Burbage

Dunno. No damage done and there's no question that Australia will be unhappier with the series still being level than England are.

Remember that England were hammered in the first test in 2005 too. Does this forum go back to 2005? You'll probably find that England fans were even more depressed after the first test then.

Broad Shoulders

yeah, but at least we showed some fight and spirit in that game. We had enough chances in that Lord's game to suggest we were in with a chance. Sure Colly's knock showed that, but no one else in the team did their job. At the moment I am left wondering how we are going to take 20 wickets for the remaining 4 tests

DadAgain

Australia to retain the Ashes after a 0-0 series stalemate.
Neither team will sucesfully take 20 wickets in any match..

Big call perhaps - but I'll put it out there.

Broad Shoulders

quite possible considering how far down each team can bat these days. In fact I'd almost go as far to say that each team's bowlers are better batsmen than they are actually bowlers. With the exception of Monty, who is just sh!t at both forms

Burbage

Harsh.

I don't think Australia would have got so many wickets if it hadn't been for brainless batting from England. Hopefully a few of his teammates were watching Collingwood. I bagged him because I don't think he is a test class batsman, but really I was talking about his range of abilities. The great thing about Collingwood is that he knows his abilities and plays within them.

Cardiff was always going to be an odd match. Neither team knew what to expect and frankly the only wickets which were taken when the ball was older than 25 overs were gifted.

Should provide a reality check for the English if nothing else, and touring sides get easier to beat the longer they're on tour, and the Aussie have been on tour for a while now. Two weeks in Liecester must have had some effect, we just haven't seen it yet.

Broad Shoulders

I've always thought that Collingwood is our best test batsman, in that he is probably our most dependable batsman.

Although there was a fair bit of "brainless" batting from England the Aussie bowlers on the whole bowled a lot better than ours did. The Aussies, after all have not been reknowned for swinging the ball, yet they swung it much more than our bowlers were able to. The longer this series goes on the more likely Flintoff is to get injured and he is about the only dependable bowler we have at the moment. Anderson is just not dependable, one match he is amazing, the next he is crap.
The thing that worries me now is that I reckon England will look towards Harmy, that is a great concern for me!

Burbage

Should be interesting to see what happens at Lords. Australia haven't lost at Lords for about 2 million years.

And in that match Hedley Verity took 15 wickets. Slow left arm orthodox anyone?

Broad Shoulders

Great response from DC on Pricky Ponting
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog...t-test-tactics

Amazulu

Merv Hughes was on the radio this morning agreeing with what England did to waste time - it works both ways.
Ponting is on the edge - he definitely has issues. I think England should target him with some really choice sledging - see if they can push him over the edge. It would be fun to watch!

Broad Shoulders

I reckon KP and Prior could make a right mental mess of him

Burbage

They need to dig out Gary Pratt again for Lords and bring him on as sub the second Ponting arrives at the wicket.

Injury to Flintoff might be a good thing, since regardless of his talents, England perform better without him than with him. Is Sidebottom fit? He's the man for Lords, swing and movement off the slope should be unplayable if he gets his radar right.

Dunno about dropping Panesar, you could say it weakens the batting if GBH comes in for Freddie, but I'm a firm believer in the batsmen getting runs. I think they'd concentrate a lot harder if they knew that there were five Panesars coming at the end of the order.

Broad Shoulders

Frank Sidebottom is fit, however he's still trying to find form from his injury. I too would have liked to have seen him in this Ashes series but I can't see him playing at Lord's as he isn't even in the 14 man squad.

The whole Gary Pratt thing was a tyical Ponting hypocracy moment. He bitched and moaned (and swore even) at Fletcher and the England team for using him, yet in 06 at the Gabba they did exactly the same thing and dismissed Strauss using a substitute fielder!

Burbage

Don't think Frank's been fit for a while, but Ryan hopefully will return to the side at some stage.

Broad Shoulders

that's his nickname, because of his big head

Burbage

It's also the name of an old friend of mine, old being the operative term, he's about ninety.