Ashes predictions

[mazolaman]

we'll be lucky to get 250......

Ahh,the sound of an English cricket collapse.....bugger.

good job you picked Siddle.

Some wickets given away there,particularly Trott,Strauss.

[Wil]

Great stuff from Siddle. Perhaps we'll get a little less moaning from Australian cricket fans now.

[Wil]

*I'm looking forward to tomorrow's UK paper headlines. Some hilarious stuff today.

[winelover]

Goof innings from Bell, shame it has comr to an end. I think we are choking like the AB's in a major tournament. Time to sort it out now with the ball.

[Ken Gargett]

Keep living in a bygone era Ken.

interesting that to make your statement, you have deliberately manipulated and misrepresented what i said - how the hell does the current indian team have anything to do with a bygone era? but you chose to deliberately exclude that part of what i said. indeed, the entire thing has nothing whatsoever to do with living in bygone eras.

instead of smartarse comments, as i suggested, feel free to name anyone in the current england team you think would make the current indian team. i can't, bar kp at his best. ditto when australia was at its best.

and i have been very clear that i think that this current team is a pretty average one. that would be current, not bygone. and rolling the poms so easily today doesn't change that. i suspect we might have a terrific series because the teams are probably not that far apart but they are simply not great sides. getting lots of wickets or runs against average opposition may be entertaining, even exciting in some circumstances, but it does not make that person a great cricketer. love to be wrong and at the end of the series feel that i have seen some of the greats but not holding my breath. if i want that at the moment, i really do think one has to watch india.

it is nothing to do with bygone eras, simply reality.

[winelover]

interesting that to make your statement, you have deliberately manipulated and misrepresented what i said - how the hell does the current indian team have anything to do with a bygone era? but you chose to deliberately exclude that part of what i said. indeed, the entire thing has nothing whatsoever to do with living in bygone eras.

instead of smartarse comments, as i suggested, feel free to name anyone in the current england team you think would make the current indian team. i can't, bar kp at his best. ditto when australia was at its best.

and i have been very clear that i think that this current team is a pretty average one. that would be current, not bygone. and rolling the poms so easily today doesn't change that.

Ken, I agree with you that the current England team is not yet ready to be put up on a pedestal and compared with the Australian team during the recent golden era with Warne, McGrath and Gilchrist etc (notwithstanding 2005). Nor would I be so bold as to say that the current England team can be compared with the Indian team (especially when they play at home), although I do not think we have met them recently. I understand that despite today's very good performance, there has been and still is a malaise hanging over Australian cricket particularly as you were previously so good and are now otherwise. By making reference to you remaining stuck in the past I was making a deliberate inflammatory comment that I knew would touch a proud Australian's raw nerve (whether or not by quoting out of context it was pertaining to a misunderstanding of your point).

i suspect we might have a terrific series because the teams are probably not that far apart but they are simply not great sides. getting lots of wickets or runs against average opposition may be entertaining, even exciting in some circumstances, but it does not make that person a great cricketer. love to be wrong and at the end of the series feel that i have seen some of the greats but not holding my breath. if i want that at the moment, i really do think one has to watch india.

it is nothing to do with bygone eras, simply reality.

I hope so too. I tend to think though that some new stars will cement their talent for all to see and, there will in the end be some very decent cricket.

[mazolaman]

Looking like Oz will be ahead,but possibly not by much.

England could do with Hussey out(and to think,Oz nearly didn't pick either Siddle or Hussey)

Some notable batting failiures from both teams.

England have come back well today,with Anderson and Finn keeping it down to 2 an over.

A potentially good match on here,competative.

Ken,I agree to an extent.There's no way that the former Oz team woUld be kept to two an over,these arent a patch on them.

However,it was inevitable that they would end.

I would argue that that great team had several great players,which raised the average of the team,they were not 11 great players,and it is the same in the Indian team.

[Ken Gargett]

,it was inevitable that they would end.

I would argue that that great team had several great players,which raised the average of the team,they were not 11 great players,and it is the same in the Indian team.

that it would end was never in doubt, at least not with anyone with half a brain. my point ios simply that what we are witnessing here, and it may actually be a more interesting series simply because it os so much closer, is that we are enduring an era - or at least a series - where the skills/quality/natural talent/application - whatever you want to call it and wehatever variations it brings - are at a far lesser level than that exhibited by the current indian team (we are talking of a team that has scored almost 51,000 runs - consider that means they need 7 to 8 bradmans to match it) or rec ent aussie teams.

[mazolaman]

I agree,and couldn't argue with the quality of that past Oz team.

