying that Flintoff has had to change tactics, bowlers, field settings etc.

Last time I checked Heals, that's what most captains do.

Haha yeah. I loved Richie's response.

 

[tooextracool]

Think people are seriously jumping on the 'Flintoff is a bad captain' bandwagon!
Lets be fair he is still learning the job, ok its a tough and unforgiving place to learn and any mistakes he makes will be magnified due to the vast content of the occasion. This is only his 3rd series as a captain, and credit where its due, he inspired a very good result in India. He will improve and continue to learn.

we dont need a captain who 'will continue to learn' while also being a stand in and is likely to be injured more often than others in the side. Strauss is captain of middlesex, he has the experience of captaining and generally knows what to do in most situations. Hes never been injured in his time with England and having him captain was just the logical choice. Flintoff has made elementary blunders, that really even a school child would have got right.

 

[FaaipDeOiad]

Bell looked quite confident for the last few overs of the day, especially after the ball had lost its shine(hes batting at least one position too high anyways). As did Pietersen.
Tbh the pitch is dead flat once the ball has lost its shine, and if both Pietersen and Bell dont get big runs they will only have themselves to blame.
Theres still a long way to go in this test match, England still have 17 wickets in hand and they need to bat at least 2.5 more days. My only concern is Warne, because bar the occasional ball none of the fast bowlers looked like taking any wickets towards the end of yesterday.

The pitch isn't dead flat. It's good for batting, but there's a big difference between the two. Those cracks down the centre of the pitch were an inch wide yesterday, and they'll be wider today. By day 4 and 5 they'll be causing the odd ball to misbehave pretty badly. And as I've been saying, it's also a pretty good wicket for seamers who thrive on bounce and pitch it up, and McGrath and Clark should do fine. Add in Warne, and England will need to apply themselves to even get through today, let alone another day and a half in the second innings.

 

[superkingdave]

Can quite easily see England being all out soon after lunch. Couple of quick wickets and there's not much batting left.

Aus by innings and 200 imo

 

[tooextracool]

The pitch isn't dead flat. It's good for batting, but there's a big difference between the two. Those cracks down the centre of the pitch were an inch wide yesterday, and they'll be wider today. By day 4 and 5 they'll be causing the odd ball to misbehave pretty badly. And as I've been saying, it's also a pretty good wicket for seamers who thrive on bounce and pitch it up, and McGrath and Clark should do fine. Add in Warne, and England will need to apply themselves to even get through today, let alone another day and a half in the second innings.

The pitch was dead flat on day one, was dead flat on day 2 and presumably will be dead flat on day 3 as well. Day 4 and day 5 is another story because as you've mentioned there are enough cracks for Warne and the rest to cause problems. However anyone could see that none of the England or Australian bowlers got anything out of the wicket, even with the new ball there was marginal movement. Brett Lees first over had every single ball being gun barrell straight. Mcgrath was by and large innocuous except for the odd ball(the one that got Cook). The one that got Strauss should really have been smashed to the boundary on the off side. If you think this has been a good cricketing wicket for the last 2 days, then one has to say that you've been really spoilt by the number of disgracefully flat wickets that have been produced in Australia over the last 5 years.

 

[superkingdave]

ffs kp sort it out

 

[tooextracool]

and pietersen has decided that theres no way he can score runs unless he has at least one dropped catch

 

[social]

Brett Lee is about the unluckiest bowler I've ever seen

He may not always bowl well but you can guarantee he'll almost always have catches dropped off him

 

[superkingdave]

deary me kp, can't leave those

 

[tooextracool]

quite a poor decision there. even on realtime never looked out. guess thats what happens when you play with your pads.

 

[BoyBrumby]

That's absolutely brain-dead from Pietersen. Even if it was missing he deserved it after that pull.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Oooh, Aaaah.

Good way to start to Flintoff as well.

 

[grecian]

What kind of fecking decision was that

 

[BoyBrumby]

****e.

 

[superkingdave]

lol, disasteur

 

[R_D]

Flintoff gone now.

 

[steds]

Oh ****...