2nd Test: Australia v England at Adelaide

[knocky1]

Yes, England haven't been up to much but you don't see genuine pace bowling like this very often these days. He's beat proper batsmen for pace repeatedly. Hats off.

Unfortunately one of the nights highlights. Incredible and in line. The best moments were Broad getting the sight screen sorted out for ages before losing his stumps first ball and putting Mitch on the hat trick.

I fear I have to lose all optimism now or I will sound like a Californian. Hang on has anyone tried asking the Angels? They can help.

My inner negativity will now come out at lunchtime where a few Harvey's on a tired head should do my moaning a wonder of good before watching Brighton win 4-0.

 

[KZNSeagull]

HUGE wake up call for England. Humiliation in spades.

Let's hope they can learn from it and come back stronger. Dunno when that will be, mind.

 

[The Wizard]

Just arisen from my pit and frequented the BBC Sport website. What a ****ing shambles! Embarrassment, can't even make a decent score.

Ian Bell, only one who deserves credit & only one with a BRAIN.

 

[Beach Hut]

This is dreadful, total humiliation

 

[Bold Seagull]

Genuine pace bowling!? Do me a favour we were getting caught at short midwicket playing woeful shots, Mitchell Johnson hasn't suddenly turned into Geoff Thompson but he may as well have done with our batting. Bell looked nonplussed as everyone toppled around him - he made it look easy.

 

[The Wizard]

Genuine pace bowling!? Do me a favour we were getting caught at short midwicket playing woeful shots, Mitchell Johnson hasn't suddenly turned into Geoff Thompson but he may as well have done with our batting. Bell looked nonplussed as everyone toppled around him - he made it look easy.

Yup, 'Mitch' had definitely bowled well though, just seen the highlights and it would appear despite the fact he bowled some rippers, there were some extremely poor shots by our batsmen. I feel for those England fans who have saved up for years to go out there to watch that shit. Prior, Pietersen & Cook are the ones that annoy me the most, to be fair Cook got a decent ball but they keep getting out in the same way, Prior can't even hit the ball at the moment.

I said around the start of play, they are playing fearful cricket, Roots dismissal was a prime example, defensive shot after defensive shot then decides to play a stupid shot to make some sort of point against the spinner, I don't understand their mindset the Aussies must be right about the scrambled brains because they obviously aren't thinking clearly, needlessly over the top aggressive shots, you can be aggressive without hitting the face off the ball you know guys, even an amateur like me knows that.

 

[Buffalo Seagull]

Genuine pace bowling!? Do me a favour we were getting caught at short midwicket playing woeful shots, Mitchell Johnson hasn't suddenly turned into Geoff Thompson but he may as well have done with our batting. Bell looked nonplussed as everyone toppled around him - he made it look easy.

I'd call bowling consistently at over 93 mph 'genuine pace bowling'. And given that 5 of his 7 wickets were either bowled or lbw, I would suggest that he was bowling with pace and accuracy.

 

[Elvis]

Its like going back in time. I really thought that humiliations like this were a thing of the past.
The Aussies aren't ever that good, yes the porn star is putting the ball in the right place with pace, but our shot selection is woeful.
This really could be a whitewash, if we can't score in Adelaide how the hell are we going to fair in Perth.

 

[knocky1]

Genuine pace bowling!? Do me a favour we were getting caught at short midwicket playing woeful shots, Mitchell Johnson hasn't suddenly turned into Geoff Thompson but he may as well have done with our batting. Bell looked nonplussed as everyone toppled around him - he made it look easy.

Bell certainly was in command and played some great shots of Johnson. Will be interesting to see how he fares if pushed up to 3 for 2nd innings. Car berry deserves praise as well. As for the rest of them......

 

[Mo Gosfield]

I keep saying til I'm blue in the face that we lost this series in the first Test. The Aussies realised that a number of our players didn't fancy it and they pounced. They are now so psychologically superior that England will not be able to rest the initiative back.
Cricket is a game played as much, if not more, mentally than physically and relies totally on confidence. If you are struggling as a batsman, there is only one answer....crease occupation. Over after over of bat on ball. Not glorious flowing shots just sheer hard work and grind. Very few cricketers go through their careers without going through these crises of confidence, when you wonder where the next run is coming from. You can only battle through these times if you have the guts and inner resolve to do it. You have to be mentally strong, cos its bloody hard work.
The Aussies know that we have four players at present who are not going to fight it out.
1) Cook...Captain and leader. Shot away and technically bereft. When his game goes, it falls apart like a pack of cards. ( Clearly, a mental weakness ) An early wicket waiting to fall.
2) Trott...couldn't cope with short, quick bowling and crumbled mentally. Not strong enough to try and work out his problems.
3) KP....blessed with an amazing eye ( like Viv Richards but much poorer technically )..can whip the ball across his front leg and bully teams, when on top. Mentally, a mess. Has no discretion. Wants to attack all the time. Lets his team down time and time again by chucking it away. Wasting an incredible talent. Unreliable and frustrating.
4) Prior..an ordinary player with technical deficiences and no stomach for a fight. A flat-track bully, who will get 50 when its 300-5. When its 100-5, he will get 0. Basically, he's chicken. He always has been. You can see it in his body language. Not mentally strong enough to battle it out.
These are four key players ( three, now Trott has gone home ) and so fundamental to the team, that I'm afraid that their mental fragility will drag the rest down.
I hope I'm proved wrong but I now smell 4-0 or 5-0 coming up.