I even think the current English team is not as good as the 2005 team,or at least don't have as good a captain.Although I do think there is great potential in some of the players,Anderson is currently bowling as well as he ever will,as is Swan(though not today!),Bell also is at his peak I think.Broad,Cook,and to some extent Strauss could develop fiurther in to great players.

With Pieterson and Trott,you just never know what you're going to get.

I think Collingwood would get into alot of teams,if only for his fielding ability,and grinding out runs when the chips are down.

It has the potential to be a better side than 2005,ie more complete and rounded.

I think Hussey and co need to get a decent lead,as I am sure England will get some runs next innings......oh no,I've gone and said it now!

[El Presidente]

200 + Aussie lead.

Important little 45 minute session coming up for England this afternoon. Finish 0-40 and they are in the game at least for a draw.

2-30 and they are gone

[mazolaman]

Great knock from Hussey and Hadden.

How did we not take a wicket in that first session?Anderson was bowling beautifully.

We need some balls to get a draw.

[Ken Gargett]

Great knock from Hussey and Hadden.

How did we not take a wicket in that first session?Anderson was bowling beautifully.

We need some balls to get a draw.

agree completely re anderson. can't believe he missed out. bowled magnificently. how finn got 6 wickets beyond me. that is like the ugly bloke who ends up with the hot woman simply for hanging around and persistence. he may be better than that but he'll never bowl so poorly for such rewards again. talking to some bloke next to me and we both agreed, the aussies should not be tough on finn - we want him to keep bowling. he was your least.

but the cricket gods and more importantly, brainless, stupid arrogant selfish cricketers using up referrals. hussey utterly plum before the ton yet no referrals left. different game had he gone then.

and have no doubt your 05 side considerably better than this one. they would have flogged us.

but what two great innings today. magnificent efforts.

[mazolaman]

A better day for England.

I have the feeling that the likes of Trott only score big when someone before has,ie no preassure!

I think you may be right,there has been alot of chat previous to this series,but the quality does not match the talk.

Good to see Cook doing well,and Strauss needed to make that statement.

[Ken Gargett]

undoubtedly a terrific effort by the poms, no matter what the quality of the opposition but if we drop catches, we'll get exactly what we deserve.

and at one stage, when it was already a record partnership for the first wicket, only three of that partnership had come from shots down the ground (don't know if that changed). in other words, we are bowling too short all the time (unless the pommy batsmen are so hopeles they can't hit straight, which is not true). blind freddie with brian damage knows you don't keep banging it in short on the gabba. yet we did. and so did the poms for much of the hussey/haddin p'ship. these are very dumb cricketers. and where was ponting getting up them to pitch it up. being captain actually involves doing something ricky, not just counting cash, tho i doubt he could do that.

and it does seem that the gabba pitch has become rather timid. tho you could hear warnie in commentary just itching for a crack at these guys.

surely smith for north next test with johnson told find your form and mongrel. thank god hussey and haddin stood up - and for once, i pciked the right day to attend.

[bombaybill]

Didn't Cook just break Bradman's record for the highest individual score at the Gabba!

Does anybody know the highest test individual score for a batsman @ Gabba?

[mazolaman]

Yeah,well done to the Englishmen(well,mostly).

Some good character shown.

Agree re Bowling,can't believe both teams were bowling short,particularly as the England first innings was rubbished when the Aussies pitched it up.

I'm guessing Johnson will be replaced by Bollinger.

I think both captains didn't know what to do on this pitch.

Both teams shelling catches all over the place.

Good match,with some great performances,and some ordinary stuff in between!

[Ken Gargett]

last three and a half days saw just 7 wickets fall for about 1,000 runs. very very un-gabba like pitch. and an indictment on the fielding, bowling (and referaal management) of both teams. four of those were tailenders.

not sure re bolly for johnson. ponting has a lot of faith in johnson and he can be a matchwinner, if he gets it right (now would be a good time to start). and we don't have many of them.

don't disagree re the comment on capts but shame on them for it.

[winelover]

What a last couple of days for England, from having stared defeat in the face to achieving a 'winning' draw, I still can't quite believe our second inning score. Unfortunately not seen any of today's coverage but just looking at the stats is interesting enough. Incidentally MJ's 2nd inning stats were 0-170 42 overs despite all is pre match brinkmanship.

[winelover]

Ponting under fire

Post categories: Cricket

Ben Dirs | 08:22 UK time, Tuesday, 23 November 2010

"Seriously, I could captain this side." It is the sporting equivalent of staring up at a painting in a modern art gallery and stating: "My kid could do better than that". Or taking a sip of wine in an expensive restaurant and muttering: "Yeah, suppose it's alright".

