Geoffrey Boycott, Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special
"What a wonderful, dramatic day of cricket. It ebbed and flowed - that's what you want. Not this crash, bang, wallop 20 or 50 overs - it's about seeing bowlers and batsmen straining. Then it boils down to that England are better at the pressure moments."Originally Posted by Cripps
Boycott
As a great man once said, he doth protest too much
Says it all
I try and be learned, analytical, and erudite about matters sport when I can. Apply real depth and breadth to discussions after matches. Sometimes though, all you need is....:
Australia. Utter shite
Spar sandwiches* have a better middle than Australia do. Khawaja is utter wank, Smith just a humper, Watson spends half his time trying to chip everything to fine leg, and waiting in the wings they have Cowan...
* Tikka rolls are pretty nifty though.
All in all...Aussies.
At the risk of being hyper critical i think all this proves is that this is the weakest Australian side since records began, even in the last two test series' they had in Hussey and Katich players capable of staying at the crease and actually capatilising on the pressure they have put upon us....and now Michael Clarke is the only batsmen in that side of any genuine quality ...and yet despite all this the 3-0 scoreline flatters us immensly because the apalling form our top order is in and because Alaistar Cook doesn't have the slightest idea how to set a field properly and because of this the Aussie Run rate is much higher than ours.
In Siddle and Harris they have good pace bowlers, Clarke is a good batsmen and a good captain and Haddin is a good wicket keeper who is also good with the bat but other than that they have a bunch of average players and even since Shane Warne retired they have had no-one who has looked that decent as a spin bowler (Nathan Lyon couldn't even get the ball to Spin in Durham)
Really this isn't a team we should even consider as our rivals and yet it's a team who have a very decent chance of claiming back the Ashes in the winter series.....our batsmen have been destroyed by pace bowling and down under their pace bowlers will be all over us like a rash (especially at the WACCA where we haven't won since the 1970s) and the problem is winning this series so deceptively comfortably is that these kind of problems may be sweeped under the rug instead of being addressed.
For me we should use the test at the Oval to blood youngsters and inform certain players that they cannot take as Red their position in the team.
i think you might be being a bit harsh on Cook as a captain there. In his first year as Captain, he won a series in India (his first series as captain) which no england side had done for 30 years. He then won the ashes 3-0 first time england have won 3 home ashes tests in one series since 85, and retained the ashes in 14 days. the quickest that has been done by england in 5 day tests.
he has a lot to learn, but thats his start as captain, its a fucking good one.
To be fair the only thing i said was that he doesn't know how to set the field properly and he doesn't, i'm not saying it's something he won't pick up or that he has been a poor captain....winning in India was an excellent result i agree.
Cook isn't responsible for the poor form of the batsmen (apart from his own and to be fair on him, he's not giving away his wicket trying to prove something like Pietersen or smash his way back into form like Prior) and generally his timing when picking his bowlers has actually proved to be the turning point for England in this series.
I preferred Strauss as captain personally because he was that cool old head and oversaw back to back Ashes wins (first English captain to do so since Mike Brearly) and oversaw us to becoming the top test side in the world but Cook was the natural choice to replace him when Strauss' time had come and is still relatively young and will only get better.
fair points. be quite a tough introduction to test captaincy for him and hopefully he gets better. but some of his fields have been superb. the field to clarke yesterday, short leg, gully etc, clarke expected the short ball and got the length. the field put the doubt in his mind of a short ball, broad did the rest.
im not sure i buy cook being a defensive captain either. he won the ashes 3-0, retained it in 14 days. you dont do that if you are defensive. he will get better, but hes made a very good start.
Even forgetting the luck England have had with rain falling when the Aussies were about to win the l
3rd test, any half decent team could take Australia comfortably right now. This 3-0 score line or whatever is the equivalent of boasting about beating Doncaster in football. The Aussie team is full of twenty20 retards that and shit bowlers. It's no achievement to win.
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