The Ashes

[paddy 17]

swanny doing it for Chrissy!!

[Dr Gloom 22177]

this is taking the edge of the news about hughton. we're all over them.

[Kitman 2207]

286-8, mucho collapso

[Kitman 2207]

Just noticed Ryan Harris got a king pair. Only second Aussie ever to get one, hee hee

[Kitman 2207]

295-9, Swanny takes Doherty. Nearly over.

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

"One-Nil to the Eng-er-land!"

[Papa Lazaru 0]

Swann rightly finishes it all off with a lovely delivery!

 

Great stuff all round, the aussies first home defeat by an innings since 1993 and how vital might Pietersen sneaking Clarke out have been last night to set up todays effort!

[Kitman 2207]

Great team effort all round. This has got to hurt, a few glum Aussies in the office today....!

[Ken 119]

this is taking the edge of the news about hughton. we're all over them.

 

No it hasn't.

[Walliver 0]

Well this has started adequately.

 

This morning:

 

I spoke to Gladstone Small.

I saw the Aussies fall to 2-3.

 

I can't think how that could be much better. (1-3, 2-4, etc, I know.)

 

Now I know!

[Gemmill 46064]

Heavens opened just after lunch, and would have washed out play for the day apparently.

 

http://plixi.com/p/61469705

Edited December 7, 2010 by Gemmill

[Tooj 17]

Well done chaps. Cracking way to wake up.

[manc-mag 1]

 

Some very welcome good news in a sea of shit.

[Guest alex]

Heavens opened just after lunch, and would have washed out play for the day apparently.

 

http://plixi.com/p/61469705

Fucking class.

[Kitman 2207]

Be interesting to see how this goes. England didn't just win, they obliterated and thrashed the Aussies.......this is uncharted territory for a side used to winning comfortably on their home patch. The Aussie public and press are on the players' backs so will they crumble under the pressure or step up their game?

 

Losing Katich is a big blow. The Aussies have got to pull together now and show the same unity of purpose as England....I wonder whether Ponting is the man to inspire them? They need to improve across the board but most of all their bowling attack......if they can't skittle out the top order cheaply, they've no hope of winning twice in the next 3 matches.

[manc-mag 1]

Be interesting to see how this goes. England didn't just win, they obliterated and thrashed the Aussies.......this is uncharted territory for a side used to winning comfortably on their home patch. The Aussie public and press are on the players' backs so will they crumble under the pressure or step up their game?

 

Losing Katich is a big blow. The Aussies have got to pull together now and show the same unity of purpose as England....I wonder whether Ponting is the man to inspire them? They need to improve across the board but most of all their bowling attack......if they can't skittle out the top order cheaply, they've no hope of winning twice in the next 3 matches.

 

The point was made throughout commentary from day 2 onwards that changing captain will have little to no use whatever. If they're good enough for Ponting to get anything out of them then he will, but not the other way round.

 

The bowling is utterly toothless and it's an absolute joy to see them getting knocked all over the place. I would normally never say that of any sporting contest I was watching (that's played over that length of time), but I'll make an exception for Australia for numerous reasons that should be abundantly obvious. Their bowling stats for England's innings want framing.

[Guest alex]

Shame Broad is out for the series like. Should be back for the World Cup though. The main thing now though is that the players aren't complacent because Australia are still a decent side.

[manc-mag 1]

They're still easily capable of posting big scores themselves so aye you're right, we can't afford to let Adelaide go to our heads.

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

The Perth pitch should be more bowler-friendly.

[Kitman 2207]

Rather than being complacent, I hope this spurs us on to really go for the jugular. Keep 'em whilst they're down, I say.

 

By the way, Glenn Mcgrath's 2010 Ashes prediction:

 

'I couldn't have more faith in the boys. I think we'll bounce back and win all the Tests. They'll be close, but I'm tipping a 5-0 whitewash.'

 

[Dr Kenneth Noisewater 0]

As an aside, its scandalous that a country that claims to be sports man can have such a poor turn-outs for such vital events. Tickets for Tests in England are like gold-dust. Just confirms what bad sports they are.

