The Ashes Test Series

Well no, hence why I said it could be a draw. 

I still think we will win if the rain holds up.

It hurts to be successful? 

I expect Strauss to declare first thing... perhaps even before the game restarts.  He could in theory let them come back on for 30 minutes (so Flintoff can get a 50!) but I doubt it.

Then we have what... two days to bowl you guys out?

By "we" do you mean England?

England haven't won a test match at Lord's since 1934.

I predict a draw (due mostly to rain delays and an Aussie fightback).

Man Erg wrote: Interesting chat during the radio commentry today. Angus Frazer was at a meeting somewhere recently when someone offered the proposition that leg-byes should no longer count as runs against the bowling side and should be taken out of the game all together. My thought on this is to keep leg-byes in test cricket but in the shorter form of the game,take them away....

That is interesting,my feelings are the same. I really do not want rule changes........there are not many things in this world where I have a conservative opinion but with Test cricket it should be left as is. As you may notice I am not really keen on the 3rd umpire. Who would want to umpire any major sport these days. Would Dickie Bird have made every one of his decisions correctly if we could slow them up and look at them for 5 minutes while he was lucky to have 0.1 of a second.

progmetalhead wrote:

Haha, brilliance

Looks like we have hit a bloody big pothole on the road to glory or you could also say we are up sh*t creek without a paddle Ponting face above says it all.

2 wickets on the dreaded half-nelson (111).Cricket superstitions. Who belives in those eh?

Twas a good toss to win at Lords. Aussies bowled poorly and some errors in the field . Give a team a chance and they'll make you pay . England has done just that .

Can Australia bat as well in their first innings as they did at Cardiff. I have my doubts.

Lets see what happens on day 2 with the Aussies bowling at the England tail. They'd want to do better than they did against the top order. It's gripping stuff.

Bloody good match so far,something for all of us. I will admit the first 4 hours were not good for me but I bet you all enjoyed it Strauss is still not out and England has broken the old record set in 1326, ooh sorry I meant 1926,

Frankly, if you don't know how to bowl to tail-enders and/or bowl the right bowlers to them , you don't deserve to win tests or the series.

This thread is sooooo polite it's almost sickening but I won't be the one to bring it down . All I'll say on the dreaded contoversial aspect of it is as follows :

1. The time wasting was blatant, not only in the dying throws of the test, but the day before when the Aussies were batting and the rain was on it's way . The regular bowling changes which then allowed meticulous and involved changes in field placements was deplorable .


2. It was all so blatant that Ponting could have said nothing, retain some dignity and let others raise the debate e.g. Nasser Hussain


3. His raising it was as facile as Strauss and others attempting to explain away the inexplicable. We all saw it Straussy . As Kevin R would say ' Fair shake of the sauce bottle'.


4. The umpires need to grow some balls and take control of time wasting and other on-field incidents firmly and decisively. Doctrove is embarassingly innocuous and indecisive and our old mate Aleem is marginally better.


5. The Aussies only have themselves to blame for letting England off the hook and it may prove very costly . The Aussies are not going to have 4 centurions in every test innings and some of the English batsmen will convert their good starts into big innings - no doubt.

As it is , jibing and banter about such things can only serve to spice up the series and it has. Bring on Lords and may the better team win, so long as they can bowl out the tail.