aussiejames said:
another 'amazing' bit of trivia : "
It's the first time an Australian has passed 200 away from home since unlikely nightwatchman Jason Gillespie did it against Bangladesh in 2006."
Jesus! I remember that innings as well. Dizzy has a test match double tonne and Shane Warne never even managed a century :lol:
As for the result yesterday. Hard to know how to really judge it. I suspect had England won the toss and batted they would have been the ones to put up a massive score. Possibly not as high as the Aussies managed (fair play to Smith and Rodgers those were special knocks) but still after spending the guts of a day and a half chasing shadows in the outfield it's hard for any side to then get mentally switched on to bat. Saying that the Aussies bowlers definitely got a lot more out of the pitch/road than the England bowlers, AND England did shoot themselves in the foot. How many of their bats men just gave their wickets away? Stokesy WTF are you doing? Put your bat on the ground and run it in! So **** if the ball hits you, it's being thrown from 20 yards away, you're a full grown man and built like a brick **** house, STOP BEING A FRUIT!
My money is on no changes. One at absolute most.
I haven't been convinced by Lythe or Ballance, but both are young and probably need time to find their way in Test cricket. Although an Ashes series is not the ideal time to be struggling, especially as badly as Gary Ballance is! Ian Bell will get at least another Test before he gets "rested", it's his ground and he is a quality player on his day so he has probably earned it.
As far as replacements go, Rashid did look good in he T20's and he's definitely next off the rank of spinners. Though Ali hasn't done anything to warrant being dropped so you're probably looking at Rashid coming in and Ali moving up the order. Too many changes of role is never a good thing.
Can't see Compton getting a call at all. He's marginally ahead of KP but both are in the "no thanks" pile.
Maybe Johnny Bairstow could come in, though he doesn't solve the opener/number 3 issue so you are moving Bell or Root up. Again too many changes is never good.
It's just one game. This time last week England were brilliant, now they are ****. Knee jerk reactions and media sensationalism don't help.
I stand by my comment about that pitch though. Had England actually supplied a pitch rather than a road the end result would most likely have been different. FFS they could hardly have lost by any more than they did.
