Just hit the continue button when another wicket fell. Hussain to Gilly for 8. 3 for 81. C'mon England! Get the head down or Ozz wont have his 5 day record!

I think I was one day ahead of myself... England will be all out today, and all the aforementioned stuff will happen tomorrow...

Almost 2pm Perth time; England are 4/107.

Make that 8/159 at nearly 4pm Perth time.

185 all out - How not to play fast bowling (SLOG), Australia within 50 of a first innings lead with 8 wickets in hand, England bowler side-lined with ankle injury. Right scenario for day two, Trescothick and Vaugn open the attack with long hops and full tosses, Oz batsmen don't know how to play English Village cricket and dolly catches left right and centre. Unfortunately the England fielders drop everything - Oz declare at 400+ (I do hope I'm wrong and get up to see the last Oz batsmen trying to get past 200) Yes I can actually watch the last couple of hours of play this time!
GET YOUR TOOTH INTO THAT CONOR! (lol- my version)

Just a question - I've been out in the field all day, so I didn't get to see and hear the ins and outs, but why did Richard Dawson only get 5 overs? Even Butcher got 10!

That's a very good question - why play someone as a bowler and not use them. Oh well all the pundits were right - Oz 450+
and looking good to finish it and win by an innings again. Hope springs eternal, two young bloods at the wicket with a very big chance of making a name for themselves.

Two youngbloods? That'd be Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain?

Is it time to suggest a revival of the 'Australia V Rest of the World' format again?

OK - another humiliating defeat - WELL PLAYED AUSTRALIA, I can't take anything away from the performance of the Aussie team so far, they have been far and away a better side than the English Team. All the pundits will be pointing to the list of injured players, all I can say is they shouldn't have been out there at all. Have we now seen Alec Stewarts last England Innings?

Ozz - Not yet ! As Steve Waugh said, the Aussies still have to conquer the "Final Frontier" and he wants to lead the test team till that - what a way to Ensure that he remains Captain all his life!
With respect to England, they are playing well! (I hope My prediction of 5-0 comes TRUE) - surprising that in the history of Ashes, a whitewash was achieved by the Aussies only once. (Second is due in a 1 month and 1 week)

I hope Ace-Sodium that you are wrong -All the curent England players are ruled out of the next test (by a mysterous bug) and the Academy players are drafted in to take their place. They will get hammered of course but it will go to four innings! It's time for the England selectors to dump the "have been goods" and try some "posssibly could be good" - Australia took the chance a few years ago and look at the team it now has. I think with the Ashes gone - now is the time to blood the England team for the next Ashes - there is a lot of raw talent in the UK - lets give them a chance!

I believe the English Team may not be able to beat the Aussies but the Yorkshire team definitely CAN.

Just a simple query to the Aussies, what is the total annihilation of poor innocents (who only wanted a little bit of ashes!) called in Aussieland?

In reply to:

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what is the total annihilation of poor innocents called?

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Extremely satisfying.. or I suppose you could call it 'odds-on'.

Surely this just ain't 'Cricket'?

Does this man have no respect for the 'gentleman's' game?

Tch tch!

wez (why oh why doesn't someone invent an emoticon for 'tongue in cheek'? )

Make sure you read Davo's view , for an .....ahem....... 'unbiased' view first though.

They said it was too old and fragile to travel- I was not sure if they were talking about the Ashes, or the current English team ...

ozz - you're dead right - an inept performance against a Prime Ministers 11 only went to show that if you give the youngsters a chance they'll give it their best shot(academy lads being the bright spot of a dismal performance).
But then again everyone in the UK knows that you can't beat a Prime Ministers Spin Team! (Sports JOKE - DO NOT want to go to Controversial )

Well two one dayers out of the way (Not real cricket but there you go!)
I'm glad to see the selectors have agreed with me for once and given the youngsters a go (dumped the has beens and never was) I said they'd get beaten, and they were but there was certainly some talent on show (giving it their best effort which is more than can be said for some of the test performances) Let's see more of these youngsters given a chance (after all they are the future of cricket (and I'm not just talking about England!)

Now I don't want to get into the contoversial - but was that really a game of cricket against Sri Lanka - playing for one point and losing isn't my way of playing!

well since it is safe to assume that Australia will be in the finals; these two teams will have to do all these tactics to get into the finals.
This bonus point rule was bought with an intention to make the game exciting but then again the best intentions need not work!

Now, we all know that Test cricket and one-day cricket are totally different (just ask the selectors), but, what chance do you think there is of getting guys like Paul Collingwood, Nick Knight, Ian Blackwell etc. into the Boxing Day Test?
I know Knight has been tried (he's an opener, and last season he batted at 6 in the Teats!), but Collingwood has definitely paid his dues in ODI's, Blackwell might just give them that batting depth they need, batting 7 and bowling when needed.
Let's face it. It's worth a shot!

I said it earlier in the thread Dalgleish - lets give the youngsters a chance, blood them now. the old school have given good service but it's time for a change. If they do get beaten at least they'll TRY! Sri Lanka seem to be in the one day series for a pay day(makes you wonder what bets they are playing to win!!) it seems they will be happy to get the money and leave.
Can we please have just one game which is good cricket! I don't care which team wins if it's in the balance to the last couple of overs. (Adding to that I'll even watch/listen to Australia batting out for a boring last day draw!!!!!!)

How about that, then? A test match that went into the fifth day? And England were even playing good cricket! Better batting, better bowling (for the second innings anyway) and better in the field. Hopefully a sign a things to come. The people who had the worst match were the umpires with a fair few decisions having a bit to be desired.

Much tighter match this one - but in keeping with my predictions, I am more than happy(???) that it still sticks
4-0 one to go

Sydney jan 2. First day 5th test. After losing Vaughn I thought here we go, another routing... but England have made some serious runs! Well done Buther and Hussain.. the 2 most 'unlikely' to get runs form their test performances to date! I hope England can go on from here and bowl well. First time the Aussies have been under pressure. Good luck englishman.. the scene is set for a ripper.

This is cruel Bertho - I cancelled my cable subscription and it ended on new years eve - Sky won't be installed till 6th jan so I'm going to miss the England magnificent DRAWN 5th test!