BBC - Second Test, Adelaide: Australia v England
England will bid to bounce back from a poor start to the Ashes when the second Test starts in Adelaide on Friday.
But can they do it?! Open thread devoted to the whole Test, unless England manages to make it a little more interesting this time.
This one’s really late since I was joint compounding all day, looking for a tile store that sells decorative tiles that don’t have salmon on them all evening, and getting leftover Thanksgiving dinner into me before fainting and then sitting down to a Morse all night. But, here it is, and as it stands:
Australia build a lead of over 600 after Glenn McGrath takes 6-50 to dismiss England for 157 in Brisbane.
And The Times refers to England’s performance as “disheartening”.
Update (11.25):
I think now that it must have been a dream. There is always a tendency to confuse dream and reality when working through the processes of jet lag; but what I saw at the Gabba was certainly real enough. What seems distinctly unreal is my memory of the Ashes summer of 2005. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that it didn’t really happen at all.
Watching England play cricket at the Gabba in Brisbane over the first two days of the most eagerly awaited Test match series in history was exactly how watching England play cricket against Australia is supposed to be. The Australians were swaggering, smugly bullying, confident to the point of parody. The English were little, weak and helpless.
You see? It was a great disturbance in the force.
This thread is “Live” (today’s play stopped two hours ago) in the same sense in which England’s hopes for the game are still “alive”. One point of interest for the remainder of the match is whether “Old Man” McGrath** can get 10 wickets for the match. Near certainty I would guess.
Well, we’ll put this one down to first-match blues and/or jet lag. Probably have a day off to do a bit of snorkelling on the reef with Tony Greig?
**All of 37. He did a nice old-age pensioner impersonation on his way off the pitch.
joint compounding, salmon tile, Morse, it’s youth I guess, Ninme is picking up this game way faster than me.
Hehee
Yeah you’d think so, Half, wouldn’t you.
Are you taking issue with my ability to stage a live thread across 19 time zones?!
No, excellent work; and all on top of kitchen remodelling and getting over Thanksgiving.
Yeah well, I’ve pretty much given up on it now. It seems unfair to Red.
The Poms are fighting back! Perhaps not for a win, but a chance of a draw - the result that when you say cricket has matches that last five days and in the end can result in a draw, Americans, they just won’t believe you.
Ah, naw, don’t think we’ll stretch to the draw, not unless there’s one of those black-sky downpours early enough in the day to make a difference - and they just don’t happen.
Either the English have reverted to type now that Vaughan’s no longer leading them - they’re currently putting on a gallant little fightback now the match is lost, much the most irritating item in their repertoire of ways to lose matches - or else they’re as underdone as everyone says and they’ll have more to offer next time. Let’s hope so.
The Punter’s a genial bloke normally, but he’s certainly got his game face on this time round. Let’s hope he’s got someone else feeding his pigeons, I’d hate them to starve because he wants them lean and mean.
So is this at all like the world cup? A best of five sort of thing? Is there a possibility that it will all be over sooner than expected? Or do you play till the bitter end in what, Sydney is it?
Oh, no. All matches will be played regardless. Australia once lost 5-0 in South Africa (Bill Lawry - one of the commentators - still complains about it. He lost the captaincy as a result).
What’s TCB stand for? It says in the schedule on the Beeb “timings TCB” for the last two, so I thought maybe they were a sort of TBA thing, but then maybe it’s just a what-time-of-day thing.
Are you going to the Sydney one(s)?
No idea what TCB stands for. The first day in Sydney is sold out. I’ll see what my schedule is for the other days.
Well done to the Aussies, Brett! Much the better side in this match. We’ll just have to see what we can come up with for Adelaide. You might enjoy seeing the Bedfordshire version of the Turbanator - he really gives it a rip by current standards.
I remember that series in SA - the Aussies were up against Procter, a pair of Pollocks, Dennis Lindsay, Eddie Barlow and Barry Richards. They were, as would any other side have been, lucky to get nil. Were I Bill Lawry I wouldn’t repine, he had Garth McKenzie and that was it. Eric Freeman? Should have stayed with his pigeons for all the chance that side had.
Come clean. You folks are just making this stuff up.
Hee hee.
Ah, but which bits?
Hahaha
GOD this is entertaining.
Well, if you enjoy watching small animal being tortured the way the Aussies are treating the English might have a certain appeal. As an Englishman my response is somewhat more nuanced.
