watched the middle session of australia v india, tendulkar, particularly, batted quite beautifully. i know that brendan belittles my view that the atack is on the wane. BUT there's no way that symonds would have got 10 overs on the first day of a perth test match if mcgrath and warne were still around. he'd have been lucky to get 2.

our attack is totally different, losing mcgrath and warne is obviously a huge loss , but i dont think our attack is on the wane.
moster you are right , symonds wouldnt have had 10 overs on day 1 in perth with warne and mcgrath.
But as we selected 4 quick bowlers , and no specialist spinner , symonds was always going to get a bowl .
Tendulkar was again special. he is brilliant to watch. a good total of 330, i thought the australians bowled well except for Tait.
our ist innings of 200. was poor. we batted terribly, although the Indians bowled exceptionally well, and were able to swing the ball. The best performance by Indian fast bowlers i have ever seen. all four bowled well. and again , the aussies were found wanting against quality swing bowling.
no, surprise our last few defeats have been against good swing bowling , england 2005.
again india's 2nd inng 294. Lee and Stuart Clark bowled very well, johnson was expensive and tait was poor.
Laxman was the backbone with 79.
on a good batting wicket we have bowled out the Indians ( who have a great batting line -up)for 330 and 294.. I will re-iterate again Moster , i dont think there is an issue with our attack. the make -up of it has definitely changed but they are still doing a good job.
the one dissapointing aspect was the last 4 put on 140( laxman carried them ), so instead of chasing a gettable 300, we are now chasing 415.

India won !!! .... well done

his first spell was seam up, the first over of spin was Clarke who sent down the last over before tea. those 10 overs before tea on the first day were effectively where you lost the match. india scored about 55 whilst being put under no pressure whatsoever whilst symonds was working in tandem with tait.

Now, for so many years Australia have been able to rely on a 4 man attack, because they know that McGrath and Warne would do the business. Or at least soften up the batsmen for Lee and one other to get easy pickings. Now, Lee is class, Clark looks good, but is 33. Johnson and Tait don't look like they will be able to do the business on a regular basis, Bracken likewise. That means that either Symonds and Clarke have got to improve, because they aren't good enough to share the fifth man duties, or Australia have to do what every other country does and pick 5 bowlers, thus shortening their batting line-up.

That is why I think their attack is on the wane. They can no longer rely on a 4 man attack to do the business often enough, this will become even more apparent when they travel.

India batted just as terribly as you, that might sound silly since they trounced you, but most Australians were out to good bowling, India threw more wickets away. Symonds getting Dravid in the 1st dig is the one that really stands out.

i'm not so sure it was a good batting wicket, i watched a fair bit of this match and batsmen could never really feel settled, which is exactly how it should be in a test match.

thank christ for mark nicholas in the commentary box, a lone voice of reason amongst some of the most one eyed opinions you'll ever have the misfortune to hear, that's you Hayden.

fair play to india . what a well deserved victory. they bowled quite well in both innings.
a poor ist innings batting display probably cost the aussies any chance of victory but full credit to india on the way they played and the spirit in which they played. especially after all that ill feeling by both sides after the 2nd test.
Tait , was a major dissapointment, especially as he was bowling well in the pura cup competition,
Johnson , the jury is still out on him , he is young and quick, has been expensive this series but exposure against a good batting line up will hopefully educate him a bit.
Bracken is one , who i thought has always been a bit hard done by in the test arena. performs well in pura cup and probably struggled against india in 2003-04. but definitely should have toured england in 2005.
i have to agree with you moster , mark nicholas is the pick of the commentators. by far the best. obviously you are getting the aussies broadcast. i think ian healy is also quite good but the rest you wouldnt feed.
ian chappell , tony greig and mark taylor just rabbit on and talk crap

Kumble got 87 against the best that oz can produce. Harbhajan got his second 50 against australia.

But don't worry, the australian attack is NOT, i repeat, NOT on the wane.

Take out Lee and Johnson, and the rest managed 3-270 in 79 overs. And Johnson is too erratic, he and Clark never seem to do the business at the same time, it's either one or the other. It's like England pre-2002/3.