Over the past 15 years Australia has had an awful lot of would-be captains, probably millions of them - and an awful lot of them have been English.

They popped up in pubs and bars and on sofas, throwing their hat into the ring every time an Aussie batsman passed 100 in an Ashes Test, every time an English partnership had seen off the seamers and the ball was tossed to Shane Warne. No doubt I said it a few times myself: "Seriously, I could captain this side."

It is, of course, a vacuous statement - but not without a smidgeon of truth.

It can quite easily be argued that Australia had in its team that humiliated England 5-0 in the last Ashes series down under more bona fide greats than England has produced in the last 30 or 40 years. When the actual captain Ricky Ponting called it "arguably the best team in any sport in the world", he was not guilty of hyperbole.

Australia dominated cricket when Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne were in the side - photo: Getty

Warne and Adam Gilchrist would be shoo-ins for any all-time side, while Ponting and Glenn McGrath would certainly be in the reckoning. Add a legendary opening partnership in Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, Mike Hussey and Michael Clarke in the middle order and quicks Brett Lee and Stuart Clark and you have a juggernaut of an outfit.

With such weapons at his disposal for his first few years as skipper, Ponting, who replaced Steve Waugh in 2004, was given something of an armchair ride, winning 27 of his first 35 matches in charge. After that, however, Ponting's armchair started losing springs.

In the space of a couple of years Warne, McGrath, Langer, Gilchrist, Hayden and Lee all called it a day, as did lesser lights such as Stuart MacGill and Damien Martyn. And just like that, Ponting went from a skipper in charge of a great team with the best winning percentage in Test history to, well, a skipper with a pretty good record in charge of a pretty good team.

"Let's be honest, Ricky's had some wonderful players at his fingertips," says Mike Gatting, the last man to lead England to Ashes glory in Australia, in 1986-87. "And a captain can only be as good as his players, to be perfectly honest.

"If you've got a Warne and a McGrath in your side you don't have to tell them what to do because they are very good professionals who love winning and want their country to win. You shouldn't have to do too much to get them worked up. The same with Gilchrist, Langer and Hayden."

There are many in Australia - former fast bowlers Geoff Lawson and Jeff Thomson have been merciless in their criticism - who believe 35-year-old Ponting has been unmasked as a poor captain and that he should have been replaced by Clarke following the 2-0 series defeat in India, which made it three Test defeats on the spin, something that hadn't happened to Australia since 1988.

But former skipper Ian Chappell, who won 50% of his Tests to Ponting's current record of 64%, is not one of them, believing the punchy Tasmanian remains the best man for the job.

"Ricky Ponting is a good captain," says Chappell. "It shouldn't come as any surprise that when you lose Warne and McGrath, Ponting isn't winning as often as he was. But Ponting can point to the fact he wins 64% of his Tests overall and say it works.

"And I've not seen a day's play with Australia where I've looked out there and felt the team hasn't been pulling as one - I've never seen that happen under Ricky Ponting's captaincy. The day that happens is the day you know you've got a problem and that's when you've got to go."

However, there are many who disagree with Chappell and argue that statistics are not the best way to measure a captain - the same people would argue that former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming and former England skipper Michael Vaughan were vastly superior to Ponting, not because of their winning percentages, but because of the manner in which they marshalled inferior sides and got them punching above their weight.

Ponting reflects following Australia's 2-0 series defeat in India last month - photo: AP

Ponting's frailties were there for all to see during the 2005 Ashes series, when he was knocked out of his groove by an injury to McGrath, the lack of form of some of his key players and the in-your-face aggression of Vaughan's England outfit.

One of the biggest mysteries of that series was Ponting's decision not to pick MacGill, a man who finished his career with 208 Test wickets at an average of 29, for the final two Tests when his fellow leg-spinner Warne was scalping England batsmen for fun. Fast bowler Shaun Tait, preferred to MacGill at Trent Bridge and The Oval, was then mysteriously underused.

Then, in Cardiff in 2009, with England nine wickets down in their second innings and Monty Panesar and James Anderson in the middle, Ponting made the truly baffling decision to bring on part-timer Marcus North to bowl two of the last four overs, with fellow spinner Nathan Hauritz operating from the other end. Panesar and Anderson held firm, Ponting appeared haunted at not being able to force the win and England went on to reclaim the Ashes.

During the recent Test series in India, Ponting took a lot of flak in Australia's media for negative fields, a lack of faith in his players and a tendency to flinch in the heat of battle, a most un-Australian trait. When Warne criticised Hauritz's field placings during the second Test in Bangalore, Ponting's reaction, proclaiming poor old Hauritz had chosen them himself, seemed indicative of a lack of leadership skills.

