Ashes 1st Test - Brisbane

[The TRUTH]

Aussie team named today...

Ricky Ponting(capt)
Justin Langer
Matthew Hayden
Damien Martyn
Michael Hussey
Adam Gilchrist
Shane Watson
Shane Warne
Glenn McGrath
Brett Lee
Stuart Clark
Shaun Tait
Mitchell Johnson

* One of the three to be omitted and one of the remaining two will be 12th man

England team yet to be named

Joyce replaces Trescothick
Nov 15, 6:02 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - England said they have called up Middlesex batsman Ed Joyce as the replacement for opening batsman Marcus Trescothick on the Ashes cricket tour of Australia.


Somerset opener Trescothick returned home Wednesday after a recurrence of his stress-related illness forced him to quit the Australian tour.

Joyce, 28, was promoted from England's Academy squad, who arrive in Perth later Wednesday for a five-week training camp, and has yet to play in a Test match.

The left-hander made his international debut in June in a limited overs match against Ireland -- his country of birth -- and played a further two times in the shortened form of the game during the English summer.

Chairman of selectors David Graveney said on the English and Wales Cricket Board's web-site: "As we already have other players in the squad who have experience of opening the innings, we have decided to choose a replacement who will be able to cover a number of different positions within the order.

"Ed is a highly promising player who has performed well for Middlesex this season and I am sure he will be delighted to be part of an Ashes squad."

Joyce will join the Ashes squad in Adelaide Friday, where England is playing a three-day game against South Australia ahead of the November 23 opening Ashes Test in Brisbane.

Trescothick failed to find form in his two innings on the Australian tour, scoring two against the Prime Minister's XI and eight against New South Wales in the three-day match that finished in a draw here Tuesday.

The Somerset left-hander failed to return to the field during the NSW second innings with his England teammates Tuesday.

Trescothick suffered a stress disorder that forced him to take a complete break to recover during England's India tour last February and the subsequent English summer.

Trescothick, who will be 31 next month, has played 76 Tests for England, scoring 5,825 runs at 43.79 with 14 centuries.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061115/ts_af...ce_061115105928
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ps. let us know if your interested in joining a TRF fantasy Ashes league.

 

[An Tarbh]

Australia have gone with Clark, England have gone with Giles, not sure about that one, although with the toss going in Australia's favour and them batting, spin shouldn't be as much of a factor for England.

England will need to take advantage of this pitch early doors or it might be a struggle from then on.

Think Australia have too much for England this time round.

 

[ak47]

its been a good day for the aussies

3/198 still a full session remaining

we should have a result, provided punter doesnt do something dumb and bat on into the 3rd day

i heard rain is approaching brisbane on the weekend

 

[An Tarbh]

well 320-3 now with the new ball approaching, there's no reverse swing for England so they really need to make better use of this new ball than they did with the first one.

Surprised as well with Sky, usually their cricket coverage is excellent but at the start when they were mentioning key players and battles, not a mention of Ponting as a batsman, he was in freaking awesome form last year. Think they just keep harping on about his toss decision at Edgbaston even though Hussein's call in Brisbane 4 years ago was far worse.

 

[An Tarbh]

Close of play on day 1, Australia very much in charge on 346-3, Ponting certainly showing his class with that century, Langer will be kicking himself for getting out on 82, but contributions from all the batsmen, not the case with the bowling, some very expensive figures from an English point of view, only really Flintoff and Giles bowling well but obviously that's nowhere near enough to even have a chance of not getting beaten by Australia let alone having aspirations of winning the test.

 

[Sw1fty]

Top knock from Punter today :bravo: hopefully he can go on to get a double and Hussey to three figures. Warne is going to be a menace when it's the Aussies turn to bowl, there is some spin in the Gabba track. Definitely Australia's day. Sleepless night ahead for Freddie

 

[Dumbo]

No reverse swing for the poms = the poms are going to get a new hole where they don't need one

 

[An Tarbh]

I still think that if there was reverse swing for England that their batting lineup is just too weak to give them a serious chance in this series.

