I have the day off work, i have nothing to do and the ashes is about to start.

Strauss for a duck??

Hows that? i'm thinking buffet

21-1. Cook gone for ten.

Will we be relying on Piterson for a change???

Orstralia on top at lunch, grabbing three England wickets on a pitch perfect for getting yourself in and hitting thousands upon thousands of runs.

I can see us losing 3-1..

At least we are keeping the scoreboard ticking over well..!!,Cook was out to a brilliant catch from a modest shot at best but Strauss and Bopara..!!....Strauss just couldn't deal with the short pitched ball at all and Bopra was totally deceived by a slower ball and spoon fed a easy catch to the fielder..we cant afford anymore wickets going like that and a century from KP and Collingwood will go down just fine ,so come on England..lets have 400 +..??
k.r.o.

If we bat like that in the middle session I think the Aussies will be batting tonight..

I really do..

Or not, perhaps..


Just shows how much I know. I can see England hitting 750 by Friday morning and then putting them in.

Ricky Pontings a cock.

Pietersons lucky to still be in.

Not a bad first day for us but could have been better..!!, if the loss of Strauss and Bopara's wickets were careless then the loss of K.P's wicket was downright stupid,what a God forsaken shot...!!,still we scored at a good rate today and to be honest you would expected England to score 3.5 + runs an over against this attack which lets face it ain't the most feared they have brought to these shores,they could still get close to 400 and that should be enough to avoid defeat given the Aussies will be batting last ..
K.R.O.

It's a slow pitch that is giving some assistance to both seam and spin, given that, England already hve 300+ on the board and still have a canceto push past 350-375 tomorrow and the Aussies wont be looking forward to facing Anderson and Flintoff around lunch time. Also, in Swann and Monty, we have far superior spin bowlers who are both capable of causing major problems for batsmen on a receptive pitch.

Day one is just about even, but you cant really tell until both teams have batted.

I thought Flintoff looked the best he has done for England in quite a while, was unlucky to be out.

Looked a par score for the wicket really, not great but not bad either. Pietersen still thought he was playing T20 with that premeditated madness for his wicket - no need at all to go for that ball. For a 'shite bowler', Hauritz made him look a right mug.

If the pitch deteriorates as expected, I'll go for an England win.

Every England batsman got in and then got themselves out; Pietersen to probably the worst shot in test cricket and Flintoff to a ball he should have left but got carried away and thought every delivery was a four ball. The Aussies won't make that mistake and I expect at the very least that two of their top order will score hundreds..


Or I could be wrong..

I'll say it now, I hate Michael Hussey..

Think the first day was close but England maybe just shaded it as we scored at a good rate and had we been facing Warne, McGrath and co. we might not have scored at the rate we did,hopefully push on towards 400 now then try and keep the Aussies run rate down with a tight line in bowling and alert sharp fielding and we could be on our way to going one up ..??
K.R.O.

435 all out, pretty good score.

I think we shall win this one.

Yes anything in the advance of 400 was welcome though myself and most of us on here I would have thought to have expected around 400 against this Aussie attack,but England's bowlers have struggled up to yet to get a good line and length and Broad bowled two piss poor overs that were easily punished and it was no surprise to see him taken off,we need to restrict the run flow in this next period so hopefully our bowlers will be bowl better and start to pick up the odd wicket here and there...?
K.R.O.

Panesar; He's shit. The selectors should have picked that bloke from Durham but I don't think they're even aware he exists.

That's right, they don't know their onions..

Anyway, that Punter's a great player isn't he? It took him three tests in 2005 to get warmed up, it looks like he's warm enough already on day two of the series..

The pendulum has swung over to the Aussies at the end of day two,but we didn't bowl all that consistent Anderson and Broad were a bit too wayward at times and got punished for it,Swan was mainly effective and didn't bowl too many poor deliveries Freddie and Panesar did OK,the first session will be a big one for us tomorrow we simply can't afford to let the Aussies get away to the start they did today,we badly need to get rid of these two and lets hope that Anderson and Broad are really up for it and bowl far better than they did today..!
K.R.O.

Well just after lunch the Aussies 363 for 4 just 72 behind and realistically the only two results that look like drawing the punters in are a Aussie win and the draw...
K.R.O.

Broad's shit

To be fair, Johnson, Siddle and Half-a-shit-house looked shit on Thursday morning didn't they? The pitch is about as lively as a vegetarian quiche..

We've been going just less than half an hour and already the Sky team have been scathing in their criticism of Strauss (not as I think much of him as a captain myself) and his captaincy they thought he should have started with Flintoff and they questioned why a spinner has not been brought on given the conditions ,coupled with a couple sloppy pieces of fielding and erratic bowling we could be in a tough day in the field.....unless the rain comes and saves us.!!
K.R.O.

