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The DECIDER - 5th Test Match, The Oval - England vs Australia



Mendoza

Mendoza

NSC's Most Stalked
Jul 14, 2003
22,080
somewhere in a newspaper or online probably
GLORY BECKONS

When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
The welkin will ring loud,
The great crowd will feel proud,
Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
And the rest coming home with the urn

urn(1).jpg



COME ON BOYS, your country needs you and the fans want it SO much

barmy_1457544c.jpg
 




T

Taxman

I've got beautiful eyes
Oct 16, 2006
214
I think we're alone now
from cric info, could be interesting

Australia are reluctant to change their match-winning combination and are expected to keep their all-pace attack for the Ashes decider at The Oval. While the visitors lean to a four-man seam unit, England remain adamant that they can bounce back from their two-and-a-half day humiliation at Headingley, with their captain, Andrew Strauss, backing the character and balance of the 14-man squad at their disposal.


The depth of England's squad is designed to cover every bowling permutation, from an extra swing bowler in Ryan Sidebottom to the second spinner, Monty Panesar, but with Andrew Flintoff's right knee showing strong signs of lasting the distance, their range of alterations becomes much clearer. Australia almost carry a closed shop following the victory in Leeds that levelled the series and the most likely line-up includes the quartet of Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Ben Hilfenhaus and Stuart Clark. Brett Lee is pushing to appear in his first match of the series but his only way back is if Ricky Ponting is convinced there will be considerable reverse-swing during the match.

Unfortunately for Lee, The Oval's groundstaff say the ball has not moved late throughout the season, and the only bare spots that could rough up the ball are on the practice pitches at the edge of the square. Surrey's cricket manager, Chris Adams, told Cricinfo that this could be due to the Tiflex ball that is currently used instead of the Duke in the second division of the County Championship, but either way it does not bode well for Australia's pace spearhead.

"What we see at the moment is what we expect," Ponting said at The Oval on Tuesday. "As I said after the Headingley game, we're going to have to see something really different to change the make-up of the side considering everything worked really well. The wicket looks particularly good and it could dry a little bit."

Usually such a barren pitch would make a spinner a certainty, but Nathan Hauritz chips in with wickets rather than dominating batting orders and the side coped without him in the more seam-friendly conditions in Leeds. Ponting called Hauritz a "very smart and skilful offspinner" and talked up his performance in the tour game in Canterbury, while he also reminded England of Lee's qualities during a cautious description.

"With Brett, his record suggests he is a really striking bowler who can go for a few runs," Ponting said. "If it looks like it's going to be really dry and later in the game there might be some reverse-swing, then he'll come into consideration." The current forecast, which changes more often than batting gloves late in the game, is for rain on Thursday and sunny intervals over the following three days.

Ponting was impressed by the pitch and predicted some big innings during the match, which Australia only need to draw to take the Ashes. He also hoped it would provide pace, bounce and some turn late in the contest. "If you look at the results over the last couple of years there have been big innings - teams have made 600, 580 - and I'd expect at some stage in this game there will be those sorts of innings as well," he said.

Strauss kept his large squad together "in case things go wrong" on Wednesday and refused to rule out the use of two spinners. "It's definitely an option," he said of Panesar teaming up with Swann. "It's a pretty dry wicket. At the moment it looks like a belter, it looks like a great wicket to bat on, but there's always a chance that it's going to deteriorate in the back-end of the game."

Whatever changes England make, Strauss will be satisfied if they are planned, unlike the frenetic start to the Headingley Test when Matt Prior, the wicketkeeper, hurt his back in the warm-up. That injury delayed the toss, Strauss was out quickly and England fell for 102 on the way to an innings-and-80-run loss. "I just don't want a wicketkeeper falling over five minutes before the toss," he said, hoping for a more sombre lead-up.


Regardless of any off-field distractions, however, Strauss is confident that his team will be fully focussed once the action gets underway. "We've been through a lot of tough times in the last six to 12 months and generally we've come through," he said. "Guys are holding their heads up and we're as tight a unit as we were at the start of the series.

"I'm absolutely certain that we're going to go out and play well this week. I've got no doubt about it. The crowd are going to get behind us, there's going to be fantastic support there for us. The guys are going to go out there in the right frame of mind and enjoy their cricket. Pressure is only something you put on yourself. That's not something that's going to be pre-occupying us."
 






keaton

keaton

Big heart, hot blood and balls. Big balls
Nov 18, 2004
9,650
I'd go for Trott, Flintoff and Sidebottom in for Bopora, Harmy and Anderson (if not fully fit) or Onions
 






rcf0712

rcf0712

Out Here In The Perimeter
Feb 26, 2009
2,428
Perth, Western Australia
'tis with a distinct lack of optimism that I wend my weary way home shortly to watch this all night - should end around 2am, could be worse, I could live on the East Coast and have to stay awake until 4am to watch it...
Come on England, show some heart in this one...
 






User removed 4

User removed 4

New member
May 9, 2008
13,331
Haywards Heath
The Wizard said:
Agreed.

England 1'st innings - 57 ALL OUT

Australia 1'st innings - 612/0 Declared

England 2'nd innings - 102 ALL OUT

Australia Win by and innings and 453 runs, Thus Retain the Ashes.
:(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(
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Anderson's attitude virtually f***ing ensures that we will lose,humiliatingly.

ASHES 2009: James Anderson insists England can come back from a heartbreaking defeat
By Leo Spall
Last updated at 12:36 AM on 20th August 2009
Comments (0) Add to My Stories

Anderson insists England will recover from an agonising defeat in the final Test
James Anderson insists England will not be too disappointed if they fail to wrest the Ashes from Australia at The Brit Oval.

As the tense series finale starts on Thursday morning, the bowler made the extraordinary claim that Andrew Strauss’s side have done well to go into the fifth Test with the scores level at 1-1.

In rejecting the suggestion the England team would take defeat as a shattering blow, Anderson said: ‘Not from our point of view. We know what the press reaction will be but we can’t do anything about that.

'The fact that we’re in this position is good. Not many players in the dressing room have had a chance to win the Ashes. We will give it our best shot.

'Beyond that, whatever happens, happens. It’s been a series that people have been expecting us to win for some reason. But I’ve never got my head round that.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/cricket/article-1207756/ASHES-2009-James-Anderson-insists-England-come-heartbreaking-defeat.html#ixzz0OiEC6dFy
 












Trufflehound

Trufflehound

Re-enfranchised
Aug 5, 2003
14,105
The democratic and free EU








S

sten_super

Brain Surgeon
Jul 28, 2005
5,945
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Glad we're batting. Completely bemused by some of the tinkering though. Why is Trott, who bats at 4 for Warks, batting at 5, when Collingwood is nowhere near a number 4? Why is Steve 'dross' Harmison playing when he has shown time and again that he is not up to it?
 


The Wizard

The Wizard

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2009
18,383
sten_super said:
Glad we're batting. Completely bemused by some of the tinkering though. Why is Trott, who bats at 4 for Warks, batting at 5, when Collingwood is nowhere near a number 4? Why is Steve 'dross' Harmison playing when he has shown time and again that he is not up to it?
Click to expand...

Are you talking about the same Steve Harmison I know?

He's the second best county bowler this season, this wicket will suit him as well.:wink:


Trufflehound said:
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.. .--. .-. . ..-. . .-. -- .-. ... -.-. .... . .-. -.-- .-.. -.-. --- .-.. . -- -.-- ... . .-.. ..-.
 








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