4th Ashes Test: Australia v England, Chester-le-Street, August 9-13.

[GROTTO]

We are just garbage to collapse like that. After the strong opening stand.

 

[Doodlesweaver]

Can't say I was all that surprised to find out there was another collapse when I woke up this morning, it was always on the cards with our flimsy batting line up.

Say what you like about Broad but he has really stepped up this series, probably next in line for Man of the Series behind Bell.

before this match he had 7 wickets in 3 matches. And they had already retained the ashes last test.

 

[Mateyman]

The most disappointing loss of the series for me. However, I still think the series has been much closer than 3-0 suggests. Would have been so good to win, but I still see a lot of potential if this team can gain confidence and get some results. The English have not been THAT much better than us this series. it's just been the small things/pressure moments. I'm looking forward to the series in Australia and the 5th test still, as I think we can be competitive.

 

[djrossie16]

In 4 test matches Australia have lost the toss 3 times been smashed in one of those been in the game in two and the toss we win dominate the game without winning. After the India debacle i've been impressed by the play especially since I rated Pattinson so highly and he hasn't played the last two. The batting is a shambles though, yet we're still competitive due to our bowling and the occasional great batting partnership.

At the moment we're at a stage where we need to find another batsman or two in a hurry. I guess we are experiencing what it's like to be Pakistan in cricket terms with a powerful bowling lineup a couple of good batsman and that's about it.

I'd say at the moment the batting lineup is less impressive than the West Indies. That is a team which brought in Brendan Nash into their side for a brief stint and he looked as good as any of Cowan, Khawaja, Hughes or Smith have been for Australia. Tough times.

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

One Positive it is only 100 more days to the first test in Australia.

We must go for blood at the Gabba.

 

[western royboy]

One Positive it is only 100 more days to the first test in Australia.

We must go for blood at the Gabba.

Will our bats go any better on hard bouncy tracks? Not sure

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

Will our bats go any better on hard bouncy tracks? Not sure

More thinking of being positive and being dickheadish towards the poms.

I think we will play better on our pitches however.

 

[frankrizzo]

The pitches can't be the only reason we collapse time after time, we actually batted even worse than this in the last ashes at home and we folded at perth to SA.

It seems like it's just become the mantra of so many here that once we get the poms in australia we will be in business, not sure why the collapses are going to suddenly stop in the next series.

 

[Spitta09]

Still can't believe we managed to lose this the aussies threw it away and did a north melbourne.
On a funny note i can't wait to see that princess broad bowl in australia. Overrated flog

 

[eddiesmith]

Cant believe this game ended last night, went to bed at 3/170, looking like a good finish and then wake up and its over?

Great justice though to see Broady dominate with the ball this test, well deserved return to form

 

[SuperCats9]

Not suprised at all by yet another mid order collapse. This team, apart from Clarke, just has no one who grits their teeth and works hard, they are fall over and take it up the arse because it's to hard and they expect someone else to finish off the job.

Rogers has done well, i'll give him that, but the rest, yeah they may make runs every now and then, but when the pressure is on and the game is there to be won they stink it up every time, EVERY TIME!!

Worst Australian team.

 

[The Speaker]

More thinking of being positive and being dickheadish towards the poms.

I think we will play better on our pitches however.

It was bad enough when we were on top. Would rather not have our players do that now.

 

[davis_756]

Go to bed at 3-174, drinks break last session.......

Jinxed it

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

It was bad enough when we were on top. Would rather not have our players do that now.

Maybe being dickheadish is too far but at least be more cold and standoffish towards them. Make them face an entity rather than the individual players or something like that.

 

[TheOutsider74]

Still can't believe we managed to lose this the aussies threw it away and did a north melbourne.
On a funny note i can't wait to see that princess broad bowl in australia. Overrated flog

So pissed off. Same old problem. A mentally fragile batting line up.

 

[Donnie Darko]

The scoreline says 3-0 ,but it still felt like a stressful series. They only time It wasnt on a knife edge was the last two sessions at Lords on day 3 IMO.
Not bad seeing as only one of our batsmen has turned up for the series.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

If it's any consolation I'm old enough to remember the 1977 Ashes tour and seeing Australians bat in their usual position in the order twice in one day.

Craig Serjeant, Gary Cosier, Richie Robinson ...

 

[moto748]

What happened to Katich? Is he not in the frame any more? Too old? He seemed quite decent from what I recall.

