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Generali

Well I reckon England will be a lot happier with that draw than the Aussies. You take out the top 2 scorers from the Aussie side and the rest made 150 between them on a batting wicket.

Siddle bowled well obviously but Hilfenhaus managed 1/142 over the 2 innings. Mitchell Johnston, the 1st change bowler who is meant to strike fear into the hearts of batsmen everywhere returned figures of 0/170 and his handy batting down the order was a 19 ball duck.

The biggest problem for England IMO was that in the first innings several got a start but never took it forward. That problem was resolved in the second innings I think it's fair to say.

lemonjelly

Pretty much agree with all the above post Gen.

I think this has given the england team some kudos, in that we fought back. If we had done anything with the first innings, we'd have had a chance.

From after our first innings, Aus should have been favourites. They failed (or were unable to) take advantage of their position.

It also appears now that their bowling attack is not what it has been. Further, they themselves do't know their best combination.

Aus are now on the back foot. England need to make their advantage count in the next test.

nomoreboomandbust

It was a case of spot the Australian in the crowd, I am surprised Ponting got any applause/cheers on reaching 50, maybe the barmy army were feeling charitable poor chap.

chewmylegoff

england will be happier with the draw, especially as after day 1 and in particular day 3 it was looking pretty gloomy for us. don't know what the odds on an aussie win were at the end of day 3 but i presume they were strong favourites over the draw. you always feel happier when you get out of a fix than when you let a winning position slip, and all the more so with such a dominant batting display.

it's right to draw attention to the weaknesses in australia's bowling attack - but swann's failure to perform was deeply worrying, as if with only 3 seamers, we are going to take 20 wickets (at adelaide in particular) then swann will need to make a major contribution. if he isn't taking wickets or at least tying down and end (which he utterly failed to do in brisbane) then we are really going to struggle. swann wasn't unlucky - he bowled awfully, especially when we were under the cosh with hussey and haddin piling on the runs.

lemonjelly

Well, that's a bit better.:T

Generali

lemonjelly wrote: »

Well, that's a bit better.:T

A bit better!

A par score on a flattish track (although not as flat as the internet commentators would have you believe) would have been maybe just short of 400.

Anderson has finally worked out that the ball isn't really going to swing in Australia so there is little point bowling 45 overs watching the Aussies put together a score of 600 in the hope you'll finally get one to shape in or away. As a result he was all over them and was pretty unlucky not to get a Michelle*.

Ok, Finny got knocked about a bit the Kookaburra ball is hard to bowl with once it's gone soft. Broad looked like he's got some rhythm going and if Swann was managing to get some turn off the pitch at Adelaide on the first day I reckon he could turn it on the Hume Highway!

Extras with 8 outscored all but one of the first 4 batsmen and the Aussies were 2 wickets down before they reached the English score end of day of 1 leg bye.

As an interesting footnote, Katich was run out in the first over starting at the non-strikers end. I can't think of another player who has been out in a test have not faced a single ball.

Tomorrow is going to be 33C and potentially a long hot day in the field for the Aussies. Let us not forget the only wicket they took in the last England innings was a stumping of a player well past his century.

If you fancy a laugh try this:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/cricket/reasons-why-poms-wont-win/story-e6frey50-1225955985591

I like this one:

3 No top speedster
Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Steve Finn are respectable quicks. But they lack the fear factor. Every truly great attack has someone pushing 150km/h, like Mitchell Johnson does for Australia. None of the touring fast bowlers are frightening. Away from swing and seam-friendly England, that doesn't leave them with much.

:rotfl:Mitchell Johnson took 0-170 and made a 19 ball duck in the first test and has now been dropped.:rotfl:







*Five-fer (ie taking five wickets, noted in cricket terms as five for xxx runs).

nomoreboomandbust

Ponting was bellyaching to Strauss at the end as they walked off after the first day, what was that all about ( I suspect they wanted two overs at the openers and only got one, he probably accused him of slowing things down) so much for whingeing poms, its the aussies who are cornering the market it would appear

purch

Other than having 2 guys opening the Innings who aren't openers, and who clearly don't speak to each other, 2 fast bowlers who are being rushed back from injury, a spinner who can't spin the ball and a captain who seems to have a hissy fit every session, the Aussie's look strong to me...

Generali

So we end the day 72 ahead. If Australia just manage a par day tomorrow, that will be a lead of almost 400 for England and Australia looking at trying to bat 5 sessions to save the game, weather permitting. Worst case for Australia is an English declaration 30 minutes before lunch on Monday 500 runs ahead with the Aussies having spent 2 days in 35C temperatures in the field.

On the 5th day the ball will be up and down and will take a huge amount of turn. Seriously, watch the way that the pitch will fall apart tomorrow. The surface looks good but at Adelaide it seems to crumble just below the surface and go very quickly from being benign to malign.

JonnyBravo

Generali wrote: »

So we end the day 72 ahead. If Australia just manage a par day tomorrow, that will be a lead of almost 400 for England and Australia looking at trying to bat 5 sessions to save the game, weather permitting. Worst case for Australia is an English declaration 30 minutes before lunch on Monday 500 runs ahead with the Aussies having spent 2 days in 35C temperatures in the field.

On the 5th day the ball will be up and down and will take a huge amount of turn. Seriously, watch the way that the pitch will fall apart tomorrow. The surface looks good but at Adelaide it seems to crumble just below the surface and go very quickly from being benign to malign.

Went to bed at 100-1 and woke up for the last hour. Great stuff.
:j