TOPIC:

Yes well played England.

Turning point appeared to be the dropped catch by Haddin.
Having said that I wouldn't crucify him he has been keeping quite well and he has admitted he is near the end anyway.
Watson must go, for me he has never been up to scratch as his batting record attests.
Mitch Marsh must be groomed.
Our bowlers were inconsistent and at times bowled absolute crap.
And we didn't bat to English conditions.
I'm not sure England will get it that easy in the second test.
We will wait and see.

considering Australia had bowled out Eng twice by the end of day 3 can't see how thay were crap?.....you are always gonna get inconsistency in terms of accuracy with the two Mitch's......play one if you want line and length......the batsmen were soft very soft......hopefully things can be turned around at Lords.

Freeze, it was our bowling in the first innings that lost us the match.
We had them 3/43 when Root's catch went down
Our bowling noticeably deteriorated after that, particularly Stark.
Johnson bowled ordinarily right throughout the first innings.
Bell was one who took advantage of it and he was quickly let of the leash, you can't afford a good batsman like him off the leash. We ran him back into form, a bit like a team playing Perth usually playing back into form.
The best that could happen is for Siddle to come in, our best bowler I reckon for English conditions.
Line and length not short shit.

DF....like I said, if both Mitch's play than the runs will flow, though Starc took a 5 for and was the only bowler in the test to do so.....that was Bell's first decent score in something like 10 innings, hardly playing him back into form, just a case of he was over due and he is a class act....

I'm not a Siddle fan, but yeah I agree he needs to come in, but whilst he won't give away too many runs he doesn't bowl many wicket taking balls like a Starc does....I would rather have Hazlewood and Siddle with Starc as the x factor for the Lords test....but when Johnson scores runs he usually takes wickets, so even if Starc is fit Johnno will still play.

Haddin selection is the one which concerns me the most..cant afford to drop catches,especially when his batting is now shite.....Neville is needed from a batting perspective especially with Watson at 6.....

anchorman wrote: Reading some posts here I get the feeling that some would like to see Johnson left out of the second test. Or maybe I am reading it wrong.
How quickly we forget if some want him left out. Remember he is the one who the Poms fear. Regardless of his figures in the first test. The Poms still fear him. He will bowl a lot worse at times and pick up five.
If the next track has a bit of spite in it then look out he will make up for his bad first test.

I would leave him in for this test at least. Lords normally gives some assistance to the bowlers and I would bat him ahead of Haddin if he retains his place.

Johnno of course will have to stay, Lords is the only bouncy/fast track on the Eng circuit apparently......sounds like Starc will be fit......though I guess Clarke will have to rotate him and Johnson in regular short spells and make Hazlewood, Lyon and Marsh/Watto do the donkey work.....reckon Hazlewood will be our dangerous bowler at Lords....McGrath enjoyed bowling there so hopefully Hazlewood can replicate his feats.....

Interesting to see so many comments about Aust shite bowling.....yet for a team that bowled so shite..... they did bowl out the opposition twice by day 3!.....hate to see what will happen when the Aus bowlers get it right then!....so a positive there for sure....just got to get the batsmen to pull their weight and heads in, there is no way Moeen Ali should be taking wickets.....England did bowl well collectively apparently, so be interested to see if they can back up that performance again at Lords....and that's probably gonna be Lehmanns philosophy for not making any changes TBH.....reckon he doubts that and Australia has the greater room for improvement then England.....

Freezin wrote: Johnno of course will have to stay, Lords is the only bouncy/fast track on the Eng circuit apparently......sounds like Starc will be fit......though I guess Clarke will have to rotate him and Johnson in regular short spells and make Hazlewood, Lyon and Marsh/Watto do the donkey work.....reckon Hazlewood will be our dangerous bowler at Lords....McGrath enjoyed bowling there so hopefully Hazlewood can replicate his feats.....

Interesting to see so many comments about Aust shite bowling.....yet for a team that bowled so shite..... they did bowl out the opposition twice by day 3!.....hate to see what will happen when the Aus bowlers get it right then!....so a positive there for sure....just got to get the batsmen to pull their weight and heads in, there is no way Moeen Ali should be taking wickets.....England did bowl well collectively apparently, so be interested to see if they can back up that performance again at Lords....and that's probably gonna be Lehmanns philosophy for not making any changes TBH.....reckon he doubts that and Australia has the greater room for improvement then England.....

Interesting Freeze, dont see how Haddin Watson Clarke Rogers ( thats neatly half the team) are going to improve anymore at this stage of their careers.

come on unk....the room for improvement I am referring to is match day not career wise...the likes of warner, Smith Clarke and Voges have got records based on not what they produced in that first test match...Rogers scored over a 100 in total so he over achieved TBH.....don't give a fark about Watto and Haddin....TBH I hope they stay so Lehmann can be replaced by Langer in the near future.....sadly Lehmann seems to be too lenient for them yet not for others.....Lehamann bangs on about rewarding performance yet Watto continues to under perform and Haddin hasn't done anything since the 5-0 whitewash.....

England batsmen all got runs bar Cook and Australia's bowlers bowled shite and were still able to take 20 wickets.....just gives me hope I guess.

Freezin wrote: Johnno of course will have to stay, Lords is the only bouncy/fast track on the Eng circuit apparently......sounds like Starc will be fit......though I guess Clarke will have to rotate him and Johnson in regular short spells and make Hazlewood, Lyon and Marsh/Watto do the donkey work.....reckon Hazlewood will be our dangerous bowler at Lords....McGrath enjoyed bowling there so hopefully Hazlewood can replicate his feats.....

Interesting to see so many comments about Aust shite bowling.....yet for a team that bowled so shite..... they did bowl out the opposition twice by day 3!.....hate to see what will happen when the Aus bowlers get it right then!....so a positive there for sure....just got to get the batsmen to pull their weight and heads in, there is no way Moeen Ali should be taking wickets.....England did bowl well collectively apparently, so be interested to see if they can back up that performance again at Lords....and that's probably gonna be Lehmanns philosophy for not making any changes TBH.....reckon he doubts that and Australia has the greater room for improvement then England.....

No doubt our batsmen let us down badly at Cardiff Freeze and our bowlers did a good job in bowling the Soap Dodgers out twice in 3 days but we did allow the Poms to score at 4.5 runs an over which is pretty much unheard of in Test Cricket. And apparently Watto was picked ahead of M.Marsh because of his ability to bowl tight!!
Boof & Bacchus have to call time on Haddin, Watson & unfortunately Voges ASAP and bring in some fresh new enthusiastic youthful blood for Lords as we looked old tired & almost uninterested at Cardiff and this is an Ashes Series FFS!

I would have Voges before S Marsh every day of the week BH....Voges will come good and deserves his spot.....TBH not too sure batting wise if there are any good young batsmen in Oz...., probably have to wait till Jake Doran or Jared Morgan make their shield debuts........