 

[Prestwick]

Just suddenly noticed something when watching the Ashes highlights on BBC...


You losers down under don't broadcast in widescreen!!!! Whats with all this 4:3 aspect rubbish?! Do you still go by horse and cart down there or something?!

Anyway, to the cricket. The reverse swing isn't apparent, it is a tricky beast to find at the best of times and when you don't find it then and you haven't got anything else then, well, what can you do.

I noticed when listening to TMS that a couple of the Aussie batsmen didn't like it pitched up short to them and thus I thought "logically you'd want Harmison on to do just that" sadly nothing of the sort happened and I think that kind of shows Flintoffs naivite as a captain. In my honest opinion, I would have opted for Strauss to captain the side. In fact, thats probabbly why Vaughn has been flown over and drafted into the team. To give Flintoff advice on issues that may arise when he is captain.

Another thing we sorely missed was an attacking spinner like Panesar to hold up one end. We really needed Panesar and not Giles bowling around the wicket to right handers for hours on end.

Finally as for the batting line up and as to whether its weak or not. Thats yes and no. Yes in that you have several batsmen there like Cook, Bell, and Jones who seem to (or might do in the case of Cook) wilt in the face of unrelenting Aussie pressure. Bell still has to shake of the image that he is a total rabbit and Jones, unless he is partnering with Flintoff (note the most consistent England batting partnership of the Ashes was Flintoff and Jones) then he is a dead rabbit.

However, if they're motivated and they keep their cool, the England batting line up is very potent. Strauss and Cook could be an exceedingly good batting line up. For a start neither of them are out of form, whinging aussies living off of their jaded reputations as a bully (*cough*Hayden*hack*) on the contary, they are both in form and seem to be up for the match. Pietersen is just, well, Pietersen. You could be God and he'd still try and smack you all around this park. Flintoff meanwhile is now the finnished all round article, when he matured halfway through last years Ashes he made Australia pay for their arrogance dearly, and it showed.

It all just hinges on Bell, Collingwood and Jones. I think picking Giles over Panesar shows a lack of confidence by Fletcher in his team's ability to bat...I think he fears yet another classic batting collapse (quite probabble considering the huge amount of pressure on the lads) and wants to shore up the riverbank as much as possible if you get my drift.

Still though, at the end of the day, I have widescreen HD TV...and you Aussies haven't.

Ha. Ha. HA.

An Tarbh: I hate Sky's coverage. Too glitzy and interested in media sensationalism with too many annoying "WHOOSH" sound effects when their metallic scorecards appear and vanish into the night.

Its quite ironic that the best cricket coverage in the UK was produced by Sunset & Vine: an American company who's previous exploits were exporting NHL hockey to Channel 5 in the UK.

Cricket on 4 was awesome. Excellent commentating line up, good presenting line up, the analyst, PROPER use of Hawkeye and anaylsis of it...it was awesome watching the Ashes last year on Channel 4.

 

[An Tarbh]

I can't access the BBC online highlights so were they taking their coverage from 9 or do they have their own team out there? The one thing I like about the cricket from Australia is that their coverage is excellent, except one bloke that seems to get a bit over excited but it's a bit of comedy value sort of like Bumble on Sky, who seems to working with channel 9, there does seem to be more variety in the commentary box which is good, anything that keeps Michael Atherton out is a good thing imo, replace him with Mark Nicholas and Sky would be all set.

 

[Prestwick]

It was 9 Network all the way baby! Australia ALWAYS has a guy thats going over excited! Don't you watch the International Rules coverage in Australia?!

All you hear is "AND ITS ALL KICKING OFF ALL OVER THE PLACE MUA HA HAAA*SLURP* *wipes away froth from his mouth* HARRR HARR HARR PUNCHES EVERYWHERE!" and not much else, which makes it boring really.

Essentially replace the entire Sky team and just get Sunset & Vine to do it with the old Cricket on 4 commentating team. Thing is, Boycott and Benaud refuse to commentate on pay to view television so it'll never happen sadly hence why Benaud is staying with 9 Network and Boycott is currently hauraanging Test Match Special.

