MERGED - The 2010/2011 ASHES tour thread...all Ashes related chat here please!

zing said:
He played in the last Ashes. Fourth and fifth test. He was pretty shit.

Warne, Gilchrist, Hayden, Langer, McGrath also did well in the 2006/07 Ashes, but doesn't mean they should be called back -- that was 4 years ago.
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:wenger:
He didn't play at all in the last Ashes series in England and is still an active first class cricketer with average of just over 23.
 
Actually Clark did play in the last Ashes.

His figures in the 5th test(which England won by 197 runs) were

1st innings - 14 overs - 41 runs(no wickets, but most economical bowler)
2nd innings - 12 overs - 43 runs - 1 wicket(Siddle and Hilfenhaus went for 4 and 5 runs overs each)

His figures for the 4th test were very good

1st innings - 10 overs - 18 runs - 3 wickets
2nd innings - 11 overs - 74 runs - 0 wickets {He came in for some stick(Broad and Swann belted the living crap out of the ball), but England were done for, losing by an innings and 80 runs.}

But his career stats of
24 test - 94 wickets - 23.86,

means he should have been in the team, until he was no longer performing.

Finally out of those 94 wickets
England - 30
India - 16
South Africa - 20

So 2/3rds against the better teams in test cricket.
 
Having Stuart Clark in the team just makes sense. He keeps it tidy, bowls excellent line and length, and when runs are scarce at one end, it gives the bloke on the other end more freedom (freedom which I think Mitchell Johnson would especially be in need of to be lethal).
 
marchi-91 said:
:wenger:
He didn't play at all in the last Ashes series in England and is still an active first class cricketer with average of just over 23.
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:wenger:

4th Test: England v Australia at Leeds, Aug 7-9, 2009 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo
5th Test: England v Australia at The Oval, Aug 20-23, 2009 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo

Not to mention the whole controversy over whether Clark should play the 5th test or Hauritz, and they ended up playing Clark and losing..

Do you even watch cricket?
 
BTV_is_neutral said:
Actually Clark did play in the last Ashes.

His figures in the 5th test(which England won by 197 runs) were

1st innings - 14 overs - 41 runs(no wickets, but most economical bowler)
2nd innings - 12 overs - 43 runs - 1 wicket(Siddle and Hilfenhaus went for 4 and 5 runs overs each)

His figures for the 4th test were very good

1st innings - 10 overs - 18 runs - 3 wickets
2nd innings - 11 overs - 74 runs - 0 wickets {He came in for some stick(Broad and Swann belted the living crap out of the ball), but England were done for, losing by an innings and 80 runs.}

But his career stats of
24 test - 94 wickets - 23.86,

means he should have been in the team, until he was no longer performing.

Finally out of those 94 wickets
England - 30
India - 16
South Africa - 20

So 2/3rds against the better teams in test cricket.
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Yes, but this was not recently. He looked like he lost speed, which was already pretty low. Still accurate, but you need some sort of pace.
 
Can't believe they are going for Beer over Hauritz, not that Hauritz is a great spinner or anything, but unless Beer is the next Warne isn't it another risky move seeing how Doherty faired?? Big call by Ponting (assuming he made the decision for Beer>Hauritz) knowing one more England win and that's the Ashes gone again.

Feel a bit bad for Ricky, if he loses this series then it'll be 3 ashes series he has lost as captain and it will almost certainly taint his legacy as one of the great players of all time.
 
feck knows what them Aussie selectors were doing. Good news for England though, just need to carry the same consistency through.
 
BTV_is_neutral said:
the puns relating to Beer are going to be unbeerable:rolleyes:
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Quite looking forward to them, but I have always been a glass half full kind of guy. Lager than life in a way.

There's no pint getting yourself worked up.

I bet you'll barley be able to notice them anyway.

He'll play well for them, so long as he avoids too many long hops we could see him put in a Stella performance and proving stout opposition. In which case there'd be no need to be bitter.

Regardless of how he as an individual plays, the whole team really need to raise the bar, and work as a unit. Get the volume raised if they can.

