BoxRec

I bet England fornicate this up.

Giles just just gave 13 off the over.....

Prick.

30 to go boys

Great game. Congratulations to your boys. Onwards to Old Trafford

What a test match that was!!!!!

bollox wrote:Excellent effort by you guys. Should wrap it up quickly

Figured yo may win this test and make a series of it

IN SERIOUSNESS IM NOT SURE I CANT TAKE ANOTHER GAME LIKE THAT.

sport at its finest well done to both sides, ebbed and flowed, you coudlnt call a winner til the final wicket went.

truly astounding play from both teams, a real rollercoaster.

nice to see freddie establish himslef vs the best as well, lets hope by the end fo the seies he is being acclaimed the world's finest cricketer, he went a way to proving that in this test.

P.S. any one see that GREAT all black team get stuffed at the weekend, the scoreline flattered them though i think they will beat the bocks in NZ. Same old NZ tho flattering to deceive post the lions, they were being hailed as the best side blah blah blah in the press, down to earth with a bump.

Enthralling test match, a small part of me wanted to see the Aussies do it merely because it was such an excellent display by the tail enders. Well done to England with the bat and ball in the first innings.

As for the Rugby, did you hear Henry more than suggest that the Lions were not good preperation for the All Blacks and that they were rusty. After watching the previous Aussie vs SA games it would appear that maybe the mandela cup games were played at a much higher level and a much more evenly fought games than the Lions tests so perhaps he has a point.

New Zealand will have them at home and by a bigger margin.

Thats the best cricket match I have ever seen without a shadow of a doubt.

Although they wont ring the changes after that, if I were in charge I'd drop Bell - he is not ready. They may need to rethink the Vaughan situation too unless he finds some form. Much as he's been a good captain he would not be in the side if it wasn't for him being the skipper - he looks well out of touch with the bat. Also, if there were other options i.e. Read was fit then I'd get Jones out - he is pretty dire with the gloves.

Pietersen is class, and Flintoff is absolutely outstanding.

WHAT A GAME!

agree with you there Nick / Stu, i may be going to old traffor don sat if my bro can swing tickets, fingers crossed.

On the rugby Stu no doubt, i was referring to the lions thread where a few people went a bit overboard with their assessment of the Kiwis, as I did first off with my assessement of the lions To be fair that lions side wouldnt beat Za or Oz neither.


beating a weak british lions side does not make you a great team.
Great teams win away from home in Oz and ZA.

Looking forward to Thursday!! Lets be honest though we got a stroke of luck last week if McGrath had been playing England would not have won that - they are a far weaker side without him.

There was an interesting statistic mentioned on the box the other day - when McGrath is in the side the opponents playing Australia have an average per innings of about 280 or so I think it was. Without him in the side - i.e. the games when he has not played - 14 tests I think it was - the average is about 100 more, 380 or something like that.

That McGrath stat is very telling. We did bloody well but we have to follow it up with something decent at OT. And also as and when McGrath is fit.

I'm also of a mind to change Bell and Jones. Jones isn't performing with the bat and his glovework is untidy. Read is the clear replacement. But for Bell, not sure who you're going to have ahead of him.

Vaughan is quality - he needs to admit he has a technical weakness, though. The Aussies have worked it out, so he needs to too.

Saw the rugby and whilst the Saffers were lucky to get away with a few things, particularly some quite blatant taking of men out without the ball in crucial passages of play (I'm thinking in particular when Gear made a break up his wing and the guy he was looking for was ten yards behind him under a Springbok...) they were good for their win. Second row were v good. But the Tri-Nations always has an element of everyone winning their home games so tough to read too much into it. Henry's lived for making digs at Woodward for the past two years, he loves it.

With regard to the Lions, it shows the coaching decisions not to spend a lot of time working on scrum and line-out were daft, as was the call to play a waiting defence. Carter wasn't happy and that's because every time he turned round he had a ruddy great big bottle green shoulder in his chest

spot on as normal fellas.

tho i hasten to add would lee have been bowling on Sat morning if Mcgrath had been fit and would mcgrath have been as devastating?

