The Ashes is here once again!!

Sports & Recreation Forum

Well folks, the long wait is finally over. After last year's heroics where England triumphed against all odds to win back the Ashes, we return to Australia to seek glory once again. Alas, our preparations this time around have been far from perfect, and with the loss of several key top-notch players, including Michael Vaughan and Simon Jones, I think England's in for a tough time.
Australia will start as clear favourites, but you underestimate England at your own peril - Messrs. McGrath and co will testify to this (albeit only at gunpoint - typical Aussie 'We will trounce England 5-0' arrogance ).

Here's to a keenly contested and exciting series! May the better side win.....unless it's Australia. Yeeha!

The_Rebel

I think the Aussies have got our number this year. England have been poor since winning the Ashes and unless they improve dramatically in a short amout of time this competition will be a whitewash for the Aussies.

Nope, I think the Aussies are in for a rude awakening. Our players always step up a gear whenever they play the Old Enemy (no, not Scotland). We're still the underdogs, but I'm quietly confident that we'll be more than a match for them. The Aussies are ageing and McGrath will hopefully croak before he hits top form - ha.

Bring on the Ashes!

Yeah I suppose it is always a worry that Warne and McGrath hit form at the same time and rip England to shreads.

Of course if Flintoff and Peiterson hit form at the same time the Aussies are in for a rough time.

I think it may be close actually but I still think that Australia win just due to England not having been in the best of form for a long time.

Heads up, chaps! The Ashes will begin in less than 5 hours' time.
May the better team win (unless it's Australia).

The_Rebel

Wayhay another couple of months of me trying to figure A. what the hell is going on and B. what is all the fuss about oh and maybe C. trying to work out how old Shane Warne is and how I can have hair that thick when I am in my 40's

Only Day 3 and guess what - the Aussies have more or less wrapped up the match in amazing fashion. Never have so few Aussies done so much against the English in such a short period.
By the close of play on Day 3, the Aussies have a lead of 626 and are only 1 wicket down. Rather oddly, Ricky Ponting chose NOT to enforce the follow-on with a lead of 445 as England collapsed to 157 all out in reply to Australia's 602-9 declared.
Perhaps an inspired decision designed to drive home the Aussies' superiority and to maximise England's humiliation? Or one which enables his bowlers to rest and take advantage of the pitch when England bats last? Whatever it is, it has perhaps given England a sliver of hope in batting out 5+ sessions to salvage a draw, although the way the team has played so far, this seems an extremely unlikely possibility.

Well played the Aussies, hats off to you guys for being the far superior team in this match. Round 1 to you guys.

England has some serious thinking to do regarding team selection before the next match starts in Adelaide on Friday.
Hopefully we'll give a better account of ourselves and restore some English pride!

It was a good game. I didn't get to watch any of it, but the Guardian had a real-time updater thing on their website, so I got updates every minute or so.

Looks like it's all over for the Aussies; Warne just got an LBW.

At this very moment, Australia's 10/513.

Pitiful!

Stumps in Innings number 2, England at 1/59 (if memory serves me right)

I think England will take this one.

It cirtainly look as if England are in the driving seat for this match.

If Peiterson, Collingwood and Flintoff hit form at the same time then the Aussies are in trouble.

Isn't Glen McGrath out of this test injured? He's a big loss for Australia if he is.

Nope, England's not in the driving seat after 4 days. It's probably even stevens, but Australia might claim to have a slight edge. From 97-1, England could still collapse to say 200 all out - Austalia will be hoping that on a fifth day wicket, Warne will have a big say on things. If England reach 200 or less all out in 30 overs, then they're in trouble. That means there'll be at least 60 overs remaining, and Australia need only to score at less than 3.5 runs per over to chase down a target of 200. They've done this before on numerous occasions. Without Monty
Panesar, England doesn't have anyone capable of spinning the ball to get wickets (Giles? don't make me laugh). However, the most likely scenario is that England will survive until lunch with about 6 wickets intact, and the game will peter out towards a boring stalemate.

I think England has come back really well in this match, considering the debacle at the Gabba in Brisbane. There's all to play for with 3 matches remaining and England only 1-0 down.

I hope Duncan Fletcher and Freddie come to their senses and start picking Panesar over Giles. I've been a long-time fan of Fletcher and Giles, but they've made a grave error of judgement in sticking with Giles at Panesar's expense. I'm convinced that this has cost us the match at Adelaide, in that we could and should have won the match.

At this very moment Australia needs 58 runs from 96 balls and they can claim victory.

Freakin' exciting.

Australia now need 8 runs off 27 balls.

I'll be surprised if we don't take this one home too.

Sorry guys.

And Australia wins it.

Now wasn't my previous post prophetic?

