England set off to Australia to retain Ashes tonight.

That's better, chaps! And well done, Monty!

James

So now you boys know who Monty is!

The Aussies skittled for under 250 in the first decent bowling performance from England in this Ashes series. And poor Ponting went LBW only 98 runs short of his century!



Shame about the two early wickets, though.

119-1, oh pooh!

What a shame, you were doing so well

Strange wicket, this one. It's getting easier as the game goes on. Australia to declare with a 550 run lead and two days to bowl England out.

Steve

3-0 coming up, and a whitewash on the cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Yo-yo Master:
What a shame, you were doing so well

Strange wicket, this one. It's getting easier as the game goes on. Australia to declare with a 550 run lead and two days to bowl England out.

Steve

And Monty to hit a double century, finishing with a six back over Glenn McGraths head to finish on 551-9!

quote:

Originally posted by BigH47:

Exactly how big is the English squad??

quote:

Originally posted by bazz:
3-0 coming up, and a whitewash on the cards.

Am I bovvered, though? Does my face look bovvered?

It's only 12.

quote:

Originally posted by Yo-yo Master:
Australia to declare with a 550 run lead and two days to bowl England out.

Well Mark, I got it right.

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
And Monty to hit a double century, finishing with a six back over Glenn McGraths head to finish on 551-9!

Good luck with your prediction

Steve

England 0-1.

Steve,

Looks like we're on course.

Slight adjustment of my prediction; England to reach 557-9.

Mark

I don't wish to look like the unreasonable pessimist, but I'm just beginning to wonder whether mark got the title of the thread quite right?

By 'ai', did you in fact mean 'ur'?

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:
Oops, I just realised that I got the thread title wrong. What I meant to say was "England set off to Australia to return Ashes tonight"

Figuratively speaking of course, because we all know that no matter how many times they beat us, we actually still get to keep the little urn for ourselves.

I'm sure there's a joke for Eric Morecambe in there somewhere.

Looks like I'm buying you that pint Jon, the fat lady's out of the dressing room and waiting in the wings to come on!

Mark

I think I beat you to that one James!

Sorry! (Note to self - pay more attention!)

3-0

I don't even like cricket. Who's playing again?

Time to prepare for winning the World Cup and regaining the Ashes in 2009. Losing a series 3-2 (my revised expectation) in Australia is not such a disaster - if we'd have kept our nerve in the 2nd test then it would have been 2-2.

Always look on the bright side ...

Well played Australia, roll on 2009.

Scary to think that England can lose from such good positions in two of the three matches, but hey.

Worries about the strength in depth of the squad should not cloud the fact that Fletcher and co have made us competitive again. My memories of last year won't subside as quickly as some in the press.

I don't think the preparation was good but that wasn't ever going to be ideal with the schedule coming on so quickly. Quite why they bottled with selecting Monty will remain a mystery, but I guess they won't repeat that, he's a class spinner.

Great shame about Vaughan and Simon Jones though, they make a difference to our side and unlike Australia, we don't have the quality to replace them just like that.

I also wouldn't burdon Flintoff with captaincy - did we learn nothing from making Botham skipper? All rounder is enough to concentrate on. The skipper should be a top order batsman.

Looking forward to Melbourne.

Steve.

Steve.

Whole load of sense in that post. I totally agree we were under-prepared (and had players returning from injury with no recent form) but as you say with the congested schedule it is hard to see how they could really have had a much more intensive build up. Would have helped if we'd failed to qualify for the Champions Trophy perhaps.

I don't actually think the margin between these two sides is that huge, and would have been seen to be a lot tighter if we'd applied early pressure in the series.

Just a word for Ashley Giles, as ever in these circumstances sport becomes irrelevant.

Lat night I booked my tickets for England v W Indies next summer, and I'm still looking forward to the last two Tests. The progress of English cricket has stalled slightly, but not back to square one.

Bruce

Still sulking Mark?

My two cents worth (tuppence worth?):

I think that the English Cricket Team as it stands at the moment is a very good one. It's their misfortune to be facing what must be considered a great test side in the Australians - or very nearly a great side. Their victory in the second test is evidence that they are a cut above.

quote:

Originally posted by Yo-yo Master:
Still sulking Mark?

Nope.

Steve,

My apologies to you and the other Aussies on the forum for my rudeness in my lack of posting since the last test.

Congratulations to Australia in retaining the Ashes. It has been a well deserved victory and the team has consistently been either ruthlessly on top, or fighting back with the utter belief that they would not lose whenever England gained the upper hand.

It is my belief that this Australian team is one of the greatest test sides of all time with (at least) 2 of the greatest individual players of all time.

That said, as ROTF says we are going to win the next 2 tests and dull the shine on your little replica trophy for you!

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Chillkram:

It is my belief that this Australian team is one of the greatest test sides of all time with (at least) 2 of the greatest individual players of all time.

The wickets haven't been very challenging - apart from the cracked one in the first test. So not sure about the "..of all time" part.