[Ornate Placebo]

I feel as if I can post this now, seeing as Australia have redeemed themselves so well in Lords. What a win

Also, how good is Steve Smith?

[fuser]

Steve smith performs and that's all that matter and will probably be a better captain than Clarke. But frankly, while batting he doesn't looks like, well a batsman.

Anyway, I am rooting for England, world cup is more than enough for this year.

[Decky]

You know who you should be loyal to Fuser.

[fuser]

Indeed but then who would want to root for Australia.

[unbalanced zealot]

Time for Michael Clarke to retire IMO.

[Ornate Placebo]

Steve smith performs and that's all that matter and will probably be a better captain than Clarke. But frankly, while batting he doesn't looks like, well a batsman.

Anyway, I am rooting for England, world cup is more than enough for this year.

Oh sure, hail your old colonial overloads. You have the stockholm syndrome

Also, if Steve Smith doesn't look like a batsmen, then maybe the batsmen are doing it wrong

Time for Michael Clarke to retire IMO.

I don't think he is struggling that much really. He has made runs in the game against a county side just before the series started, he made runs at the world cup when it counted. Just let him continue in his proactive captaincy and let Smith worry about averaging 870

[fuser]

I think I should clarify myself when I say that Smith doesn't look like a batsman, basically I am saying that he is not an orthodox batsman which most of the test batsmen are, his batting technique is not ummm traditional, I will say same about Dhoni which is not necessarily a bad thing as they both perform and at the end of day, this is what matters. Although Dhoni is past his prime and so is Clarke imo.

Anyway, go "Moin Ali" because..................

[Ornate Placebo]

Oh I completely understood what you meant, he is highly unorthodox. I tried to find a clip of him hitting a ball, that was heading for second slip, to the boundary on leg side at Lords, but I couldn't, so I'll just have to go with this https://youtu.be/VqDrHOsWIxg. I don't know how to embed youtube clips

Anyway, go "Moin Ali" because..................

fuser please, Moeen Ali is a Muslim. Have you learned nothing from Rei!?

[fuser]

To embed youtube videos :

Code: Select all[youtube]VqDrHOsWIxg[/youtube]

will produce this:

[youtube]VqDrHOsWIxg[/youtube]

Nice.

[Ornate Placebo]

Thank you, sir

Shot.

[Ornate Placebo]

holy shit,

all out for 136

[fuser]

[Ornate Placebo]

Ha, not funny

Australia has a superior pace battery on paper. I'm hoping they can return serve or else the test might be over in 3 days...

Also, fun fact - with Ballance dropped from the English side this is the first team in 10 years that England have fielded without a player from RSA/ZIM

[fuser]

Yup, the Australian pace battery is better but I won't say by a large margin. The English bowlers are a different breed in Tests while Aussies manage to perform both in Tests and ODIs.

Right now, 50/1. Without a batting miracle in 2nd innings I don't have much hope for Australia and interesting little information btw.

[Ornate Placebo]

Yep, I'm praying for rain

[fuser]

Australian batting order collapsed again regardless of Warner going crazy.

[Ornate Placebo]

you're enjoying this way too much fuser

At least it won't be an innings + runs victory now. I'd say Voges will make way for S. Marsh, there would have been calls for Haddin to replace Nevill, but he's probably saved himself now.

If they bring Watson back for Mitchell Marsh I'm emigrating to New Zealand

[pugsville]

Australian Batting has been pretty terrible when ether (a) the ball moves or (b) on dead pitches. Most Australian Batsmen seem to lack basic patience and often technique.

An unfortunate Injury to Anderson (just when he got a pitch he can work with, a good bowler but very very good on these sorts of pitches)

Rogers is steady and good on these pitches, but Broad is starting to get his number.
Warner is hit and miss , very lucky to get to 20, could easily have gone several times.
Smith is a gun, but he is human and his technique is weird, poor shot in second innings.

Other than these 3 there is not much convincing batsmen either in or out of the team, plenty have been tried but very few have stacked their claims.

Nevill has looked OK.

England should win the series from here but cricket is a funny game.

[Quantum]

All out for 60. Australia have truly been owned.

Why is the Ashes so expensive? Who would pay £85 for a day at the Oval when matches for more popular sports such as football and rugby are cheaper? It's hardly going to increase viewing figures if the audience is limited to the affluent.

[pugsville]

There is a limited number of days of test cricket 25 days maximum compare to the number of EPL football matches in a season.