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Having just got back yesterday from a trip to Aus and few other places in the region I was really surprised by the somewhat bizarre coverage. It was almost as if I'd arrived somewhere where the events of the last summer's cricket had been somehow reversed, you'd have almost believed that the Aussies had won the ashes last year and were now the best test side in the world.
Predictions from some of their punters Hayzo (Hayden) was talking 3-0 to the aussies. It was going to be a cake walk, England were simply not good enough, they were under-prepared and over confident.
I just thought I appreciate watching Sky sports equivalent down there is like watching kids TV here, but it really was odd to see such a lot of delusional comments from grown ups. There was no real balance to the discussions, I just once wanted to here someone on TV there say, hold on, England under the current coach have created a reasonably balanced test team. They are generally well prepared for test matches now, more so than the past, and seem to have got a solid spine to the side which usually see's a couple of the big players perform with bat or ball to give them a chance.
We on the other hand have disappointed in recent years both on and off the field and are in some way a squad in transition. We still seem to be over reliant upon a small number of players and when they don't perform we struggle. We have played more test cricket in recent months. But that has been in the sub continent and didn't go well for us. Conditions back home in Aus will be very different, if we can play well early on we could do well and we really must aim to win the first test, because after that the conditions are likely to be ones which the tourists will enjoy more.
It will be a competitive series, but Australia will really have to up there game and become more consistent throughout the whole team if they are to defeat what is a very good touring side.
Oddly they didn't say that. Instead it was just generally gut wrenching drivel.
Never knowingly understood
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Ashes Winter thread on 11:10 - Nov 21 with 1988 views
It's been quite amusing seeing the Aussies big themselves up for this series and then end the first day pretty much the same position they were in last summer relying on tail enders to bail them out for a respectable score.
I do think this series has the potential to be closer especially if Johnson bowls well but if England play to their best they will win it.
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Ashes Winter thread on 11:51 - Nov 21 with 1953 views
Stuart Broad could have been forgiven for producing - a la Denesh Ramdin - a "Talk nah, Australia" sign as he walked off the pitch at the end of the first day of this Ashes series.
Rubbished, ridiculed and reduced - the front page of one Australian tabloid dubbed Broad a "smug pommy cheat" on the morning of the game - England, and Broad in particular, arrived with abuse ringing in their ears.
Broad, it was claimed by an Australian media stoked by their national coach, was little more than a medium-pacer whose disregard for the rules shamed him, while England's batsmen were running scared of Australia's pace attack.
But instead of wilting in the cauldron of the "Gabbatoir", Broad appeared to revel in the occasion. Indeed, he even admitted he found himself whistling along as a large section of the crowd chanted "Broad is a w*****."
This may be no surprise to the England camp. As part of their exhaustive preparation process - a process that was ridiculed at the start of the tour when sections of the Australian media were leaked details of England's nutrition plans - England's players were analysed by a psychologist and Broad was one of three who, in his words, "thrive properly on getting abuse".
"It's me, KP and Matt Prior," Broad said. "So they picked good men to go at.
"It was good fun out there. I think I coped with it okay. It's all good banter. Fans like to come, have a beer with their mates and sing along. I'm pleased my mum wasn't here, but to be honest I was singing along at one stage. It gets in your head and you find yourself whistling it at the end of your mark. I'd braced myself to expect it and actually it was good fun. I enjoyed it."
Bearing in mind the pre-series propaganda - not least David Warner suggesting England "feared" Australia - there was an irony in seeing Australia's top-order dismissed by short deliveries after they had won the toss on a blameless pitch. While Australia had done the talking, England had gone about their preparation relatively quietly and produced a professional performance when it mattered. Actions spoke louder than words.
"We've felt like silent assassins on this trip," Broad said. "We've gone under the radar and just focused on what we had to do. All the attention had been on the Australians which has been perfect for us."