England have been absolutely dire this morning, and appear to be trying to waste time and hoping it will soon start raining!

The bowling has been turgid to say the least, fielding appalling and looking as though Cook, Pietersen, Collingwood, etc would rather be somewhere else.

As for the captaincy, well I did warn you! Strauss has no feel for the game and seems to be captaining to a pre-set formula. Furthermore, he fails abysmally to inspire his team to greater efforts.

Back to the drawing board!

God this is bloody depressing watching this for an England fan at any rate.....will the rain save us...debatable if our batting will ..
K.R.O.

Piterson gone for 8

35-3

46-4!! What utter garbage.

Grim viewing this !, KP is a bit of an enigma a brilliant player at his best but at times he lacks discipline and judgment his dismissal in the first innings was poor but this one..!!..he had just left a ball a minute or two previously that was just a bit too high to be lbw then he leaves another one and his bowled..!!..is it arrogance ?,over confidence ?,or what ?,there will probably be several changes for the second test Broad will surely be left out will Bell replace Bopra ?,Cook will probably be given another chance but it may be they won't go with Swan and Panesar for the second test, but one issue is certain England will have to be far more professional than they have in this test or they could be in for a long hard difficult remaining four tests..!.
K.R.O.

Harmison to come back in for next test?

Probably got out of jail with this result at the end but lets hope we are far more professional in our approach throughout the game at Lords this week ..!!
K.R.O.

there's no "probably" about it, Sid- we were outplayed in virtually every session but hats off to that gritty character Paul Collingwood who is probably the least talented of our batsman but he was superb. And can anyone remember just how poor Jimmy Anderson was with the bat about two years ago. His efforts put some of our front liners to shame.

You must be forgetting that Jimmy boy holds the worldrecord for not having been dismissed for a duck in test cricket for 50 innngs now!

The team for Thursday will be announced in the morning,could be a couple of changes....maybe Bell and Harmison.??
K.R.O.

Highly unlikely Bell will get a recall, but Harmy does have a chance and that is the only change I would anticipate. Strauss and Flower will want to show some loyalty to the encumbants and I suspect they will be loathe to make sweeping changes to a proven line up.

Can never understand why people would have Harmy back in a flash? He averages a wicket every 30+ runs which is pretty average at this level. He's tall and fast and can hit the deck hard, but far too inconsistent.

More so, I can't understand why so many people are anti Bell, who averages at over 40 with the bat at test level. Perhaps too much following the herd and not watching enough cricket?

But I'd pick Onions over the two, he's in stunning first class form and has already taken a leading wicket takers 40 wickets at 13 runs apiece.

Let's just say I have had a shed load of fun this morning! The locals are not happy! I keep telling the lads in the office that everything will have wait until Bilal Shafayat runs out and brings me a new keyboard.

They make you laugh these whingeing Aussies, eh Ray? They have short memories too: they accuse us of gloating over a mere draw but they have conveniently forgotten how they celebrated their draw at Old Trafford in 2005. All the same England will need to improve if they want to stay in this series- with the possible exception of Bopara every single batsman contributed big time to their own dismissals and the bowling was woeful.

As for your query about Bell, DK, I quite agree that he is the most talented English batsman but he too seems to have suicidal tendencies and has gifted his wicket on far too many occasions. This Aussie attack is for the most part ordinary and England must not be so profligate in the coming encounters.

Or worse, Onions.

I don't think the selectors will tinker with anything other than replacing Monty with a pace bowler, even though Ravi Bopara will undoubtedly fail again now he's not facing the friendly fire of the West Indies.

The commentators kept telling me what an exciting cricket match it was. I'd like to see what the suicide rate was like if the nation was to sit down in front of a boring one.

Mick, If I'd have been sitting on the edge of my seat at the time I would surely have worn it out, it was that exciting. As it was I was lying on the settee with a cold can of Stella so I felt fairly relaxed..

Trust me, I spent all day pointing out the hypocrisy! This was better than winning because it has really stuck in their craw.

Good on ya Ray..
K.R.O.

Day 1 at Lourdes,lets face it we need a miracle.England reach 50-0 which is a record for any english opening batsmen

Its looks a confident start we don't appear to have had any problems yet..? 65 for 0 off 17 overs...can we keep the momentum going throughout the whole innings..?
K.R.O.

Past the 100 without loss.

What a session! Thanks to sky, I watched it from the comfort of my desk at work.

Almost boringly easy to pile the runs on.


<<< kiss of death

They seem to be bowling like we was at Cardiff innit, so i reckon we're going to declare on 1000-1

2.30pm and the score is 172 for 0

Johnson isnt very good is he

He should try bowling with a straight arm