Gilchrist retires

the adelaide track is always a favourite for batsmen. hence both sides posting 520 plus scores.
kumble and singh had very good partnership , aided by the best batting strip of the summer
its also fair to say that both bowling attacks took a few hits. After a great effort in perth , the indian bowlers were fairly ordinary i thought. but any performance by the austalian bowlers where we cant bowl anyone out under 300 means that we have an attck on the wane according to moster.
one of our biggest problems in dismissing the indians this summer , hasnt been so much our bowling rather than our fielding . in 4 test this summer we have dropped 18 catches. thats extraordinary from an australian team.




but you obviously like the sound of your voice moster , as you keep banging on about the same thing. the demise of the austalian bowling attack.
its obvious , you dont like australians or our cricket team.
its obvious this hatred comes from england being flogged by the aussie since 1989.
yes , i agree that the australian bowling attack has suffered .anyone can see that . takeout warne and mcgrath , 2 of the biggest wicket takers in history and any side with suffer.
but i dont think its all doom and gloom as you suggest ....but no doubt you will continue to bang on and on about this.

i think the australian cricket team has had a fantastic run and great success for nearly 20years now. however, where as once we were the no.1 team in test cricket , i can see this changing. The indians have showed us in this series ,that they have up and coming bowlers and a good batting line-up. I would expect them to beat australia in late 2008 when we tour india.
we have many selections issues facing us , brad haddin will replace gilchrist. a keeper/batsman , beTter keeper than gilchrist and a recognised batsman , usually bats at #6 for NSW.
Also we need to find a reliable spin bowler, most current pura cup spinners are young and lack experience.
i think we have quite a few decent quicks, but experience is also a key there

News for the Moster ... Just in case you haven't seen the local Glouc rag. According to one of the cricket forums I'm on Boo Boo is leaving the Shire

ah, shit.

didn't realise there were any decent cricket forums, can you pm me some links.

Spent 2 hours last night watching New Zeeland's middle/lower order spank England's finest round the park. When will the idiots in charge finally realise the Hoggy & Hamri need overs in the middle to get match fit. Bowling the the nets isn't the same as actually playing the game.

England are a bit directionless at the moment. The batsmen seem inhibited and frightened. Panesar has lost confidence and is bowling flat and defensive stuff that you'd expect from a Giles type.

Harmison is fucked, probably for good now, in the past 3 years he's only really prospered against Pakistan in general and at Manchester in particular. Even then, his wickets have been predominantly lower order batsman.

No matter what combination of Frontbottom, Hoggard or Anderson you put with him, if you don't make inroads with the new ball you're fucked with their styles of bowling.

Even Vaughan's captaincy is looking a bit tired now. I still think he's the best, no, only option for the role. However, his batting prowess is on the wane as is Strauss' who appears to have been selected because he can field in the slips.

When you look back at the pinnacle of 2005, it's obvious that there are 4 gaping holes, tresco, freddie, and the 2 jones'.

At the moment we just look like atherton's side of the mid-90's.

Keep slagging off Ryan (SIDEbottom) Most ... although I when I went to bed at tea last night (2:10 UK time) I thought England were in big trouble having only taken 1 NZ wicket

england batted terribly slow in the 1st innings 348 off 173 overs. it was very painful to watch.
The only highlight of the test was some of the excellent catches taken by the english fielders.
some absolute classics.
The aussies use to excell in the field , quite often the difference between a win or a loss , we put down over 20 catches this summer in tests.

Basically Englandare in complete mess ... one bowler (Sidebottom) & one batsman (Bell) don't make a team .... 110 all out on that wicket against that attack is just abismall.

Hopefully Hoggard will improve as he's a bowler who needs to bowl
to get his rhythm going (why didn't they send him to India beforehand). The only problem is that we might be 2-0 down before Hoggy gets 'up to speed'.

What 'Aggers' thinks...

