Some interesting stats here in the games that counted. Check out Brett Lee - 8 wickets @ 58!! :mad:

Absolutely pathetic. Surely Tait would do better than this. He's just as fast, has got more variation, swings the ball more, can also reverse it and is more intelligent.

</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">Australia Batting and Fielding

Name Mat I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St

MEK Hussey 3 5 2 415 103 138.33 53.00 1 4 3 -
MJ Clarke 3 5 2 373 135* 124.33 63.43 2 1 - -
RT Ponting 3 6 1 524 196 104.80 61.43 2 2 1 -
B Lee 3 3 2 60 43* 60.00 50.42 - - 2 -
AC Gilchrist 3 4 1 166 102* 55.33 114.48 1 1 13 1
JL Langer 3 6 1 230 100* 46.00 69.90 1 1 4 -
ML Hayden 3 6 0 204 92 34.00 62.38 - 1 5 -
SK Warne 3 3 0 85 43 28.33 54.48 - - 4 -
DR Martyn 2 3 0 45 29 15.00 45.45 - - 3 -
SR Clark 3 3 0 42 39 14.00 120.00 - - - -
A Symonds 1 2 0 28 26 14.00 77.77 - - 1 -
GD McGrath 3 3 1 10 8* 5.00 25.00 - - 1 -

Australia Bowling

Name Mat O M R W Ave Best 5 10 SR Econ

A Symonds 1 13 2 36 2 18.00 2-8 - - 39.0 2.76
SR Clark 3 125.2 31 295 16 18.43 4-72 - - 47.0 2.35
GD McGrath 3 127.1 36 334 13 25.69 6-50 1 - 58.6 2.62
SK Warne 3 176.2 34 521 14 37.21 4-49 - - 75.5 2.95
B Lee 3 129 12 467 8 58.37 2-35 - - 96.7 3.62
MEK Hussey 3 1 0 5 0 - - - - - 5.00
MJ Clarke 3 17 2 53 0 - - - - - 3.11

England Batting and Fielding

Name Mat I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St

KP Pietersen 3 6 1 398 158 79.60 54.22 1 3 2 -
PD Collingwood 3 6 1 345 206 69.00 46.12 1 1 5 -
IR Bell 3 6 0 223 87 37.16 40.39 - 3 4 -
AN Cook 3 6 0 221 116 36.83 43.67 1 - 1 -
AF Giles 2 4 1 74 27* 24.66 57.36 - - 1 -
A Flintoff 3 6 1 120 51 24.00 55.04 - 1 - -
AJ Strauss 3 6 0 113 42 18.83 45.20 - - 3 -
MS Panesar 1 2 1 17 16* 17.00 48.57 - - - -
GO Jones 3 6 0 63 33 10.50 42.85 - - 9 -
SJ Harmison 3 5 0 44 23 8.80 56.41 - - 1 -
SI Mahmood 1 2 0 14 10 7.00 50.00 - - - -
JM Anderson 2 3 2 7 4* 7.00 15.90 - - - -
MJ Hoggard 3 5 0 16 8 3.20 15.09 - - - -

England Bowling

Name Mat O M R W Ave Best 5 10 SR Econ

MS Panesar 1 58 7 237 8 29.62 5-92 1 - 43.5 4.08
MJ Hoggard 3 120 19 404 12 33.66 7-109 1 - 60.0 3.36
A Flintoff 3 98 15 348 7 49.71 4-99 - - 84.0 3.55
SJ Harmison 3 114.1 17 452 6 75.33 4-48 - - 114.1 3.95
AF Giles 2 82 9 262 3 87.33 1-46 - - 164.0 3.19
JM Anderson 2 63.2 10 303 2 151.50 1-85 - - 190.0 4.78
IR Bell 3 1 0 12 0 - - - - - 12.00
SI Mahmood 1 17 2 87 0 - - - - - 5.11
KP Pietersen 3 28 2 112 0 - - - - - 4.00</pre>[/QUOTE]

They do need to use 5 bowlers IF they have 5 usefull ones (which they dont). Why choose Anderson/ mahmood/ plunket that offer nothing in the way of bowling? Given their current squad another batsman would be the best option given that Monty would be able to bowl more overs (and take wickets) It would be a brave desicion given the need to be able to bowl Australia out twice but i see no other choice.

Question Memsy .. Collingwood can bowl in one day matches why is he not used in the tests as a change bowler?

Maybe they rate KP's offies more than Collywobble's trundlers? I don't know.

As for another batsman, maybe Ed Joyce at 6? I can see Warney making this guy look like a dunce. Let's see what it looks like:

Strauss
Cook
Shermanator
KP
Collywobble
Joyce
Flintoff
Read
Harmlesson
Monty
Hoggard

That team doesn't look remotely like taking 20 wickets (or even the last 10). Looks to be a very defensive team trying to go for a draw. I don't think they can afford to just go in with a four man bowling attack + some part-timers - they'd be putting too much pressure on Monty in his second Ashes Test (though you could argue there's not that much pressure left now). You've got Harmless who only fires once an innings a la Brett Lee, then you've got Mahmood/Anderson who's a pie thrower, then you've got a half-fit Freddie and Hoggard probably the most consistent of the lot. They can't go in with a 4 man attack. You win Tests by taking wickets, not scoring runs. It was their inability to take wickets that led to OZ posting 500-odd in the 2nd innings, including 160 in 20 overs or something.

[ 12-19-2006, 12:35 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]

Yeah Ashes! Go Ashes! Burnanate the competition!

I still don't know what this thread is about. :(

Your line up looks good enough to me with plunket/joyce the only contention.

I feel sorry for Giles, he did his best after a full year out of the game and now he has had to go home for personal reasons. He plays a certain way and it was wrong for (some) poms to blame him for not taking enough wickets. Though 'that' dropped catch against punter did not help.

Warney and McGrath are both poised to retire apparently.

There's really nothing more for either of them to achieve in the game. Warney will take his 700th wicket sometime before the end of the series, and both of them can retire knowing that they did Australia proud.

I think we've proved that we should be able to shrug off the loss of McGrath as we have some good fast bowling stocks coming through. We will lose a bit of an edge without Warney, mainly in our ability to dominate the fifth days of a Test match. But we won't become a crap team overnight as many people have suggested, as our competitiveness is bred out of our cricketing system, not the talents of one or two players.

What we'll miss more than the talents of these two are their brains - they've got so much experience that they know what fields to set, how batsmen play, all that stuff. It's a bit like Darren Lehmann's retirement before the Ashes in 2005 - we missed his brain more than his batting.

I think we'll all miss Warney, histrionics and all. The field was his theatre when he was bowling.

I must say a big well done to Australia...oh could we please have the Ashes back for a few weeks in another 20 years or so?? :rolleyes:

LMAO [img]graemlins/laugh2.gif[/img]

Warne to retire at the MCG after taking his 700th wicket would be a fairy tale ending. But then OH AH McGrath to retire after the Sydney test ... not sure if Cricket Australia will be happy about both going at the same time.

If Warney did retire at the MCG would Stuart MacGill then play in sydney? is he ready? Who else would play if 2 spinners where deemed usefull?

I'm pretty sure Warney's retiring at the end of the Ashes. He just wanted to make the announcement so he could get a big sendoff at the MCG.