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The Ashes 2013


St Jim

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Nixon Wokingham - bustling medium pacer who gets the odd one to lift off a length. Some lusty hitting down the order.

 

Works for me.

 

On the other hand if we go by where I actually lived rather than the nearest town I'd be Nixon Farley-Hill, floppy haired, skittish England batsman. All timing and elegant cover drives but tendency to waft outside the off stump. Probably went to Harrow and Cambridge. Drinks pink gin.

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squad for match number 5

 

England squad for fifth Test: Alastair Cook (Essex, captain), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Simon Kerrigan (Lancashire), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Matt Prior (Sussex), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Chris Tremlett (Surrey), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire), Chris Woakes (Warwickshire)

 

 

Woakes and Kerrigan included, Bresnan out injured, no place for pl$$ artist Monty

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Can't believe Woakes is in, what a joke selection and his medium pace pies have got exactly what they've deserved. He's got no venom at all so Watson has been able to get forward and crack him all over the park. Kerrigan is nervous and may settle, Swann has also been battling with Watson. Woakes has done little of merit in the ODI and T20 teams but if you play for Warwickshire you are in, that's Ashley Giles's influence for you. Mediocre former player selecting mediocrity from his own county. Would have thought Flower had more sense though, feel very sorry for proven proper frontline bowlers like Finn and Tremlett. At least Bairstow's been dropped from the Test side but he will be Prior's long-term successor in the Test side so hope he gets a proper ODI run now to learn how to play straighter because he does have talent.

 

Hope England take some wickets but Woakes continues to be hit everywhere at 5 an over, don't want him on the plane this winter because on their flat bouncy decks he'll be cannon fodder. We do need a batter who is a decent bowler - despite his disciplinary issues I'd have had a look at Ben Stokes.

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So, despite his nervous start, Woakes ends up with better figures than Stuart Broad....

 

Still a p1ss poor bowling performance by England. Rain Saturday by all accounts should save them getting some momentum

 

Work to do on the bowling combinations before the return series. Understand losing Bresnan they felt they needed to try out another bowler who could bat but not seeing much from him except a tidier spell today.

 

Really need to find a #6

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Root would have been a decent no 6 for the next 6-12 months, the selectors however tried to be too clever and complacent by trying to fast track him into the openers slot, pick a not ready Bairstow and drop the steady Compton who would have beensde for this series at his age and level of determination

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not a single over bowled by Kerrigan yesterday. What a kick in the teeth.

 

If he had little confidence before, it would have been totally destroyed now.

 

Indeed, my thoughts exactly. Even though he had a touch 8 overs on day 1, to now bowl him at all on day 2 and to even prefer Trott over him, smacks of a huge vote of no confidence. Poor captaincy by Cook in my eyes, he could have given Kerrigan a few overs at the tail when they were thrashing it about as he may have got a cheap wicket or 2 and given him that little boost of confidence. Runs were almost irrelevant by that time anyway as Aussies were going to declare regardless, be it 450 or 500. As it stands, if the game gets tight when Aussies are batting next what confidence is the lad going to have bowling now?

As much as Cook is a quality player in his own right, i am not a fan of his captaincy at all and i would go as far as to say we are winning this series despite Cook's captaincy, not because of it.

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Root would have been a decent no 6 for the next 6-12 months, the selectors however tried to be too clever and complacent by trying to fast track him into the openers slot, pick a not ready Bairstow and drop the steady Compton who would have beensde for this series at his age and level of determination

 

Have to agree with this, Aussies have lost this series England haven't won it, our Top Order has been too inconsistent (Bell apart).

 

IF Root bats long today then there is a glimmer for the return series, but am really concerned that we got rid of a capable if unimpressive opener and now have a problem at the top of the order and at #6. With Bairstow not progressing are we really going to have to look at Morgan & Bopara at # 6 again for down under?

 

not a single over bowled by Kerrigan yesterday. What a kick in the teeth.

 

If he had little confidence before, it would have been totally destroyed now.

 

Indeed, my thoughts exactly. Even though he had a touch 8 overs on day 1, to now bowl him at all on day 2 and to even prefer Trott over him, smacks of a huge vote of no confidence. Poor captaincy by Cook in my eyes, he could have given Kerrigan a few overs at the tail when they were thrashing it about as he may have got a cheap wicket or 2 and given him that little boost of confidence. Runs were almost irrelevant by that time anyway as Aussies were going to declare regardless, be it 450 or 500. As it stands, if the game gets tight when Aussies are batting next what confidence is the lad going to have bowling now?

As much as Cook is a quality player in his own right, i am not a fan of his captaincy at all and i would go as far as to say we are winning this series despite Cook's captaincy, not because of it.

 

On the surface, Cook really had nothing to lose from letting Kerrigan have a bowl. OK so he was not ready mentally on Wednesday but surely the team ethic overnight could have helped, at Village level the lads would have been having dressing room gags and bets with him. ANYTHING to lighten his mood.