 

[vegster]

Unfortunately one of the nights highlights. Incredible and in line. The best moments were Broad getting the sight screen sorted out for ages before losing his stumps first ball and putting Mitch on the hat trick.

I fear I have to lose all optimism now or I will sound like a Californian. Hang on has anyone tried asking the Angels? They can help.

My inner negativity will now come out at lunchtime where a few Harvey's on a tired head should do my moaning a wonder of good before watching Brighton win 4-0.

I know things are bad but surely not bad enough to start drinking Harvey's as a way out, I'd suggest Doom Bar as being more palatable and considerably more apt.

 

[big nuts]

Too many of our batsman have built careers and reputations against moderate bowling attacks on chief exec pitches. Every time they come up against 'mystery' spin or genuine pace 90MPH+ they are found badly wanting.

20 years ago there were probably half a dozen attacks of this standard, today there is only two the Aussies & South Africa and we get blown away every time there is a bit of spice in the wicket.

Looking certain to be 2-0 down now, with Perth (Quickest pitch down under) to come it the series looks all but over. The Aussie's are winning all the personal battles and their catching, bowling and batting has been vastly superior to us.

 

[sagaman]

Painful seeing the Aussies thrashing us- lack of judgement and spine on a slow pitch

Could be the end for Flowers who had previously done a great job

 

[Trevor]

Listened to Boycott's assessment

His view seemed to be

Panesar becomes preferred spinner instead of Swann
Drop Prior (guessing Bairstow in)
Stokes not good enough (Ballance?)
Bell at 3 - Root at 5
KP on very thin ice

I think he's about right (oh and we are already stuffed in this series as we haven't got the pace to match Johnson)

 

[vegster]

I'd call bowling consistently at over 93 mph 'genuine pace bowling'. And given that 5 of his 7 wickets were either bowled or lbw, I would suggest that he was bowling with pace and accuracy.

Bold's point is valid. The days of Lillie and Thompson were far more dangerous for England batsmen. Both had genuine pace AND movement combined with accuracy and a nasty streak, bowled in tandem there was no hiding place. I once saw England batting against them and the Aussies set a field of 6 slips and 2 gullies with just one fielder in front of the bat at mid on. They regularly destroyed England until we found David Steele, who managed to score several 50's against them and immediately assumed the rank of National Treasure. We were still pants but at least sometimes made 200+.

Johnson is a different beast all together, he has the pace but never had the control and so he went back to Shield cricket and the periphery of Australia A and rebuilt his confidence and technique. Now he is back and bowling well and we are going down like domino's, but it's our batsmen's technique that is faulty now.

This in combination of his strong desire to rub our noses in it after all the "He bowls it to the left, he bowls it to the right..." stuff leads us to the pretty pickle we are now in. Think Stuart Pearce and and the missed penalty and his subsequent redemption when he got a second chance.

If Lillie and Thommo were let loose on this lot we wouldn't make 3 figures.

 

[vegster]

Painful seeing the Aussies thrashing us- lack of judgement and spine on a slow pitch

Could be the end for Flowers who had previously done a great job

I think it was widely speculated that this was Flower's last tour in charge anyway, before the dénouement.

 

[big nuts]

Listened to Boycott's assessment

His view seemed to be

Panesar becomes preferred spinner instead of Swann
Drop Prior (guessing Bairstow in)
Stokes not good enough (Ballance?)
Bell at 3 - Root at 5
KP on very thin ice

I think he's about right (oh and we are already stuffed in this series as we haven't got the pace to match Johnson)

Thats pretty reactionary, although some of those arguments are valid.

I would still pick Swann over Panesar although I think since his shoulder injury he hasn't looked the threat he used to. His also a superb slip catcher and dangerous batsman and whilst I'd always say pick your best bowlers, when two bowlers are relatively evenly matched you have to take into account the other aspects of his play.

Prior is an interesting one, his second innings will tell us a lot about his mental state as for the first time in five years his possibly batting for his place. Again I would keep with Prior mainly because his replacement is a very inexperienced wicket keeper and keeping at Perth is unlike anything is domestic cricket.

I can see why you would bring in a bona fide number six batsman, but harsh on Stokes as he showed a lot of promise with the ball in the first innings. That being said I would bring in Ballance for Stokes, but Stokes is one for the future in my opinion.

Agree with the Root and Bell swap.

KP - he needs a rocket up his arse but not dropped, I can't recall him being quiet for a whole series so his due to come good in the final three tests hopefully.

My two changes for Perth would be Ballance for Stokes & Finn for Panesar. Bresnan will probably play in the 4th and 5th test.

 

[vegster]

Listened to Boycott's assessment

His view seemed to be

Panesar becomes preferred spinner instead of Swann
Drop Prior (guessing Bairstow in)
Stokes not good enough (Ballance?)
Bell at 3 - Root at 5
KP on very thin ice

I think he's about right (oh and we are already stuffed in this series as we haven't got the pace to match Johnson)

Just listening to Boyc's and he's right as usual, no stomach, no brains or confidence. Worryingly this is a good batting wicket, lord knows what we will be out for in Perth.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I think it was widely speculated that this was Flower's last tour in charge anyway, before the dénouement.

Who will replace him?
The king of spain has been leading the one-day squads, will he also now take command of the test-flids?

 

[vegster]

Who will replace him?
The king of spain has been leading the one-day squads, will he also now take command of the test-flids?

Please not Giles, we need The Little Master to remind our top 6 how to bat.