The Ashes Tour 2009

Originally posted by Sledger I can't say seeing England getting belted doesn't irritate , it's beyond a joke now. Tykey's side couldn't possibly do any worse and I'd love to see a totally different XI tomorrow. That's unlikely to happen though , the selectors have rose tinted glasses when looking at this current squad.           7-0 is on , but England should sneak one , maybe two of the remaining matches. That's because Australia would be quite keen to play the same mob in SA later this month!          The Ashes is the pinnacle in the cricketing careers of both Englishmen and Australians , but the World Cup matters too and until England start to win one day series on a regular basis , it'll remain a pipe dream.

Ponting has won 3 World Cups, been a runner up in the World Cup once (in 96), won the Champion's Trophy and has won the Ashes in 97, 98/99, 01, 02/03 and 06/07 (i.e. Both home and away). No Englishman has done that... certainly the English would want to improve their one day cricket no doubt.

There were 2 in that series Clobs. The first one was a triangular tournament with Bangladesh and there was another one with just England and Australia. I remember the 2nd series was tied, but I have no bloody clue about the triangular one. From memory it was an excellent contest though... famous series as Bang beat Aust.

I went to that VB series final here in Melbourne. I was right up next to the English dressing room and had a chat with Paul Nixon.... why could I do such a thing? The MCG was probably 1/8th full. 7 ODIs, 2 2020s + a game against minnow sides for both teams is way too much. I remember back in 1997 they had a 3 match ODI series before the Ashes (England won 3-0) played in whites and during the day. Then the 6 tests were played. Much, much better - those ODIs almost served as a warm up for the sides and an 'inspection' of what is to come in the tests. Yes, I am bitter about losing the Ashes, although Australians can still hang their heads up high as they weren't outplayed THAT much, but these ODIs are not going to make up for anything. A win at the CT however will make the loss in the Ashes a little les sour though - but not too much.

Ahh I got it mixed up. A little look in the archives would have solved the problem. Then again I don't really care and I think we proved Clobber's point.

I have known few cricket die hard fans, who don't even care about Test matches.They just love to ODI's and T20s. Now if someone calls them they don't know real cricket, then I would say it's your perspective coz in their perspective Test cricket is boring affair.Thats it!. An American once told me "Oh Cricket, it's so boring , baseball is much better", well that was his perspective on cricket. I explained how interesting cricket is and left it that way.

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 15 September 2009 at 5:41am

I concur with Clobs that these one day money spinners after test series are of little consequence , but how are struggling outfits like England going to improve if they don't start winning some of them?
          Pals have been trying to wind me up because of the latest debacle and they've been disappointed because I don't rise.  Losing 7-0 won't affect my sleep patterns , but before dropping off it will cross my mind (I still have one) that no matter who's in charge of the setup , we're still rubbish!
             Maybe it's time for a complete clearout , discard the test "stars" (i use that term loosely) and get a side of kids with the soul aim of winning the world cup. They'll lose a shedload of matches early on but it just might give rise to a decent , spritely outfit. Employ a coach and backroom staff that aren't associated with the test side - effectively have two separate entities that call themselves England.

     Radical , but the methods used for nigh on 20 years haven't yielded any silverware (forget Sharjah!) - it's time for revolution!

     Blimey , my tea was strong this morning!

The long suffering English fans do think one day cricket is important, why else do they fork out 75quid to watch the current series?
         SEVEN one dayers , all sold out , there's plenty out there that care!

I've said it before, this current squad doesn't have any fire power to trouble any good ODI side.  There is no dasher at the top, Aussie had Gilly, SA has Smith, Windies Gayle, India Sehwag and Gambhir, Sri Dilshan and Jaya, even the Kiwi has a dashers at the top, they need someone to give them an electric start and now that you think of it, Trescothick has been a very huge loss!

England not off to a bad start, 66-1 off 14 overs with Strauss being unlucky to be given out after getting a bit of glove on to his pad attempting a reverse sweep.

So, in the end England makes a respectable 299 all out in 50 overs and as I said earlier, I love it when teams accerlerate at the end and this here started with Morgan and he showed me another side that I didn't know.  Players like him (in the Chanderpaul mold) will exploit powerplays well because they more so use placement than power and Morgan played well.

Great knock by Ponting, showing his class just like Jayasuriya and Tendulkar showed earlier this week. He look really on song in the 4th ODI with that 48 and the rest has done him good in this game and he is the difference between the sides. Only thing England can take out of this game is that they batted extremely well in the final 10. But all their batsmen got starts and didn't go on with it and that must be worrying Flower and Strauss (while Australia have to century makers and Ferguson has played a couple of good knocks).
Eion Morgan was a fresh of breath air, his innovation and pretty good clean hitting for a small bloke - almost Tendulkar-esque - was simply brilliant. Plays the slog and reverse sweep really well and that shot over extra cover that nearly went for six was a gem (and so was that flick off his legs for six!).
The intent from the English batsmen was fantastic , but like I said only one man got past 50 from memory and a lot of starts and double figure scores. That's okay, but the next step is to have someone make a big score. Perhaps Morgan is wasted at 6, should be at 4 or 5 maybe?

forget about Morgan being wasted, Morgan shouldn't be playing for ENG. He is an Irishman who should have been playing for IRE. ENG are robbing emerging countries of their talent and then we hear Sledge and Clobs saying so many things against the minnows like they should be playing in other divisions, Should never be playing tests etc... Thats simply ridiculous. Why should ENG be allowed to borrow players like this. IRE would be such a good side with Morgan, Joyce and other such home grown players, but as long as ENG is there it'll be very very difficult for teams like IRE and SCO to develop.

Edited by sam_ahmed - 16 September 2009 at 4:51am

You need two Sledge.

Colly was rested. He has had a LONG season and deserves the well earned rest. I agree Bell is a fine OD player - but then they are English selectors.

I think they are looking smart in these clothes - though I am not a huge fan of teams changing their basic traditional colors. Dont like Aussies in green either.