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The DECIDER - 5th Test Match, The Oval - England vs Australia
- Thread starter Mendoza
- Start date
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 31,258
Everyone's got double figures, no one's got a ton. Familiar tale...
Si Gull
Way Down South
100+ partnership required from Trott and Flintoff or we can kiss the Ashes goodbye.
Tyrone Biggums
Well-known member
I placed $100 of Australia's finest dollars on the draw @$2.20
C'mon the rain!
C'mon the rain!
The Wizard
Well-known member
- Jul 2, 2009
- 18,399
Pavilionaire
Well-known member
- Jul 7, 2003
- 31,258
It's interesting that the stats simply don't correspond to Flintoff's tag as matchwinner. In his 79 match career he's never got 10 wickets in a match and 5 wickets in an innings on only 3 occasions - 1 more than 22-test 'novice' Stuart Broad.
Similarly, the last of his 5 test tons was against the Aussies 4 years ago, and he's only once scored above 75 in a test since that innings at Trent Bridge, and just 4 test 50s in the last 3 years.
Contrast that with Broad's 5 fifties in the past 15 months.
Lastly, Flintoff has played about three-quarters of the tests Botham played but the ton count is 14-5 in Botham's favour, 5 wicket count 27-3 in Botham's favour and 10 wicket count 4-0 to Beefy.
Therefore, whilst Freddie is clearly a legend and class act he's nowhere near the potential matchwinner of a Botham, despite how the press have bigged him up over the last week.
Similarly, the last of his 5 test tons was against the Aussies 4 years ago, and he's only once scored above 75 in a test since that innings at Trent Bridge, and just 4 test 50s in the last 3 years.
Contrast that with Broad's 5 fifties in the past 15 months.
Lastly, Flintoff has played about three-quarters of the tests Botham played but the ton count is 14-5 in Botham's favour, 5 wicket count 27-3 in Botham's favour and 10 wicket count 4-0 to Beefy.
Therefore, whilst Freddie is clearly a legend and class act he's nowhere near the potential matchwinner of a Botham, despite how the press have bigged him up over the last week.
Indeed.
The Wizard
Well-known member
- Jul 2, 2009
- 18,399
Trott out for 41, Decent knock by the lad on his debut.
- Jul 7, 2003
- 47,624
It's the Return of the Bat Spackers.
desprateseagull
New member
Totally agree. Everyone loves Freddie - hell, I love Freddie - but his personality distracts us from seeing that he's got a good but not great test record. Take away that spell in the second innings at Lord's and he has two wickets at 135 this series - even with that spell his average is 48.
There's too much hope being invested in one man and I think that team are part of this, insofar as they believe in it too. That could be why England's record without Freddie is so much better than their record with him.
Of course, this being his last test, he'll want to go out with a bang and he'll deliver his first 10-wicket haul in international cricket. Well, let's hope so...
KZNSeagull
Well-known member
I caught the end of an interview he did with Mike Atherton just before the test started and Athers asked him how he thought he had been as a test cricketer - Freddie's reply was something like "I've been alright, good in patches, but overall alright, nothing special etc etc". Which is good in as much as he has not necessarily believed the hype surrounding him, but you could be right in that the rest of the team have.
Maybe it's because us Brits are so starved of success, that we have to turn someone who does well for a while into a legend/talisman etc etc, when in reality they are good players but not as good as the press would have people think (Mr Beckham and Mr Harmison spring to mind as other examples).
The Spanish
Well-known member
will you be buying yourself an entire Happy Meal with your winnings then?
