2nd Test: Australia v England at Adelaide

[knocky1]

They seem to have forgotten the art of Test cricket batting. Make the bowlers bowl at the stumps, then pick them off. They know how to do it, especially Cook, as he has done that many, many times before. Next test, Cook needs to win the toss and then do exactly this - bat for 2 days and piss the Aussies off.

If anyone bats for 2 days at the WACA they should get a knighthood. English or Australian. I am prepared to give him a knighthood, if he can at least win a toss..

 

[KZNSeagull]

If anyone bats for 2 days at the WACA they should get a knighthood. English or Australian. I am prepared to give him a knighthood, if he can at least win a toss..

I actually meant the team to bat for 2 days, but if Cook can then that will do! He MUST win the toss.

We have to play Finn surely - try and knock their teeth out for a change.

 

[knocky1]

I actually meant the team to bat for 2 days, but if Cook can then that will do! He MUST win the toss.

We have to play Finn surely - try and knock their teeth out for a change.

I agree with that but isn't Finn more likely to hurt his knuckles on the bails as bowls. Oh no, I'm becoming negative....

 

[Buffalo Seagull]

I actually meant the team to bat for 2 days, but if Cook can then that will do! He MUST win the toss.

We have to play Finn surely - try and knock their teeth out for a change.

Batting for two days means scoring 600. Unfortunately it has been 20 innings since England scored more than 400 in an innings. I think their chance of such a turnaround on a pitch where they have historically performed so badly on in the past is somewhat unlikely.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Batting for two days means scoring 600. Unfortunately it has been 20 innings since England scored more than 400 in an innings. I think their chance of such a turnaround on a pitch where they have historically performed so badly on in the past is somewhat unlikely.

That's because they are not doing Test cricket batting. Leave anything wide, make the bowlers bowl at the stumps, then pick them off. 2 days of that and the Aussies will be well pissed off - Johnson will explode for a start.

 

[vegster]

I take no joy in awaking this morning to find the predicted collapse has occurred. I'm afraid its to late to turn this ship around, the best we can hope for is to slow the inevitable slide towards a 5-0 whitewash and try to stop the rot. Winning 2 Tests out the last 3 is simply improbable given our misfiring batting line up. Poor old Boycott is going to get pelters I'm afraid for telling the truth, but, he's right.

It may be that we have had our cyclical time at the top ( or near the top ) and we now have to do what the convicts have been doing over the last 2 years. They lost the last series in England thanks to some fantastic bowling displays by Anderson and Broad that got us out of the hole our already misfiring batting had dug for us. They have brought in a few new players and rehabilitated a few others, Haddin and Johnson, have been pivotal but the Aussie team IS a team unlike England.

The Ashes are gone, the final act will be played out on a wicket that will probably destroy any remaining hope for us. It's kind of ironic that The Barmy Army has just celebrated 20 years of supporting England, We were crap back then, now the wheel has turned full circle.

 

[crodonilson]

Incredibly Australia are EVENS to win at Perth, it's basically like buying money. I implore you to fill your boots and have a Merry Christmas on Crodo.

 

[Kumquat]

If Vaughan was in charge this woud not be happening. Cook is a weak leader. And what the f**k does Gooch do?? He just seems to be there to instigate a long decline in our batting ability. It's a mental thing now. Adam Gilchrist said the aussies felt it in 2005 when batting. They didn't know when to be aggressive and when to be defensive. It's exactly the place we are in now. The one plus point has been Root and Stokes showing some fight. I'll take 4-0 for this series right now and we need Ballance in there. The guy is confident.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Prior has perhaps done just a whisker of enough to keep his place ahead of Bairstow with that last knock, but still, after playing a controlled scoring innings he plays an inexplicable shot to get out.

Perhaps going to Perth we should be blooding the likes of Finn, Ballance, Bairstow to what the Ashes is all about. The positive might be toughening them up for future battles as this series is gone away, as has most of our team.