No, no that exactly articulates why this is so fun!
Heheheh
(I thought I’d do one thread per test, but nah, I don’t think I’ll be that stingy.)
Apologies for the late start. As it stands, it’s Oz 402-3. Hoggard to Hussey, fifth test fifty for Michael Hussey. Thoughts? Comments? Vendettas embarked upon?
Another good morning for The Punter. Pity the team that comes up against this Tassie Devil when he is in one of his moods.
Punter just missed out on the double ton. Bummer. Good comeback by the Poms, but still looking a bit grim for Olde Blighty. Key will be whether they can run through the tail quickly, then the match may be salvageable.
Live commentary!
OMG his name is Ponting! That’s hilarious! I totally get it now!
What’s an ODI? Right now it’s AUS 528-8, 5th ODI fifty for Michael Clark, “he ducked in time to let that one go over him”.
ODI: One Day International. Fast-past cricket - only takes one day to complete a match.
I don’t know if Red will want to chime in just now. Australia declared at just over 600 (a very large total) and now England are in a bit of strife with their reply.
I see that the TV coverage has a new toy: Infra-red camera replays - it shows the hot spot on the bat where the ball hit it.
You don’t want to get hit by a cricket ball travelling at 70 mph. Leaves a nasty bruise, so ducking quickly is an important skill.
That’s fast-paced cricket. I prefer the slower form myself.
Even less do you want to get hit by one doing ninety. I remember one time I was badly out of form with the bat for technical reasons and I found I was taking the ball on the (unprotected) inner thigh of my back leg. That was a fault I rectified pretty sharpish.
Yup, we’re in strife, it’ll take a good performance to get a draw out of this one. Australia’s taken all the pinch points so far. And The Punter’s on a mission.
Does strife have a concrete meaning in cricket, or is it more along a general dire straits deal?
Generalised grief. Which is what we got.
If my grasp of time zones is correct, the first test should be starting, in Brisbane, right now. Since it’s midnight in the UK and Australia will be otherwise occupied, I don’t know how “live” the commentary will be, but the thread is open, nonetheless.
You all thought I’d forget, didn’t you?
Update (Thanksgiving):
Rueful Red has provided those of us who don’t get coverage (or have no idea what goes on) with a handy 11-minute Day One Video Highlights (or go here and click the link).
Day One summary: Punter!
Oh all right then! I’d taken 340-odd as par, but I’d been loking for 7-8 wickets which looks a bit fanciful if Harmison can’t hit the cut bit.
The Punter is of course a very fine player. I saw his debut innings in county cricket, for Somerset against us at Scarborough. He looked a wonderfully balanced and economical player. It was wonderful to watch, but as Yorkshire folk we were also hating every minute. So we sat there, applauding and bellyaching at the same time. Very Yorkshire, that. So well done The Punter!
Ima lern knew language!
I have the mute swan turkey almost to 149 after 12 hours….. slow going.
Happy Thanksgiving, Half! And ninme of course and all the other septic ninmates. Cooking would have been so much easier had you taken Franklin’s advice and made the turkey the US’s national bird. Then, as Stan Freberg observed, you could all be sitting down to roast eagle with all the trimmings - much quicker to cook.
Ninmates… Heh, heh, heh. Lord I hate being slow.
I used to hunt (and occasionally find) wild turkeys. Much, much, much more difficult animal that a deer. The wild ones are crazy smart and invented hiding in plain view.
“invented hiding in plain view.”
That’s a useful skill - could come in useful some evenings at home.
I hear the reason turkeys are so popular to hunt (since, after all, unlike venison, one can find them in abundance down at the local Safeway), is because, though they’re large targets, the only way to kill them without ruining your meal is to hit their teeeny tiny smaller-than-a-bullseye little heads.
Wasn’t de rigeur in the Appallachian back-country to be able to shhot a turkey through the eye? Sort a Davey Crockett-style accomplishment, equivalent of being able in New York to play the piano well?
I wonder if Davey Crockett sounded like ‘Mater? (I just watched Cars).
Well, given the size of your Crocket-era bullet, and the relative size of the turkey’s head, I’d say that a shot anywhere in the head region would be a shot through the eye.
Crockett probably sounded like a Scot that’s been listening to too much Country Western.
I expect most folks shoot at the turkey center of mass, never been particularly sporting around here.
Is that why all those hillbillies are missing teeth?
