Stroller, your right! Having had a big night on the sauce, I completely forgot about Cook being out. Just a mere oversight! Clark is definitely playing well, more so playing a captains' knock. He certainly has grown some of late and I, having bagged him from hell to high water am prepared to have a serving or two of humble pie. Credit where credit is due, I say.
Too bloody shell shocked to post anything Oz.....abject doesn't even come close.....fairwell little urn.....clarke now going for total mental collapse of england, I suggest that he doesn't have far to go....
Spineless. Only Carberry and Bell turned up, the rest surrendered. Perth is the Aussies banker so 3-0 and we might as well come home for Christmas...
Cook has been awful since the first test defeat. Has come across as a complete whimp who doesn't like all this shouting at eachother on the cricket field. The Aussies are hammering us into the dust and Cook doesn't have the fight or leadership to do anything about it. Good batsman.................awful captain.
is it me or does this make no sense from the BBC website 0252: Aus 273-3 (Watson 60, Smith 12) Watson is in one-day mode now, heaving Ben Stokes through midwicket for four. That brings up the Australia 400 and means the hosts have now scored 1,000 more runs than Australia in this series. Make that 1,004, Watto helping Stokes round the corner for four more to fine leg.
out thought, Clarke is a miles better captain, cook should not be captain, we have surrended with better players, I think we win at sydney
'Super' ........... it should read, " the hosts have scored 1000 more runs than England this series" FT ............ With all due respect, I think the result in Sydney will be determined by the mental state of the two teams. Queens ............... I think you are on the money, my friend. I think with Cook getting out first ball in this second innings, pretty much says it all. To me, player quality is pretty dam close between the two team .................. it is just the power of confidence and or lack of it, that is showing through and being displayed in the result.
Things can be turned around, after the Lords test Australia were chopping and changing the team and had lost all 6 tests so far that year. Clarke won the toss and batted on a perfect surface at Old Trafford and led by the front with a century to post a good total. They were unlucky not to win that test, and although then lost at Durham you could feel the team starting to have a bit more belief. I'm not saying its a simple as winning the toss at Melbourne, as they still have to front an attack with blood in their nostrils - but you'd fancy England to post a better first innings total when they haven't been fielding for two days. They would still need to bat with patience and purpose though, neither of which I've seen much of since Lords to be honest.
I've been trying to ignore this thread, its been horrible viewing. I still don't think the Aussies are any good, but we have had a complete spine extraction.
call me unpatriotic, but I had to put money on the aussies to win in perth, they always win there, but if we batted better in the first innings of all the 3 tests, it could of been so different, Clarke is a great captain, cook is not
I think the bottom line here is that England are nowhere near as good as THEY thought they were and Australia are nowhere near as bad as WE thought they were. The whole series was probably set when Carberry dropped Haddin in the 1st Test when we were on top and from that moment on there was a seismic momentum shift that the Aussies have exploited superbly. To put it into perspective South Africa would beat any combination from both sides probably within three days...
TBH FT that was a no brainer seeing as we have only won once there and that was in 1970 or so. This in all probability is going to be closest we have got to them and we are still likely to lose by close to 200 runs. There has to be something fundermantally wrong within the camp because they don't become bad players overnight, maybe they thought they only had to turn up to win but whatever it is we have been on the receiving end of 3 hidings and i suspect it will be equally as bad at MCG & SCG.....gloomy indeed.
the turning point was for me, 1st test just before lunch, trot should have taken his time, and not let Mitchell(do I not like him) have a extra over on the stroke of lunch, Mitchell has then bowled awful, bang on lunch got wicket, and the aussies have not looked back, England remind me of ffc away, bloody awful
