Two Winters and One Summer of English Cricket and Continued Adventures

[Logie66]

It"s congratulations to Ireland who have qualified for the next stage of the 20/20 World Cup. This follows on from the great showing at the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007.

Being in a group with two other Test playing nations this is another great feather in the hat for the Irish team and demonstrates that with the right management structure teams can progress and develop.

Great result and well done !! A few more Guiness will be drunk tonight I"m sure  

[Logie66]

So, Monday evening turns into an enjoyable part of the day as I sit in front of the TV and watch the Aussies get dispatched by the Sri Lankans   Suffering the embarrassment of not making it past the first qualifying stage of the 20/20 tournament.

We"re not laughing Ricky honest  

A much deserved defeat following the disparaging remarks about Leicester before the game as well, I"m sure there are a lot worse places you could spend two weeks preparing for the Ashes series, Australia comes to mind  

The camera close up of Ricky Ponting was the best for me, putting his head in his hands as Brett Lee was hit for another four, which basically made the final over a non event for Sri Lanka, I"llbe searching for that on the Internet to post for everyone if I can find it !!

Mentally this could play into the hands of England, the last Ashes series started with a shocking performance in a 20/20 game, are we going to experience some deja vu for the series in 2009, I certainly hope so  

[Logie66]

A poor batting performance yesterday against South Africa, early wickets and tight bowling made it difficult for the England batsmen to set a good base in the first six overs.  The pressure to increase the run rate resulted in more risks being taken and some poor shot selection by the batsmen.  All in all a deserved victory for Graeme Smith and his men, they certainly look to be one of the favourites for the tournament, and I believe both finalists will come from this group.

England"s next game is a must win against India, will be difficult against a one day specialist team who have all developed their short games further with the IPL running for two years.  I expect England to bow out, but the 20/20 game is so unpredictable you never know, a couple of good overs and a game can be put out of sight for one team.

[Logie66]

Have enjoyed the 20/20 matches over the last few days with some good performances from South Africa, Pakistan, West Indies and England.  A surprise that India have effectively gone out of the competition, with all the experience from the IPL they were being billed as favourites.

I"m now trawling the internet to see if I can come across any tickets for the final, have found a few sites although it"s disappointing to see people charging more than the face value of the ticket.

I will see, may decide to pay slightly over the odds for a ticket just to attend what has been a great competition so far, I have been looking at the "Seatwave" website, has anyone had any experience of this ??

Would be good to get a good live match report with actions shots on the blog once more  

[Logie66]

So the next stage of the summer is nearly upon us, the home Ashes series against the Aussies and the England 13 man squad has been picked:

Strauss, Cook, Bopara, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Anderson, Panesar and Onions.

Bell selected as cover for any of the batsmen over the next few days and expect him to be left out on Wednesday morning.  With Flintoff back in the fold, England will have the luxury of another bowler who can bat a bit, this will sway the selectors on the final selection place for the starting eleven.  With the Cardiff pitch expected to take spin according to all the experts, I feel that two spinners will be picked, this will give England an advantage over the Aussies and with more right handers in the Aussie side now, I think this will swing it for Monty.

So my England eleven for the first test is:

Strauss, Cook, Bopara, Pietersen, Collingwood, Prior, Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Anderson and Panesar.

A bit more batting strength with Flintoff and Broad going in 7th and 8th.

Will be interesting to see what bowling attack the Aussies go with, their spinner doesn"t look up to much, which means he"ll probably take a hat load of wickets  

But the big debate is whether Ponting is as bad a Captain as Aussie Legend Jeff Thomson says he is, apparently everyone at home thinks the same, great player poor Captain.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR7_KtW3Is[/youtube]

It"s going to be a close series and the first test could be key in deciding the series winner, not always important as don"t forget the Aussies won the first test in 2005.  I do feel though that the batting line-up and bowling attack that England have could swing it our way with a narrow victory of 2-1 again.

Let"s hope that the weather holds in Wales !!

[Honeybadg]

... quality clip ... great chance for England to win the series given Australia"s lack of options in the bowling attack.

Ponting has a lot to prove despite his great Test Career.

Headline Average - 56.20
Last three years Test play - 43.08.

Not convinced Monty will rise to the occasion but other than that a good team picked.

L

[Swinebag]

LOLd hard at that clip. Nice one Don.

