THE DECIDING ASHES TEST: possible spoilers within

its a calypso collapso according to tuffers

I guarantee not one English supporter expected it

I didn't. This is not how this pitch is supposed to behave.

I rather suspect that the big gap between the 4th and 5th tests was to allow the oval pitch to be prepared to suit the situation and guess what, its a result pitch. If england had led 1-0 going into the final game it would have been flatter that a witch's t-i-t.

the best bowling team will win this series and that 'should' be us.

I read a little article in the Indie about "not doctoring the pitch" which made me think they were doctoring the pitch!

Why shouldn't they prepare the pitch to suit England? Most other countries prepare pitches to suit their team.

Though it wasn't obviously going to be like this at the toss – that or Ponting is a complete idiot.

so… 172 behind, not good. Sure as **** not what we'd have been expecting this at this stage (and I guarantee not one English supporter expected it either! )

Nope, was expecting the Aussies to post 400 plus, especially given the way we were batting this morning.

the best bowling team will win this series and that 'should' be us.

S'funny, if you look at the bowling AND batting stats, we should have been buried in this series.

Ponting is a brilliant capt IMO. It remains to be seen what the aussie bowlers do with the pitch conditions to see how this is going to go IMO. Based on cricinfo Strauss and Cook seem calm ATM.

God this exciting – I've got to go to the shops now !!!!!

cook out – pitch is turning sharply now. swann must be looking forward to bowling in the 4th innings

Cook seem calm ATM.

Cooks certainly calm 🙄

Ponting is a brilliant capt IMO.

Based on? Not disputing it (and IMO noted), just wondering why you think that?

Ding ding bell bites the dust the fight is on

wobble

39-3. It's going to happen

and here we go 🙄

Hmmmm… looking a little more in the balance now 🙂 The crowd have certainly got their value in wickets today! WTF is going on with this pitch btw? I haven't seen any footage, is it becoming unplayable??

I SO wish our aussie colleague hadn't left last year – after what we had to endure from her over 2007, this would be quite sweet, even if it is becoming very fraught!

looking a little more in the balance now

yeah with england effectively 220-3 on a pitch that is breaking up almost visibly. Its not unplayable but a decent spinner will get lots of turn and its swinging a lot (although more for the english bowlers). regardless of what england post you'd better hope that there's no cloud cover tomorrow!

Who's the Australian spinner for tomorrow, then?

Oh, I see…..

😆

So Psychle how are we going to do this, originally I envisaged Monday afternoon at the walkabout on Upper Street with a nail biting finish.

For a bet/contest of this magnitude a paypal payment wouldn't cut it

I think Sunday may be the better day mate… I'm not giving up absolute hope yet, but if England can get over a 300 lead tomorrow, it'll be a brave/foolish man that bets against them…

I'm a tad drunk now, but **** it… I'll type what I'm thinking 🙄 4 years living in England now, if we lose this series (which we're now odds on to do…) then that'll be two Ashes series defeats I'll have had to endure whilst I've been over here… **** unbearable almost, listening to these fair weather Englishman crow on and **** on! I have half a mind to sue the Aussie team for emotional distress 😆

Seriously though, do you guys care as much as we do? Or are you a bigger nation and hence sporting achievement doesn't rate so highly in your scale of worth as a nation? I have to say, I'm bloody heartbroken at the moment 🙁 Here's hoping we can find something tomorrow, what a **** capitulation today has been 🙁

originally I envisaged Monday afternoon at the walkabout on Upper Street with a nail biting finish.

And I just about guarantee you didn't really think this 2 weeks ago… or even at 3pm this afternoon 🙄 Or am I being to cynical? 😆

TBh I got on the plane at 1pm today and thought we were **** – landed at 6pm checked the phone for cricket updates and thought it hadn't updated from Thursday when it said England were batting

I'm in Barnsbury for a family party Sunday so may not be able to get away – Will be about for the rest of the week so we'll sort it out (whatever the result) – will be good to put a face to the money and I may even buy you a coke with it 😆

As for your other point we don't really care unless we win it (check the hysteria in 2005)

if it goes to sunday i might show my face in the walkabout just to be somewhere where it counts

there won't be any Aussies there 🙄 except those drowning their sorrows and maybe looking for a fight… could be dangerous 😆

As for your other point we don't really care unless we win it (check the hysteria in 2005

or bloody 1966 as the **** case may be… 🙄

off to bed now… let's see what the day brings shall we? Some Mitchell Johnson or Peter Siddle inspired destruction would be nice 😆 followed by a couple of epic centuries from Ponting/Clarke/North and co (or am I already asleep and dreaming? 😉 )

Seriously though, do you guys care as much as we do?

