1st ASHES TEST: England v Australia at Cardiff, July 8-12, 2009

[Matt23]

YESSSSSSSS!!!!

I was watching this one at work all day and those early wickets had me pissed. And then Freddy comes in and has a good partnership with Colly and i thought there was still an outside chance.

And when i got home to see Swann still in with Colly it was well and truly game one. But when Colly went i thought that was it.

But MONTY!!!

JIMMY!!

LEGENDS!!

f**k YEAH!!!!

...and the un washed celebrate, like they've won or something :roll:

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Man of the match is for the best performer...his pathetic captaincy should have excluded him from that category

Last time I checked his performances out did everyone else.

 

[Bazal]

Last time I checked his performances out did everyone else.

Last time I checked his performance as captain lost us the match

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

And his performance with the bat kick started our batting.

 

[Tommy Smith]

...and the un washed celebrate, like they've won or something :roll:

Wouldn't you? Thought so.

And ive been working during 95% of this Test match so haven't had a chance to sit down and watch it. But naturally i had to come on here for a laugh after we held on.

Especially to hear all the over the top rants about Punters captaincy.

 

[Tommy Smith]

I thought C0llingwood was an obvious choice. 64 and 74 from 245 balls and over 5 hours on the last day.

Rearguard innings' are some of the best. Case in point Ponting's 158 at Old Trafford in 2005.

 

[Ian_Brown]

YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Feels like a win

 

[Tonearm Terrorwrist]

Funny to see these soap dodgers treat it like a win when just 5 days ago they were going to spin us senseless and win this test in a canter.

 

[Ian_Brown]

Funny to see these soap dodgers treat it like a win when just 5 days ago they were going to spin us senseless and win this test in a canter.

Haha shhhhhhh convict!

 

[mattyg]

I think this proves we need Brett Lee. I think Siddle might be the unlucky one. Johnson was our worst IMO but there is no way he will be dropped...too much man love from Ponting going on there. How we couldn't bowl them out in a day when they were 2 down already is a disgrace.

 

[herbert henry1908]

I think this proves we need Brett Lee. I think Siddle might be the unlucky one. Johnson was our worst IMO but there is no way he will be dropped...too much man love from Ponting going on there. How we couldn't bowl them out in a day when they were 2 down already is a disgrace.

If it proves anything its that we need a bowler who's taken 90 wickets @ 22.

Stuart Clark not Brett Lee.

 

[Twizzle]

we should have won that, plenty of opportunity but couldn't close it out

 

[TheParraboy]

Good luck to the poms, they didnt deserve the draw but got it in the end. All fair in love and war.
I would be laughing my head of if Australia played like the poms throughout the test and still managed a last ditch draw. Our bowling just didnt have the firepower on that wicket, Lots of inept batting from the poms gave us the edge rather than brilliant bowling.

Before the test match we would have taken a drawn game, everything considered

Sets up for an explosive 2nd test at Lords

whats twenty/20 ?

 

[Ridders]

Don't want to go hating on Siddle, who i really enjoyed watching, but when England were down to Panesar and Anderson, would it have killed him to try a yorker. Whats the point in bowling short-pitch stuff if your not setting up the yorker. Ponting haters amaze me. I thought he had a good game. Batted brilliantly and i thought he captained fine. His declaration yesterday was a stroke of brilliance, was unlucky the rain came when it did or else I reckon we easily win this match with time to spare.

 

[Big_Bad_Shark_Fan]

Ricky Pontings captaincy on the last day lost us that game. His failure to mix up on the bowling was ridiculous. In the last 90 minutes he decided to bowl Johnson for a 7 over spell when he couldnt land it, yet Hilfenhaus, our best bowler by daylight bowls 4 overs, gets a wicket and gets hooked. And Hilfenhaus did the same thing earlier in the day, he got the big wicket in his first 4 overs and got hooked.

Then in the last ten overs, Nathan Hauritz was clearly tiring. He was worth bowling for the first 3-4 overs in that spell but from then on England were playing him with ease. And then what did me the most was, you have 5 overs to go, and you turn to Marcus North to win you the game, a guy who looked more threatening than a peanut. Yet Hilfenhaus, your best bowler, once again couldnt get a bowl.