Bad news for Hants fans ... Dimitri Mascarenhas has become the first England player to be signed by the Indian Premier League. He'll miss the start of the English season .... Yorks play Hants early in the season so i'm not that sad


Bad news for Yorkshire .... Jaipur were the biggest spenders at the IPL's second auction, signing South Africa fast bowler Morne Morkel (£30,000) ... Oh POO ... out pace bowling is up the creek without a paddle

http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ipl/conten...ory/341978.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7289305.stm

I'm pretty sure Darren Maddy's playing out there as well tho admittedly he's no England player.

fucking hell, the test is about to start but we've had to disconnect the tv so that the workmen can do our french doors tomorrow, and we don't have sky upstairs. it's going to be torture following on the web/radio.

I should really stop watching this test. After a good morning session the wickets started falling ... to tight but not exactly penatrating bowling. I finally decided to go to bed around 2am ... & was clearing up/turning things off when Pieterson got out !! I was very (pleasantly) surprised to see the final score this morning.

I said Tim Ambrose was a class act didn't I?

where do the great minds of the bbf stand on ian bell?

i've never been a great fan, he scores too slowly, and (without knowing the stats) appears to struggle against the stronger attacks.

on a different note, strauss hasn't been able to rid himself of the flaws in his technique, and with the increase in technology, pieterson has been found out too. whereas tresco used to fly in the face of his technical limitations by swinging a big fucking heavy bat in the general direction of the wide ball. kp has retreated into his shell, and his crease, by his tendancy to shuffle across the stumps. if he can't work on this he will go backwards as a batsman, his lack of confidence in his team mates is also affecting his game.

won't get carried away about ambrose, after all a year ago we were all hailing prior as the bright new wicketkeeper.

Not really sure about Ding Dong but I think comparitively speaking he's doing a a pretty good job, not that that's saying necessarily much at the moment. We always used to remark at Warwick that he was one of those batsman that either scored very highly or barely reached twenty. He's always been a slow scorer and it surprised me how he won a place in the one day side and managed to stay there, again tho, competition is hardly fierce.

I am biased tho, now over to the great minds.

ambrose is australian, from newcastle i think , i remember he was nsw u/17 keeper at one stage.
good luck to him , i hope he is better than the other aussie keeper , jones.

England have finally won a test ..... repeat .... England have finally won a test.

Yep he was most definitely born in Australia. I think Geraint Jones was born in Papua New Guinea.

Yes Ambrose is better than him but England seldom stick with one wicketkeeper any longer than they have to. I still don't think Chris Read was given a fair knock either (as well as Prior).

Oh and if Ambrose does retain the gloves for England, where that leaves Warwickshire this season is anybody's guess. A young w/k with little or no experience and Tony Frost who retired last season to become a groundsman and has since come out of retirement to help us out.
Welcome to the death of Warwickshire CCC, once a cricketing force.

Similar worries for Notts, no Swann, Broad, or Sideshow Bob

So you lose out on 3 bowlers signed from elsewhere (Northants, Leicester & Yorks)... we're hoping Hoggard isn't picked for England so Yorks can win some games .... Hoggy came through the Yorkshire ranks

RTS , I think you are right about Jones, being born in PNG. i think he was raised in brisbane.
I do remember he was QLD 2nd XI keeper.

PURA CUP FINAL - NSW 281 VIC 216 - IST INNGS , 2nd INNGS - NSW 563-8d Vic 2-98 stumps day 4.
after bowling NSW out for 286 (simon katich 86, phil jaques 53.) the vics were 3-150 before falling apart . brett lee 4-72. all out 216
NSW 2nd inngs 8-563 s.katich 92, m.clarke 64 , brett lee 97 and a 19yo in his first season phil hughes 116.
one more day to go , but NSW have the pura cup all but won.
victoria needed an outright victory to win the cup.

I see the ICB have re-instated Daryl Hair as an Inernational umpire ... they should put him in charge of Pakistan vs Sri Lanka ... although that could cause the break up of world cricket.

