England spank the Aussies for 400 in one day!

[Mount Suribachi]

England fight back!


407 in one day!!!!

(less than a full day actually )

Nice to see Warne taking a pasting from Trescothic, Flintoff, Pieterson

A big 2 fingers to all the aussies who were gloating about a 5-0 series (Mathew Hayden I'm looking in your direction) and to all those poms who wrote us off after a few bad sessions in the first test.

There is a reason why we're number 2 in the world you know

Now, if we can produce another bowling performance like the 1st innings at Lords...



Oh, and as for McGrath being injured, I don't want to hear a single whinge from the Australians about it. We've spent most of the last 15 years playing Ashes series with our best players being missing...Atherton, Thorpe, Hussein, Gough. About time it was your turn for a change. No word on how serious it is, but speaking as someone who's done his ankle ligaments twice, he'll almost certainly miss the 3rd test. Maybe even the series.

[The Stranger]

what frigging sport is this. cricket??

[Mount Suribachi]

Test match cricket is the highest level of cultural and sporting excellence. To be a truly great nation you must play Test Cricket.

And England scored 400 runs in a day!

[tibilicus]

Wow Us? England?! Fantastic. I will not speak to soon though however. How well did Vaughn bat if he did bat? Actually i will check out Sky sports news now.

[Mount Suribachi]

Vaughan played really well till he got to 24, good foot movement, some lovely strokes through the covers, then top edged a pull to fine leg

[Proletariat]

What the hell did you get 400 of? Points?

Is that like getting 12 goals in a soccer game?

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

From what I understand of cricket, very high scores are normal.

Bloody silly game.

[Marcellus]

What the hell did you get 400 of? Points?

Is that like getting 12 goals in a soccer game?

We got 400 runs. Here's Wikipedia on the topic of runs:

To score a run, a striker must hit the ball and run to the opposite end of the pitch, while his non-striking partner runs to his end. Both runners must touch the ground behind the popping crease with either his bat or his body to register a run. If the striker hits the ball well enough, the batsmen may double back to score two or more runs. This is known as running between wickets. But there is no tip and run rule, so the batsmen are not required to attempt a run when the ball is hit. If the batsmen score an odd number of runs, then they will have swapped ends and their roles as striker and non-striker will be reversed for the next ball, unless the most recent ball marks the end of an over.

If a fielder knocks the bails off the stumps with the ball while no batsman is grounded behind the nearest popping crease, the nearest batsman is run out. If the ball goes over the boundary, then four runs are scored, or six if the ball has not bounced. Also, if the ball hits a player's helmet placed on the field, five runs are scored. This occurs very rarely but is an offical rule.

High scores are common, although 400 is still pretty high.

I'm going to wait until Australia have finished too before passing comment, though.

[Papewaio]

Oh Lord, Please let this be an exciting series worthy of watching late at night. I will be looking after the newborn so a few good nights of watching TV will be very nice. 5 tight test matches with the deciding on the 5th would be most excellent.

----

Cricket is to baseball what American Football is to Soccer. Similar but only just.

To understand the score in cricket imagine if in baseball everybase a batsmen got to he scored a point (run). Also every ball hit out of the ground on the full is worth 6 points.

There is 2 innings per side. With 10 batsmen to be got out before the other side takes over. The batsmen stay on the ground until they are out.

There is only two wickets (bases). One wicket (base) is the batting pitch for 6 bowls (one over = 6 bowls, one bowl = a pitch in baseball terms), then the other wicket is for the next over. A bowler (pitcher) only does one over, then an alternate bowler does the next. Most teams have 4 key bowlers.

The batsmen run back and forth between the wickets. One will be at the bowling end, while the other will be waiting at the other (like a person on a 1st to 3rd base waiting to run).

[Alrowan]

ahh these pommies get excited at the first sniff of a test match going thier way

last i recall in the first game they had the aussies all out for like 190, but then england did a LOT worse, and yet how many were gloating after that first innings? most i bet ;)


in a test match its anyones game, still a few days left of it, so English fans id suggest u shut up and gloat when you have actually won the game, otherwise it will most likly come back to bite ur ass

all that said, it was a great innings form england, but the wicket is a batters wicket so its rather expected that this game will see high scores from both sides. As to Australias reply, they have the skill and the ability to match or even better what the english side posted, so in reality its anyones game

[Roark]

Papewaio, are you explaining the rules of cricket to people are not members of the Commonwealth????

407 is not a monstrous score on that wicket. The pitch was pretty true all day.

I'll be barracking for the Pommies tonight, though, until they win a Test.

Then it's blood.

Flintoff and Pieterson were pretty impressive last night. It's always nice to see Warne get smacked around, the smug bar-steward...

Harmison had better put on a good show for us tonight, or I'll have to start throwing peas at the TV again.

Oh, and Suribachi... your worst enemy is not us, or even the Australian team. It's the cannibalistic press corps of the UK. A bloody horrible bunch of carrion feeders, IMHO. They make our Daily Telegraph look like a cake recipe journal, and they love nothing more than to kick a sportsman when he's down.

[Duke of Gloucester]

407 is not a monstrous score on that wicket. The pitch was pretty true all day.

True, but scoring them in one day was "monstrous". Unfortunately you do not get any bonus for scoring quickly and I have a horrible feeling Australia could get at least 100 runs more and go on to win the match. I would be much happier if we had only scored 300, but had 7 wickets in hand. A score of 600 after 2 days is much better than 400 after 1 day.

