Ashes 2009

[JRD]

The ashes seem to be slipping… Cardiff may really come back to bite us now!

Yep.

The fact Hilfenhaus, Siddle or Johnson couldn't get Monty Panesar out is a disgrace.

But they're our "future" apparently. And if thats the case, anyone else wanna join me and live in the past?

Bowling a part time spinner to these two is what is going to cost us the ashes,any of those bowlers you talk about should have had a shot at them in the last few overs.It might really be time for ponting to step down as skipper 2 ashes loses over there is a joke

 

[JRD]

2 wickets in 2 overs 2-90 we are gone will be all over before tea

 

[G_Strombolli]

This is painful. And, really, we don't deserve to win and fully deserve to lose our no. 1 ranking. We've played dreadfully for most of the series and currently Ponting and Hussey (who looked completely frazzled for the first 20 balls or so) are blocking the day away. The only thing that will redeem this particular match is a historic partnership between two blokes who are actually batting like they want it, i.e. Clarke and North.

 

[Peaches]

Watson another start but LBW again. Deffinately a technique problem. Not an opener but could do a job in the middle order if his bowling improved.

Katich another start too. Bloke seems to get stuck and probably isn't making the most of his good form with not many big scores.

Hussey and Ponting are going along well. Along time to go and Hussey needs to win/save this match if he wants to be in the baggy green again. His fielding is superb and its more his mental side. Probably too much cricket and its always baffled me why they name him in the 20/20 side. Maybe he should retire from the shorter forms to concentrate on his test performances.

 

[alien]

a draw will see us keep the ashes. we should just pick 11 of our best batsmen. forget the bowlers. there is no way england would have enough time to get us out twice :laughing:

i bet they are wishing they did this now…

 

[Peaches]

2 run-outs in the space of 5 balls when Hussey and Ponting were cruising.

Hussey looks better but still nervous and takes a run that isn't needed. Ponting trusts him and gets run out. Clarke walks out facing Swann. He uses his feet and flicks the ball off his pads. The ball rebounds of the silly legs leg to Strauss 1st slip who flicks it at the stumps. It looks awlfully close but theres a frame where the bail is just out of its groove and his bat isn't quite in. Any other time they don't have that frame.

Ridiculous. No luck. England are so darn arsey.

 

[huddgiant01]

what did i tell you guys :wink: we have the ashes in the bag :smiley:

 

[Peaches]

Typical England win. All the luck in the world and some blokes in poor form in the other side.

 

[huddgiant01]

Typical England win. All the luck in the world and some blokes in poor form in the other side.

we dont need luck when we have all that talent haha

 

[stryker]

Yeah pretty disappointing especially that mong Flintoff going out a winner

 

[huddgiant01]

well what can i say :smiley:
can we play you every week :wink:

 

[Magpie]

England=sth africa B side…..

 

[Peaches]

Poor Ponting. These selectors are dead-set ridiculous. England play well but we try to give them every helping hand. Guys like Warne, McGrath, Langer, Hayden, Martyen, the Waugh twins. Fresh blood and common sense is needed with selectors. How on earth Hauritz does not make this final 11 is a joke.

 

[Jazza]

The selectors have to go!!

They dont know how to treat spin bowlers, they dropped Casson after a solid first match.

They played Cameron White in India!

They drop Krezja after his 2nd test on a WACA batting paradise.

And now they drop Hauritz after not doing a single thing wrong in any of the matches he has played, and then they dont play him on a spinning deck. He is just as good as Swann and look how Swann went!

Add to that they play Hussey through what, 15 tests without a 100, while drop Hughes after 2 tests without a 100.

 

[Zaibatsu]

The selectors have to go!!

They dont know how to treat spin bowlers, they dropped Casson after a solid first match.

They played Cameron White in India!

They drop Krezja after his 2nd test on a WACA batting paradise.

And now they drop Hauritz after not doing a single thing wrong in any of the matches he has played, and then they dont play him on a spinning deck. He is just as good as Swann and look how Swann went!

Add to that they play Hussey through what, 15 tests without a 100, while drop Hughes after 2 tests without a 100.

Hard to argue with that, we lost the series OFF the field.

 

[alien]

i know this theory will be mind blowing for most of you but maybe, just maybe, england won the ashes because they are the better team…

:astonished: shock horror :astonished:

 

[Juro]

Amazing how that series came down to a handful of sessions where England dominated. Australia were even with them or dominated for most of the rest of the time but getting bowled out in the first innings of Lords and the Oval was just too much for them to fight back from.

