Print

[potzy248]

Get rid of Cowan!
I have no idea why he continues to get in the team. He is the worst player in that side by a long way. Warner has had his problems but he has the potential, Cowan is a waste.

[Gcricket]

Wow!! Australia had it in the bag!!

[qalib13]

What a fantastic game of cricket.

Totally and utterly engrossing.

[Vic Nicholas]

England were poor other than Anderson and Bell but they will get better. Australia were excellent but still lost. Doesn't bode well for the rest of the series for Australia! England will definitely improve but I'm not sure Australia can.

For England to only score 215 in their first innings and still win is something the Aussies should really be worried about!

Amazing game though, only these two sides can produce drama like that.... Here's to another 9 just like this one!

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Oh please!

Australia were (No Swearing Please) for large parts of this test.

Clarke did nothing with the bat - how long do you think that will continue for?

The bowling was all over the place in that first innings. If the Aussies bowled properly, they could have skittled England for under 150 in those conditions.

Cowan must go now. Bring in Khawaja - a far better bet at #3.

Cook and Trott will have better tests somewhere along the line - they are both class players. Though both put together one good innings each in this test match anyway.

But, seriously, how often would you expect Bell to pull a century out of his (No Swearing Please) or Broad to make a 65?

England may well go on to win the next test and the next after that, but to suggest that England were "down" and Australia were at their "best" is delusional.

Merely having Hussey instead of Cowan would have made a HELL of a difference to Australia in this test and the rest of the series.

[smilley792]

Both sides were poor in stages.


England should have been 150 or less in there first innings.
Agar and Hughes should not have been allowed to make what they did
Broad has been poor, and to let him get 65 was poor
Finn was shocking in the second innings and nearly gave Haddin an easy coast to the win



Both teams need to make changes,

Aussies can bring in khawaja, Warner, wade to improve there batting/stumping
We only have bresnan for Finn, who I don't rate as a test player(great at county level though)

If the above changes at made, I'd say Aussies will level it 1-1.





Off subject, what happened to pat cummings

[smokem]

Wade won't improve on stumping nor catching - not sure if you saw him keep in India? Haddin had a couple of very tough chances but hardly regulation. Haddin keeps his place not only on wicketkeeping form but also on batting. There is no question whatsoever.

Agree that Khawaja will come in for Cowan. Warner is off to SA to play for Aust A barring any injury concerns. Don't see that changing.

Depending on the Lord's pitch, I'd like to see Bird come in to add some consistency and variety to the attack. But I reckon Starc will get another run as he did get wickets despite being fairly inconsistent.

[Manormanic]

For Australia I'd like to see Faulkner replace Cowan - not sure who they'd bat at three but  think the strength of their tail means that an extra bowler is worthwhile.  That said, I suspect Cowan will get a final chance to prove himself.

For England, I'd like to see Finn replaced.  Bresnan is the obvious candidate but in fact I can see better reasons for taking Onions, whose wicket to wicket line and late swing will cause havok with the Australia batting, or even Tremlett, because back of a length is often useful on a Lords road. 

[tim2000s]

England should have been 150 or less in there first innings.

Agar and Hughes should not have been allowed to make what they did

Broad has been poor, and to let him get 65 was poor

Finn was shocking in the second innings and nearly gave Haddin an easy coast to the win

Both teams need to make changes,

Aussies can bring in khawaja, Warner, wade to improve there batting/stumping
We only have bresnan for Finn, who I don't rate as a test player(great at county level though)

If the above changes at made, I'd say Aussies will level it 1-1.

Both sides played poor shots in both innings, and I've no doubt that both sides will work on that in the next four days.

Finn wasn't just poor in the second innings, he was poor in the first as well. He bowled a lot of short filth to Agar and Hughes that was easy for them to score off. The pitches that seem to have been set are very Indian in nature and with that in mind, completely negate Finn. He can't get the lift off them that makes him dangerous, and when he tries to bowl his nasty ballls he produces long hops.

I'm not sure that I agree that Broad was particularly poor. Both teams had dreadful first innings, but his 65 and removal of Clarke and Watson in the Aussie second, plus second innings figures of 23-7-54-2 is not terrible.

Whilst it was a great advert for test cricket, neither side will have been overly chuffed with their performances.

[morgzy10]

For Australia I'd like to see Faulkner replace Cowan - not sure who they'd bat at three but  think the strength of their tail means that an extra bowler is worthwhile.  That said, I suspect Cowan will get a final chance to prove himself.

For England, I'd like to see Finn replaced.  Bresnan is the obvious candidate but in fact I can see better reasons for taking Onions, whose wicket to wicket line and late swing will cause havok with the Australia batting, or even Tremlett, because back of a length is often useful on a Lords road.

Great shout on chris tremlett!  i think his bowling record v aus speaks for itself

[tim2000s]

Great shout on chris tremlett!  i think his bowling record v aus speaks for itself

But isn't replacing Finn with Tremlett essentially a like for like replacement? It's not going to provide a huge amount of benefit on the pitches that we're seeing?  Tremlett did well in Aus on fast bouncy pitches, but on these cruddy dry, dead ones, he's going to suffer.

[morgzy10]

tremlett is a very intimidating person,  finn is still young and lanky, chris is a unit,  if anyone sees a 6ft7 18stone outhouse running in to bowl 90mph at you it will have more of an effect mentally than a skinny person of same height

[tim2000s]

tremlett is a very intimidating person,  finn is still young and lanky, chris is a unit,  if anyone sees a 6ft7 18stone outhouse running in to bowl 90mph at you it will have more of an effect mentally than a skinny person of same height

That's as maybe, but a physically intimidating bowler bowling short stuff that ends up being a long hop is about as useful as Cowan is at Number three.

[Manormanic]

But isn't replacing Finn with Tremlett essentially a like for like replacement? It's not going to provide a huge amount of benefit on the pitches that we're seeing?  Tremlett did well in Aus on fast bouncy pitches, but on these cruddy dry, dead ones, he's going to suffer.

I don't think a like for like replacement is actually a bad thing.  There are a number of aspects to this:

1. Finn was a poor selection for the Trent Bridge test regardless.  Bresnan has a great record there and the ground normally suits his type of pitch it up swing bowling rather than Finn's somewhat shorter length.  The perceived wisdom in advance was that Bressie would play the first game and Finn come in for the second.

2. Finn is being dropped because he bowled shockingly badly, not because his type of bowler is necessarily bad per se.   

3. Besides this, Tremlett is better at varying his length than Finn, and his natural one is probably a yard fuller anyway which, with his height thrown in, could cause serious issues.

[tim2000s]

I think your point number two is arguably the most important. When he is not bowling well, he bowls very badly. You might consider him not dis-similar to someone else in the England line-up. As a youngster Jimmy A had similar problems.

In Aus, Finn was dropped due to being too easy to score off, and I don't see that that has changed. The main difference at TB was that he didn't really get wickets either.

Either way, will be interesting to see the team selection.

[Manormanic]

in Aus, Finn was dropped due to being too easy to score off, and I don't see that that has changed. The main difference at TB was that he didn't really get wickets either.

He bowled one good over in the first innings and nothing of note in the second.  His batting is weak and his fielding nothing special.  I can't recall him looking genuinely threatening in quite some time...

I think England's problem is, they're not that sure of Bresnan anymore because the suspicion persists that he is a half a yard short of the pace he hit before his elbow troubles.