titan_uranus

I said no, but that's not to say he can't, or hasn't, played key position. But I reckon at his best he's not tied down to one opponent and he can float around a bit.

Hussey's now gone past Cook for series runs. What a legend. Those pull shots he kept playing, despite men on the legside boundary, which he regularly beat, were outstanding. Pity he ended up going out to a pull shot. Ponting's got a fractured finger. If he can't play in Melbourne things get very interesting. I suppose Clarke will captain the side, which I don't like at all, and I suppose one of Khawaja or Ferguson comes in for Ponting. I'd prefer to see David Hussey or White though. And what will the batting order be? Clarke is hardly in the form required to bat at 3, so will we throw a youngster in the deepest of deep ends and send in a debutant at number 3 in a crucial Ashes Test? What other choices do we have? Ain't hindsight wonderful?

Watson made his fourth 90 today. He is worse than Slater. Good lead now, 323, another 100 and that will be very nice.

Why? You intimating that people saying they're surprised that Jones is in the leadership group is akin to bullying or bagging?

Jones is a surprise. Honestly, he's borderline 22, but I guess Miller was in the leadership group last year and he was on the fringe as well. Doesn't change my thoughts, Green will still be captain. But I'm a bit surprised Jamar isn't in there.

Still waiting on Trengove's team, I think?

If Johnson bowls in the second innings like he did in the first, we will need only 250-300 runs on the board to win. Of course there's no certainty at all in that. I'd hope we bat for the majority of the day and get at least another 200 runs, which would push the lead over 400. South Africa made 414 two years ago but the pitch was dead that game and England's batsmen, for all their success so far, aren't as good as the South Africans were. Hughes' technique is flawed, possibly fatally. He is riding on the credits he received from the tour of South Africa. The only reason he made runs then was because the Proteas kept giving him full stuff, not short stuff. I don't think his technique is anywhere near sound enough to be a Test opener. Ponting is basically gone. He will never move down the order, so it's number 3 or retirement I would have thought. And he's not making runs. Problem is, I'm sure he'll want to stay as long as he can, his ego is enormous. It's a problem.

Mitch!! 3/4! Swinging it nicely, getting Cook Trott and Pietersen with swing. Life back in the test.

Crap start. Haddin and Watson let an edge go without moving, and far too many runs are being scored on the leg side.

Thanks. I needed to ask Demetriou for extra time anyway.

India 9/136! Go South Africa. Steyn and Morkel showing Harris and Hilfenhaus how to use a new ball. Finally, the criticism is being heaved upon our batsmen. Watson, Katich, Hussey and Haddin seem capable of playing against swing. Hughes, Ponting, Clarke, North and Smith don't. Funnily enough, the first four have all done OK so far this series, Hussey and Haddin especially, whilst the last five have hardly looked like scoring runs.

Oh geez, Harris was terrible. Hilfenhaus was OK, but far too much rubbish overall. This Test is going to be a lot like Adelaide I think.

Im afraid of what their batsmen will do...this pitch isn't that bad. Siddle and Hilfenhaus showed that. Poor top order batting.

Argh, Hussey just went out. To Swann. And we don't have a spinner. Smith is not good enough for no. 6 and thus shouldn't be in the side.

Not sure. Bravo and Ross Taylor were last year. Will have to investigate.

Watson out now. 4/36. Worse than Adelaide. That's the only decent ball too, the first three were crap shots. The batsmen aren't good enough but the bowlers get rotated. Smith in now. We are gone.

England have won the toss and will bowl first. Poo. Edit: And Ponting said he wouldn't have bowled first too if we'd won the toss. I'm afraid we're going to get a repeat of Adelaide. Green top + a top 7 containing Phil Hughes, Steven Smith, and an out-of-form Ponting = no confidence at all.

Took awhile for me to get back on, kept getting 403 and 404 errors.

Big risk here, we've named Beer as 12th man, so we're playing all of Johnson, Siddle, Harris and Hilfenhaus, as well as Watson. So the spinning duties will be handed to Smith and Michael Clarke, if required. I wonder if Ponting will consider bowling first if we win the toss. After all, we need 20 wickets and with four pacemen the best time to bowl might be today.

How many times has Hilfenhaus taken 5 wickets in an innings? 0. In fact, his best match bowling figures are 5/70. Siddle has three five-fors, two against England. Statistics can be used any way you like, but I think this one matters. Furthermore, Hilfenhaus has no weapons after the shine wears off the new ball. And even then, he wasn't swinging it a lot in Brisbane. He was dropped for a reason. I think there is a bigger difference between Siddle and Hilfenhaus than you think.

Me too. Partly because I honestly cannot believe they are going to drop Siddle. And if they do drop him, let's not make a mistake, they'll be dropping him for Hilfenhaus, not Johnson. Bollinger was brought in for Johnson to be the strike bowler, the 'golden arm'. He failed, due largely to a lack of fitness, so he must go. Whether we agree or not, Johnson has been deemed the replacement (personally I don't). Now, Hilfenhaus was dropped because he was impotent, and Harris was brought in to do similar work (i.e. bowl with the new ball, swing it a bit, do some hard yakka when required). Siddle does a similar job. If Siddle goes, Hilfenhaus will take his spot in the order. All this talk about Siddle vs Johnson is nonsense. It's also ludicrous that Hilfenhaus is even in the squad, let alone the XI.

I doubt the FD would be setting KPIs that could possibly be met in a 0-22 season. By their definition, meeting the KPIs will entail success. First equality holds. Second does not. Once more, we are not here to bully players or to call out the ones we'd like to insult or otherwise denigrate. We are here to predict which players will feel the brunt of the negativity if things go wrong next year. If you can't see the difference, fine, but it's there and for most it's clear.

Yep, I'll go with South Africa too. Steyn and Morkel will hopefully get the edge over Gamhir and Sehwag, and with Raina and Dhoni susceptible to the extra bounce I think South Africa will fare better.

I've just looked over three teams (not saying which ones...), and each one has a strength over the other two. One has a dominant midfield, one has a strong forward line, one has a powerful backline. I wonder if this exercise will re-ignite the top 6 vs bottom 6 debate.

You're joking right? You're simultaneously implying that players cannot deal with criticism and that someone like Miller, with his restricted ability, may have improved had he received more support. Wow.