[Kitman 2207]

As an aside, its scandalous that a country that claims to be sports man can have such a poor turn-outs for such vital events. Tickets for Tests in England are like gold-dust. Just confirms what bad sports they are.

 

How true. We get Aussie Sky Sports here in NZ. If the Aussies are winning in anything, it's headline news. If they're not, it barely gets a mention. The latter stages of the second test got a brief mention in the sports bulletin. The commonwealth games were the same. It's like East Germany at times

[Gemmill 46064]

Yesterday was Adelaide's wettest December day since records began in 1839. Just an hour too late.

[Kitman 2207]

Yesterday was Adelaide's wettest December day since records began in 1839. Just an hour too late.

 

* chortle *

[Kitman 2207]

Amusing opinion piece from Sydney Morning Herald (from an Aussie journo):

 

As the clouds of despair engulfed Australian cricket at a far greater rate than the storm clouds that were supposed to provide ill-deserved salvation, the inclination was to declare all hope lost. However, I remain confident Australia can win the series.

 

Yes, the opposing batsmen will plunder an attack that penetrates about as deeply as a picnic fork pressed on a chargrilled T-bone and the Australian top order urgently requires an alarm clock that rouses them before midday. Yet, with eight or nine changes, some favourable umpiring, the aid of seasonal monsoons and the possibility the series will be cancelled altogether because it clashes with the Indian Premier League, Australia remains capable of retaining its place in the top dozen or so Test playing nations after April's proposed tour of Bangladesh.

 

You thought I was referring to the current series against England? Are you 'avin' a laugh?

 

On the evidence presented, Australia has a snowball's hope at the 2022 World Cup of regaining the Ashes. Indeed, the idea of Ricky Ponting and his demoralised battlers halting the English juggernaut is like putting a toothpick on the tracks in the hope of derailing a speeding bullet train.

 

The final two days at Adelaide, we were assured, was when we would find out what this Australian team was made of. The results are not yet back from the lab, but it seems to be some sort of gooey, soft-centred material that melts rapidly when heat is applied, is easily removed from flat surfaces, does not bounce or spin and which stinks to high heaven.

 

The taste? Ask Alastair Cook, Kevin Pietersen or one of the other Englishmen who have dined out on the Australians for the past eight days of Test cricket.

 

Australia, of course, should not be disappointed by their dismal performance in Adelaide against an abundantly talented English line-up. They should be chastened, humiliated and utterly sick to the stomach.

 

Not merely because their ineptitude means the closest they will get to holding the Ashes is on a sightseeing tour at Lord's, but because they allowed the Barmy Army to complete the most chilling invasion of Australian soil since Japanese bombs rained down on Darwin. Listening to the endless choruses of Jerusalem and God Save Your Queen, you would have thought Adelaide was a small city in Shropshire, not the local home of mullets, serial killers and Christopher Pyne.

 

Which is not to say the Australians achieved nothing at the Adelaide Oval.

 

Xavier Doherty managed something that was, just two weeks ago, on the ''you must be daft'' side of implausible - he forced a nation to turn its lonely eyes (back) to Nathan Hauritz. Which is a bit like a chainsaw killer making you fondly reminisce about the home intruder who merely beat you on the head with a tyre lever rather than dicing up your spleen.

 

Marcus North, in his last match for Australia, provided a reminder of his significant place in the game's history - he was, according to Cricinfo's archive, the only Test player whose surname is also a point on the compass. North failed at the crease. But, without him, Australia might have lost all sense of direction.

 

In the second innings, Michael Clarke showed his backbone to someone other than the team physiotherapist. Yet he remains the most baffling figure. While you could easily forgive Clarke's decision not to walk on the (hastily tweeted) grounds he was devastated by his dismissal to Pietersen in the last over of the day, his later admission that he was trying to push the ball around the corner for a single so he could get off strike is not the type of revelation you want from the captain-apparent.

 

Otherwise, in the outer, we are left with nothing but our savage second-guessing of the selectors, our black humour and, for English friends, our overflowing message banks. And with the very real hope that, when required, those Bangladesh monsoons move at a greater rate than the sluggish Adelaide storm clouds.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Kitman