 

[BokMagic]

I seriously believe England do have the firepower to make some inroads into this series, although the 1st test seems to be beyond them even after the 1st day. But are they going into the series in the right frame of mind, ie trying to attack rather than defend?

The middle order with Pietersen and Flintoff certainly suggests so, but why oh why are Geriant Jones and Ashley Giles playing ahead of Chris Read and Monty Panesar? For their superior batting skills probably- but I would rather have started with Read and Panesar- the one will catch anything, if Jones misses a half-chance against that potent Aussie batting line-up, it could easily cost 100+ runs. And in Panesar you guys have the one thing that England have been lacking in recent years- a genuine quality wicket-taking spin-bowler. I bet the Aussies would be slightly more cautious of preparing a typical Sydney spinning track for Warney if they had the possibility of losing the toss and facing a genuine wicket-taking spinner in Panesar in the 4th innings. Reckon most batsmen would rather negotiate 30 overs of Giles` up-and-down consistent stuff than some Panesar rippers.

 

[An Tarbh]

Giles is certainly in for his batting which is a reasonable call but Jones isn't. Read is much better with the bat than Jones and his glovework is far superiour. There did seem to be a bit of a witchhunt against Read by Sky by pointing out his weaknesses every opportunity they got, they just failed to mention that Jones was worse.

 

[BokMagic]

What- something wrong with Read`s glove-work?

I reckon he`s one of the best glovesmen around- if his batting has improved over the last season, which I presume it has, then he should be an absolute cert to start in Tests. For a shining example of poor glovework, one has to look no further than Jones- he dropped, what, about 7 catches in the last Ashes series. What I`m saying is, should he fail to hang onto an offering of, shall we say, Ponting on 10 or so somewhere during this series, it could easily cost 100+ runs, Read should be the incumbment, as his glovework is far superior.

 

[An Tarbh]

Never said there was a problem with Read's glove work, it's obviously with Jones, was lucky to last as long as he did without getting dropped just a strange call to put him back in there given Read did nothing to merrit being dropped.

 

[Prestwick]

I thought it was the other way round. That Jones was picked initially because he was good with the bat to make up for his awful keeping and Read was good with the gloves but awful at batting!

I totally agree with Bok on Panesar. We needed someone to not just hold up the other end and keep things quiet for the pace attack to do some damage, but to go on the attack themselves on the other end. If we had Panesar doing some really aggressive bowling while Hoggard and Flintoff toil away on the other end that might have starved the Aussies of opportunities and forced them into taking some risks.

Instead all we had was Giles bowling round the wicket again!

 

[An Tarbh]

Well I don't think England can afford to go in with 4 no 11 batsmen, obviously Monty offers far more in the bowling dept but it is an understandable call.

As for Jones, yes that was the reason given, that his batting was the reason he was picked, but he consistently failed and his glove work on top of that was cack. Read really worked on his batting and was in great form with his county.

 

[ak47]

Just suddenly noticed something when watching the Ashes highlights on BBC...
You losers down under don't broadcast in widescreen!!!! Whats with all this 4:3 aspect rubbish?! Do you still go by horse and cart down there or something?!
[/b]

:lol2tn:

UR A FARKIN LOONY

I bought an STB for the 2005 Ashes.
I plugged it in again for the first time since that series yesterday!

AND ITS IN WIDESCREEN U BLOODY TOOL

So get off your high horse cause we need it to get to the match

Seriously, i'd say its the international feed, but i can confirm I am watching this telecast in widescreen...FFS i can see gully when the batter is playing a shot.

Idiot...fix ur feed, or telecast coz its an issue at ur end.........which i assume is in England

 

[St Helens RLFC]

We're staring a heavy defeat in the face at the moment providing the a
Aussies don't collapse.

 

[Black-Monday]

Is any other die hard fan like me having to listen to blowers chirp on about pigeons/lack of, to get their ashes fix?

BM