Just remember that these players won a series in South Africa. There is a lot of quality in the batting line up and the bowlers have Troy Cooley to help them get the best from english conditions and to use reverse swing effectively. I think too much is being made of their lack of experience and lack of quality spin bowler. (remember, we won the Ashes in 2005 with Giles as our spinner!!)

This will be a tough series. Gutted I"m missing most of it on holiday this year

[Logie66]

Some possible good news for England, Brett Lee has broken down in training today.  Not completely ruled out of the first test yet, but could be a body blow for the Aussies.  Lee was firing in the warm-up match last week and their bowling attack will be a lot weaker without him.

He is also the only bowler in the Aussie team that has real experience of English conditions.

[AMRN]

I enjoyed the Heads Up cricket at the weekend... the one with yellow furry balls, and funny shaped bats.

[Logie66]

After all the build up for the first day, work takes over completely and I have virtually zero chance to follow or see any of the first day  :"(  Finally catch up with some of the action at midnight after getting home.

Honours fairly even after the first day, but you would have to say that the England batsmen didn"t capitalise on the good starts that the majority got.  No point going deeper into KP"s shot been done to death by the media.  Just a shame we lost Prior and Flintoff before close of play, let the Aussies back into it really.

Glad to see the England selectors went with my team selection, perhaps they read the forum   Hopefully we can push on to 400 and see what our bowlers can do, if the wicket does start turning, bowling last will be a big advantage.

Weather may affect the play at the weekend though, which will be disappointing.

Good to see Flintoff remembering what his bat is for though  

[Logie66]

Still not had much of a chance to watch the test, good effort by the England tail yesterday getting the score above 400.  The Aussies certainly highlighted the missed opportunity on the first day by the England batsmen, shot selection good and it"s an easy wicket, especially when the balls not swinging !

Could be another hard slog in the field today as the Aussies are dominating the proceedings.  Won"t be watching much again as I prepare to travel up for the Chezger Festival this weekend.

Looking forward to the Chester races and the poker on Saturday evening.

[Logie66]

Aussies dominating us in this test, we need to show some steel, determination and passion !!! But most of all we need lots of rain today !!!

[Logie66]

First of all I want to say a big thanks to Ger, had a great time at the Chezger Festival and the hospitality was second to none.  Managed to bubble the cash, but the game was superb and finally got back to the hotel and into bed about 4am.

Woke up and set off home and got home to see an Aussie win the Grand Prix, had a little snooze and then settled down to watch the cricket and an expected Aussie win.

When Collingwood fell, it looked like the end of the test match, but along with the crowd in Cardiff we started cheering Jimmy and Monty as they blocked out the majority of balls being delivered by the Aussie bowlers.  Big cheer when we went ahead and then lots of laughs when the 12th man and the Physio were running on the pitch to waste time.

Superb effort to get a draw out of this game by Collingwood and the tail, can"t really compliment the top order in saving this one.  The best result from this game is that the pressure will be deflected on Ponting, I"m sure he"ll come in for a lot of stick for not bowling out England, especially the ferret that is Monty.  We have got to turn up at Lords on Thursday and carry on where we finished, kick up when they"re down is what I say  

Finally, congratulations to Cardiff for providing a great spectacle and a great atmosphere, especially the final session  

[Logie66]

Find it slightly amusing this morning that Ponting is deflecting the teams inability to bowl England out on the 2-3 minutes of time wasting when the 12th Man and Physio were on the pitch.  Has he forgotten that they bowled over 65 balls to the last pair  

Would be interesting to hear Jeff Thomson"s opinion once more   I think Ponting will come in for a lot of criticism back home.  The lack of overs that the two most effective bowlers, Hilfenhaus and Siddle, had in comparison to Johnson was shocking.  But can"t complain, thanks to Punter we got out of jail !!

[Honeybadg]

It"s a great save but essentially saved by the 4th day rain.

England 687 for 19
Australia 676 for 6

Ponting and Co ... not sure how much noise there will be back home (or how much they will care).

Ponting may have bowled the wrong bowlers at the end

England picked the wrong bowlers at the start.

Panesar + Swann = 73-12-246-1
(Where was Onions (or Harmison))?

Hauritz = 60.5-13-168-5

Fair play to Collingwood (great stoicism) and fair play to the rearguard but I am pretty sure Australia go to Lords very confident.

L