That'll do for now.
 
Good article on Mitchell Johnson by Peter Roebuck. Delves into why he is facing some of the troubles he is atm

Anxious Johnson's mission improbable
Peter Roebuck
December 11, 2010

MITCHELL Johnson is the reluctant leader of a struggling attack called upon to save a struggling team and a series that seems lost. Heroism is not his natural habitat. As shy as a tortoise, he yearns for the quiet life and instead finds himself forced into the open and asked to bare his soul.

Johnson has not the taste for stardom and not much for the sporting life. His ability exceeds his desire, his strength surpasses his appetite. Cricket has taken him on a journey that does not entirely suit him. Often he is reminded about the bad old days driving a plumber's van in Queensland, yet a part of him seeks that world with its obscurity and security.
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As much can be told from his cricket. Johnson can be scintillating in the nets. He has been blessed with the gift of pace and natural strength.

The field itself is another matter. Its nakedness disturbs him. It was the same years ago for Mark Lathwell, a talented batsman from Devon who arrived at Trent Bridge to play his first Test, looked around the ground and remarked, with some alarm, "there's a lot of people here."

When everything is in perfect working order, Johnson looks superb. In South Africa and New Zealand he ran smoothly to the crease, gathered himself and sent down thunderbolts. None of the batsmen could handle him. He's won an international player of the year award and two McGilvray medals. They don't give these things away

But there is another Johnson lurking under the clothes of the champion, a stuttering, nervous, hesitant man who knows that the whole thing is held together by a thread. He fears the savaging that incompetence brings, the criticisms, the figures, the embarrassment, the isolations; especially the isolation.

Every cricketer is insecure. Although they didn't show it on the field, Dennis Lillee and Shane Warne endured moments of doubt, and they count among the game's finest exponents. Just that some players deal with it better than others. Partly it is because they have a stronger sense of destiny. As Muhammad Ali once put it: ''Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, and a vision."

Johnson never had that vision. Cricket chose him, and it was the same with fame. In his youth he'd wander past a park and observe a few fellows mucking about in the nets. If he felt like it he'd join them but he could take it or leave it. He never studied the game, never absorbed its workings. Experience is a great teacher. As a result he knows little about the mechanics of bowling. When things go wrong he does not know how to put them right and therefore panics. And then he feels small.

In part his insecurity stems from his background, the unstable mother, the broken home, the search for love. But that story has been told a thousand times and often ends well. Johnson is a country boy plucked from the world he trusted and thrust into a public place full of opportunity and risk. To him cricket has been not so much a challenge as an ordeal.

Had the Queenslander followed the well-established cricketing path he might have been better prepared for the life that awaited him. Instead, he has been promoted and pampered in an unprecedented manner and therefore denied the hard yards endured by comrades like Ryan Harris. Everyone could see his potential. And everyone was excited by it. The grapevine works well in Australian cricket. Unfortunately it can also cause distortions, prevent proper development.

Rather than rising through the ranks, Johnson was spotted by Lillee at an informal practice and immediately told that he was going to England with the Australian under-19s, an outfit run by Rod Marsh, the master's old mucker. Little account was taken of the newcomer's circumstances. He was tall, fast and left-handed, and that was enough

At first the novice prospered but before long injury and poor form started to take their toll. Then the lack of cricketing substance and emotional cement was laid bare. Johnson spent several years on the fringes at Queensland, getting treatment on his back, getting money without earning it. Like so many speedsters he suffered stress fractures. Perhaps he had not done much hard labour in his formative years.

Again cricket was patient. He was such a nice kid and he was quick. Eventually he went back to Townsville and was given a cushy job. After a few years he returned to the game and was promptly pushed into international cricket. Every step of the way he rose on promise not performance. The toughening up that has been Australian cricket's strongest point was bypassed. Even now Johnson has taken more Test than grade or Shield wickets.

And he remains the unconvinced lad called from the sticks given the chance to fulfil dreams he never had. At his best he is brilliant. His hundred in Cape Town lingers in the mind, he is an outstanding fielder off his own bowling and on his day he is a formidable with the ball. That is the cricketer Lillee saw, one the Poms have never seen.

