England In Australia - The Ashes 2013/14

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Brian Lara said:
Very disappointing :( The scene is set for Australia to declare and England to set a new record chasing in the 4th innings. Remembering that RSA probably could've chased down 600, 5 or so years ago. It's under trying circumstances like this that make these moments. Cook to at least threaten a double ton. Come on England!
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Two very important points of difference between the South Africa chase and this one yet to be set.
  1. The pitch back then was an absolute road, this one is cracking everywhere and will have uneven bounce.
  2. The South African team were not completely out classed and mentally shattered.
 
SLA said:
The west indies of the 80s and 90s were a classy side and famous for never sledging anyone. They just let the ball do the talking. Sledging or "mental disintegration" is a recent Australian invention designed expressly to cause serious mental health problems in the opposition. I hope they're very proud of ruining Jonathan Trott's career, they really could be sued for loss of earnings in any other profession.
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The West Indies never sledged anyone? What a load of crap. Ramnaresh Sarwan famously sledged McGrath about his wife after McGrath made a comment about Sarwan to his face.

Yawn. And if England were a careful employer they wouldn't subject an employee to such workplace conditions. It's easy to blame Australia when Trott shouldn't have been playing if his mental state was that bad.

SLA said:
Come on, Anderson never threatened anyone, it was just another of Warne's little mind games. Clarke got off very lightly. What a classless thug that man is.
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It's been reported by several media outlets that he did in fact say something. You haven't got a clue about anything.
 
Brain Lara said:
Ok Ljp86, I'm not going to quote your post. But this is my response and you can work out what I was responding to.
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No worries.

Yes, Johnson knocked over a few of the top order in Brisbane, but I was talking about Adelaide. Progressively, the batsman have dealt with him better. I'm not saying he won't get any top order wickets anymore. But as an England supporter, who's annoyed with the media tidal wave of support, I'm looking at the positives. The WACA will be favourable to Johnson, but I think the batsman, are better prepared to play him. (I hope so!)
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They have played him better but he's still dominated them. Johnson had 17 out of 40 wickets before the Perth test so he's certainly had their measure.

Cook is looking like the player he was a few years ago. 3 years ago (and this is forgotten on BF), he was actually out of form and his place in the side was questioned. To this day does anyone know how he managed that emphatic a performance during 10/11?
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I don't think anyone will truly know. But at this stage he is well below his best cricket.

Brian Lara said:
Anyway, in the second innings, the tactics were right, to take on Johnson, but he's overcorrected with the aggression, going for a hook off the third ball. don't know how fast Johnson's ball was, but I don't think it mattered. Similar could be said for Broad's wicket as well.
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I think an assertive attitude towards Johnson would be more proficient rather than all out attack by England. Cook played a silly shot in the second innings at Adelaide and it cost him dearly.

Little or no application in batting is all down to being totally unprepared for the series. The buying of the protective gear? A big fuss has been made about England being scared. They're not scared. This tells me that they weren't prepared as well as they should've been. It's a mindset Australia have taken full advantage of. They'll get their act together. Hopefully it won't be too late.
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If preparation is the reason then they'll have to go about things a lot better next time around. In terms of games played on the tour I think they've had a fair bit of match practice.

I'm not excited about 312, but it's a step in the right direction. All the batsmen have put in a decent innings so far. It's just it there hasn't been huge scores, and they all haven done it a t the same time.
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All out 251 today. Lack of time at the crease is a major issue at this point.
 
So Australia lead by 369 with two days to go. Personally I think Australia could bat for another 40 overs and aim to go at around 4-5 runs per over and then declare in the middle session which would leave about a hour of play to go before the tea break. That would set England at least 520+ to win the game on what will be a difficult track to bat on.
 
Ljp86 said:
So Australia lead by 369 with two days to go. Personally I think Australia could bat for another 40 overs and aim to go at around 4-5 runs per over and then declare in the middle session which would leave about a hour of play to go before the tea break. That would set England at least 520+ to win the game on what will be a difficult track to bat on.
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This would appear the logical tactic but the morning session has proven to be the best overall for the bowling team. I would suggest that 420 will be enough but clearly 500 has a psyhcicological effect that will hurt the POMS. At this stage Boxing day is going to be very daunting for England with the crowd baying for more blood.
 
Well, I haven't got much left. I've tried to stay positive, but the team is just lacking the "oomph" needed to get through. Chasing a record score is the only thing left to do. Until the opening pair get almost half of it on their own, I won't be holding my breath in anticipation.

Ljp86 said:
If preparation is the reason then they'll have to go about things a lot better next time around. In terms of games played on the tour I think they've had a fair bit of match practice
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With the teams they were playing against, that was hardly match practice. Tbh, looking at some of those games, they might even have been better off not playing them.
 
Brian Lara said:
With the teams they were playing against, that was hardly match practice. Tbh, looking at some of those games, they might even have been better off not playing them.
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Pretty sure that they always give Australia quite sub-standard warm up matches when we go over there.

Think for today they will look to get a lead of around 500 before declaring.
 
I actually had "Come on England. Come on Cook. Channel the spirit of de Villiers and du Plessis" and was ready to press "Post Reply" when Harris was running in. :oops:

FMD! :mad:
 
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5/251 at stumps. Better effort from the POMS and that heat really weighed heavy on the bowlers today. Will see if a rest and the new day helps the Aussies or England can give it a scare.
 
Just need to break this partnership and especially with Broad out it should be all over pretty quickly tomorrow.
 
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