Jesus, just got up and saw the score. How on earth did we let those Aussie pie-thowers get one wicker? Strauss should be dopped for giving his wicket away too. The shame of it.

fair play to the lads who stayed up in this thread, dedication.

Michael Atherton - "Batting in Australia is about playing the horizontal bat shots well. Do that, and you're half way there."

What's the other half Michael? Playing the vertical bat shots?

lol, no hate though - I think he's a good commentator.

vertical defensive shots with athers obv, even though mcgrath could dismiss him with a mouldy orange...

his mother hates his missus
his missus hates his mother
they all hate each other
the johnson family

lol australia, ground wasnt even a 1/4 full on day 5, there fans a disgrace. johnson terrible, was amazing the last two days. england fans simply amazing

damn those employed aussies on a monday.....

Well, that's the first one out of the way, and there was certainly plenty of good cricket on show. Really glad that I managed to stay up for the whole thing.

Not sure I can remember the last time I saw a team bat quite so confidently to save the game after conceding a 200+ run deficit on first innings.

Only real question mark for England is KP, who made yet another start but didn't go on. Colly and Prior both out early to Siddle, who was on fire on day 1, but don't think that means much. All the other batsmen looked at least solid, Bell in particular looked different class in the first innings

The bowlers all looked pretty good, particularly Broad and Anderson, even though Finn got all the wickets. Confident that Swanny will do better later on, in more important games. Don't really see any need for changes at the moment.

As for the Aussies, Watson again played a nice little cameo without going on to a major contribution, seems to be his modus operandi. I still don't see him as an opener. His bowling was quite dangerous at times, and I think they'd balance their team better if he went down the order and bowled a bit more. If England win the toss (and bat obviously) he might well have to bowl for two days then go out and open, and that's a hell of a lot to demand, even for someone as athletic as him. Usual good stuff from Katich and Ponting, but Clarke looked unfit, and probably shouldn't have played. His batting was painful to watch, and his fielding wasn't anywhere near his usual standard. As an Englishman, I'm hoping they don't drop North. I really don't know why he's in the team. Nice knock by Hussey after his let-off courtesy of Aleem Dar, but credit to him for making the most of his opportunity; he definitely has teh rungoot in tv replays, so if someone knows Hussey's Stars SN I'd like to ship him the 0.02 to activate my own own boomswitch for December

Solid knock by Haddin, and then onto the Aussie bowlers. Johnson was awful ldo, and Doherty looked like what he was, someone who averages nearly 50 with the ball in first class cricket. Obv Siddle was just in the groove on Thursday afternoon, performances like that are usually once-in-a-lifetime affairs, but he worked hard during the England 2nd innings too. Hilfenhaus was his usual reliable self, but like Anderson, he could have used a bit more luck. I think the Aussies really need to look at replacing two or three players, not sure they've got anything like their best XI out there right now.


Most important thing to discuss is probably the speculation hovering around the big injury worry....

Really looking forward to round two now - roll on Thursday night imo.

Just saw this on cricinfo.... lifeline for Rajasthan in the IPL??

http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-p...ry/489806.html

Nick Knight one time.

Paul Collingwood is the worst most boring test player ever.

Also, both sides are crap and im pretty certain that if you compiled a team of recently retired Australian players they would be able to beat either side in 3 days. Swan was disappointing in the first test, hardly the best spin bowler in the world, I guess it was just the press talking him up. I fully expect us to target him in the next tests as we do with all the other past crap English off spinners that get shipped over here.

btw channel 9 commentary team >>>>>>> whatever crap the broadcast over there

England will play for a draw again. If Bollinger plays then GG England top order

Johnson out. Doug the Rug apparently in.

Johnson dropped Seems like we'll have to actually work for some runs in this one.

tbh, a bit surprised that that's the only change the Aussies have made.

Anyway, it seems that KP will not be sporting his magnificent porno-tache this week, so I might not bother watching now

Dougy Bollinger is gonna tear Englands top order a new one

Anywhere to stream this online? This hotel I'm in doesn't seem to have it.

pm'd

No idea how North keeps getting picked. Don't think his position has even been discussed in the papers or anything since the first match ended

It's because in order to drop him you need someone better to step up. Who would replace him?

Australia win the toss and chose to bat

dropping hilfenhaus seems an odd one unless he's injured

anyway, glad we're bowling, always prefer to watch the other team bat

Harris in for Hilfenhaus as well. I know absolutely nothing about Harris but I didn't think Hilfenhaus was too bad in the first test.

i've never seen him have a bad game, although tbqh i've only ever watched him during the '09 series and at brisbane, was probably best of a mediocre bunch in england and didn't do too much wrong last week

Well, they could drop North, open with Hughes, and bat Watson at six.

Hilfenhaus is a bit unlucky imo.

Would have liked to bat first, but whatever....


gl all, and enjoy. Prob have to puss out at lunchtime today tho. Up early, been grinding most of the day, and really don't think I can continue to stay awake all night.

Aussie 500+ coming up

Off the top of my head, Phil Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Brad Hodge, David Hussey and Phil Jaques are all better batsmen.
(Obviously Hodge and Hussey would be pointless selections given their age)