England v Australia - Fifth Ashes Test - The Oval

gaffs

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England V Australia
5th Ashes Test
The Brit Oval, London
20th August - 24th August 2009

The fifth and final Ashes test will be played as usual, at the Brit Oval. Located in the Borough of Lambeth, South London, The Oval is the home of Surrey County Cricket Club and has a capacity of 23,500. The two ends at The Oval are the Pavilion End and Vauxhall End.

It was at the Oval where the very first England v Australia test match took place in 1882. That match, won by Australia was effectively the beginning of the Ashes. English captain, Hon Ivo Bligh, was said to have been presented with the an urn containing a bail from the match, by a group of women. The Urn was given by those women to signify English cricket being left in ashes after the defeat.

In the 2005 Ashes test series, the match at the Oval was drawn which was enough for England to win the Ashes after a break of 18 years. It was also a memorable test for the amount of centuries scored. England scored two, Andrew Strauss in the first innings and Kevin Pietersen in the second. Australia scored two centuries, both coming from the openers, Matthew Haydon and Justin Langer. But the star of the test was undoubtedly, Shane Warne who took 12 wickets in the match in his final test match on English shores.

This time, the roles are reversed as England need to win the match to take the Ashes. A draw means that Australia retain them as current holders.

England squad: AJ Strauss (capt, Middlesex), AN Cook (Essex), IR Bell (Warwickshire), IJL Trott (Warwickshire), PD Collingwood (Durham), MJ Prior (Sussex, wkt), A Flintoff (Lancashire), SCJ Broad (Nottinghamshire), GP Swann (Nottinghamshire), JM Anderson (Lancashire), MS Panesar (Northamptonshire), G Onions (Durham), SJ Harmison (Durham), RJ Sidebottom (Nottinghamshire)

Australia Squad: R Ponting (c), M Clarke (vc), S Clark, B Haddin, N Hauritz, B Hilfenhaus, P Hughes, M Hussey, M Johnson, S Katich, B Lee, G Manou, A McDonald, M North, P Siddle, S Watson.

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Nice work gaffs.

To give ourselves a realistic chance of bowling out the Aussies twice on what is normally a fairly benign pitch, we may end up weakening our batting, which is already beginning to fall apart. Call me negative but I can't see better than a draw for England here.
 
To stand any chance of winning this we need to win the toss and bat.
Make a good score 400+ ,hopefully setting them a 350-400 2nd innings score.
Flintoff will need to be at his best has will the rest of the bowlers.
Brett Lee is going to be the match decider,If he is fit and comes out and bowls like we know he can , than its good bye Ashes,but he is been out for a while and may be a bit rusty and not up to his best , them we can make the most of it and crush the Aussie's and take the Ashes.
Hopefully will live up to all the hype and I predict an English win by 4 wickets.
 
Northstand said:
Nice work gaffs.

To give ourselves a realistic chance of bowling out the Aussies twice on what is normally a fairly benign pitch, we may end up weakening our batting, which is already beginning to fall apart. Call me negative but I can't see better than a draw for England here.
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The Surrey operations director Clive Stephens said....

"It will be a typical Oval international wicket, a bit of bounce and pace and fair competition between bat and ball

"By days four and five we should start to see a bit of movement in it."

AFP: No pitch battles for Oval chiefs

If I had any influence in the ECB, i would be telling the Surrey grounds man to prepare a pitch that turns square.
 
Love to see it but I'm afriad this series for us hinged on Edgbaston - that was our chance

Cant see the Ozz losing this. The onus is on us to win and take it to them and I don't think we have enough in the locker

Draw or Ozz win

Pray that I'm wrong tho :D
 
Should be a draw on a pitch like the Oval, but the England batting looks fragile. Australia to retain the ashes.
 
malc31337 said:
Every result will be a result. Draw and aus win, they keep the ashes. England win and we get them back!
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I know but I think the Aussies won't be satisfied with just retaining the Ashes and will want to win the series. I don't want a draw because I feel the same way. A clear winner would be great.
 
zing said:
I know but I think the Aussies won't be satisfied with just retaining the Ashes and will want to win the series. I don't want a draw because I feel the same way. A clear winner would be great.
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I agree. The Ausies will go for a win. It can be dangerous to play for a draw from day 1.
 
gaffs said:
My team....