It wasn’t just the accent, but the diction. Mrs Red’s Scottish Lowland farming hillbilly sometime brother-in-law has a vocabulary instantly recognisable in places like Shitbritches Creek, N.C.
Hahahaha!
Yes, that is funny. What an audience there would be for, say, a book about such a place.
Well, if you read the Backcountry sctoin of “Albion’s Seed: Acultural history of Colonial America” by David Hackett Fischer you’ll see that 1) I didn’t make that name up and 2) that was one of the milder ones. The Lowland Scots tended to the pungent when it came to naming things.
It’s actually an excellent book, it would have saved me two whole weeks of reading at university had it existed in those days. It also explains why everywhere near Boston is named after places in East Anglian whereas places near Philadelphia have those Indian jaw-busters.
November 30th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Oh, dear. More bowling for spinning legs? The only thing I followed in the previous threads was the life made unnecessarily complex by mobile phone.
December 1st, 2006 at 12:23 am
Yes, it’s those text messaging leg spinners, at it again!
England did well on the first day. A little too well for my liking. Clearly stung by the first Test debacle. The St George cross flags well in evidence.
December 1st, 2006 at 1:22 am
Well England got off to a useful start and if they can push on from here then all to the good. It’d be a good day for Pietersen to get his eye in. It’ll be interesting to see how well some of the more elderly Aussies cope with having to spend maybe five sessions in the field. Don’t quite see how either side’s going to get the twenty wickets needed for a win without something spectacular happening to the pitch.
December 1st, 2006 at 2:50 am
Couldn’t resist this quote from The Guardian about the Texting Leggie:
“Warne, early on, was near his best. If he could control his life like he can control a cricket ball, he’d be a monk.”
December 2nd, 2006 at 12:14 am
If he could spin the truth like he spins the ball, he could be a politician.
Good performance again today by England. Almost Australia-like. Australia will need to bat well tomorrow to keep in the game.
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:08 am
Punter again leads from the front, but still a bit of work to do to tie the match up against the big England innings.
Some good batsmen take on the captaincy (which is quite onerous in cricket - no coaches during play) and their batting form falls away. Not so with Punter, fortunately.
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:05 am
Punter’s a very very good batsman. Best since Bradman? Dunno - but he’s at least comparable with Neil Harvey and Greg Chappell. More guts than Chappell, at a guess. Actually I’m not certain Braddles was all that smart when faced with real pace. The film of him playing Larwood from square leg looks ghastly.
I wonder when was the last time Warne and McGrath bowled 83 overs between them and took 1-274? They’re both great bowlers, but there may be intimations of mortality beginning to whisper. We in England have been waiting for them for a good 13 years, mind you, so no wishful thinking’s allowed.
Did I tell you Bradman’s family came from the next but one village to my paternal great-grandparents on the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border? My uncle Eric was by the finish the spitting image of the aged Bradman. Makes you think.
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:43 am
playing Larwood from square leg
Hell, you guys are making this stuff up. What’s that supposed to mean?
December 3rd, 2006 at 2:50 am
Tee hee!!!
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:08 am
Yeh, no silly mid wicket for Warney this innings.
The Poms are champions at making up bizarre names for things, Half. In cricket, that talent is let loose with a vengence.
December 3rd, 2006 at 3:17 am
As someone who enjoyed being a wide-ish leg slip I can only agree.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:24 am
Ponting dropped at deep backward square leg…
December 4th, 2006 at 7:34 am
….Probably the defining moment of the test. Draw very likely now, unless one team can pull off something special.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
So you know how Half goes on about pre-decimilization Sterling?
Are you sure cricket wasn’t devised as a code to use during the Napoleonic Wars or something?
December 4th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
The English team is busy trying to give their supporters heart attacks. They’ve now given Australia a chance to win … Sporting chaps, eh what?
December 5th, 2006 at 2:23 am
Doh! Dropped the guard for a second. The Aussies don’t have to be asked twice. Lot of good performances for the Poms that they can take away from the match, though. Hope they can keep positive and keep it interesting. Flintoff may be on thin ice.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:26 am
Flintoff is on thin ice. I don’t know how a side can score 551/6 and still lose. Aaaaarrrghhh!!!!! If we can’t bat out the last day on that wicket we deserve what we get. It’s a kind of despair. Rueful as anything.
I guess the Punter really is on a mission. His stats over the past year are pretty awesome. Well done his mob.
And even as we speak curators in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney are taking the pace out of their wickets.