Australia v England 1st ODI (of 7) @ The Oval D/N (Friday 10pm AEST)

[Cousin Jed]

1st of 7 in what should be a thrilling and absorbing (:rolleyes:) series between the two countries, in the lead up to another meaningless ODI tournament in the Champions Trophy.

Ponting's got the feet up, Haddin can't get the fingers straight so Tim Paine will be acting as the keeper for the series and Clarke will keep Ponting's number 3 (most likely) and captain's position warm in the interim.

Brett Lee will have great memories of the ground as last time he appeared at the Oval Chris Gayle dispatched him to the next county several times. Australia will be keen for some players to establish themselves in the middle order with Ferguson/White/Voges all likely to feature at some stage and under pressure Mike Hussey trying to hold onto his spot

Australian Squad

Ponting
Clarke
Watson
M Hussey
White
Ferguson
Voges
Paine
Manou
Hopes
Johnson
Lee
Bracken
Hilfenhaus
Hauritz
Siddle

England have already lost Denly to another football related injury (maybe time to give that one a rest hey guys?) with Bopara who has been found to be well and truly out of his depth so far by the Australians expected to join Strauss at the top of the order.

England Squad

Strauss
Bopara
Morgan
Denly
Bresnan
Broad
Collingwood
Prior
Anderson
Sidebottom
Wright
Swann
Rashid
Shah

Expecting a fine day for this one, no word on whether the bowler's run ups are in good condition though.

Live coverage from 9.30pm AEST on both Fox Sports and SBS

Cricinfo Scorecard (http://www.cricinfo.com/engvaus2009/engine/current/match/350043.html)

[Cousins2Higgins]

Looking forward to it - pity I have to be at work at 8 in the morning. :thumbsd:

[Hellgood]

This series is huge. For the future of one day cricket I mean. If it's an exciting series which ends 4-3 or at least 4 out of the 7 games are exciting it could drum up sme intrest for future ODI's. If it as I predict a total borefest, it could signify the end of ODI's altogether.

[grizzlym]

I'm looking forward to this game.

To prepare myself for the inevitable shock of Damien Martyn and his serial killer eyes, I've hung a picture of Charles Manson over the telly. Might pop the White Album on the iPod too.

Bring it on.

[Masten_Magic]

Denly is injured

[Kahuna]

Will watch for a few hours after the footy is done with. Won't show too much interest in it, struggling to get into cricket lately.

[Cousin Jed]

Clarke can't call a coin either. England win the toss and bowl first playing 2 spinners.

1 Shane Watson, 2 Tim Paine (wk) , 3 Cameron White, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Callum Ferguson, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 James Hopes, 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Nathan Hauritz, 11 Nathan Bracken

1 Ravi Bopara, 2 Andrew Strauss (capt), 3 Matt Prior (wk), 4 Owais Shah, 5 Paul Collingwood , 6 Luke Wright, 7 Stuart Broad, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Ryan Sidebottom.

[Dez!]

White at 3 is interesting, I like the fact that he's been given some responsibility up the order but I'm not entirely sure 3 is the ideal position for him.

Paine opening with Watson was the logical conclusion, hopefully he can get some runs in this series.

[Chris25]

I wouldn't mind seeing White get a chance at #3. Maybe that will be what he needs to finally do something at international level. And really there weren't a lot of other options. Clarke does his best work at 4, and Ferguson is in excellent form batting at 5.

[aussie1st]

Clarke could still promote himself to 3. White probably would go better at 5 in a Symonds type role and Ferguson plays 4 for SA.

[Dez!]

And there goes Paine, what the hell was that?

[aussie1st]

Would pinned that down to Watson, not the greatest call. Cam White indeed in at 3, certainly gives him the most time hes ever had in ODIs.

[Gak Attack]

Very poor by Watson running out a bloke playing his first proper one dayer for a duck. Better make it up to the Aussies now with a good innings, love to see White slowly get his eye in here and then unleash.

[Cousin Jed]

White would have the worst technique from a number 3 for Australia.