The simplistic explanation would be that Broad, infuriated by the goading, expressed his fury with a spell of hostile bowling. And it is true he has attracted the level of abuse usually reserved for those who have eaten their own children. At one stage the police even arrested a man who, in a reprise of a gag first made 31 years ago against the England offspinner at the time, Eddie Hemmings, attempted to release a piglet onto the field with "Broad" painted on its side. The man was later charged with animal cruelty which might, depending on your view, be seen as even greater insult to Broad.
But it does Broad a disservice to diminish his performance to that of a furious brute. This was the performance of a skilful, experienced Test bowler. The aggression was channelled and controlled; the short ball - though it claimed his first four wickets - was used as variation and, though conditions offered little, he found just enough movement in the air and off the pitch to damage a brittle top-order. It was a performance that would not have shamed Glenn McGrath.
Broad may be cast in the role of pantomime villain in Australia, but his record is beginning to deserve rather more respect. The wicket of Mitchell Johnson, bowled by a fine inswinger to end an excellent seventh-wicket stand, gave Broad not only his fifth five-wicket haul of the Test year, but also made him the first man to take 50 Test wickets in 2013. While it is true that England tend to play more Tests than most nations, an average of 24.16 underlines his increasingly value.
Broad's problem is that the jury declared its verdict too early. Thrown into international cricket as a 20-year-old, he has learned his trade in the unforgiving public eye. So, instead of enduring those inevitable tough days in the relative anonymity of county cricket, he instead had to suffer Yuvraj Singh thrashing him for six sixes in an over on the biggest stage of all. Some will never shed the image of Broad as the over-promoted starlet who promised rather more than he delivered.
But he is far more than that these days. While his divergent record at home and away - he has taken 147 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 27.50 at home and 62 wickets in 24 Tests at an average of 38.59 away; an average that rises to 145.50 from three Tests in India - suggests he is still a work in progress, he does seem, at the age of 27, to be finding the consistency and mental strength that characterise the best.
His experience showed in the dismissal of Shane Watson. Replays made the shot look poor - and it is true that Watson could have left the ball - but by going wide on the crease and seeing the ball hold its line, Broad induced a moment of indecision that proved crucial.
Both Chris Rogers and Michael Clarke were the victims of well-directed short balls. After Rogers fended to gully, Clarke popped the first short delivery he faced to one of the two short legs placed in readiness. He has now been dismissed by Broad six times in his last eight completed innings and, perhaps due to his back injury preventing him from leaning away from the short ball, has serious questions to answer against that line of attack.
The mind-games continue. While Mitchell Johnson claimed Australia had a par total, Broad rated the wicket as "fantastic". Time will tell who is correct, but all the indications are that Broad's description is the more accurate.
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Ashes Winter thread on 12:18 - Nov 21 with 1937 views
Stuart Broad could have been forgiven for producing - a la Denesh Ramdin - a "Talk nah, Australia" sign as he walked off the pitch at the end of the first day of this Ashes series.
Rubbished, ridiculed and reduced - the front page of one Australian tabloid dubbed Broad a "smug pommy cheat" on the morning of the game - England, and Broad in particular, arrived with abuse ringing in their ears.
Broad, it was claimed by an Australian media stoked by their national coach, was little more than a medium-pacer whose disregard for the rules shamed him, while England's batsmen were running scared of Australia's pace attack.
But instead of wilting in the cauldron of the "Gabbatoir", Broad appeared to revel in the occasion. Indeed, he even admitted he found himself whistling along as a large section of the crowd chanted "Broad is a w*****."
This may be no surprise to the England camp. As part of their exhaustive preparation process - a process that was ridiculed at the start of the tour when sections of the Australian media were leaked details of England's nutrition plans - England's players were analysed by a psychologist and Broad was one of three who, in his words, "thrive properly on getting abuse".
"It's me, KP and Matt Prior," Broad said. "So they picked good men to go at.
