First Test

[Blocky]

Good start?  Let the tail wag a tad I'd say, but it was bound to happen as the kookaburra ball got older.  Pitch may look green but it only seems to encourage movement with a new harder ball at the present.

Lets hope we knock off the two wickets early and then we have a great first inns.

Lastly...Quality response from Broady.....Right up yours Convicts!!!

[Andy]

As 2006/7 showed, the first day is often very important in setting the tone of the series.

On the other hand, didn't Haddin run away with it the first day in 2010/11?

Good start, maybe certain local rags in Aussie will learn to spell B-R-O-A-D. 

[Andy]

Well, what a surprise. Good job we have Gooch out there as batting coach 

[firehazard]

Never assume anything till both sides have had a chance to bat.

[Andy]

Never assume anything till both sides have had a chance to bat.

Did we bat? Or did we just move straight on to the Aussie 2nd innings?

That burk Gooch wastes time making batters do star jumps, why not teach them how to play proper swing, seam and spin?

[firehazard]

Never assume anything till both sides have had a chance to bat.

Did we bat? Or did we just move straight on to the Aussie 2nd innings?

That burk Gooch wastes time making batters do star jumps, why not teach them how to play proper swing, seam and spin?

Looks like it was pace that blew them away. Too much jumping out of the way?

[Andy]

He swings to the left, he swings to the right, that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is excellent when his muse is with him, but atrocious when it isn't...

...doesn't quite scan as well as the original. Needs some work.

[BillGP150]

That's what's known as commentators curse blocky!

[IlfordEagle]

When Johnson gets it right like today he can be lethal but England's batsmen didn't help themselves with some poor shots. A big day faces us on Sat & we will doubtless have to get 500+ or bat 2 days to save the game.

[IlfordEagle]

I am surprised no one has commented today on England's spineless & pathetic surrender in Brisbane, Cook excepted & to a lesser extent Root who showed resistance England were poor & 1 or 2 have a lot of work to do before Dec 5 in Adelaide. Trott seems to have completely lost his rhythm & the Aussies have sussed his weakness to the shortish ball, Prior too has had another 'mare with the bat & as for Pieterson... why play an irresponsible shot like the hook when he needed to stay there - once again he played too flash a shot for the situation & showed little of the application he needed to.
On Cricinfo an article aske if he is a great batsmanor a player of great innings? Not sure he is really either, too much of a maverick, I think!!   

[firehazard]

A Guardian editorial on Saturday (after the pathetic first-innings collapse, but before the pathetic second-innings debacle) pointed the finger at a lack of competitive first-class cricket for the England team. Can't help wonder (as I did at the time) whether it might've been better for all of them to go back to their counties after the end of the last test series, and play some actual proper competitive cricket till the end of the county season. Though of course in Cook's case, he'd've been playing for Essex, so it wouldn't've been proper competitive cricket.

Experts will have expert explanations for the England cricket team's disappointing start to the current Ashes series in Brisbane. Good Australian bowling, bad English batting, the pitch, the weather, the crowd and the expectations all doubtless played their part. From a distance, however, there feels a more obvious explanation. Modern Test cricketers don't play as much first-class cricket as they should. Before Brisbane, most of the England team last played a seriously competitive cricket match in August. Since then, they have played a few one-day games and Twenty20s, gone on boot camps and participated in a handful of uncompetitive practice games. Now they have arrived in Brisbane for a proper match – and have been duly skittled out. It's pretty clear they weren't really ready, and that they don't spend enough time doing what they are supposed to – playing cricket. In the distant days of Len Hutton and Ray Illingworth, England touring teams had at least a month before the first Test, during which they played several competitive four-day fixtures against full-strength state sides. It didn't always mean they arrived in Brisbane in winning form. But at least it didn't mean they had to be pitched into the Test match firing line to rediscover how to play the game. Returning to the long tours of yesteryear is as unrealistic as travelling out to Australia by ship. But England's cricketers should surely play more often at county and state level in order to prevail more consistently in the Tests that matter.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/23/unthinkable-cricketers-playing-cricket-editorial

[Andy]

Got to take issue with this and George Dobells article on crickinfo.

Re-read the sentence "modern Test cricketers don't play enough First Class cricket". That refers to Aussie as well as Eng,ad. Ian Chapell lamented at the end of the first days play that the pointless one day series immediately before the Ashes was poor preparation - yet the Aussies recovered well after a poor first day.

England were in Aussie a month before the first test. Whilst the warm up matches weren't that competitive, were they ever in Len Huttons day? Who wants to give proper practice to the enemy?

It is technique that is at fault. Playing match after match doesn't help technique. As Boycott would rightly point out, it is serious practice in the nets, focusing on perfecting technical faults that is needed. Look at Simon Hughes excellent analysis of the Trott vs Bell techniques. The former is too closed and vulnerable to leg theory bowling, the latter is more open to allow the short ball past his chest. Simples.

We have Gooch, Ramps and other 'experts' out there. Trott should've been working on this months ago, but I suspect that there's been too much emphasis upon 5am runs on the beach and star jumps at the expense of proper practice. Never put Gooch in charge of anything. Ask him to swap jobs with Simon Hughes.

[Blocky]

Looks like Mr Trott has a whole lot more issues than his inability to play Clarke's leg theory bowling (by Johnson).

My theory on this is fight fire with fire.

bring in Finn and mills and take their bloody heads off....

[firehazard]

...
England were in Aussie a month before the first test. Whilst the warm up matches weren't that competitive, were they ever in Len Huttons day? Who wants to give proper practice to the enemy?

It is technique that is at fault. Playing match after match doesn't help technique...

I dunno, but I do think I remember that back in the days when touring national teams in England would play a lot of first-class matches against the counties, they were pretty competitive, with full-strength sides being picked and a determination on the part of the touring team to go through the tour undefeated against the counties.

And at least it kept them away from endless star-jumping, football, volleyball or whatever the experts' current fad is. And it kept them in practice at innings-building, rather than one-day thrashing. [Oo-er missus.]

[Andy]

Well, what's the point in taking an unfit person on tour? Totally agree that Trott should go home, but this isn't new news if the reports coming out are true.

The selectors backed themselves into a corner a few months ago over Compton, the Root opening experiment was unnecessary as we do have openers in county cricket, they've just become too insular. My comments about Gooch still stand. Great batsman, poor captain, man-manager and tactician.

I wouldn't bother getting Finn and Mills to bowl at Warner, if I were them, he'd be cleaning toilet bowls without the aid of a brush...