Sidebottom looks like he was plucked out of a pub somewhere

[aussie1st]

White starting to let loose, this could be the making of him.

[Dez!]

White would have the worst technique from a number 3 for Australia.

Sidebottom looks like he was plucked out of a pub somewhere

He seems to be pushing down on his defensive shots likes he's jamming down a yorker, looking effective though.

Sidebottom just looks like a hobo.

[Cousin Jed]

Geez Nasser - you never heard of Hopes?? Where you been living man.

[Dez!]

Yes Watto, back-to-back boundaries.

GO WATTO!!!!!

[Belnakor]

zzzzzzzz.

will we ever learn that in a power play you need to throw the bat? we lose almost every match due to under using the power plays.

[Belnakor]

btw how many times will these guys try to "run the ball" down to fine leg?

[year of the roo]

Stream anyone?

[aussie1st]

Just like the run out, very poor by Watson.

[Cousin Jed]

Spinner's pitch

[aussie1st]

Good 50 by White, hes certainly having a good week.

[TheStinger]

Is the keeper calling Owais Shah "Jimmy"?

[year of the roo]

Clarke is rubbish, it is possible to be too straight as he plays yet another one back to the bowler. White is then run out trying to lift the pace after Clarke stunk up the place.

[Hellgood]

White runs himself out... Ferguson in

[rickyp]

WTF is Clarke doing? The oval is known for being a quick scoring ground, yet he's not even going at test pace.

[Belnakor]

the problem is, even on a 300 pitch, our openers come in and score at a run a ball max. Then we lose a few wickets. then we're behind and have wickets down, and make a sub par score like we will today

[Ron]

So i just turned the cricket on and i thought we were playing Zimbabwe for a second. What happened to the blue uniform the Poms used to wear?

Also why are we scoring so bloody slowly.

[Belnakor]

the way the team looks and is playing i don't reckon we have a hope in hell of winning the 2011 world cup. We haven't been the same since Gilchrist left the team

[tek87]

why the hell is david hussey not playing in front of ferguson or even cameron white. david has power hitting ability and ferguson is a nudger, solid though.

[grizzlym]

Also why are we scoring so bloody slowly.

England's world class spinners have tied us up in knots.

[isthisavailable]

We could go into the final game locked at 3 wins each and I still wouldn't give a shit about the result. Farcical.

[Subaru Impreza]

ive said this for a while, i dont think Michael Clarke is an aggresive enough batsman at Twenty20 level.

And right now he is playing a selfish innings yet again , accumulating all the deliveries. I dont care if he goes on to make 100 today, this batting has been bad.

[benno87]

Anyone sincerely bored with this game? Watching it with a few mates and we can't believe how mundane this is.

[grizzlym]

Anyone sincerely bored with this game? Watching it with a few mates and we can't believe how mundane this is.

Yep, it's not good. Tedious.

Reminds me of one dayers years ago where 220 was a great score.

[Belnakor]

the PP are supposed to make the game more exciting, but they fail.

IF the batting team takes the PP early and doesn't score heavily they might as well pack up and go home because the opposition will just wait until overs 40->50 and use the PP to hit 10+ an over and win the game.

[Blue Dimension]

hit the ball boys. Just smack the bloody thing.

[aussie1st]

the PP are supposed to make the game more exciting, but they fail.

IF the batting team takes the PP early and doesn't score heavily they might as well pack up and go home because the opposition will just wait until overs 40->50 and use the PP to hit 10+ an over and win the game.

TBH its more our boring style. India and SA use the PP much better. We need to sort out the middle stages as without the blasting starts from Gilly/Hayden we need to pick up the scoring rate in the middle stages.

[Ron]

Oh so now the benefit of the doubt goes with the batsmen.

Wasn't that way a couple of weeks ago.

[mattymac]

who needs valium eh? hopefully bing and mitch will come out and give this game a jump start

[Blue and Gold Blood]

Lol so little interest in the 1 day series here. 50 overs in and 3 pages on this thread. 50 overs into an ashes test match and 30 pages would result.