"It was good fun out there. I think I coped with it okay. It's all good banter. Fans like to come, have a beer with their mates and sing along. I'm pleased my mum wasn't here, but to be honest I was singing along at one stage. It gets in your head and you find yourself whistling it at the end of your mark. I'd braced myself to expect it and actually it was good fun. I enjoyed it."
Bearing in mind the pre-series propaganda - not least David Warner suggesting England "feared" Australia - there was an irony in seeing Australia's top-order dismissed by short deliveries after they had won the toss on a blameless pitch. While Australia had done the talking, England had gone about their preparation relatively quietly and produced a professional performance when it mattered. Actions spoke louder than words.
"We've felt like silent assassins on this trip," Broad said. "We've gone under the radar and just focused on what we had to do. All the attention had been on the Australians which has been perfect for us."
The simplistic explanation would be that Broad, infuriated by the goading, expressed his fury with a spell of hostile bowling. And it is true he has attracted the level of abuse usually reserved for those who have eaten their own children. At one stage the police even arrested a man who, in a reprise of a gag first made 31 years ago against the England offspinner at the time, Eddie Hemmings, attempted to release a piglet onto the field with "Broad" painted on its side. The man was later charged with animal cruelty which might, depending on your view, be seen as even greater insult to Broad.
But it does Broad a disservice to diminish his performance to that of a furious brute. This was the performance of a skilful, experienced Test bowler. The aggression was channelled and controlled; the short ball - though it claimed his first four wickets - was used as variation and, though conditions offered little, he found just enough movement in the air and off the pitch to damage a brittle top-order. It was a performance that would not have shamed Glenn McGrath.
Broad may be cast in the role of pantomime villain in Australia, but his record is beginning to deserve rather more respect. The wicket of Mitchell Johnson, bowled by a fine inswinger to end an excellent seventh-wicket stand, gave Broad not only his fifth five-wicket haul of the Test year, but also made him the first man to take 50 Test wickets in 2013. While it is true that England tend to play more Tests than most nations, an average of 24.16 underlines his increasingly value.
Broad's problem is that the jury declared its verdict too early. Thrown into international cricket as a 20-year-old, he has learned his trade in the unforgiving public eye. So, instead of enduring those inevitable tough days in the relative anonymity of county cricket, he instead had to suffer Yuvraj Singh thrashing him for six sixes in an over on the biggest stage of all. Some will never shed the image of Broad as the over-promoted starlet who promised rather more than he delivered.
But he is far more than that these days. While his divergent record at home and away - he has taken 147 wickets in 36 Tests at an average of 27.50 at home and 62 wickets in 24 Tests at an average of 38.59 away; an average that rises to 145.50 from three Tests in India - suggests he is still a work in progress, he does seem, at the age of 27, to be finding the consistency and mental strength that characterise the best.
His experience showed in the dismissal of Shane Watson. Replays made the shot look poor - and it is true that Watson could have left the ball - but by going wide on the crease and seeing the ball hold its line, Broad induced a moment of indecision that proved crucial.
Both Chris Rogers and Michael Clarke were the victims of well-directed short balls. After Rogers fended to gully, Clarke popped the first short delivery he faced to one of the two short legs placed in readiness. He has now been dismissed by Broad six times in his last eight completed innings and, perhaps due to his back injury preventing him from leaning away from the short ball, has serious questions to answer against that line of attack.
The mind-games continue. While Mitchell Johnson claimed Australia had a par total, Broad rated the wicket as "fantastic". Time will tell who is correct, but all the indications are that Broad's description is the more accurate.
Great read. Aussies pre-match onslaught on Broad was always going to backfire - of all people they thought it would rattle they chose the one it was most likely to benefit.
Just as you think their lack of brain-engagement can't get any worse, Mitch then suggests they got par that wicket today. Either he's brainless thinking that or he's brainless thinking that anyone would engage with such a mind-game.
Australia appear utterly desperate and Pup falling cheaply yet again to Broad suggests it's getting inside his head now. Lovely stuff.