Totally unbelievable. Never in the history of Test cricket has a side scored as high as 551 runs and declaring in the first innings gone on to lose a match. Bloody spineless idiots, those England boys, and I am totally ashamed of being an England supporter.
Credit must go to Australia for never giving up - their backs were against the wall for 3 and a half days - but they somehow persevered and never once wavered from their belief that they could still win from a seemingly impossible position.

Duncan Fletcher and Flintoff have let everyone down big time. The selection of Giles was the deciding factor - it smacked of nepotism, negativity and a shocking lack of courage. No doubt about it - Fletcher MUST go and Flintoff stripped of the captaincy after the series is over. It's too late now - the Ashes is now as good as gone. It'll be almost impossible to recover from this debacle to win a match against the Aussies in the remaining matches - let alone retain the Ashes. Psychologically, the team has hit its lowest ebb, and it'll take a long time for them to regain their self-belief and confidence to mount a serious challenge against the Aussies once again. This is a real shame because I really think the team had the potential to at least compete against the Aussies, albeit the loss of Vaughan, Simon Jones and Trescothick was always going to hit us hard.

Well, at the very least, we're still ranked No. 2 in the world! That's got to be reason enough to be cheerful .

Being a true fan, I'll sink and swim with the team, but they've got to learn from this and come back stronger - if not for the remaining matches, then at least for the future. Hopefully, we'll use it to our advantage and it will inspire us to come out victors once again. Remember this - Australia's dominance WILL end, especially with the likes of McGrath, Warne, Langer, Hayden, Martyn and Gilchrist on the last legs of their careers. And when it ends, England will be there to savour the moment, and make this statement - we remember Adelaide 2006, and this is our revenge.

The_Rebel

Yeah, all our better players are getting a bit over the hill. I don't know much about those young'uns, a couple of them seem okay... not brilliant, though.

Man, you know what the english team's problem is? They're too competitive. I mean, when Australia comes out and have a shocker of an Innings, the English team just say "you think that was bad? Check this one out!"

May the English team RIP after the sports editors are through with them.

The Innings isn't over, so I may be eating my words in a little while... but meh!

Well, I guess that's it folks, the end is nigh. The Ashes will officially be over probably by the end of Day 4's play, or the latest by lunch on Day 5.
What a load of rubbish from our players. Australia had an awful first innings, and we should have taken advantage of that and gone on to get a big first innings lead. Instead, in true English fashion, we went on to have an even more awful first innings than the Aussies. Trust our players to snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory.
At least I've got something positive out of this early end to the Ashes - no more late nights!! I'm glad I didn't go all the way Down Under to watch us hand back the urn without any semblance of a fight. Even my neighbour's 3-legged and blind cat would not have capitulated that easily....and the poor kitty has been dead 6 years.
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Deep down inside, we all knew that what happened last summer was merely a flash in the pan - the Aussies were unprepared, cocky and underestimated the English, and they underperformed big time. We played out of our skins in familiar English conditions with the crowd right behind us, and even then we only won by a whisker.
But anyway, Monty has done really well. 8 wickets on his Ashes debut, and with the weight of expectation of the entire nation on his young shoulders, he has performed well beyond expectation. This augurs well for our future. And the likes of Bell and Cook are going to be around for a long time to come. And I will always remember Collingwood getting his double century in Adelaide, Hoggard getting his 7-for, and Pietersen smashing Warne and McGrath into oblivion in the first innings in Adelaide.
So it's goodbye from me, and until we meet again in the next Ashes battle in England, here's a message to all Aussies : enjoy your moment in the sun while it lasts, for the next time we meet, things will be different (and this does not include Warne getting fatter and McGrath getting a hip replacement)....

The_Rebel

Sorry Rebel. I didn't know who to root for, you or Gabo.

Better luck next time.

England's dismal Ashes tour of Australia took an embarrassing new twist on the second day of the fourth Test in Melbourne as their carefully-prepared bowling plans fell into the hands of Australia's ABC Radio.

The broadcaster claimed they had been emailed the plans by an unnamed source and proceeded to read them out on air as Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds turned the screw during their massive 279-run partnership.

The document was prepared by England's team analyst Mark Garaway as part of a video presentation on each Australian batsman that the tourists study ahead of every Test.

It is then posted on a board in the team's dressing room, from where England claim the document must have been taken.

That version of events has been disputed by the Australian media, though, who insist the plans were 'found' at the MCG before being forwarded to ABC.

Either way, the timing of the leak managed to heap more misery on embarrassment on England and their coach Duncan Fletcher with the plans for both Hayden and Symonds quite patently not working as both men made big centuries.

However, with England subsequently making clear their annoyance at the security breach, the matter looks likely to stay in the headlines over the next few days.