Reasons for thuds are
1) we as Aussie cricket fans just saw our team lose the ashes again and would rather not see cricket until our summer and some water has gone under the bridge
2) the finals football has started which is much more important and entertainin
3) without gilchrist batting, we have a pretty boring batting line-up
4) what are we even playing for? We just fought for the olympics game equivalent of cricket prizes, and now we are trying to win some meaningless trophy with some pommy sponsors name on it.
5) it's a god awful time to watch the game described above.

I think all of this spells doom for the series.

[weevil]

Plus in general one day cricket is dead.

[lewigie]

Clarke is the slowest ODI batter in history.

Actually, second to Dravid.

[Blue and Gold Blood]

Australia look like winning here. Johnson got some soft dismissals but u take what u can I suppose.

Btw who is that shah bloke for England? Looks like Colin Farrell and did his best to run out collingwood all innings before finally stepping in his own stumps hehe.

[Tapee]

Boring game from what I've seen (only the last ~10 overs), however the end might make up for it.

Edit: And a rather boring ending. That square-leg umpire needs a spine, that was close to a beamer.

[Drummond]

Great last 10 or so overs from Australia. Pretty much all the Poms runs came in flukey edgy fours.

Impressed with Watto's bowling towards the end, and Lee got very unlucky because I felt he bowled pretty well.

Good win, nice work by Paine behind the stumps too. :thumbsu: Take that Wright. ;)

[Blue and Gold Blood]

On the contrary I found it somewhat entertaining. White almost cost Australia there what was he thinking? Who in their right mind signals a 4 when it isn't. You are paid to play not umpire son

[likka]

Plus in general one day cricket is dead.

Yup, knew it was on last night but preferred to read a book instead.

Pretty much zero interest in this format of the game now... bring on the start of the Sheffield Shield season.

[aussie1st]

You can blame the ODI being dead on the players. The 20 overs of powerplay has since massive scores but for whatever reason we still play the boring cricket and can't use our batting powerplay. India will keep ODI cricket alive though, they have a good ODI side atm.

[roostersgal4eva]

why the hell is david hussey not playing in front of ferguson or even cameron white. david has power hitting ability and ferguson is a nudger, solid though.
71 off 73

Hardly a nudger is he?

[apollo_creed]

+20..

[Chris25]

Not a lot of love for Ferguson here. Pretty much the perfect middle order innings from him - got himself in, nudged the ball around for quick singles and then let go at the end. It's just a shame that we didn't have a hitter at the other end with him.

It's that sort of innings which will get him into the Test team sooner rather than later. There aren't too many players his age who show his temperament and versatility.

I think that might be enough pumping up of Redbacks for now....:)

[aussie1st]

Ferguson was brillaint, I love his temparment and placement. He unlike Clarke actually managed to convert his start and get his strike rate up. He might end up in the lower order as a finisher like Hussey and Bevan. White would be best suited at 5 with his new found confidence, and with Ponting back at 3 we have a much better balance.

[Belnakor]

lol only like 55 comments for an entire ODI. At times during the ashes there were 55 comments for every wicket :)

[Bradesmaen]

lol only like 55 comments for an entire ODI. At times during the ashes there were 55 comments for every wicket :)
Friday night, footy finals and the fact that ODI's have become boring for 60 overs a match.

[Selective Retention]

Watson xxxxx Ponting Clarke xxxxx Ferguson xxxxx

We need some explosiveness in there to compliment those players. One of the places is obviously Haddin. I would like to see Hughes open, and yes I realise his ODD figures are not stunning but it is rebuild time, he is the future and will take it up to the bowlers, Haddin at 5 and then the bits and piece all rounder of your choice at 7. It would just split it up a lot better, the middle order is just completely painful and has been since Symonds tipped over the edge.

[Cleavy]

Marsh > Hughes if we can keep him on the park

[aussie1st]

Haddin at opener, White at 5 if he continues this form and Hussey at 7. Hughes certainly could use more limited over matches to work out how to score more on the leg side.