A few years back, it was suicide for us to have a go at the Aussies because they were so brilliant, they would always ram it down our throats. But while this england team is not as good as that truly great Haydn-Ponting-Gilchrist-McGrath-Warne vintage, I think you sledge them at you peril. There's ability there and tremendous team spirit, togetherness, and a collective will to win. and they love to prove people wrong - especially Broad!
Bare bones.
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Ashes Winter thread on 13:06 - Nov 21 with 1911 views
With all the rubbish being spouted by the Aussie press, and being comprehensively shoved back down their collective throats after last night, even the Courier Mail on their website is now full of praise for Broad's performance, I now look forward to the fact that the miserable bar stewards that is the Aussie cricket team returns to England as soon as 2015. Hopefully Clarke will not be in a wheelchair by then so that the English crowd can really give him some stick over his ex-girlfriend, some Aussie model who specialises in shagging Aussie sports stars, and in Clarke's case, whilst she is still with him. Mitch, I am confident, unlike Broad will crack again and become a gibbering wreck of a human being and hopefully that cretin of coach, Biff, or whatever idiotic nickname they have given him, as is their custom with everybody survives long enough to get sacked after another Ashes drubbing.
Was a terrific effort on that wicket. It was good that Prior was fit as he's a good mate of Broad and he keeps chirping away, encouraging him. As has been said already, this England team is a tight unit and undiluted verbage isn't the way to combat them.
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Ashes Winter thread on 13:58 - Nov 21 with 1860 views
The Courier sounds a bit of a laugh, refusing to name him - here's an extract from their report
'The chant of "----- is a wancker" echoed around the Gabba as he came in to bowl his first ball, and when David Warner pulled that ball for four it was if Australia had retained the Ashes.'
They actually spell it properly!
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Ashes Winter thread on 15:15 - Nov 21 with 1824 views
As my boss said today, email's alright but the best thing about the internet is being able to read the Aussie papers after we've stuffed them. Going to be a good series
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Ashes Winter thread on 18:15 - Nov 21 with 1730 views
Ashes Winter thread on 13:58 - Nov 21 by JonDoeman
How embarrassing! ______________________________________
See I told you. The sport coverage over here is a joke. I think I mentioned the golf incident before.My workmate was a golf mad jock who wanted to know how the British Open was going a few years back.We were listening to the news on the radio at work waiting for the sports snippet at the end. The newsreader reported. And in the British Open (** Joe Bloggs--Aussie Golfer ) is doing quite well .He is in 7th place .In front of him are 6 other fellas.
** obviously he wasnt Joe Bloggs ,I'm just clueless about golf.I agree with M.Twain .
What really makes me laugh about all this Stuart Broad "cheat" stuff from the Aussies is that all they had to do was review the decision, but couldn't because their dopey captain had p**sed all his reviews up the wall, but I suppose that was Broads fault too...
What really makes me laugh about all this Stuart Broad "cheat" stuff from the Aussies is that all they had to do was review the decision, but couldn't because their dopey captain had p**sed all his reviews up the wall, but I suppose that was Broads fault too...
Yeah I was thinking the same this morning. It was exactly the situation DRS was made for, Clarke had screwed it up totally, so the Aussies [and, I have to say Jonathon Agnew] decided to pillory Broad for refusing to rescue the umpire and the Aussie captain from their own incompetence.
Tbf to Aussies in general, I wouldn't like my country to be judged on what a bunch of morons write in a Murdoch-owned rag. Then again it was Australia that gave us Murdoch and his approach to journalism in the first place.
Anyway, teehee.
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Ashes Winter thread on 23:17 - Nov 21 with 1631 views
What really makes me laugh about all this Stuart Broad "cheat" stuff from the Aussies is that all they had to do was review the decision, but couldn't because their dopey captain had p**sed all his reviews up the wall, but I suppose that was Broads fault too...
They all forgot how Clarke refused to walk a couple of times against England in recent years
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Ashes Winter thread on 00:27 - Nov 22 with 1616 views
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