Let me see – I said that England would win the Test before play started on Thursday. No after-timing there.[/QUOTE] I knew you'd have something to say, but I really meant long before last Thursday? I would never accuse you of after-timing, good Lord no, but some of your early predictions were a little premature, wouldn't you agree?
Watching Hall run up with no fieldsman in front of the bat was a fantastic sight. His action was beautiful and he was fast. I liked Lillee but Thomson had that extraordinary slingshot action which apparently is the most efficient way to bowl really fast. It just took its toll on his shoulder. I thought Holding was the best of the Windies for me. As I've written before I didn't care how good they were but they should have been made to bowl more overs per hour. It is sad that they have become more Amercanised and their young men want to play netball these days. I always thought Snow was a great bowler. His bowling in the 1970/71 Ashes tour was as good as anyone's.. The slightly lively pitch has exposed the weaknesses in many batsmen's techniques. I was never a great lover of one day games as I think it takes away the attacking part of bowling. I think 20-20 has now had a deleterious effect on batting skills. Test matches should last until the 4th day. I realised I was wrong in my assertion that 4 Yorkshiremen (and not the Marty Feldman four) should have played at that time, because in that last test in the Oval test of '63 there were 4, Sharpe, Close Trueman and I forgot Bolus: a Yorkshireman who was having his first season with Notts after being dropped by the county in favour of a couple of likely lads called Hampshire and Boycott..
The great Sir Curtly Ambrose... One of my favourite bowlers of all time. Aggression, accuracy, sheer will to win. Loved getting into battles with the top batters around in his time. I could watch him all day if he could manage to bowl that many overs... No better sight than when a fast bowler pings back your off stump, especially when the batter trys to play a defensive block, see Robin Smith wicket...!!! '94, deary me, seems a long time ago that when I was still playing cricket myself. Don't think I would have much chance of blocking him even now...!!!
Well Cyc, it has been great watching for us poms but I doubt most of your fello countrymen would share the same exuberance...!!! Some one's gonn get it in the neck come the last Test, Clarke looks favourite for the retirement bench me thinks. Maybe it could be a blessing in disguise where a bit of a clear out (Ponting mentioned that about 6 or 7 players in this current line up might go after this series on Sky Sports this morning...!!!) I thought we would win one Test at least, and that maybe the best we could have got was a draw but it hasn't even looked close these past two Tests has it... Your selectors are going to have to earn their corn very soon. and listening to the pundits there dosnt seem to be a lot coming up from your domestic scene to make a huge impact on the Test arena at the moment... Worrying times for the cons...
And here is one of the best battles between paceman and top batter, another one of my cricketing heroes Curtly v Steve 'Cool-hand' Waugh That stare , that stand, that comment... I think he told him, if he didn't mind, to go back to his mark and bowl another one of those beauts if you can...!!!
It took some finding but you are right, Swanny. Back on 1st June when pathetic England were having their butt well and truly kicked by New Zealand at Headingley, I did congratulate one of our antipodean friends on their Ashes 2015 victory. I just did not realise that they would be worse than us.
Is there any other sport played in this country where the national side get so much recognition for beating ONE TEAM. As far as I'm concerned we beat one team with home advantage, so it really is nothing to write home about. In any other sport it would be looked upon as nothing more than a positive result, yet in Cricket it's like we've become World Champions. The captain even having a tear in his eye on SSN, based on the fact we beat ONE TEAM. Get a grip lads!
According to Curtley's book, his fuse was lit by his team mate Kenny Benjamin as they went to lunch. Benjamin told Ambrose that Waugh has sworn at him earlier in the session. He brooded over lunch and when he came on to bowl at Waugh, he let fly with some serious, short pitched stuff. After watching Ambrose come half way down the pitch with the the obligatory stare, Waugh said. "What the **** are you looking at?" That's when **** hit the fan.
You really are the most cynical bugger, KS, You seem to brood on things and then finally come up with something totally negative, time after time. The battle for the Ashes is one of sport's great traditions, enjoyed by the people of both Australia and UK/Ireland*, so don't try to pour cold water on it. You're peeing in the wind anyway. If you don't like it, don't watch it, and don't comment on something you obviously know nothing about. Get a grip, lad. *(I say UK/Ireland advisedly, as I was recently reminded that the Irish, Welsh, and Scots, play their part in an 'England' team).
I don't watch it, it just keeps popping up on SSN every 5 mins. We don't even get this carried away with the England football team when we beat one top side
Ron, you were proved right. England had to take twenty-two wickets to win the match as they got Chris Rogers and Peter Nevill out with no balls in the second innings and had to get them both out again. They got lucky as usually when we give somebody a second chance they score another hundred. As The Oval Test is now a dead rubber, I wonder if England will make a couple of changes with a view to the upcoming trip to the UAE to play Pakistan. They should drop the pie slinger Moeen Ali and bring in Adil Rashid as we will need a proper spinner over there. Is Adam Lyth one innings away from a big score? I think not.
Absolutely right, I was a lousy umpire in my youth, but even I knew that! ("pie slinger' - love that , but he can sure biff the ball with his bat when he wants to?).
That is not actually true. You can be run out off a no ball. If the bowler had not overstepped on both occasions, both players were caught out. Nevill was halfway back to the pavilion when they saw the replay and called him back. The on-field umpires at Trent Bridge were very lax about no balls as quite a few were not called in situations where no wicket play was involved. Ali’s runs with the bat make up for the runs that he gives away with his bowling. On spinners’ wickets in the UAE his bowling will be hammered to cow corner frequently. If we need Ali batting at number eight in the Test side then the top and middle order have failed so the team needs sorting out.
True QM, players can be run out off a no ball. But the following says it all. "England had to take twenty-two wickets to win the match as they got Chris Rogers and Peter Nevill out with no balls in the second innings and had to get them both out again." You can't, in Rogers and Nevills instances, say that they were out to the no balls. Again. They were NOT OUT. No amount of hair splitting can support an argument that these two players should have been given their walking orders due to ILLEGAL deliveries.
I'm pretty sure the selectors won't think about the UAE tour until after the Oval. Last time we played Pakistan in UAE 2012 we lost 3-0 and their spinners took most of the wickets whilst our seamers toiled in the heat. We had Swann and Pannesar in 2012 but they were out bowled by the oppo. I agree we need a decent spinner but you can't drop the incumbent even if he is makeshift. There is no point having 4 seamers out there so we'll need to be bold and leave 1/2 of those out to accommodate Rashid. Leave Anderson and Broad at home as they've got nothing to prove plus Finn, Wood and Stokes need the experience of bowling in different conditions. As for the opener Nick Compton was axed after a couple of bad games against the Kiwis. In the series prior to that he'd performed very well in the team that won in India demonstrating a good technique against spin. I doubt he'll get a look in though as I recall he voiced his dissatisfaction with his omission at the time.
They were both given out. In the days before video replay was in use by the officials, both of them would have (incorrectly) been given out as the on-field umpires missed a bucket load of ‘no ball’ decisions in the same game and the players were reprieved by the third umpire watching TV. At Edgbaston, Nathan Lyon survived an lbw decision because England did not have any reviews left to challenge the wrong call being made by the umpire (Hawkeye showed it as out). The original point I was making referred to a conversation on this thread when Ron disputed my assertion that to win the match somebody would need twenty wickets. In these two instances, it was the bowler that was at fault, not the officials.
This must be Off Topic, Off Topic: Cyc, after The Ashes went North of the Equator this week, are your Sheilas planning a spot of revenge against the English birds in the Netball World Cup? They lose their last Pool A game to New Zealand, finish second in the Pool and thus will face Pool B winner England in the next stage.