 

[pantherz9103]

Should have won, very frustrating. But come on we'll still win the series. England have got nothing. They're just relieved it won't be 5-0 again. Ponting's bowling selections were misplaced but England got lucky with the weather otherwise they'd never have come close to drawing. Their draw is a face saver and proves that we have trouble finishing teams off if we have to go to the 5th day.

 

[Ridders]

Ricky Pontings captaincy on the last day lost us that game. His failure to mix up on the bowling was ridiculous. In the last 90 minutes he decided to bowl Johnson for a 7 over spell when he couldnt land it, yet Hilfenhaus, our best bowler by daylight bowls 4 overs, gets a wicket and gets hooked. And Hilfenhaus did the same thing earlier in the day, he got the big wicket in his first 4 overs and got hooked.

Then in the last ten overs, Nathan Hauritz was clearly tiring. He was worth bowling for the first 3-4 overs in that spell but from then on England were playing him with ease. And then what did me the most was, you have 5 overs to go, and you turn to Marcus North to win you the game, a guy who looked more threatening than a peanut. Yet Hilfenhaus,
your best bowler, once again couldnt get a bowl.

I think Hauritz and North bowling at the death was an indication that Ponting was trying to fit in as many overs as he could before the time ran out. If we had of bowled Hilfy and another pacemen, we wouldn't have gotten as many overs in as we eventually did. I may not agree with it, but it makes sense to me. I will say i was a bit disapointed Punter gave Siddle those overs at the end, as i thought he was bowling very predictably. I would like to have seen Hilfy get Siddle's overs. Bottom line, if the yesterday's tea session isn't rained out we win comfortably so i'm not going to crucify Ponting too much.

 

[Bazal]

I think Hauritz and North bowling at the death was an indication that Ponting was trying to fit in as many overs as he could before the time ran out. If we had of bowled Hilfy and another pacemen, we wouldn't have gotten as many overs in as we eventually did. I may not agree with it, but it makes sense to me. I will say i was a bit disapointed Punter gave Siddle those overs at the end, as i thought he was bowling very predictably. I would like to have seen Hilfy get Siddle's overs. Bottom line, if the yesterday's tea session isn't rained out we win comfortably so i'm not going to crucify Ponting too much.

It makes absolutely no sense to extend the amount of overs you bowl just for the sake of it, which is essentially what he did by bowling ineffective bowlers. He took away our chance of getting the last wicket for the sake of getting in a few more overs, terrible captaincy. With or without the rain, we should have won that Test match easily but his inability to captain the side cost us

 

[Ridders]

It makes absolutely no sense to extend the amount of overs you bowl just for the sake of it, which is essentially what he did by bowling ineffective bowlers. He took away our chance of getting the last wicket for the sake of getting in a few more overs, terrible captaincy. With or without the rain, we should have won that Test match easily but his inability to captain the side cost us

Lets see, Siddle was bowling very predictably at the end, Johnson couldn't get it together, Hilfy was the only one who i thought would really threaten. I'm not saying Ponting played things perfectly, he could have done more. I would like to have seem him give M. Clarke a bowl rather than North and probably bowl Hilfy more towards the end rather than North or Siddle. To be honest the whole "Ponting's captaincy cost us the game" is over-used waaay too much. Could have done better, sure, but to say his captaincy is what cost us is simple hate.

 

[Bazal]

Lets see, Siddle was bowling very predictably at the end, Johnson couldn't get it together, Hilfy was the only one who i thought would really threaten. I'm not saying Ponting played things perfectly, he could have done more. I would like to have seem him give M. Clarke a bowl rather than North and probably bowl Hilfy more towards the end rather than North or Siddle. To be honest the whole "Ponting's captaincy cost us the game" is over-used waaay too much. Could have done better, sure, but to say his captaincy is what cost us is simple hate.

Is it? I don't think so and to simply mark it down as such is naive and ignorant IMO. He was clearly clueless at the end of the day, and his decisions to keep Johnson on, take Hilfy off, use a part timer when we were desperate for a wicket and to keep a predictable Siddle and a tired and run down Hauritz going cost us the ascendancy and, in turn, the match. He made those decisions as captain, so the buck stopped with him when England fought through minimal adversity for the draw. It's really as simple as that. At least if he threw everything he had at them and they fought through, then we could say that we'd done everything we could. But we simply didn't do anything close to everything we could to win that game in the last 90 minutes of play yesterday and the captain has to wear the blame for that