On the other hand, Johnson's worst is awful. Then he cannot take the new ball or survive the scrutiny or lead the attack or land the leather on the cut strip. Then the tale is told of a boy whose skin never thickened and a cricketer whose game was never examined. Experience teaches a player how to return reasonable figures on the tough days. Johnson did not learn those lessons and so remains as unreliable as the rawest teenager.

FOR a time, and to his detriment, Johnson still took wickets when he was off form. Top-class batsmen kept playing away from their bodies and giving slip catches. No one called his bluff, or not until Andrew Strauss and company turned up. England ignored everything off the stumps thereby exposing Johnson's limitations. The emperor was not wearing any clothes.

Now Johnson is supposed to turn back the English tide. He's been working hard on his action in the nets but is that enough? He's always tinkering and being tinkered. Has he ever been sent back to Shield or grade and told to work things out for himself? When was he taught to fight?

If Ricky Ponting scores a hundred and the strike bowler takes a hatful, Australia might win.

Locals want Johnson to grab the ball and cause mayhem in the old-fashioned way. They yearn to see a cranky speedster making batsmen hop about. At present he has the ability but not the conviction. Perhaps he will run hot. However, a man intent on conquering a game first has to conquer himself.
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I hope we're not getting cocky or complacent. I know its a much reduced strength side playing, but the dropped catches are a worry...

England dropped a string of catches as Victoria declared on 216-2 in the tour match and Alastair Cook fell cheaply as the batsmen reached 50-1 in reply.
On the first day of three in Melbourne, England were asked to field first, resting their Test attack, along with Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott.
Tim Bresnan and Monty Panesar each took a wicket, with Chris Tremlett unable to obtain a breakthrough at the MCG.
Tremlett is tipped to replace the injured Stuart Broad in the third Test.
With much of the attention on the bowling of Tremlett, Bresnan and Ajmal Shahzad - one of whom is certain to make their Ashes debut in Perth on 16 December - Michael Hill quietly helped himself to a maiden first-class century.
The 22-year-old was dropped four times in all on his way to 105 not out and England also missed a half-chance to dismiss David Hussey on 43.
Hill, a left-handed opener, shared an unbroken stand of 147 in 40 overs with Hussey (67 not out) before captain Cameron White ordered a sporting declaration.
And White's decision was rewarded when Cook, averaging 225 in the Test series, edged a cut shot off slow left-armer Jon Holland to Matthew Wade on 27.
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BBC Sport - Cricket - Ashes: England struggle against Victoria in Melbourne
 
And here, without further ado, is the transcript from Fox Sports 3’s Inside Cricket show, last Wednesday.

Brendon Julian: “So where do we go from here, boys? Junior, what do you reckon?”

Mark Waugh: “Mate, if I was a selector there are at least five, maybe six, of those blokes who’d be looking for something to do next week because they wouldn’t be playing cricket in Perth.”

Damien Fleming: “Such as?”

Waugh: “Mate, Doherty for a start. I mean jeez, we’ve picked a bloke because we don’t know who our spinner should be. Should we seriously pick a guy who has played 10 state-level tests in his life to go up againstPietersen, Cook and those guys?”

Julian: “Bit harsh.”

Waugh: “Bit harsh? He was chucking that many pies at Pietersen he may as well have opened a bakery on days two and three.”

Fleming: “North?”

Waugh: “Gone”

Julian: “Bollinger? Siddle?”

Waugh: “Gone”

Gladstone Small: “Can I interrupt for a minute?”

Waugh: “No”.

Julian: “Junior is on a bit of a roll here, Stone.”

Waugh: “No, I mean fair go, we’ve got it wrong here. If I’m the only bloke not happy that we’ve been rolled for an innings and 70-odd runs on a runway of a pitch and that, let’s be honest, we’re going to have a summer of the Poms handing us our arses in this series then fair go boys, something’s wrong here. What’s Clarke doing after getting out? He’s on Twitter saying sorry for not walking? Mate, if he did that in our side there’d be hell to pay. AB would chuck his Twitter box off the balcony or whatever it is. Sorry for not walking? Jesus Christ, man.’’
 
