The Ashes

[rohan22no]

Will Finn retain his spot for 2nd test? Apart from Anderson, the Eng bowlers were pretty bad for the vast majority of the test, apart from maybe 1-2 decent spells.

If we can figure out how to neutralize Anderson, I think they'll struggle to bowl us out. Eng are very very reliant on one bowler.

Compare that to us, we've got 3 bowlers that are capable of ripping through a lineup. Sure, Agar's spin isnt the most threatening, but hes more than making up for it with his fielding, batting, and energy.

Unlike the poms who are 8 out-all out, we really do bat right down to no11. Our current no10 (Starc) averages 23 in FC cricket and 28 in tests. Our current no11 (Pattinson), averages 20 in FC cricket and 28 in tests, and opened the batting at club cricket level!

Get ready for some looong days in the field England! Anderson cant bowl a good spell every time!

Views of a one eyed, optimistic Aussie supporter*

[benrama]

Can't say I agree. Broad looked dangerous and wasn't fully fit, Swann is still top class. I think bowling on both sides is of equal high quality.

I think England have batting problems actually, Root looked all out of sorts, Pieterson wasn't patient enough, Bairstow looks ordinary, and their bowlers by and large can't bat (Broad was a miracle and he gave several chances - that won't happen again).

Problem is that Australia is equally flakey. Cowan has to go, you probably have to bring in Khawaja, but as I've said I would choose Faulkner as an all rounder, Australia could have batting averages from 25-30 all the way to number 11.

[sando]

By the way lads Sportsbet refunding all bets on the Aussies under the sparingly used "justice rule" as a gesture of goodwill to the punters. Big call on that ,would be in the 100s of thousands refunded I would have thought.
Doesn't do any farkinnn good to me I backed the Aussies on CB.
Rang them up to see if they would follow their main opposition with bet refunds. No chance ....Pricks...

Hopefully few lads on here get refunded

Luxbet might follow suit for those that backed the Aussies on Luxbet. After the SBW v Frans Botha fight/farce, Sportsbet refunded all bets on Botha, so I rang Luxbet and asked politely for a refund on my Botha wager (mentioning what Sportsbet did) and they did indeed refund me.

[Lookingtostart]

He's going Zimbabwe ... So we have bad performing batsmen ... they are all openers playing all the way throughout the batting order ... If only we had a good middle order batsmen from somewhere ... that would be sooo gooood.

Wait a sec we had HUSSEY ... and we pissed him off .. so he left.

Hussey plays, we would have won this test by 100+ runs ... idiots !!

So frustrated right now ... Lehman get on the phone and get him back ...

Hussey come back and win this damn thing and wipe that smile off those arrogant poms faces !! Do it for Australia mate !!

One of many reasons I hate the australian team, I'm going for england in this one too. I don't care what country they represent, if a team's full of jerks then I can't stand them.

[rohan22no]

One of many reasons I hate the australian team, I'm going for england in this one too. I don't care what country they represent, if a team's full of jerks then I can't stand them.

Yeah I hate those jerks Siddle, Rogers and Agar!! I wish we had more great guys in our team like Broad!

GO ENGLAND!!!

[sando]

[Tim Gerry Mander]

The problem is that no one is putting the pressure on the incumbents from Shield cricket.

Go back some years, how many decent players couldn't get a start in the test team?

It took ages for blokes like Langer, Hayden and Martyn to get a crack - they'd be playing Sheffield Shield for a minimum of 5 years, before getting a gig and only if they'd be scoring runs at an average of 80.

Gilchrist had to leave NSW and go to WA to get a start because of the depth they had here.

We were lucky to have had 5 or 6 once-in-a-lifetime players playing at the same time in the same team.
Warne, McGrath, Gilchrist, Waugh brothers - all gun players.

Who is putting their hand up now?
Khawaja? what's his first class average?
Tim Paine? what happened to him?
Warner? Phucking loose cannon...