While I agree with the sentiment of dropping some players I think Perth is probably the hardest place in the world for a test cricketer to make his debut so Ballance would be on a hiding to nothing, I'd save him for Melbourne. My only change would be Finn for Swann who seems to have lost some ability since his shoulder op.

Prior is on his last chance and if he fails again then bring in Bairstow. Perth is also the hardest place to be wicket keeper so not really fair on Bairstow to throw him in at this point.

 

[vegster]

Incredibly Australia are EVENS to win at Perth, it's basically like buying money. I implore you to fill your boots and have a Merry Christmas on Crodo.

That must be some kind of error. I'd have something like the Aussies 2-5 on

 

[sydney]

Incredibly Australia are EVENS to win at Perth, it's basically like buying money. I implore you to fill your boots and have a Merry Christmas on Crodo.

get on quick.....

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Prior is on his last chance and if he fails again then bring in Bairstow. Perth is also the hardest place to be wicket keeper so not really fair on Bairstow to throw him in at this point.[/QUOTE]


Prior only got runs cos the game was already beyond England and as such, didn't carry the pressure of the previous days. The Aussies knew it was just a matter of time until we chucked wickets away and their bowling didn't quite carry the same intensity as before.
Prior is overrated as a batsman. Technically deficient, he bullies when on top but hasn't got the mental fibre to fight in pressurised situations. Even when he's set he still throws it away. He's done it all his career.
He has survived on reputation for far too long.

 

[vegster]

England seem to be a very poor 11/4 to win...

 

[vegster]

Prior is on his last chance and if he fails again then bring in Bairstow. Perth is also the hardest place to be wicket keeper so not really fair on Bairstow to throw him in at this point.

Prior only got runs cos the game was already beyond England and as such, didn't carry the pressure of the previous days. The Aussies knew it was just a matter of time until we chucked wickets away and their bowling didn't quite carry the same intensity as before.
Prior is overrated as a batsman. Technically deficient, he bullies when on top but hasn't got the mental fibre to fight in pressurised situations. Even when he's set he still throws it away. He's done it all his career.
He has survived on reputation for far too long.[/QUOTE]

Prior is a great man to come in at 370-5 and you want quick runs before a declaration, at 87-5 he's a bunny

 

[Mo Gosfield]

If Vaughan was in charge this woud not be happening. Cook is a weak leader. And what the f**k does Gooch do?? He just seems to be there to instigate a long decline in our batting ability. It's a mental thing now. Adam Gilchrist said the aussies felt it in 2005 when batting. They didn't know when to be aggressive and when to be defensive. It's exactly the place we are in now. The one plus point has been Root and Stokes showing some fight. I'll take 4-0 for this series right now and we need Ballance in there. The guy is confident.

We are being led by a man so mentally fragile that his game collapses every 2-3 years and yet he is talked about as one of the England greats. We have players who constantly chuck their wickets away and yet are retained game after game.
You are right about Gooch and all the other coaches. WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING!
We seem to forget about the art of playing 5 day cricket and want to throw our bats at everything. Our bowlers can't seem to put sides under sustained pressure and although we get 4 or 5 reasonably quick wickets, the opposition still get 400.
Its just piss poor cricket. The attitude and application is all wrong. What happened to the basics of Test cricket. i.e batting for 5 sessions and bowling line and length.
Its a major surprise if some of these England players bat for 5 overs!

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Prior is a great man to come in at 370-5 and you want quick runs before a declaration, at 87-5 he's a bunny[/QUOTE]


I've been saying this for ages but people keep telling me what a good player he is and that my assessment is wrong.
He has always played too far away from his body and good bowlers will always get him ' through the gate. He likes width. Short pitched or full, wide deliveries that he can throw the bat at. He can't cope with hostile bowling close to his body or sustained line and length. He will always give it away under pressure.
The odd cameo fifty when the ball is old and bowlers are tiring is no longer good enough.

