The Ashes Tour 2009

blimey Sam is really on the warpath - England are nicking the minnows' players AND their uniform colours now!

Originally posted by zuhair_abbasi 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.

I like their away kit as they go back to the canary yellow. It's this nonsense dark green uniforms for home gameswhich are bloody rubbish.

I agree. I think in reality Australia was the best side, but the problem was we lost during key moments. If Australia had not fallen during those key moments it could have been 3-0 Australia for all we know. But that's not the case. The boys failed to fire when it was needed. I'm disappointed like Warney, but we can't be too bitter about it, it's done with.

If Ireland had test status, played regular international cricket and paid as much as England than I'm sure he would have stayed. Opportunities are in England for him I guess. Whatever, at least he made the game enjoyable yesterday.

 They do look to their own first Sam , but when players from the UK and Ireland make themselves available and they're deemed good enough it''d be rather silly not to engage them.
        The nationalities of UK citizens are often mixed , having English/Welsh/Scottish and Irish ancestry is quite common !  I'm a bit of a hybrid myself - no Scottish blood though !

Yup. There's also issue if one is from Northern Ireland, as many are eligible to be Irish citizens, while obviously Northern Ireland is part of the UK. It's a bit different over there Sam, there's no official Scottish or Welsh or English citizenship - it's just British. Hell if you were born in Hong Kong before 1997 you're eligible to be a Briton!

Tim Paine is actually a very nice batsman to watch. Very correct and orthodox, strong through the off side and shows pretty good placement. Sometimes he looks to dominate and that means taking risks, I just think he needs to play his natural game. Definitely a good anchor to have at the top and a strike rate of 80 will be ideal , especially if he opens in the CT with Watson who generally scores at a run a ball once he gets going. Fantastic 100 by the little keeper from Tasmania. We don't get a lot of cricketers from Tasmania (our smallest state) but we sure get some talented ones when they come through - Boon, Di Venuto, Ponting, Hilfenhaus and now Paine. He's also a very solid keeper and he's a good back up to Haddin, who's a wonderful ODI cricketer with a great batting record himself. I'd like to see Paine move up the pecking order in tests, since Manou is already 30, while our Vic keeper Matthew Wade is a good prospect for the future at 21 years of age. Some good depth in the keeping ranks which is nice to see and a century against England is no mean feat - Anderson was bowling really nicely and that's his best ODI performance for a little while (got hit for a few boundaries in the end during the powerplay which ruined his figures). I also thought Hopes took his chances yesterday after losing his spot with Punter coming back. Took 3 for and batted superbly in the powerplay with White, who's also had a wonderful series.
  I think Bopara should count himself lucky for getting a full England contract.

Edited by milkman - 18 September 2009 at 4:27am

I watched just 2 balls of the England innings before switching channels to watch a film I've already seen 4 times. Much better than the cricket though , I'd watched that 5 times already!

Originally posted by milkman   I think Bopara should count himself lucky for getting a full England contract.

He didn't

Originally posted by sam_ahmed   6-0 with one to go then, Has there ever been a 7-0 series whitewash in cricket history? I don't remember any, This could be very embarassing for ENG.

nope

Shah's running is on a par with Douglas Bader's !

Originally posted by spin wizard Bopara usually attacks more than this

Poor bloke can't win. He gets out playing an aggressive shot, everyone uses their 20/20 hindsight to say what a daft shot, he should be building an innings: he gets out trying to build an innings and he should have been getting on with it.

 A hundred on Friday (I've given up on Sunday!) will shut up the critics mate.

He's under a lot of pressure this kid. I don't think the selectors are doing him favours by continually picking him.

He'll come back really strongly or totally lose it. You just hope that he'll be an English Lara and not a Hick.

Swann back in the side, as I suggested and he does the damage and obtains his best figures in ODI cricket. Rashid looked a bit out of his depth with the ball in the last few games. Solid performance here from England, the wicket of Ponting turned the game. Watson has been our worst batsman during this ODI series - really disappointing with the bat.