4th Ashes test Aus V Eng

KevIRL

The Boxing day test. Always a great occasion, was at the MCG for the Australia-West Indies boxing day test in 2000. 100K gonna be at this one.

DMC

I wouldn't be staying up all night and paying attention to this dead rubber, but circumstances allow

Team news: Read in for Jones,

England: Strauss, Cook, Bell, Collingwood, Pietersen, Flintoff(c), Read (w), Mahmood, Harmison, Hoggard, Panesar.

DMC

Toss: England, elect to bat.

Could be a difficult time first up, weather is iffy.

DMC

England 2/0 in the 7th over....

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

DMC

Cook c Gilchrist b Lee 11

England 23/1

DMC

Lunch:
England 36/1

and it was an early lunch too, scurrying off in a squall.

DMC

Bell lbw b Clark 7

England 44/2

DMC

Collingwood c Ponting b Lee 28

England 101/3

Strauss making 50 for the first time this tour. Warne is bowling, got a huge cheer when he came on, not too effective yet.....

700!!! as I type
Clean-bowled Strauss!

DMC

Cricinfo commentary of the moment....

Cricinfo wrote:

And what a moment this is. Warne dancing around ala Monty Panesar, tossing the ball away - the noise out there is incredible. He retrieves the ball, doffing it like a cap to all and sundry and the crowd are going absolutely bananas
46.2 Warne to Strauss, OUT, 700 for Shane Warne! There it is, his 700th Test wicket and what a ball to reach the milestone! Outside Strauss's off stump, spinning massively back past Strauss's expansive cover drive

DMC

England 122/5

Flintoff c Warne b Clark 13

In comes Chris Read.... the hutch is open now....

DMC

135/6

Read c Ponting b Warne 3

Quickly followed by

136/7
Mahmood c Gilchrist b McGrath 0

Pigeon's first of this innings, he's be prodding away, but not enough until now.

Flintoff. Can't bat great at present, can't bowl great at present.... I'm just wondering why bother with him if he's plainly off-colour? It beggers belief.

DMC

Harmison promoted up the order (could the same be said about Pietersen? )
A lusty blow or two... to no avail...

145/8

Harmison c Clarke b Warne 7

#703 for SK Warne.

Monty at 10? ??????

DMC

Pietersen tries to go on the slog facing Warne... didn't last long.

146/9

Pietersen c Symonds b Warne 21

Warne gunning for a 5-fer.

DMC

159 all out

Panesar c Symonds b Warne 4
Hoggard not out 9

Warne 5/39
Huge ovation for Warne... 90,000 in the 'G witnessing history.

DMC

Australia 24/0 after 4 overs.... hmmmmm

Jagera

I've rarely seen that rediculous concept of nightwatchman pay off..
We're now 2-fa

mike65

DMC wrote:

Flintoff. Can't bat great at present, can't bowl great at present.... I'm just wondering why bother with him if he's plainly off-colour? It beggers belief.

Flintoff get two wickets back to back, and he's the captain, thats why he's there!

Mike.

RuggieBear

KevIRL wrote:

The Boxing day test. Always a great occasion, was at the MCG for the Australia-West Indies boxing day test in 2000. 100K gonna be at this one.

I was at the SCG for the New years test against the W. Indies...lol

As for england. I think they've more or less given up and wanna go home....Altho 48-2 gives England something to work on.

DMC

48/2 is only useful if one of the two is either Ponting or Hussey, yet one of them is Brett Lee. They have a long ODI series ahead too, and if they don't really fancy the last two tests...

Nightwatchmen can work, I've seen lesser players score mega runs once promoted, Alex Tudor getting 90-odd against NZ one time springs to mind. Its more doomed of a concept in recent years, I guess.

DMC

mike65 wrote:

Flintoff get two wickets back to back, and he's the captain, thats why he's there!

Granted the two wickets were good, but he is injured, and it is playing on his mind. England run the risk of losing him forever if he just keeps playing with painkillers. These two matches are dead rubbers, I would've said he was injured and let him get it sorted with the World Cup just ahead. With the injury in the back of his mind, I feel its having a knock on effect, firstly on his bowling, then his batting, then his captaincy. If Flintoff's isn't confident of his fitness, I dunno how he can perk up his team. He's a lionheart, he wants to lead by example, but if he's crocked, he's not helping a losing cause.

mike65

True enough but I doubt he'll want to sit the last test out and would Fletcher have the wit to give him a rest anyway?

Mike.

DMC

Jonathan Agnew, TMS Blog on bbc.co.uk/cricket wrote:

Hoggard was very unlucky not to get Matthew Hayden out lbw twice – he needs to get away from Umpire Koertzen’s end.

Ahh umpiring. I noted the little look and comment Hoggard made at the replay on the big screen at an lbw decision that Koertzen didn't give. Surprised we didn't hear a "match fee deduction" from the referee, tbh. But it shows up that the ICC is relying too much on the "elite" panel of umpires, that they are becoming as well known as the players themselves.

There have always been eccentric umpires (Shep and Dickie Bird) so I don't have a problem with Billy Bowden's signals or Koertzen's slow finger of doom, but it sometimes it gives the nay-sayers a rod to beat them with if they get them wrong, when compared to Hair or Taufel, who have no gimmicks to their modus operandi. Kourtzen is having a shocking series, tbh.

