2ND ASHES TEST: England v Australia at Lord's Jul 18-22, 2013

[undertaker]

Smith has every right to feel filthy about that. It makes him look like a cheat, especially after he confidentally got up, and said he caught it. I know I may sound biased because I'm Australian but Smith doesn't strike me as someone who'd falsely claim a catch.

 

[Timbo]

Even the incredibly parochial poms on Test Match Sofa thought that was out.

The only f**king geniuss on earth that thought that didn't carry were Erasmus and Hill.

 

[undertaker]

Even passionate Pommy commentators like David Gower can see the flipping obvious that his hands were under the ball and therefore didn't touch the ground. If the ball touched the ground before it got to his hands, it wouldn't have bobbled up like it did in Smith's case (which is attributed to bobbling up because of the hands UNDERNEATH THE BALL!)

 

[undertaker]

It's a reaaaaaaaaaaally bitter pill to swallow, following on from the umpiring debacles in the last test. It does leave a bitter taste in your mouth to see BLATANT, clear-cut decisions like that get botched up.

 

[BunniesMan]

Even this guy that has spent months trolling Aussies on twitter sees what we all see:
https://twitter.com/MichaelVaughan

@MichaelVaughan 18s That was out... #Ashes.

 

[undertaker]

And Warney, 100% correct. It's incredibly unfair on Steve Smith as what I said: it makes him look like a cheat for falsely claiming a catch, not to mention the emphatic level of confidence he had immediately after catching it.

 

[undertaker]

Looks like this is going to be the third consecutive Ashes tour (2005, 2009, 2013) - the pinnacle of test cricket - that is going to be marred by on-field officiating. Just when I thought that no Rudi Koertzen and then Billy Bowden being dropped from the Elite Panel before the Ashes (hence cannot officiate in test matches) was a huge step forward for this series, I was terribly wrong

 

[BunniesMan]

Would like to see a few overs from Smith.

 

[Timbo]

Seriously, how f**king hard it it?

These umpires get paid a metric f**ktonne of money to travel to some of the most beautiful and exotic places in the world to officiate in a game and they can't get basic shit like that right?

It's like the front foot no-ball checking after every wicket; how the f**k are you not seeing those yourself? It's been an umpires job for TWO HUNDRED f**kING YEARS. How many are you letting go during the game?

It drives me f**king spare how bad these useless pricks are at their job.

 

[Fufu Andronez]

Does each commentator have their own microphone or do they just pass the 2 around? The way they put them right under their nose I wouldn't wanna be the one to use it after Nasser Hussein.

 

[BunniesMan]

England are the worlds most negative team. Why are they scoring at 2 an over while 400 up? So weak.

 

[undertaker]

For those who are wondering, this is the Andrew Strauss "catch" at the last Ashes test at Lord's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfL-F5Ypy24

Here, you can CLEARLY see at 1:11 the ball hitting the ground because he didn't get his hands underneath the ball unlike Smith....and they didn't even refer it to the 3rd umpire. "Cameras always cloud the issue" = Politically-correct language for 'not-out'

 

[BDR]

England are the worlds most negative team. Why are they scoring at 2 an over while 400 up? So weak.

England could declare right now and have the match won by close of play.

 

[Cletus]

England are the worlds most negative team. Why are they scoring at 2 an over while 400 up? So weak.

Yeah they could learn a thing or two from our batsmen.

 

[AusKnightRKO]

Because its called winning, how does our scoring at 4 an over go lately, its quite clear they are battling too a 530 Run lead. This is called domination, and with Watson, Hughes and Smith as our batting, we have .3 % chance of winning.

Someone Give Punter and Huss a Blank ChequeBook

 

[MrAnonymous]

England are the worlds most negative team. Why are they scoring at 2 an over while 400 up? So weak.

Lol spastic

They dont even need runs
Wasting time is what they are doing
they have won the match already

 

[undertaker]

Australia's only hope now is a draw. Although there's only a 10% chance of rain in London on Day 5, they'll need to bat for at least half of tomorrow at the rate England are going and come away relatively unscathed, and then pray that the rain comes on Day 5 and hit in a big way so lots of time is chewed up.

 

[African Monkey]

^^:lol:

When was the last he succeeded full stop?

His last 11 innings in all formats:

11, 6, 9, 0, 0, 2, 0, 44, 4, 13, 8.

97 runs @ 8.8

His last 11 first class innings:

11, 6, 8, 0, 2, 71, 26, 6, 23, 59, 0

212 runs @ 19

This is our batting saviour?

Jesus I knew he had been bad of late but not that bad.

 

[undertaker]

Well, the umpiring stocks don't look very promising.

On the elite panel of 12 umpires who are allowed to officiate in tests, only 4 umpires are not from Australia or England...and would you believe this....they happen to be the same 4 crap umpires who have officiated in the 2 tests so far: Dar, Dharmasena, Hill and Erasmus. SURELY....SURELY there have to be better umpires in the 2nd tier that officiate One-Day Internationals.

This is what we have to look forward to over the next 8 test matches guys!

 

[Tipster]

Heads must roll