Would he have been as devastasting as Lee on sucha docile pitch in that morning session?

Undoubtedly the Aussies are a better side with Mcgrath in it, but you cant say this would have happened or that would have happened if he had played, lots of things might have been different would warne have bowled by the 14th and 8th overs of the innings respectively?.


And as i pointed out to an australian friend who alluded to the same thing, claiming it was a hollow victory, before i told him to fornicate off, and stop talking to me, i did say well in which case the ahses last time was a hollow victory for you then, freddie was injured for the last series......

Just a question, how easy is it to obtain Cricket test match tickets. How soon do they normally sell out?

hours.

its bloody hard unless 1. you are a member of one the counties who are hosting a test or two you know someone who gets them through corporate means..

J wrote:hours.

its bloody hard unless 1. you are a emmeber of one the test gournds or two you know someone who gets them through corporate means..

Even for games like England vs Bangladesh. or even these "friendly" one dayers like England vs Wales/Scotland etc?

no you can walk into the ground for such games, thought you meant ashes mate.

J wrote:no you can walk into the ground for such games, thought you meant ashes mate.

Used to watch Glamorgan on a few occasions when they were possibly the best county side (Richards, Croft, Watkin, Morris, Maynard, Cottey, Lefvre etc) but never been to an international.

I thought the ECB were talking about having a one-dayer at St Helens some time, probably against someone like Bangladesh...

Good chum of mine works for Warwickshire and we've been able to get seats through him in the past but for the Ashes he reckons a total sell-out in about an hour and a half for four days of tickets.

Lords remains the biggest bag of arse sports venue I've ever been to.

stu thats a shame mate, if you give me a nudge for next year i can get them at the oval if you fancy a day in the big smoke no hassle. Or i can let you have my password to the Oval / Surrey site and you can get em. Cant remember who we are due to play tho ive got a feeling its NZ.

if you let me know i can get up to ten tho that was impossible for this year, got 4 for the thurs, 5 for the sun and a mate got me one for the friday with another group of mates.

Basically test matches always sell out but you can ordinarily even get themoff the touts for 1.5 x face, up to double if you get a few together just not for this series..

reports are Lee is out of the next test as well.

still macgill will come in on a turning pitch.

Sorry couldn't respond to topic earlier my misses just had our second baby. Been in the hospital yesterday and hung over all day today.

Great match it had to be one of the finest displays of tail end batting by Warne Lee and Kasprowich that i have seen. Great bowling by Flintoff really impressed me i thought he was over rated until this match.

:x Bad captaincy by Vaughn he has to be the most pathetic captain in world cricket, he set bad fields and looked at times like he has no idea at all.
:x Bad batting by all the Austalian batters in this series so far and unless they improve and stop being so arrogant(Martyn jogging then getting run out etc etc) They are going to get a wake up call when they get home and don't have the ashes.

congrats Ben! well done mate, agree but Bad Captaincy do you mean Ponting not vaughan?

ponting mucked up putting us into bat and i thought Vaughan was excellent in his captaincy. god knows he wouldnt get in the team otherwise.

Good point on the field settings, I was swearing like a trooper at some of them.

Anyone noticed Trescothick appears to be making a lot of suggestions to Vaughan, could be time for a new captain if Vaughan doesnt find some runs from somewhere.

J wrote:congrats Ben! well done mate, agree but Bad Captaincy do you mean Ponting not vaughan?

ponting mucked up putting us into bat and i thought Vaughan was excellent in his captaincy. god knows he wouldnt get in the team otherwise.

Yeh Ponting was bad for not batting, The last day Vaughn had four slips and his fast bowlers were not bowling for edges they were at the body and stumps. Surley he should have been telling them to bowl at the outside of the off stump and actually use the slips. How many times would they have got an edge i reckon plenty.

nickd wrote:Good point on the field settings, I was swearing like a trooper at some of them.

Anyone noticed Trescothick appears to be making a lot of suggestions to Vaughan, could be time for a new captain if Vaughan doesnt find some runds from somewhere.

Flintoff should be captain.