 

[vegster]

Maybe we need to go back to basics ?

Cook can't cut it as skipper so give it to someone else and tell him to go back to Essex until he remembers how to bat.

Prior out, Bedwetter or Bairstow in

You know what ? I can't be bothered to try to work it out as we need change wherever I look. easier to say who I would keep, which is.

Carberry,

Root,

Bell,

Broad,

Anderson.

And those 5 to be given a severe kick up the arse and told that they are next for the chop in case of no improvement.

Also, central contracts to be scrapped along with dietary requirement menus, players to be fed Dark Rye Ryvita with Philidelphia Lite and Marmite until results improve.

 

[vegster]

I come from a time when wicketkeepers used to be Limpet-like in their adhesion and it was all about occupancy and grinding out runs a la Knott, Taylor and Russell. Prior was our response to Adam Gilchrist when we realised that an aggressive late order can turn a Test match.

 

[Bold Seagull]

Maybe we need to go back to basics ?

Cook can't cut it as skipper so give it to someone else and tell him to go back to Essex until he remembers how to bat.

Prior out, Bedwetter or Bairstow in

You know what ? I can't be bothered to try to work it out as we need change wherever I look. easier to say who I would keep, which is.

Carberry,

Root,

Bell,

Broad,

Anderson.

And those 5 to be given a severe kick up the arse and told that they are next for the chop in case of no improvement.

Also, central contracts to be scrapped along with dietary requirement menus, players to be fed Dark Rye Ryvita with Philidelphia Lite and Marmite until results improve.

It's an interesting debate about Cook. Pre-captaincy at the start of his career he had a woeful technical problem outside off stump playing away from his body. At the end of 2009, they ironed this out, not through a great development of his technique he developed a mental strength to leave everything outside off, sometimes even periously close to the stumps. He'd leave it so much, that when we need a good start like away in Dubai vs Pakistan, he couldn't get it off the square and would score 1 run off 50 balls or so. Nevertheless, he became a run accumulator and an anchor to the team.

Since becoming captain, with so many other things on his plate, that mental device, that concentration to bat long has gone. He's frazzled. The gaping hole in his technique, that has always been their, just well hidden is back with a vengeance, and no more so evident that trying to go after a short ball in the 2nd over of an innings you need to save a match.

Without his mental fortitude of knowing what to leave, Cook unfortunately is an ordinary batsmen.

 

[spring hall convert]

Sooooooooo, another failed attempt to play an extra bowler. Can those of you repeatedly asking for it to happen stop now please? Because outside of the sub continent we've been woeful every time we've tried it since Flintoff retired (and a fair amount of the time before he retired.)

Team for 3rd Test

Cook
Carberry
Root
Pietersen
Bell
Bairstow
Prior (though making runs in a lost cause 2nd innings with attacking fields set on a pretty slow track is quite different to the challenge that awaits him in Perth. Expect Johnson to keep him quiet again.)
Breslad
Broad
Anderson
Panesar

- Bairstow just gets the nod ahead of Ballance for me, I just don't think it's a great idea to chuck debutants in at this stage. Also it means if Prior fails again, they've already had a look at Bairstow's form.
- I can't believe I'm suggesting picking Bresnan on a track like Perth but the selectors clearly don't trust Finn. Tremlett (as I said before the series) is no more than a medium pacer these days. I'm still absolutely baffled by that selection. I can't see them giving Rankin a go in a 3 seam 1 spinner attack, he could play in a 4 seamer attack but I think that's a terrible idea regardless of the wicket.
- Monty tends to be the better spinner on fast bouncy tracks and don't worry about his batting being a problem because there is absiolutely NO WAY Swann is getting any runs on a lightning track against properly quick bowlers, he clearly doesn't fancy it quick any more. In fact the only England tail ender to show any courage thus far was Monty in the 1st innings of the last test.