PONTINGS OUT! Booooooooooooooooo



It has picked up a bit in the last half an hour...

And Hussey

I hear Scotland have a decent cricket team...

Yes, maybe their batsmen could have done better than ours yesterday!

The inevitable question, is the 2009 England team as good as the one in 2005? imo no way, although the Australian team are not as good as they were in 05 either. Let's compare, using the team who won at Lords this year:

2005 2009

Strauss Having another good series with the bat. Captaincy good at times.
Trescothick v Cook Trescothick wins. Most consistence batsman in 05 and missed.
Vaughan v Bopara Vaughan was inconsistent, but did score a brilliant 166. Bopara has struggled.
Vaughan was an outstanding captain.
Bell v Collingwood Bell struggled in 2005. Collingwood has performed better.
Pieterson Pieterson was a match winner in 2005, but fitness issues limited him this year.
Flintoff Flashes of brilliance in 2009, but fitness has again limited him this year.
G. Jones v Prior Prior wins not only with the bat, but his keeping has improved.
Giles v Swann Swann comes out marginally in front imo but not a lot in this.
Harmison v Broad Broad has struggled, but his batting has been very useful.
Hoggard v Anderson Anderson has put in some match winning performances, though inconsistent.
S. Jones v Onions Simon Jones used reverse swing to great effect, superior to Onions imo.

Big factors here are the brilliant captaining of Vaughan, the reverse swing of Jones, and the fitness of KP and Freddie. Given that they won the Ashes against a superior Australian side in 2005, you have to conclude that the England side of 2005 was a much better team. Having said that, I still think that we can win at the Oval, but we need Freddie back, and ideally KP even if he is not 100% fit, remembering his series winning performance there 4 years ago.

Phft well we need to be batting well into Monday now... we need a good 250 lead so a total of 650-700 needed.... were *beep*.

All hope has gone. England lose.

This is absolutely appalling!

At least yesterday you could blame England's form on that alarm in the early morning...no excuses today!

Well that is that! Quite a fun morning really before the inevitable happened... not sure booing the Aussies off the field is going to help though.

What changes should be made?

I think Bopara has to go, and I would put Rob Key in his place. Maybe KP could come back with his ankle heavily strapped, and Freddie could be wheeled on in a stretcher if necessary!
It's not looking good though is it, there has been a momentum shift, and England will have to fight hard to put The Aussies
under pressure. You wouldn't fancy England to win at the Oval now, not after the failure of our batsmen, but they will have
no shortage of support.

Yeah tis no surprise to see Australia the heavy favourites to retain the Ashes now...Bopara has admitted to struggling with the pressure so he shouldn't play the 5th Test at all...

Still, at least we have until the 20th to prepare...I predict it'll end in a draw, so at least we wouldn't see Australia actually win the series...

The Oval is never kind to bowlers, so I can only see either a draw or Aussie win.

I think it's optimistic to expect a draw given the way our batsmen played, unless of course we see a lot of rain!
That said, hopefully they can turn things around.

Personally I would like to see Bell and Bopara go for this match at least as they can't seem to handle the pressure against the Aussies, and Key and Ramprakash both of whom are in great form and have good experience at this level should come in.

Ramp has been mentioned HEAVILY on Sky Sports News today, for the record...

It would be the most ridiculous decision ever to put Ramprakash in the side. He only has an average of just over 25 in test matches... only 2 hundreds in 92 innings.. Bell would be more use than Ramps.

Agreed, and I can't really believe people are genuinely discussing him. He's always been excellent in County Cricket but has never been able to take the pressure of Test Cricket so to suddenly drop him into potentially the most pressured match of his whole career would be plain silly.

Key played VERY well yesterday, so that should help him get in the squad for sure!

Cook and Bopara both went back to Essex to get into form... currently playing Middlesex.

AN Cook lbw b Murtagh 4 runs

RS Bopara c Kartik b Murtagh 1 run


Time to swipe that axe.

Bell went on to get 1 run and Swann apparnetly has the runs.. (24 hour bug).


Panesar picked up too wickets mind so it's not all bad.

Ramprakash does average over 42 against The Aussies, but I have a feeling the only change will be Key coming in for Bopara, if that. Bell has probably secured his place with a century today, and Trott has staked his claim with 121 yesterday, but we need a genuine No. 3 in form.