But then this excellent blog

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/664523.html

paints a different picture of Stage Fright.

Perhaps he really was out of it yesterday as well, maybe Cook did do the right thing, perhaps keeping him away from a late run chase pasting (even with the chance of a soft wicket) gives him more chance of finally settling in by Saturday (or God forbid later today).

 

On the subject of Cook's captaincy, I do find the criticism from the Sky Taters amusing. Think back to when they were leading the team, every single one of them had the same critiques levelled at them - bowling too short, getting the balance between attack & defence wrong, poorly timed declarations, failure to exploit the part time bowlers.....

 

Strauss & Cook seem to love their plans - Coaching HAS improved the team in that respect, just sometimes I think Cook has even less "feel" for the game than Strauss did, which IS saying something

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Aussies did themselves no favours there. Had held the moral high ground on "The Way to play the game" and blew it all in that last hour.

 

Rules are rules though and at the end of the day IF Trott had accelerated a bit earlier when going well with KP or IF KP had lasted another over or two the light may not have been an issue.

 

Blame the groundstaff for taking an extra 15 minutes to get the outfield ready. Que Sera. A zillion excuses.

 

BUT a great end to the series and a great way for England to put the Aussies onto the backfoot again.

Bit annoyed that only Cook mentioned the likes of Swann & Prior this morning who catually got on with it and scored bloody quick runs instead of patting it away. THEY knew they wanted to lure Clarke into a dodgy Declaration and it NEARLY came off.

 

England not at their best, but as we always used to say - Look in the book. 3-0 Move on Kick their Arses downunder this winter on pitches our Batsmen can play strokes on instead of these turgid puddings

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Sorry, but that's bollix.

 

Test cricket is struggling to survive, this sort of thing doesn't help.

 

4 overs left FFS, with the floodlights on.

Sorry but you need to understand that although the floodlights were on it was a normal red ball being used so not so easily picked up.

 

Also the Umpires had made a decision on light on a previous evening of this match once the light metre went to that reading they had no alternative. It was the correct decision although frustrating.

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Can't blame the Aussies for going off, we would have done the same.

Can't blame the Umps, they were sticking to the rules.

 

England played for the draw from almost the first ball for the first 4 days, and a draw is what they got.

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Can't blame the Aussies for going off, we would have done the same.

Can't blame the Umps, they were sticking to the rules.

 

England played for the draw from almost the first ball for the first 4 days, and a draw is what they got.

true, I was p****d off at the time, but it was understandable from all parties, just a bit frustrating for cricket as a whole. Time wasting needs to be looked at a bit in cricket as well. The booing of Michael Clarke at the end was out of order, personally like the bloke.
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true, I was p****d off at the time, but it was understandable from all parties, just a bit frustrating for cricket as a whole. Time wasting needs to be looked at a bit in cricket as well. The booing of Michael Clarke at the end was out of order, personally like the bloke.

 

This really does need to be done.

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Sorry but you need to understand that although the floodlights were on it was a normal red ball being used so not so easily picked up.

 

Also the Umpires had made a decision on light on a previous evening of this match once the light metre went to that reading they had no alternative. It was the correct decision although frustrating.

 

Don't patronise me - I understand plenty about Test cricket having watched it for over half a century.

 

All i am saying is that it will inevitably die if a satisfactory result cannot be achieved after five days (OK four) of mostly negative play from both sides for the sake of ten minutes at the end - at least Clarke was trying to make a game of it with his declaration.

 

The TCCB need to replace those light meters with some common sense.

Edited by Trader
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Sorry but light meters were brought in because "common sense" wasn't evenly applied as humans differ in their judgement of what is bad light.

Humans can be influenced by other humans but a light meter can't.

 

Also don't forget that the TV picture always makes it look a lot lighter than the real life scene so a red ball would be more difficult to pick up.

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Australian cricket is in desperate dire straits.

 

They've spent most of the summer trying to claim the moral high ground about how to play the game, walking, etc., then hound the umpire at the end yesterday rather than let the fortune playing public see a conclusion. Clarke and co reckoned they could win, and it blew up in their faces and they ran to Mummys coat tails.

 

They have no bottle, and a few months of delusional b*ll*cks sledging from McGrath and Warne aint going to make a difference. Sod the "close" Ashes series in Oz in autumn, I'm expcting a similar size of England victory. They have complete psychological dominance over Australia after yesterdays behaviour.

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Australian cricket is in desperate dire straits.

 

They've spent most of the summer trying to claim the moral high ground about how to play the game, walking, etc., then hound the umpire at the end yesterday rather than let the fortune playing public see a conclusion. Clarke and co reckoned they could win, and it blew up in their faces and they ran to Mummys coat tails.

 

They have no bottle, and a few months of delusional b*ll*cks sledging from McGrath and Warne aint going to make a difference. Sod the "close" Ashes series in Oz in autumn, I'm expcting a similar size of England victory. They have complete psychological dominance over Australia after yesterdays behaviour.