I think the main issue here today was that contentious replays were show on the big screen. In England, I'm pretty sure they are not.

DMC

Ponting gone! There is hope for England, getting rid of the captain early....

Ponting c Cook b Flintoff 7

Australia 61/3

DMC

79/4

Hussey b Hoggard 6

Right after drinks. Hussey fails... wow... Interesting times...

DMC

84/5

Clarke c Read b Harmison 5

Harmison's second ball. In comes Symonds...
Business is about to pick up!

county

108-5 and the barmy army are going nuts

DMC

Ship steadier at 135/5

Hayden 58, Symonds 22, 51 partnership

DMC

221/5

Hayden 104*
Symonds 60*

Partnership of 137. Flintoff settings very defensive fields, four out at the boundary for Panesar. Flintoff had Australia broke at 84/5, foot off the gas.

DMC

284/5

200 partnership

Hayden 137*
Symonds 90*

DMC

301/5

Symonds 102*
Hayden 142*

Lead is 143.

Hit Collingwood for 6 on 96, G Boycott had promised TMS listeners to eat his hat if he reached 50, along with some references to his mother might have a bowling action Symonds would have trouble facing.... might want some HP Sauce on that now....

These guys are going to go smack happy, 4 overs to the new ball, and with Gilchrist in the hutch.... I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

DMC

361/5

More of interest, listening to ABC online, someone gave them the battle plans for each of the Australian batsmen.... the ways each Aussie batsman is susceptible to getting out. Like Symonds, bouncers first up etc, hooking, Hussey being bowled etc....

It appears to be authentic. England management are fuming, apparently.

DMC

363/6

Hayden c Read b Mahmood 153
Symonds 150*

279 partnership. 84/5 seems a long time ago.

Mahmood's first Ashes wicket.

Gilchrist and Symonds..... this might go like a bonfire at a fireworks factory...

DMC

No sparks then!

365/7

Gilchrist c Collingwood b Mahmood 1

SK Warne enters the arena.

DMC

Close: Day 2

Australia 372/7
Australia lead by 213 runs

Symonds 154*
Warne 4*

Wait for the complaints that England's bowling plans wuz robbed.

RuggieBear

must have fallen asleep just afterr boycott was going on about symonds....came as some suprise this morning to see that he's made 150 and still jot out. lol

county

DMC wrote:

Close: Day 2

Australia 372/7
Australia lead by 213 runs

Symonds 154*
Warne 4*

Wait for the complaints that England's bowling plans wuz robbed.

bastards robbing our plans,that is the down fall and why we will not win this test match:rolleyes:

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

DMC

The BBC Sport site has the plans....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6211509.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/6211691.stm

Mad Dog

ziggy67 wrote:

Looks like an innings victory for the Aussies.

Looking forward to seeing a Warne masterclass when England go back in to bat.

I think the Aussies are out of sight already and can't see England getting enough in 2nd innings to put Aus under any pressure batting provided of course they can even get past Australias 1st innings total. Disappointing and totally lacking in any character and backbone by England.

Complete humiliation again :eek:

PS: I would love to see Warne get at least another 5 which may happen

DMC

Day 3. Wicket early on.

383/8

Symonds c Read b Harmison 156

DMC

417/9

Clark c Read b Mahmood 8

McGrath enters to an ovation, Warne requires 62 more for a century. A tad optimistic

DMC

419 all out

McGrath c Bell b Mahmood 0
Warne 40*

Mahmood 4 for 100, McGrath's 35 test duck, Read takes 6 catches, equalling the wicket-keeping record for an England player in an innings.

260 is the 1st innings lead.

DMC

Lunch Day 3..

England 28/0

Strauss 12*
Cook 15*

DMC

41/1

Cook b Clark 20

DMC

48/2

Bell lbw b McGrath 2

Given by Umpire Koertzen, for the record. And for all the ones he didn't give that hawk-eye said he should've, this one is just about the top of middle. If Koertzen was consistent, he'd have been forgiven for height.

Pietersen comes in ahead of Collingwood.

DMC

So... Pietersen comes in at 4, and fails. Ripper.

49/3

Pietersen b Clark 1

This could be over tonight, or even before boards comes back from its 3am slumber.
Enter Collingwood.

DMC

75/4

Collingwood c Langer b Lee 16

And to accompany Strauss at the crease, its the start of the tail... here's Flintoff.

DMC

Tea: Day 3

England 90/4

Flintoff 11*
Strauss 31*

Watch out for the last ball of Warne before tea. Flipper.

DMC

Strauss gone in the first over after tea.

90/5

Strauss c Gilchrist b Lee 31

Chris Read to the crease.

DMC

Flintoff is gone...

108/6

Flintoff lbw b Clark 25

And now...... the end is near......
I can't cheer, NZ posted 285/8 in the 1st ODI in Napier, Sri Lanka rocketed to the total for the loss of 3 wickets in 40 overs!

DMC

Warne. Flipper. Mahmood. Nuff said.

109/7

Mahmood lbw b Warne 0