To win test matches you have to sieze opportunities. England had two yesterday - McGrath was injured and Ponting's decision to bowl first. I don't think we have done enough. Time will tell.

Papewaio, are you explaining the rules of cricket to people are not members of the Commonwealth????

No American is going to understand the idea of playing a game for five whole days, running out of time and calling it a draw.

[JAG]

We sucked. After such a good start we crimbled and fell like we always do, I was so damn dissapointed.

I expect the Aussies to get 600+ and us to be in a hole.

Ah well.

[Efrem]

Hah! That'll teach you to mess with us!

[Mount Suribachi]

I always reserve judgement on any wicket until both sides have batted on it. Maybe it is a belter and England were under par, we'll see.

But still, 407 runs, in 80 overs, against Australia, on any wicket is amazing.

And why is it every cricket thread we have yanks and euros going The yanks should never have had that war of independance, then they might understand cricket

[Al Khalifah]

I'd love it if we won this test and I think we have a good chance, though the Australians did get very lucky last night with the rain disrupting play. That could change everything, since their batsmen will have to come out one less time fresh. An early wicket or too should see England win this innings, but if the top order is allowed to linger too long or if we see another tail-wag then it could go wrong.

Whatever happens we mustn't lose this test. Only once has a country not lost the Ashes after losing the first 2 tests.

[Productivity]

It's certainly hasn't been boring. First plenty of wickets, then plenty of wickets with plenty of runs.

[GodsPetMonkey]

I'd love it if we won this test and I think we have a good chance, though the Australians did get very lucky last night with the rain disrupting play. That could change everything, since their batsmen will have to come out one less time fresh. An early wicket or too should see England win this innings, but if the top order is allowed to linger too long or if we see another tail-wag then it could go wrong.

Whatever happens we mustn't lose this test. Only once has a country not lost the Ashes after losing the first 2 tests.

I think it's interesting looking at the 2 sides batting line ups.

To me it seems as if the English have a good top of the batting line up, but their middle order is where it all falls apart, they can't seem to hang around (and playing defensively never works for them either).
The Australian top order either blows everything away, or goes down fast, but it's the middle order which causes the most headaches (and never seem to go away).

But the pitch for this match seems to be incredibly favourable for batters (the opposite of that for the last match really). I wasn't sure if yesterdays play was a test or one day game! I do hope the English mount a challenge... whilst dominating the sport may seem good, it's terribly dull to watch.

No American is going to understand the idea of playing a game for five whole days, running out of time and calling it a draw.

*UPPER CLASS POMMY ACCENT* Now now, it's not the colonials fault that they cannot understand the gentlemanly sport of cricket, if we give them time to evolve, they shall cast off the shackles of their primitive sports and embrace cricket in all it's glory!

[Ianofsmeg16]

I wouldnt expect foreigners to understand Cricket, it's a gentlemans sport :)
good ol' England kicking the colonies' ass!!!

[Al Khalifah]

To me it seems as if the English have a good top of the batting line up, but their middle order is where it all falls apart, they can't seem to hang around (and playing defensively never works for them either).

The English middle order is excellent, the best in years. Pieterson and Flintoff.

[Es Arkajae]

good ol' England kicking the colonies' ass!!!

You sure you're following the same sport as the rest of us?

[Duke of Gloucester]

308 all out means that England have the advantage for now.

*UPPER CLASS POMMY ACCENT* Now now, it's not the colonials fault that they cannot understand the gentlemanly sport of cricket, if we give them time to evolve, they shall cast off the shackles of their primitive sports and embrace cricket in all it's glory!

[Mount Suribachi]

Indeed, we need to get at least 250 in the second innings, but after seeing that ball of Warnes turn square..

[Alrowan]

hmm 4 out and not even 40

go england??

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

lets hope for the sake of the game they can hold out till 150

[dessa14]

haha england win...hahaha!
australia will always win the ashes while we have decent players.
but in all seriousness, good luck england, but i doubt your chances, 400 runs might be nice on a batting pitch, but remember one player can hit 400 hundred in an innings, especially against crappy english bowlers.
thanks,
dizzy

[Alrowan]

well looks like england couldnt dig in enough in thier seccond innings scoring a mere 180 odd runs, giving the aussies a relativly comfortable catchup of 300ish in 2 and a half days of play

at this point if the aussies mess up, something seriously went wrong for them.

[Productivity]

At which point, you find that we do mess up and England shoudl easily win this now...

Now can someone deal with Flintoff - maybe take him out a la. McGrath?

[Duke of Gloucester]

Yep

Over 100 behind and only two wickets in hand. Mind you, it isn't over until the last wicket falls.

Very entertaining (but wierd) day of cricket.

[King Edward]

Ah hahahahahaha!!!! Alworan, Dessa, Efrem who is laughing now!!! England? win? you better bloody believe it !!!!!!

[Alrowan]

lol im still laughing, mainly cus this has actually been one of the most exciting cricket matches in a long while, first one team up, then the other, its awesome :D

tbh, id rather see a great game than my own side win, and as for the ashes id rather see a great and exciting series, ending with 1 match difference (australia in the lead of course) than a whitewash.

So hats off to the pommeys for actually giving the veiwers a series worth watching :D

oh btw, it still is SLIGHTLY posible to come back and win for the aussies, only cus macgrath ISNT batting