 

Totally agree with you there.

 

Warne was going ON and FARKING ON about "you need to be willing to lose in order to win" like he had a patent on it or something.

 

Well, England showed they could scare the Aussies to death VERY easily playing PROPER cricket (Aussies tried to "Go Hard at It" and lost 6 wickets and scored at a rate of 4.82 an over. England came along and played (in the main) Proper Cricket and scored at 5.15 an over) Total coolness & confidence in their ability versus schoolboy level tactics.

 

Clarke DESERVED to be booed, yes he is a fine cricketer and all that but HE made a decision and once it went against him he acted like a schoolkid wanting to take his ball home. England would have been CRUCIFIED by the press & public for doing it, so should he.

 

Oh he went for it and it gave the crowd some Entertainment. Well what he FORGOT was that he could make the decision and end up having his whole Captaincy undermined and looking like an Idiot. That Run Chase has given England some real momentum instead of stuttering along for a draw.

 

Also, a word of note for Chris Woakes. For all the mess that Kerrigan looked on debut, Woakes came out to bat in the 2nd innings in a massive Pressure Cooker situation, he looked calm, composed, aggressive intent mixed with a solid technique. Certainly now a candidate to give Bairstow & Taylor a run for their money as the "Novice" at number 6 (the bowling needs work though to be any more than Bopara-esque or giving the main bowlers a breather on long hot afternoons)

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Clarke may be a good batsman but he is a SH*TE captain.

 

His teams total mis-use of DRS throughout the series is something HE should have resolved. He allowed his team time and again to put their egos before the greater good of the team.

 

The Aussies are a bunch of bad, bad losers. Who can forget how Ponting try to ruin the 2005 Ashes victory celebrations by refusing to conceed the last Test drawn until the last minute ?

 

As Dubai says, England can play good, dominant cricket against them on demand, excluding a bit of a loss of focus at OT. What remains to be seen is how they perform against SA.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Squad announced for the return series. http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2013/sep/23/ashes-gary-ballance-england-australia

 

Great (IMO) to see Monty back in the frame. Hopefully this indicates that he's put his recent troubles behind him.

 

What on earth Onions has to do to get selected is beyond me. I can only assume Tremlett is selected on the basis of his previous showings in Aus, rather than on current form.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Guys,

 

Thought you got VERY lucky with the Ashes win on home turf...it will(hopefully) be a different story in Oz! As you may, or may not have noticed, we've now connected over 2000 Saints fans in Oz and regularly stage events to watch Southampton play, despite the late kick off times. I was just after an idea of how many of you are planning to come to Australia for the upcoming Ashes series. If there's enough interest, I'll put together a complete guide of where to watch the Saints while in Oz for the entire series. It would be great for our Oz based supporters to watch some pretty big matches(Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham) with our travelling Saints fans.

 

We can be found on either facebook.com/southamptonaustraliansupporters or on Twitter @AussieSaintsSAS Also keep an eye on the #GlobalSFC hashtag for events.

COYR + Baggie Greens!

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On the cricket - Australia need to win a Test match before you get to spout about England being lucky. Thrashed in India and soundly beaten in England. Personally I think the Aussies are being far too bullish about their prospects in Oz. Have they been underperforming or 'unlucky' or are they really just that crap? We'll find out soon.

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  • 1 month later...
Hi Guys,

 

Thought you got VERY lucky with the Ashes win on home turf...it will(hopefully) be a different story in Oz! As you may, or may not have noticed, we've now connected over 2000 Saints fans in Oz and regularly stage events to watch Southampton play, despite the late kick off times. I was just after an idea of how many of you are planning to come to Australia for the upcoming Ashes series. If there's enough interest, I'll put together a complete guide of where to watch the Saints while in Oz for the entire series. It would be great for our Oz based supporters to watch some pretty big matches(Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham) with our travelling Saints fans.

 

We can be found on either facebook.com/southamptonaustraliansupporters or on Twitter @AussieSaintsSAS Also keep an eye on the #GlobalSFC hashtag for events.

COYR + Baggie Greens!

 

There are normally a few Saints flags in the crowd

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There are normally a few Saints flags in the crowd

 

Ages ago, when MLT scored his screamer against Tim Flowers & Blackburn I was sitting at the Gabba with no idea of the result, but wearing a Saints Shirt.

 

20 minutes before the start of play I get a tap on my shoulder & a couple of "locals: also in Saints kit were telling me all about the goal.

 

Remains one of my most unexpected but pleasant "Random bumping into Saints fans" ever.

Thanks to Corky & a tropical storm we held out for a draw

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Oh and FFS

 

I pay 150 quid a year for Satellite which gave sports coverage (different for Footie). Cricket in there has been included for the past 10 years or so.

 

This year? They have a new Cricket Channel so had to pay 40 farking quid for the Ashes coverage from Aus groan grumble

 

Meanwhile should we have a sweepstake on when our Mittel Europ expert comes on to tell us we are gonna get our asses whipped down there?

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