The 5th Test

[bristol-iain]

Tomorrow begins the 5th and Final test in the 2009 Ashes (duh!)

England need to win to regain the Urn, the Aussies keep it if they win or if the game is a draw. Jon Trott debuts for England, Brett Lee may or may not play and the game is the final test in Freddie Flintoffs test career.

I think England will do it.

 

[shazbooger]

Dont thin you have a chance to be honest. Its a team built on Strauss, Flintoff and now Andersen. The rest are decidedly average, even more so against the Aussies.

Would like to see you win, but just dont see it happening.

 

[An Tarbh]

all the momentum is with the Aussies, their problems have been addressed i.e. the form of the bowlers whereas England's middle order has consistently looked as solid as a house of cards throughout.

Don't think Trott is the answer, Key would have been the man for me, even the call for Ramprakash wasn't off the mark considering he's averaging 100 in the county championship. The move to Surrey has just transformed him as a player.

Flintoff being back is huge for England and while they may have a better chance of picking up 20 wickets it's hard to see them picking up enough runs with the bat.

 

[William18]

Trott doesn't seem very scary to me but he has to be better then Bopara.

 

[St Helens RLFC]

England 307-8 at close of play. Very poor from the middle order yet again.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

another solid effort from the big victorian, although he doesn't seem to have learned not to bowl on strauss' pads, far too strong in that area.

now we need to wrap the tail up cheaply and put some value on our wickets and hopefully post a massive score which gives england no chance of victory.

 

[Jethro]

Aussies knocked over for 160, Broad a 5 for. England 58/3 .... did someone drive a combine harvestor over the pitch or something?

 

[QLD]

Well done to England, that blonde ******* is a great bowler and his batting technique.. works somehow.

Why didn't Clark bowl yesterday?

 

[Prestwick]

Great work by England so far but never ever underestimate their ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory..

..also, hilariously awful ABC commentators on Test Match Special. Spent most of yesterday morning swooning and coo'ing over Shane Watson and how wonderful he is and then the moment things swung England's way, they just started talking about Usain Bolt, the weather, fishing, motorsport, the current political situation in New South Wales, the North Pole, the status of the Pioneer deep-space mission, basically anything other than talking about the cricket

I would be moaning but actually, its refreshingly one-eyed because the English TMS commentators are just as poor sometimes because of their slavish insistence on being "impartial" and "non-controversial" which is why its hilarious when Boycott rampages into the TMS booth and tears Aggers and the other English commentators to bits!

 

[St Helens RLFC]

Get in! Happy days! Absolutely DELIGHTED with that today. I was getting a wobbly arse until Ponting and Clarke went quick time, from then on despite Haddin making a nuisance of himself I knew we'd got it wrapped up. It's fantastic that Freddie ran Ponting out, he struggled with the ball and he clearly was in pain, but that's the man. I am heartbroken he's gone from test cricket, he's only 31. Absolutely heartbroken. My favourite cricketer ever.

The Aussies have generally been good sports, we've won our two games by such massive margins they can't really argue with it. The stats are odd but like Strauss said, we won the key moments when they came about... hanging on in Cardiff, skittling them out in the first innings at Lords, winning the toss at the Oval and so many occasions in the last match... bowling them out for 160, Trott and Strauss digging in yesterday, Flintoff running Ponting out... absolutely huge moments.

Well done England though, deserved their win and showed a lot of grit throughout the series, Headingley aside.

Now let the moaning commence.

 

[Bullitt]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOO!

That is all.

 

[bristol-iain]

I've paid my dues -
Time after time -
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand kicked in my face -
But I've come through

We are the champions - my friends
And we'll keep on fighting - till the end -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for Aussies
'Cause we are the champions - of the world -


simples

 

[C A Iversen]

As a kiwi I've been watching this non-stop, with nothing but support for the English. I love the english cricketing culture, the grounds, the atmosphere, the fact that their players have arrogance sure, but unlike the Australians in recent years it has an acceptable upper limit. Plus for years now, England has shared a similar problem to New Zealand. Under performance. So it's great to see that turn around.

One person who has been more gracious than usual is Ricky Ponting, but his improvement in humility and his lowering arrogance seems to have come with the downward slide of Australian cricket's international ranking over the last 2 years. I'm not a big fan of the man or his tactics in general, but at least in this case he's conducted himself in post match interviews with some dignity. About time.

Looking back to Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, I'm not sure any of those guys have lost two Ashes Series in their tenure as captains. I wonder how long it's been since that happened to an Aussie captain?

Anyhow, hats off to England. Celebrate hard and bring your A game to Australia in '11!!!!!!!!!

 

[InsaneAsylum]

well done to england, deserved winners. it's been said a few times in the media over here "england won the crucial battles throughout the series". in hindsight hauritz would have been a better option than stuart clark... watching swann bowl helps to back that up.

 

[C A Iversen]

I must say that even though I said what I did earlier, it's great to hear that Australians in general have reacted so fairly to this result.

 

[QLD]

Awesome result for cricket. I just hope the Aussie series in 2010/11 is this exciting and not one sided.

Hussey did a complete Hayden. Hayden scored a ton in his last Ashes innings in 2005 to save his career. He went on to score centuries in like 6 consecutive test matches. Hopefully Huss does the same.

 

[QLD]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (C A Iversen @ Aug 24 2009, 10:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

As a kiwi I've been watching this non-stop, with nothing but support for the English. I love the english cricketing culture, the grounds, the atmosphere[/b]

Lords and the Oval are incredible stadiums. The rest were pretty dodge though.

 

[InsaneAsylum]

stuart broad played in my competition a few years back, he's turned into a pretty handy cricketer

 

[Wally]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (C A Iversen @ Aug 24 2009, 01:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Looking back to Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, I'm not sure any of those guys have lost two Ashes Series in their tenure as captains. I wonder how long it's been since that happened to an Aussie captain?[/b]

The result means Ricky Ponting has the unwanted tag of being the first Australian captain in 119 years to lose two Ashes series in England.

 

[Prestwick]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dale @ Aug 24 2009, 11:08 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (C A Iversen @ Aug 24 2009, 10:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As a kiwi I've been watching this non-stop, with nothing but support for the English. I love the english cricketing culture, the grounds, the atmosphere[/b]

Lords and the Oval are incredible stadiums. The rest were pretty dodge though.
[/b][/quote]

Edgebaston and Trent Bridge are the real gems outside of London and after being to both twice I really do love them just as much as I do the Oval. Trent Bridge has several lovely new stands AND has this awesome pub which acts as an entrance to the ground so you can get a pint of Marstons pulled for you properly while you're inside the ground Edgebaston is a confusing mixture of old and new but just has this charm about it. Magic happens there. You can feel it....just not while its raining, eh?

The rest though, quite dodge. Cardiff is just too new (although set in nice surroundings), the Headingley complex (both cricket and rugby sides) has to be one of the weirdest stadiums on earth having been built to provide as inefficient use of land as possible. You could get like 30,000 in at the Rugby League side of Headingley for the same use of land that they've made but its absolutely awful. Add to that the fact that its falling apart slowly and you know why they rarely get a test match sent their way these days.

Old Trafford I can't comment on.

I think this Ashes series has been fantastic. Swinging to and fro every session from start to finish which is what the world oldest sporting rivalry should be about. I've got a few Indian chaps in my office who spent most of the run up to the Ashes bashing Test Cricket and saying how much more exciting Twenty20 was, etc. Guess what? They were as glued to the BBC Sport updater as I was. Hypocrites.