[Wallaby]

Hey, I've got a great idea - why don't we just cut out those boring middle overs where the players just push singles? It would also mean the openers could go a bit harder because there wouldn't be such pressure to keep wickets.

God, that was dull.

50-over one-day cricket - one more Wold Cup, I reckon, and it's dead. Enjoy it while you've got it.

[NSWCROW]

Great win despite BINGA's best efforts :thumbsu:

[pieman123]

how about watson and white open, with ponting at 3 when he returns, clarke at 4, ferguson 5, hussey 6, haddin/paine at 7 and hopes at 8 i think is our best batting lineup

[Subaru Impreza]

I agree 50 over cricket hardly raises an interest now.

How much of u guys actually followed with interest Pakistan V AUstralia ODI series? I mean its hardly exciting the format is dead and T20's must be played more now

[sherb]

I reckon we should do away with all cricket except for 20/20, which is the only form of the game which provides constant entertainment. The sooner the better in fact.

ODI's are apparently dead and Test cricket, whilst it holds some antiquated and inexplicable form of interest for the older supporter and the occasional moment of excitement, goes for far too long - which doesn't suit the three-hour attention span of the newer generation of cricket supporter and, let's be honest, makes you think far too much about things.

Plus there is no music and cheergirls in test cricket, and you don't get a six or two every over, which is a vital component of the game moving forward and what is needed if we want to make it marketable to a bigger worldwide audience (read - Americans). It has to be entertainment, excitement, sixes and razzamatazz - which is why 20/20 is the only future of cricket. Maybe we could introduce storylines as well, WWE style, introducing feuds, drama, heels, faces, etc, just in case there are boring two-minute patches in games.

Good riddance to Test and ODI cricket, where (to varying degrees) technique, discipline, tactics, skill and mind games ruled. We don't need that - give us non-stop, constant, endless entertainment in our cricket from now on.

:thumbsu:

[OzBomber]

I hope that post was in sarcasm, because it's impossible to tell on the web.

ODIs may be dead, but tests aren't. For ODIs and T20s less is more. Get rid of these 7 match ODI series. I'm happy with a standard 3 test match series, 3 ODIs and a T20 (Unless it's the Ashes where you extend it to 5 tests). We then won't have these massive 3-4 month tours. I bet you that by the 4th or 5th game this series will be decided leaving pointless dead rubbers at the end.

[Illinois Nazi]

Well, I thought I'd pop in and see how the game was going but apparently it was yesterday. And although nobody's spelled it out I gather from some of the comments that we won.

Yippee.

[Ill Chicken]

Terrible match. Both teams batted most of the innings without any form of entertainment. I can't see how Australia can have excuse for batting so woefully. Watson, White and Clarke inspired nobody with their display on a harmless, lifeless pitch. Watson's dismissal was one of only caring about maintaining his spot in the side.

Clarke needs to be removed from limited overs cricket immediately. The bloke is looking for an IPL contract on what grounds?

[OzBomber]

Well, I thought I'd pop in and see how the game was going but apparently it was yesterday. And although nobody's spelled it out I gather from some of the comments that we won.

Yippee.
Yeah, 4 runs I think.

There's another game on tonight at 6:30. I'll probably watch the first innings.

[Illinois Nazi]

Yeah, 4 runs I think.


So it was a close game, and still nobody cares! :eek:

I'd just assumed it was a scoreboard fizzer as well.

[Belnakor]

Watson xxxxx Ponting Clarke xxxxx Ferguson xxxxx

We need some explosiveness in there to compliment those players.

i might be crazy, but thats why White got promoted up. Unfortinately he has learnt the lesson from Warner - even if you are told to "go out there and swing the bat" if you get out, you'll get bollocked.

[OzBomber]

So it was a close game, and still nobody cares! :eek:

I'd just assumed it was a scoreboard fizzer as well.
Yeah, well they needed something ridiculous like 13 off the last over so they were never going to get it.