 

[Heeney2Franklin]

England with half of their side out of form are 3 nil up.

I think thats the saddest thing, their batsmen who killed us 3 years ago have had awful series yet we could be whitewashed 4-0 :S

 

[Carbine Chaos]

What happened to Katich? Is he not in the frame any more? Too old? He seemed quite decent from what I recall.

 

[scoremachine]

I really miss the days of watching Hayden, Langer, Ponting, Martyn, S.Waugh, M.Waugh, Lehmann, Katich, Gilchrist, Warne, Lee, Gillespie, Macgill, Mcgrath etc playing. Probably almost took some of these players for granted & when watching the current test team play now you can just appreciate how good those guys really were.

Not only did they all have exceptional talent but they had the desire & determination to be succesfull. They made the game of cricket look easy & played entertaining attacking cricket. Our current day players could really learn a lot from how they played the game.

 

[The Passenger]

Which part ?? I'm dead serious, as there is no point hanging with the current underachievers IMO.

dead serious as to bring back clint perren? i'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say you've got him mixed up with someone else.

 

[Tulip]

Trott and KP are not better than Clarke. I still believe he is the best batsman out of the two sides. Other than Bell, their batsmen have all been made to look pedestrian with a fair degree of regularity in this series. It's all very well to label them "world class" like the Poms keep doing, but they haven't played like it. Cook and Trott in particular.

Their bowling attack is the best English attack in a long time and that has been the difference. Broad has the X factor and can turn games on their head when he is in the mood, Anderson is at his peak and when the conditions suit swing bowling he can be very damaging, and then there's Swann, who is arguably THE difference between the two sides.

All that said, we have made their bowlers to look better than they are. Broad especially. He has taken so many wickets from average or bad balls, it's ridiculous.

England have won the mental battle, convincingly.

Trott's been so out of sorts, but has still made some decent scores this series. Whether he's lost his confidence, or was just an early bloomer, remains to be seen.

Cook has been in brilliant form leading up to this series, but his form has also been poor. He's been grinding out decent scores, but is batting well below his average.

KP is brilliant. Probably my favourite cricketer. Absolute whisker in it between him and Clarke. I prefer KP, you prefer Clarke, it's a matter of opinion.

1. Alistair Cook vs Chris Rogers
2. Joe Root vs David Warner
3. Jonathan Trott vs Usman Khawaja
4. Kevin Pietersen vs Michael Clarke
5. Ian Bell vs Steve Smith
6. Jonny Bairstow vs Shane Watson

1. Matt Prior vs Brad Haddin

1. Jimmy Anderson vs Ryan Harris
2. Stuart Broad vs Peter Siddle
3. Tim Bresnan vs James Pattinson
4. Graeme Swann vs Nathan Lyon

That's my analysis of the lineups. A bolded vs means a draw.

 

[The Passenger]

Trott's been so out of sorts, but has still made some decent scores this series. Whether he's lost his confidence, or was just an early bloomer, remains to be seen.

Since double tonning up against sri lanka he has averaged only 36. that was 28 tests ago. definitely out of sorts a bit, but he still has a bit of a presence about him at number 3 and he is still capable of soaking up a lot of deliveries before getting to the middle order.

 

[Torz]

Trott's been so out of sorts, but has still made some decent scores this series. Whether he's lost his confidence, or was just an early bloomer, remains to be seen.

Cook has been in brilliant form leading up to this series, but his form has also been poor. He's been grinding out decent scores, but is batting well below his average.

KP is brilliant. Probably my favourite cricketer. Absolute whisker in it between him and Clarke. I prefer KP, you prefer Clarke, it's a matter of opinion.

1. Alistair Cook vs Chris Rogers
2. Joe Root vs David Warner
3. Jonathan Trott vs Usman Khawaja
4. Kevin Pietersen vs Michael Clarke
5. Ian Bell vs Steve Smith
6. Jonny Bairstow vs Shane Watson

1. Matt Prior vs Brad Haddin

1. Jimmy Anderson vs Ryan Harris
2. Stuart Broad vs Peter Siddle
3. Tim Bresnan vs James Pattinson
4. Graeme Swann vs Nathan Lyon

That's my analysis of the lineups. A bolded vs means a draw.

Not a big fan of Root. Seems to have some technical deficiencies. One score all series and could've been none if Haddin made an attempt to catch.