Anyway, congratulations to the English team. I'm looking forward to the next ashes down here now…

 

[Juro]

Here's a good read. I also read it in the context of where the Wests Tigers are at the moment…

**10 lessons in losing (for the Australians)**
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8218358.stm
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The Australian cricket team and its fans are having to get used to something unprecedented in their recent history and alien to the nation's sporting culture - losing.
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But the UK has a wealth of experience in recent decades and has learned a slew of lessons that Australians - with their history of excellence in athletic endeavour - may want to consider taking on board. And there are lessons from elsewhere.
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1\. Losing helps to sustain sporting rivalries. The current see-saw nature of the Ashes is giving the contest a level of interest it struggled to sustain during periods of total Australian dominance. The same occurs in other sports - was tennis quite as interesting when Roger Federer was all-conquering? He loses matches to Rafael Nadal and a magical rivalry ensues.
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This loss motivated Sugar Ray
2\. Losing motivates the loser. Look first at the 5-0 Australian whitewash in 2006/7 that followed the traumatic defeat in England in 2005\. But there are plenty of sports where the loser has used defeat to their advantage.
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Sugar Ray Robinson is regarded by many as the greatest boxer ever to live. He suffered one of the greatest upsets in the sport's history when he was beaten by Randolph Turpin in 1951\. But he won the rematch, a sequence repeated with Jake LaMotta, Carmen Basilio and Gene Fullmer.
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Missed again
3\. Losing can become a mythology. Take the Chicago Cubs. Their failure since 1908 to win the World Series is a big part of the team's identity. Their failure to reach the World Series at all since 1945 is attributed to a curse that followed the ejection of a man and his goat from the stadium. The Boston Red Sox laboured under a similar curse from 1918 until 2004\. Manchester City have no curse, but have made the chaotic events at the club and their failure to win major honours for three decades a big part of the thinking of many fans.
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4\. It's easy to love the plucky loser. English football has built up the notion of the proud defeat to epic proportions. Be an eternal and bullish winner and you are nobody's favourite nation. But have a few glorious defeats, and past accusations of arrogance are soon forgotten.
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And yours mate...
5\. Use losing to get in touch with one's emotions. Who can forget John Terry's tears after missing the crucial penalty in Chelsea's defeat by Manchester United in Moscow?
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6\. Losing can be used to improve facilities. If Britain did not have such a poor record at tennis - in the pre-Murray years - would so much work have been done to improve the quality of coaching? And while many may doubt that the quality of public courts is going up across the board, there are many splendid indoor centres where the impetus has come from the desire to produce a champion.
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It's the taking part that counts
7\. Seek out the eccentric loser. The story of Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards was enchanting. It was not his failure to trouble the podium that stuck in the mind. Instead, it was his bravery, pluck and drive that led to him being lauded. The thick glasses and the stories of cobbled together training missions helped create a legend.
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8\. Losers can find redemption. Would Graham Taylor have found such affection from football fans if he had not once been so vilified for losing? Would the late legend Sir Bobby Robson have had the drive to manage abroad for so long if he had triumphed in the World Cup? And few England fans can forget Stuart Pearce's reaction to a successful penalty against Spain in 1996, after the hurt of missing one against Germany in 1990.
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9\. Practise scapegoating. English football fans have mastered this art in recent decades. 1986's World Cup failure was because Diego Maradona was a cheat and the ref was blind. 1994's failure to qualify was all down to Graham Taylor's ineptitude. 1998's elimination was down to David Beckham's petulance. 2002 was all about Sven-Goran Eriksson fielding half-fit players. 2006 was all about Cristiano Ronaldo's winking gamesmanship.
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10\. And always remember that if losing does nothing else, it makes the next victory sweeter. Maybe in 18 months time, in the next Ashes instalment...

 

[Jazza]

i know this theory will be mind blowing for most of you but maybe, just maybe, england won the ashes because they are the better team…

:astonished: shock horror :astonished:

Yeh well thats going to happen when their selectors pick the right team while ours dont.

 

[alien]

i know this theory will be mind blowing for most of you but maybe, just maybe, england won the ashes because they are the better team…

:astonished: shock horror :astonished:

Yeh well thats going to happen when their selectors pick the right team while ours dont.

England could make the same excuse when they lose against us.