Here we are FT cricket fans.
The last place was getting a little messy so here we have a brand new home.

Ashes start today. Can England repeat their last home series win or will Australia pull it all together? It will be interesting to see how the injury to Brett Lee affects the bowling attack. And will Pietersen and Flintoff be fully fit (or sober!) for the series?

There is also the Sri Lanka/Pakistan series on at the moment with Sri Lanka winning the first test and Pakistan imploding somewhat.

West Indies are also hitting the ball around with Bangladesh although contractual disputes could see that put on hold.

Bowl a ball, swing a bat,. tell us what you think of that!

Good you started this thread here .....I can't wait for the Ashes to start this time....just have a feeling it is going to be more closer than many people think.

Australia has the batting power but do they have the bowling to bowl England out twice in a match? I seriously don't think Siddle or Hilfenhaus will be as effective as they were in SA. Johnson could well be the trump for Australia....I would still bet on Australia retaining the Ashes....2-1.....let's see...

England win the toss and will bat first.

Anyone watching the SBS broadcast? Did they show the national anthems. Fox didn't which surprised me.
Nice looking oval - it looks the part even if it is small.

I'm backing a drawn Test, and a drawn series. I just don't really see anyone on either side that can turn the series in their favour.

Pietersen had a century for the taking and he threw it away! I don't think England is ready to believe they can beat Australia yet ....they should have ended the day losing not more than 4-5 wickets at best but they just let the Australians back into this one.....i still don't think the Australians have any match-winning bowlers in their ranks (other than Johnson )

Watched most of the first two sessions. Not great quality cricket. Strauss played the short ball really really badly. Bopara's 35 may be not be the worst 35 I've ever seen but nothing springs to mind. Aussie bowlers performed pretty well, touch expensive though. Siddle is going to be the new Merv Hughes, Hilfenhaus looks pretty handy, and Johnson can go a lot better. Aussies are going to need a substancial first innings lead I think, they've never been great against spin or swing.

I thought it was a big mistake to bring in a nightwatchman last night, but Anderson seems to have done alright this morning. And what a record, 49 international innings without a duck.

That's when you kinda miss Glenn McGrath. Remember, at the start of each series, he'd proclaim that he was targetting such-and-such, and generally he'd get the guy cheaply most innings. You could almost hear it now - "This series, I'm targetting Jimmy Anderson!"

Well I was concerned that Australia had some issues with swing and spin. Fortunately they haven't had to face any. England have bowled very timidly, apart from Flintoff's opening spell.
I wonder if this pitch would have been used for the first game if Warne was still playing.

Great start to the Ashes. 14 overs left, and only the kind of tension that cricket can create. Australia seem to have done enough to win, but England hanging on by the skin of the teeth. Absolutely brilliant stuff. My money's still on the Aussies winning I think. Last minute revenge for Edgbaston '05.

Ricky Ricky Ricky....

Well done England, gutsy finish.

Wow, what a finish, spellbinding stuff. And who would have thought Monty wouldn't lose his wicket?

Bugrit. I wrote England off when Flintoff got out and thought it was all over red rover. Woke up this morning to an exciting finish. Bugrit again.

Everyone thought that game was being played in Cardiff, but it was actually live from the beach in Dunkirk.... Australia batted and bowled better. England played for the rain after a day and a half. It almost makes you feel sorry for the great Aussie fans here in Cardiff. Almost. But not quite. Mwahahaha...

Well, we saw a thrilling finish on Sunday, and another demonstration of the increasing strength of the English tail. But the fact remains that England only narrowly missed being beaten by an innings, and they now go on to the second Test at a ground where they haven't beaten Australia for 75 years.

I'm still inclined to think the series will be Australia's.

Harmison in Flintoff off. I'm a Harmison fan and hope he does well.

Bangladesh beat the West Indies. The heyday of seventies/eighties Windies cricket is just a lingering memory, isn't it??

A bad first innings to Pakistan against Sri Lanka but they're redeeming themselves in the second.

I'd just like to mention how refreshing, for Australian viewers, the SBS panel is. I think McGill is doing a great job. Damien Martyn however probably has to leave those eyebrows alone for awhile I think. We get the commentary from England with Atherton and Nassar Hussein and co and they're a pleasant change from the same old garbage we get on channel nine every year too.

Actually, I watched MacGill, Martyn and Matthews for approximately 95 seconds before saying to myself, "You've got to be joking!" and flicked back to Mark Waugh, Brendan Julian, Greg Blewett and Sir Allan Border on Fox.

Re the West Indies, you have to remember that it is the West Indian second team that is playing (Some unkind folf may say that their FIRST team is a second team, but I digress...). The entire West Indian squad is on strike because the WICB hasn't offered them a contract for their last 4 series, and isn't likely to anytime soon. Their situation at the moment is worse than Australia's during World Series Cricket.
Having said that, congrats to Bangladesh on only their 2nd ever Test win. Shakib al Hasan is the world-class player that Bangladeshi cricket has been waiting for, so perhaps he may coax better results out of them.

In case you missed it, have a look at perhaps the unluckiest dismissal in the history of cricket...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/8145070.stm

(hope the link works)

That is an amazing 'catch'!

Joyce should look into a career in snooker - "Red ball into the side pocket..."

Well wasn't that a fine display of bowling. What is going on with Johnson? Hilfenhaus was good, but the rest was pretty ordinary. Strauss looks rock solid, did he give a chance, I can't recall one. England are in a good position but I doubt Australia could bowl that badly again and should hopefully snuff them out around 400.
Seems a strange choice no Harmison, I would have swapped him for Broad, who looks neither here nor there to me. Of course Harmison fell out of all my selection options years ago when he chose not to tour.