Waugh: “Bit harsh? He was chucking that many pies at Pietersen he may as well have opened a bakery on days two and three.”
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:lol:
 
I agree with junior, Clarke you fecking emo, man up. Bunch of saps this team. Mitchell Johnson and his issues with fame, and unstable home...

Who the feck cares? Everyone has problems...

Get out there, and stand up.
 
No wickets for Tremlett, Bresnan or Shahzad in Victoria's second innings, but Strauss managed to get one (although he went for 50 off 4 overs).
 
Liz Hurley 'cheats with Shane Warne'

Liz Hurley has reportedly cheated on husband Arun Nayar with former cricket player Shane Warne.

According to the News of the World, the actress, who married multi-millionaire Nayar three years ago, spent two nights in a London hotel with Warne this week and was pictured kissing him in several locations.

Warne flew into the UK on Wednesday to film his new TV show and met Hurley in the Bentley Hotel in South Kensington, where they appeared to kiss. A witness said: "It was way, way beyond the sort of welcome you might give a friend."

The pair then met Hugh Grant and another man and travelled to a restaurant where they again kissed in the lobby. "They looked like honeymooners and passionate lovers. It was electric," revealed another witness.

They allegedly spent the night together at the Bentley before returning the following night after visiting another local eatery. The pair have apparently been flirting via Twitter for months.
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The old dog's still got it. The only way this could have been any funnier is if he actually came out of retirement to play the next match, still I expect plenty of sledging from the Sky commentary team (albeit off-air)
 
brewlio said:
My money's on Tremlett as he'll get the extra bounce at the WACA.
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I wouldn't assume there's any bounce at the WACA. It was an absolute featherbed for a couple of years, went back to being a bouncy track one year and then was a featherbed again. Someone who watches Shield cricket in Perth can confirm what it's like this year.

Either way, Bresnan is IMO a very ordinary international bowler, and I hope Shahzad gets it because he looks lively to me. They'll take Tremlett though.
 
Just realised/found out that the Perth test starts at 2.30am UK time, so I won't be watching any of that...:(

Still I can listen to TMS on the way to work in the morning...:)

Anderson is back from the birth of his new sprog, hope he has a spring in his step!

England paceman James Anderson says he feels fit and ready to lead the attack in the Perth Test despite flying home for the birth of his second child.
Anderson arrived back in Australia on Monday after his 20,000-mile round trip and is now focused on Thursday's Test.
"I've had a decent amount of sleep so I'm feeling pretty confident I'll be at my best on Thursday," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "I feel surprisingly fresh."
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BBC Sport - Cricket - Ashes: 'Fresh' James Anderson ready for Perth Test
 
Is it just me or is Ricky Ponting sounding an ever increasingly desperate man? his press conference today had desperation written all over it, trying the mind games stuff with England wont work ricky, not to mention telling us we should fear Mitchell '3 boundary balls an over' Johnson.
 
Talk of the Aussies going in with 4 seamers and no out-right spinner. The last time I remember them going in without any spinner was against India a few years back and that was when they had the likes of Clark and Lee in the attack, they lost that game and Ponting was heavily criticised for not picking a specialist spinner.

I expect England to go with Tremlett to replace Broad.
 
I have a bad feeling about tonight, I reckon Australia will win the toss and bat, bowl us out for 142 and be 250 for 2 at stumps. I just can't comprehend England not getting thrashed in Perth.
 
England win the toss and will bowl 1st.

Beer is 12th man for Australia, Steve Smith and Hughes come in for Australia...

Australia 1 Shane Watson, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 Brad Haddin (wk), 7 Steven Smith, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Ryan Harris, 10 Peter Siddle, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.
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and as many of us predicted, Tremlett into the England lineup.

England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Ian Bell, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Graeme Swann, 9 James Anderson, 10 Chris Tremlett, 11 Steven Finn.
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Terrible shot making. Aussies have forgotten how to bat.
 
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