I reckon Boof should pad up himself and play

[Crowing Capers]

Boof to replace Cowan. good call TGM.... I cant wait for the Adelaide oval test match, and to see that shit bloke Stuart Broad go down to fine leg in front of the scoreboard and let him know what we think of him. .... the great Micheal Holding wants him to be suspended, that opinion is good enough for me. cheating MOFOs

[rohan22no]

Very true thoughts TGM, although having a look thru our state lineups, there is still plenty of talent there. Maybe not talent in the calibre of the unbeatables era (1999-2007), but good players none the less and with plenty of potential. Most of them do seem to be bowlers which is possibly just a coincidence...

Players with International experience/possible selections in the medium term future
NSW
Pat Cummins
Trent Copeland
Moises Henriques
Steve Okeef
Nic Maddinson

QLD
Kawaja
Joe Burns
Harris

SA
Not much that I can see...apart from Lyon/Hughes who are already in the squad

Taz
Bailey
Jackson Bird
J faulkner
Hilfy
T Paine
Jordan Silk

Vic
Finch
Maxwell
Quiney
Wade
C. White

WA
Agar!
Marshes
Marc north

Hopefully some of the above players take a step back from the BBL bullshit and concentrate on their first class averages...

[benrama]

Great list rohan, my pick of those are:

Finch
Henriques
Marsh

And I'd add in there Doolan, Pomersbach, Christian and Rohrer too. Coulter-Nile and McDermott are two young guns I like in the bowling department.

These guys all have the talent, they just need to be given the support to execute on it. Was particularly disappointed in Finch when he got a shot at ODI level, maybe he's not mentally up for it - but you'll only find out by putting these guys on the firing line.

As another option for the next Ashes test, what about Wade being chosen purely as a batter?

[aussieH]

Guts a good play is to back pommies to win on. Sportsbet as a head to head. If the game is a draw they give money back. Must be first bet on h2h and up to $100. Then back Aussies on a different tote. Essentially a free bet on the Aussies at the price of 4.00


classic Sando play.

[rohan22no]

Nice one AussieH!

[Coopertrooper]

Guts a good play is to back pommies to win on. Sportsbet as a head to head. If the game is a draw they give money back. Must be first bet on h2h and up to $100. Then back Aussies on a different tote. Essentially a free bet on the Aussies at the price of 4.00


classic Sando play.

Have to be careful of the draw though, as it will cause a loss for the Aussie bet and only a push for the England bet. Need to have a little on the draw to also cover the Aussie bet, while at the same time not putting more than $85 (with England at $1.85 on sportsbet, although you can get more elsewhere) on the draw and Aussie bets combined (unless you want a small risk of a loss on England winning).

[rohan22no]

http://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/ed-cowan-mitchell-starc-axed-for-usman-khawaja-and-ryan-harris-for-second-ashes-test-at-lords/story-fndpt0dy-1226681302949

Lets do this!! Please stay fit Harris!!

[benrama]

Risky picking Harris and not exactly a pick for the future, but he's got a good record and is another who is OK with the bat for a taily.

Not a fan of Khawaja at all, him and Hughes batting together would be like watching paint dry. He'll probably - sans a century - just get dropped for Warner anyway and what sort of message will that send him? "You're the stop gap guy who gets called in for one game here and there when there's injuries or MIAs."

This test is the defining match of the 10 test series for me, it's now or never for Australia to put together a full game.

[rohan22no]

win a fukcing toss one time clarke

[rohan22no]

Wow, aus out to $5 before start of play, and first innings score line is set at 425...

[dRavidC]

there's a "to score a 50" market for england first innings at sportingbet. they have jonathan trott @ 2.50. I think he is definitely worth a look here. his 1st innings batting record at lord's is impecable, most recent outing scoring a double century.

if you're feeling game, trott to score a century is @ 4.75 but the 50 market is obviously a safer play

[rohan22no]

What? England didnt get an LBW overturned? Am i Dreaming?

[rohan22no]

had a $500 freebet i put on australia pre game (see sandos thread if interested) at $3.80, just put $550 live bet on england at 2.5 locking in a profit of $825...ship

[Cobra Kai]

Had my $500 free bet on Aussie as well. Holding out on the hedge though.