Do we care about beating Australia? What sort of stupid question is that? Any sporting competition against you inevitably has far more importance, and this one is the daddy. If we seem indifferent that's only because we've got so used to disappointment (or complete annihilation) that we tend to insulate ourselves from it by not expecting too much or getting too excited. After all for lots of us in our mid/late 30s (a big demographic on here I'd guess, given typical threads) 2005 was the first time in our adult lives we'd even got near winning. Is also why it's quite so amusing when you do lose, as you're not used to it like us, so don't manage to handle it with the same indifference.

I have to say looking back that the feeling at the start of this series was very different to 2005. I thought we had a hope, but that was probably more the usual wild optimism than anything else. After all, we'd not really looked that brilliant in beating WI (they didn't seem that interested, and we'd lost to them away), whilst you'd just come off a good win against SA. In contrast in 2005 I did think we were almost favourites at the start, coming off several very good series wins and even a T20 win against you. If we do pull it off (note the lack still of complete certainty!) it will therefore be all the sweeter.

love it, from Cricinfo re. the first ball of the day:

But given the debatable standards of umpiring in this series, it's almost unfathomably bizarre that Rauf gave it not-out. Amazing decision

😆

Do we care about cricket?

as a nation – not really.

we'll pay attention to an england match every couple of years, but how many people out there in 'tesco X-factor land' do you think can name even one player from their local county team?

how many people complained when rupert murdoch stopped us watching cricket on the telly? – it's probably an australian plot to weaken us as a test playing nation.

(yes, i know he's american now)

look at the stat's – the Australian team are man-for-man MILES better than England.

so i find the venom and hatred they display on the pitch disturbing.

i'll try and explain what i mean;

it's a bit like me arm-wrestling my 4 year old nephew (it's not an equal competition), but then imagine me screaming / spitting raging obscenities in his face when i win.

it's the same thing i see on the cricket field. when Australia play England.

clearly, these funny southern people care about the result.

i'd be happy to see England lose in a close fought match with some individual-highlights.

and if England do pull off a win in this match/series, i'll be forced to agree with the daily mash and accept that cricket is a pointless game.

summary:

do we care about cricket? – no.

don't agree with me? – try and remember a time when you overheard 2 people at work discussing a county match.

we can care about something with an england flag on it for about 10 mins.

right, i'm off to check the score…

Decent lead. When should the declaration come? Plenty of time left and if the bowling's remotely up to yesterday's standards then it could be worth going to 400. But not too much more…. arggh. Thank frig I don't have to make the decision.

do we care about cricket? – no.

don't agree with me? – try and remember a time when you overheard 2 people at work discussing a county match.
If work intranet NGs count, then a couple of days ago (concerning Murray Goodwin's score). Though quite frankly it's a rubbish argument – on the same basis you could say people don't care about football because you only hear them talking about Manchester United, not their local non-league team.

Live stream here for those without sky

http://desi-tv.net/

By the way when I worked in Leeds people would talk about county cricket, though that was in a sports betting call centre.

Comparing it to football is not really fair though because county cricket just isn't as competitive as the Premier League. Most of the best players are usually away playing for their national teams.

don't agree with me? – try and remember a time when you overheard 2 people at work discussing a county match.

'kin all the time at work – I get sick of hearing about it

well… at least the english batsman are demonstrating there aren't that many demons in this wicket 🙄 Maybe our batsman can find some hope in that… a new World Record 4th innings run chase perhaps? Here's hoping for a miracle (what's the weather forecast for the next 2 days btw? Ahhh… just checked, sunny and lovely… even the frickin English weather is conspiring against us… never thought I'd be so unhappy to have such lovely weather here in August! 😆 )

Trott's looking very good at the moment. As is Broad! Marvellous.

spoke to soon Mr CFH… not that it makes a massive difference 🙄 would it be bitter of me to wish Trott the ill-fortune of missing his debut ton? 😈

Ahhhh… I take it back, that's most unsporting of me 😳 Good luck to the man, looks like he's batted well (once again I'm at work and can't watch the game, reliant on STW and cricinfo for the score 🙂 )