Australian fans declare themselves baffled at why a batsman of such attacking verve and pugnacity and so steeped in the traditions of the game should prove to be so devoid of tactical nous and composure when things get uncomfortable.

There won't be too many people putting their hand up to replace Ponting if he becomes the first Australian captain to lose three Ashes series since Billy Murdoch in 1890. But you might hear a lot of people saying: "Seriously, who'd want to captain this side?"

BBC Sport

[El Presidente]

I don't think theere is anything in this article that hasn't been covered a 1000 times in Oz press over the past 2 years.

We have gone from a great side to a very ordinary one. Ponting's winning average has suffered same.

As a captain he is no Border,Taylor, Waugh.

Clark isn't in the same category as those above. Nowhere near it.

So we currently have a below average side with an average Captain. As they say "you reap what you sow" and the selectors have taken their eye off the ball for some time.

However....Nice to see we are at least competitive with England

[bombaybill]

The Trouble with Ricky

Having seen Ponting lead the Aussie side on two occasions in the subcontinent, I have to say his understanding of spin bowling and ability to manage spinners is puzzling. I mean here is a player with 150 test matches under his belt and virtually IMHO no real understanding of spin bowling. He played 100+ test matches with Warne & MacGill…what happened….didn’t he learn anything!

I don’t believe the Aussies will ever be able to nurture, grow and develop spin talent under Ponting’s leadership. Warne was under the auspices of Border and Taylor which contributed to his initial development and later success as a player. That initial development, nurturing and patience it takes to develop world class spin talent will never happen under Ponting’s leadership.….never.

[Ken Gargett]

The Trouble with Ricky

Having seen Ponting lead the Aussie side on two occasions in the subcontinent, I have to say his understanding of spin bowling and ability to manage spinners is puzzling. I mean here is a player with 150 test matches under his belt and virtually IMHO no real understanding of spin bowling. He played 100+ test matches with Warne & MacGill…what happened….didn't he learn anything!

I don't believe the Aussies will ever be able to nurture, grow and develop spin talent under Ponting's leadership. Warne was under the auspices of Border and Taylor which contributed to his initial development and later success as a player. That initial development, nurturing and patience it takes to develop world class spin talent will never happen under Ponting's leadership.….never.

warnie was a special case and tough to include him in anything like this. but a lot in what you say re macgill. how he was not given more support and time and overs beyond me. wouldn't we love to have him now. he'd be the first bloke picked. how sad for cricket, and especially us, that their careers overlapped so neatly.

at the moment, seriously, if you are a spin bowler in aust averaging around 50 a wicket in shield cricket, you are a serious chance to play test cricket.

you would be more likely to find an honest politician than a talented spinner in australia at the moment.

[mazolaman]

In a similar vein,Swan has to play alot better in the following tests,to prove he can do away what he does at home.

[Ken Gargett]

In a similar vein,Swan has to play alot better in the following tests,to prove he can do away what he does at home.

adelaide will turn so imagine ponting will be very keen to bat first.

last visit was an amazing test - can't see it being so good.

collingwood and KP batting most of the first day for a huge score, though at snail's pace and boring the crap out of everyone, not that they would have cared and rightly so. remember having a good chat to jeff thommo. very entertaining - he has some strong views about pretty much everything and i doubt think he thinks anyone hjas ever bowled within 10 k's of his best since. he may be right. i did learn never to suggest that he is not a dyed-in-the-wool qlder, even if not born here.

then the aussies up. forget who dropped ponting and then he went on to get a massive score also.

draw certain till warnie stepped up on the final day with what might just have been his greatest ever performance. talk about casting a spell. even to the extent of the most bizarre, yes-no-yes-no, runout of bell or c'wood? had them absolutely mesmorised. kp behind his legs i think, without playing a shot.

and then hussey and a few others chasing the runs in very quick time. for me, that was the day they also won the next three. left england in tatters mentally. warnie could have rolled watermelons down the pitch and the poms would not have been able to play them.

no chance we'll see that again sadly, at least not from the aussies. might from the poms.

[mazolaman]

*I'm looking forward to tomorrow's UK paper headlines. Some hilarious stuff today.

You're not kidding.

I think Oz are suffering from this old English disease,ie being put under pressure by your own press and public.

There seems to have been so much chit chat,that the players are beginning to react to it,negatively.

Hence Ponting loosing it at the end of the match.

Some good play from England today,Anderson and Broad bowling well,Swan bowling better.

Catches all stuck,and fielding well to get two run outs,with a bit of help from the batsmen.

we need to bat 5 sessions......