[rohan22no]

In other news...Warner out for 6 just now playing for Aus A

[rohan22no]

ffs siddle, seriously? why is it necessary to be .0001mm behind the popping crease every fking ball? another ashes defining moment right there, cannot just throw away wickets on a pitch like this

[sando]

Boof to replace Cowan. good call TGM.... I cant wait for the Adelaide oval test match, and to see that shit bloke Stuart Broad go down to fine leg in front of the scoreboard and let him know what we think of him. .... the great Micheal Holding wants him to be suspended, that opinion is good enough for me. cheating MOFOs

Yeah I'm in mate, what day are you thinking? Day 1? Where do you normally sit? (I like the hill myself).

[aussieH]

Pretty even after day one with probably England on front. Hopefully we can get the last couple of wickets cheaply.

[dRavidC]

there's a "to score a 50" market for england first innings at sportingbet. They have jonathan trott @ 2.50. I think he is definitely worth a look here. His 1st innings batting record at lord's is impecable, most recent outing scoring a double century.

If you're feeling game, trott to score a century is @ 4.75 but the 50 market is obviously a safer play

cash it

[benrama]

Yea pretty much even after day 1, maybe Aussies with their noses in front now that the Pommies have none of their batsmen left and the tail can't really score (though they can block and frustrate). Under 351.5 for the England total at $1.88 looks pretty tasty.

Looks like a good batting wicket, no excuses for not having a chance to get a first innings lead here.

I only watched the first session but geez Harris looked good - great selection there.

[rohan22no]

Agree Harris great selection, can only hope he plays the rest of the series.

@ Benrama - Re: tail not being able to score, that was very true in the last test, but the lower order batting has (unfortunately for us), been significantly strengthened with Bresnan coming in for Finn. Finn is a true bunny, but Bresnan has several first class centuries and a test score of 91, and put on 200 with swann in the tour game only a few weeks ago (Bres got 105, swann 91). So yeah....they are 7 out, but there is a pretty good reason why the line is set 60 runs away. I would be super happy if we got them out for anything under 350...

For our sake I hope you're right and we clean them up quickly!

And re: our batting - this could be the crucial innings of the series. We need to get on top and stay on top. Something like 1/250 tonight and then declare @ 5/600 tomorrow.

Somone else join me in my delusional optimism

[angelo63]

.

had a $500 freebet i put on australia pre game (see sandos thread if interested) at $3.80, just put $550 live bet on england at 2.5 locking in a profit of $825...ship

Rohan if you can get 200 on the draw at 4.00 you can have a very enjoyable test to watch and hope our batsmen can find some form. Need Watson or Clarke to dig in and grind out some runs. Good luck mate

[rohan22no]

Angelo...Thanks yes I will do that...lock in a nice freeroll...

[Crowing Capers]

Yeah I'm in mate, what day are you thinking? Day 1? Where do you normally sit? (I like the hill myself).

Hey Sando, most years we head in on the Sat and have a big one.... But this year just found out GA tickets sold out in 7 mins on Monday.
WTF did not even know they were going on sale mate.
Still a few options , might be able to scam our way through another source....

[benrama]

Rohan - good to know, I hadn't realised Bresnan could bat, I still think them getting under 60 runs with us just having the new ball seems like a good bet - but I'll probably stay away, because most "good bets" I don't research properly don't go too well.

And Adelaide test goers, don't know if its the same as in Sydney but I've got tickets on Gumtree to every sporting event I've wanted to go to in the last few years, just wait for night before or day of the game and usually get the below face value too.

[Rugby21]

Brennan, broad and swann can all bat, hopefully they will all score and put pressure on a poor Aussie batting line up

[s2230011]

The 8th wicket to fall is over / under 299.5 ... really 11 runs ? Its obviously not a calculated bet, but not much room for error to try and get a wicket with 10 runs up your sleeve.

[Coopertrooper]

The 8th wicket to fall is over / under 299.5 ... really 11 runs ? Its obviously not a calculated bet, but not much room for error to try and get a wicket with 10 runs up your sleeve.

They sent Anderson in up the order, that is why that number is only about 10 runs when the total for all 3 wickets is about 60. It is very small though.