Today was a first ... Yorks played a 50 over game against Lancs in Abu Daubi ... the first ever roses game outside England .. and Yorkshire won !! ... although if you listened to BBC Radia 5 Premiership you'd have thought that the only circketer out there was Andrew Flintoft ... they interviewed Freddie ... & didn't give the bl**dy score

England top order performing well again I see........

I think you mean normal service has been restored Aqua.

btw We were told that England won the 2005 Ashes due to central contracts ... so why are we now so cr*p ... could it be that it was just the blip some of us thought it was ... aided by Australia not playing their strongest team?

The irony being that some of the players in the current team don't even have a central contract.

Cracking game from Sideshow Bob !!






Lets just hope that the batsmen don't bollocks it up

Good boys !

Now lets hope the bowlers can do the business tonight

the important thing was that they did it last night, and monty came up trumps. nz won't hang on like they did when morrison batted for about 5 months in a last wicket stand 10 or so years ago.

it was good to watch, even if it meant that i spent all day yawning at my desk.

Have to say I enjoyed my bank holiday weekend with ma and pa away, cabbaged on the sofa watching England thrash the Kiwis with just Kronenburg for company. Heaven.

Well England did win ... even if the young lad (Southee) hit all our bowlers for 6 with some mighty hitting. Disapointed Anderson didn't do better .... well I'd rather watch Hoggard playing for Yorkshire than have him bowling for England (parochial to the end). Good to see Monty come good. I've always thought Panesar had the mental toughness to do well at test level ... even if his wicket celebrations look like a dear on drugs

Loving it.

A camp deer at that.

Exactly

Nice to see the idiotic idea first touted in the Premiership has been taken up by the ECB.
Wankers.

For once I can shut up as you've no idea what you're talking about SL.

English counties have been going to Abu Daubi for warm weather pre-season training for a number of years. Others go to South Africa & southern Europe. UAE actually encourages the counties as it shows off their excelent facilities. Various Indian sub continent countries have also used the pitches for games. There are 4 counties (Yorks, Lancs, Sumerset & Sussex) playing a round robin 50 over competition against each other and also the local UAE team (4 gaems each). It's considered to be better to play 'proper matches' rather than just training.

As I said.
Wankers.

Please explain how they're supposed to play pre season games of cricket in cold wet England ... or is it that you just enjoy calling everyone wankers even when they are obviously being sensible

I don't see how going to play cricket in a fucking desert is sensible. Its for the money, plain and simple.

The difference being that even if it is for the money it's not so bad as football. The Premier League already generates a ridiculous amount of money without stepping foot outside England, cricket however does not have the financial backbone that football has.

I think the Bears go to Bloemfontein every winter, home (if I'm not very much mistaken) of Alan Donald.

Sorry SL but you are just showing how little you know. As I've already said counties (& its nothing to do with the ECB) don't go to Abu Daubi, South Africa or Spain/Portugal for money but the play in warm conditions which are rather short in England during March. Most counties actually have to get sponsorship to go. I clearly remember Yorks having to have a camp in the Dales one year because of lack of funds. It's the cricket equivalent of a band hiring a hall to practice before a tour (or would you expect them to go ut with practicing). The counties play each other once they get there as this is more competative than the first team playing the 2nd team ... Abu Daubi also like it as they are trying to get club teams to go out to use the facilities. The 'pre' season' will continue in England with more friendlies in early April.

btw Do you want to start laying into all our athletes who also go abroad for warm weather training. Or is it only teams you're against.

An interesting day. Warne has left Hampshire to play in the IPL & poker. Naved Rana has been given clearence to play for Yorks by the PCB & ECB ... what's the betting the UK government wont give him a wok permit ... even though he's play county cricket for Sussex & club cricket in the Bradford league

Om a worrying front the 2008 England tour to India will only have 2 tests ... England wanted 3 but that would have caused a cut to the 7 one day internationals ... & no one goes to test matches in India., At this rate the only test matches will be in England & England touring Australia plus New Zeeland & West Indies because they want the English tourists (In NZ there were nearly as many England fans as locals .. some Windies tests are effectively England home games). South Africa will also probably continue to play tests