Cook, Strauss, Bell, Trott, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff, Swann, Anderson, Harmison, Panesar
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Onions (possibly Sidebottom) to replace Panesar for me.

Prior, Flintoff and Swann at six, seven and eight looks ok, but the top five, Strauss aside, looks very suspect.

Not optimistic I'm afraid.
 
Less than an hour from start of play.

I predict:
Cook, Strauss, Bell, Trott, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff, Swann, Anderson, Harmison, Onions
And an unchanged Australian line-up. The same 4 quicks.
 
"Broad and Harmison are going through their bowling warm-ups, whereas Onions is sitting on his behind. So that might be a hint,"

Guess I'm wrong.
 
England have chosen to bat.

Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Mike Hussey, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Peter Siddle, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus

England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Jonathan Trott, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 James Anderson
 
The Ashes decider at The Oval may well be the most eagerly anticipated contest in recent memory, for fans, media and the players themselves. But the fifth Test will have a lot more riding on it than just the destination of the famous urn or bragging rights for the next couple of years. Informed estimates suggest that punters around the world may have staked well over US$70 million on the result of the Test - and thus the series - beginning today.



Punters stake $70 million on Oval Test | Cricket News | The Ashes - England v Australia 2009 | Cricinfo.com
 
Tabata said:
Why would England go in with two spinners?
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Becasue the Oval pitch takes spin on the 4th and 5th day.

I think if Panesar was in form, he may have got the nod.

Picking Broad is not bad thing as he lengthens the batting lineup and he has been bowling with good pace in this series. He jest needs a bit more control.
 
And just when I was going to type Cook was looking good - I only didn't because I was busy eating.

Very poor shot selection there.
 
Any streams for this? My usual place isn't showing the game for some reason
 
Strauss and Bell seem to have settled down. Bell's looked good except when he has to face Johnson banging it in short. Strauss is looking very set indeed. They're scoring at a decent clip as well - 4.15.
 
Well all in all a great start for us

Lost Cook but Bell is stepping up and Strauss is, well, imperious at the moment

If he can stay there for another three hours we have a good chance here

However, knowing England I predict at tea it will be 155 - 6 and we will end up on 200 ! - just :D
 
Red-Indian said:
Strauss and Bell seem to have settled down. Bell's looked good except when he has to face Johnson banging it in short. Strauss is looking very set indeed. They're scoring at a decent clip as well - 4.15.
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Yes, they were commenting on the radio that he should be ducking under these deliveries because the bounce can be trusted on this wicket. Instead, Bell is standing up to them and risking an edge.

Very good morning for England though. Strauss is really leading the way in this series.
 
Just shown on Sky that Hilfenhaus had overstepped the crease by quite a margin for Strauss' wicket. Suppose we've had the rub of the green on decisions though.
 
Northstand said:
Just shown on Sky that Hilfenhaus had overstepped the crease by quite a margin for Strauss' wicket. Suppose we've had the rub of the green on decisions though.
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He oversteps a lot, doesn't he? Warne pointed it out during the 3rd test or so. I've been noticing it ever since. It's like a no-ball every other over.
 
zing said:
He oversteps a lot, doesn't he? Warne pointed it out during the 3rd test or so. I've been noticing it ever since. It's like a no-ball every other over.
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Hilfenhaus has never really impressed me has a bowler,like you say he oversteps a lot and does not look like he will take that many wickets.
IMHO ne ofthe worst Aussie bowlers I have seen for quite a few years.
If Lee was fit would he still be in the team?
 
pauldyson1uk said:
Hilfenhaus has never really impressed me has a bowler,like you say he oversteps a lot and does not look like he will take that many wickets.
IMHO ne ofthe worst Aussie bowlers I have seen for quite a few years.
If Lee was fit would he still be in the team?
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To be fair, he's top wicket taker in the series, with the best average.
 
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