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Well it's lunch & England are making a fight of it with the score 2/118 & Butcher & Hussain have looked pretty good.
I doubt that England will win but I'd rather we went down giving it a go than playing for the draw even if that does increase the risk of a 'Greenwash'.
red+black
20 Aug 2001, 22:24
call me stupid but i think england will win. brett lee is a shocker
Draw looks likely.
Bloody weather!
joshhem
20 Aug 2001, 23:08
**** we're gone
GOALden Hawk
21 Aug 2001, 10:37
How embarrassing.
Fat Red
21 Aug 2001, 14:59
It's a bad result, but I don't think there's any humiliation in it. We are a much better team than England, that's why we're leading 3-1. We gave them a very generous declaration because we wanted to win not draw. Fair enough.
HOWEVER, Brett Lee should not have been picked, he is just not in form, and the McGrath-Gillespie-Lee combo is too similar.
GOALden Hawk
21 Aug 2001, 15:27
Agree Fat Red...it's time to give Fleming a go - and time for Lee to learn a bit more about bowling accurately.
Congratulations England.
In the end...they still had to get the runs! Well done Butcher...given those Poms something to smile about.
red+black
21 Aug 2001, 18:37
fantastic knock by butcher, i take nothing away from him
wasn't happy our sooky boys didn't bat during bad light on day 3
stupid declaration, even worse if england had their 20 overs on day 4, might have been over before tea on day 5
lee must go, obvious call was to drop him PRIOR to the 4th test
how flemmo or the aussie test cricketer of the year can't get a game is beyond me.
our openers are struggling. STUPID STUPID call to just take two openers. like d'oh
that said, england would have chased down 400 the way butcher was playing. they look much better with stewart at 7. not sure about afzaal, though one off drive he played in the match was a gem.
just hope warne can get his 400th and mcgrath his 356th in the 5th test.
The Hippie
22 Aug 2001, 00:04
Why is it a stupid declaration, he had to give England some incentive to go for a win and enough time to bowl them out. It took a bloody good innings to win the game for them. If it weren't for the rain, they (England) wouldn't have been in a position to win the game, if the Aussies had been able to bat on in the normal way, they'd have set a target of 450-500, the pitch would have a chance to wear more and it's a totally different game. It didn't, Gilchrist took a chance and Butcher denied us. I reckon congratulations all round for giving the game a result.
I doubt whether he would have made the declaration if the series was 2-0 rather than 3-0-it's just that they wanted the whitewash badly & were prepared to risk losing the game to give it a go.
As someone who watched virtually the whole day on TV I have to say it looked pretty hairy for England early on the ball kept taking off from a good length, hence Athers dismissal & one went over Gilly's head for 4 byes.Hussain came in & hit a six off Gillespie & lost the ball & after that the replacement ball never misbehaved at all.
It's interesting that on a pitch that wasn't turning much & where there was no swing on the last day the Aussie attack looked playable for the 1st time this season.
Of course it was good to see Butcher play well & to get the win but to judge by everyone's reaction afterwards you'd think that England had outplayed Australia & forced the win rather than we were outplayed for 4 days & benefitted from a declaration in good batting conditions-oh & it seems as if people have forgotton hat we've already lost the bloody series.
In some ways it would have been better to lose 5-0 cos now with this win & if we win or draw the last Test people are going to be saying that the gap between the teams isn't that great rather than confronting the reality that it's huge & that we need to get our act together.
Oh well let's hope that Rod Marsh can wave his magic wand & turn a few of our lazy, gutless no-hoper young players into genuine Test Match cricketers.