MadAsHell

Cheers Macca, A good read, I enjoy Ashley Mallett's stuff and he knows spin bowling. Was mentored by the great Clarrie Grimmett, after Warne you could mount a case Grimmet was at least equal, if not better then the likes of O'Reilly and Benaud. And he also backed up my claim in that there's a bit of Daniel Vettori about Agar. Doesn't hold back on Lyon does he Mallett, makes you think that his international career could be over and that after Agar, Fawad Ahmed's our next best spinner out there. Throw in the likes of Adam Zampa and James Muirhead who are both raw but have shown some talent, maybe we do have some spin bowlers coming through after all? Reckon Agar could play a big role on Day 3. Really hope we can knock them over for around the 250 mark. But what a day of cricket, I'll remember that partnership between Agar & Hughes for a long, long time. Up there with Mark & Steve Waugh's 231 run partnership against the Windies at Kingston in the deciding test in 1995 in the series that got us to number 1. Both just critical partnerships at the time. Can't say I have dee-luded... And well, at stumps on Day 2. England 1st Innings 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) Australia 1st Innings 280 A. Agar 98 P. Hughes 81* J. Anderson 5/85 (24) G. Swann 2/60 (19) England 2nd Innings 2/80 A. Cook 37* K. Pietersen 35* M. Starc 2/15 (13) S. Watson 0/0 (3)

And that's tea on Day 2. England 1st Innings 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) Australia 1st Innings 280 A. Agar 98 P. Hughes 81* J. Anderson 5/85 (24) G. Swann 2/60 (19) England 2nd Innings 2/11 J. Root 5 A. Cook 4* M. Starc 2/2 (3.4) J. Pattinson 0/8 (4) Starc going for the hatrick straight up after tea. Trott may have inside edged the last one but there was nothing on hot spot and snicko didn't react until the ball hit the pad. We saw the dismisal before that it does pick up the faintest of edges. So I reckon the right decision was made. Amazing how this game has turned on it's head since drinks in the 1st session.

He's GAWN! And Starc is on a hatrick! You little hooter!!! Now lets get Pietersen for the hatrick and put the Pommies to the sword and wrap this up inside 3 days!

Change of innings England 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) M. Starc 2/54 (17) Australia 280 A. Agar 98 P. Hughes 81* S. Smith 53 J. Anderson 5/85 (24) G. Swann 2/60 (19) S. Finn 2/80 (15) Agar did a Warnie and went for glory when he could have just turned it around the corner for a single. Still, as I said earlier, I reckon we've found our own Daneil Vettori. A remarkable recovery from Hughes & Agar considering we were 9/117. I'm hoping this could be the series where Phil Hughes announces himself as a world class batsman and can repeat his efforts at Shield level consistently on the world stage. That was a very good innings from him today also to go along with Agar's brilliance. Lets go Aussies, lets knock the Poms over for under 300 to put ourselves in a winning position. Better yet under 200!

Damn it! What an effort, 98!

And he's now into those nervous 90's!

150 run partnership and our lead is now over 50.

And that's lunch on Day 2 England 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) M. Starc 2/54 (17) Australia 9/229 A. Agar 69* P. Hughes 63* S. Smith 53 J. Anderson 5/70 (21) G. Swann 2/55 (17) S. Finn 2/80 (15) Amazing test match so far. What will the next session bring? Would love to see both Agar & Hughes go on to make 100's and get us a lead around 100.

Tino Best 95 I believe... And boom, we're infront and it's the 100 run partnership!

Scores level after we were 9/117. This is great to watch! Highest score by an Australian number 11 ever sorry Glenn McGrath.

Great 50 Phil Hughes, arguably one of your best innings! Now only 9 runs behind.

50 on debut, well done Ashton Agar! Reckon we've uncovered our very own Daniel Vettori! And well done Phil Hughes on your innings so far to. A very sensible and restrained innings that was needed at the time, unlike Brad Haddin's effort.....

They're called the GABBA & the WACA. Probably the two bounciest pitches in the world, there's a reason we almost never loose at either venue, no other teams can cope with the extra bounce.

Hughes & Agar 50 run partnership 50 run partnership for the final wicket and reduced England's lead to under 50 with Agar leading the charge! Well done boys! Lets now get a first innings lead! If Agar gets 50 I wonder if he'll be the first ever number 11 debutant to make a 50 on debut?

Agar smacks Graeme Swan over long off for six as he and Hughes try to rescue the innings!

A batsman, a batsman, my kingdom for a batsman!

Not wrong about our strong tail AOB. Agar, Siddle, Pattinson & Starc are all very capable with the bat, you could throw a blanket over them actually as far as who comes in from 8-11. Long term with the likes of Agar, Pattinson & Starc who are all still very young being so capable with the bat, it means after our home Ashes series that we could go old school with the keeper position again and pick the best gloveman available, which is probably Chris Hartley, however with a first class batting average of just over 30 seems destined to never get a look in as we all expect keepers to average 40+ these days. Haddin's been a good servant, however his glovework isn't that crash hot (neither was Wade's), and was dropped when his batting went off and was replaced by Wade who I have no doubt the selectors hoped would be a keeper that could average about 40, however he's found the going tough also. If we develop the worlds strongest batting tail, then we could just focus on the best gloveman around. Doesn't matter if he bats 7, 8 or 9 and look to crack down on any byes, dropped catches or missed stumpings that we ay otherwise see occasionally with an inferior gloveman.

Interesting article from Malcom Conn. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/brittle-aussie-batting-line-up-would-benefit-more-from-michael-clarke-dropping-back-to-five/story-e6frf7jo-1226677431551 Probably makes sense. If we moved Watto back to openning because that's where he plays his best, maybe Clarke should stay at 5? 2nd Innings with Hughes at 4 followed by Clarke & Smith? And he's probably righ about Cowan. I'd probably give him the first 2 tests, but if he fails Khawaja should probably come into calculations at number 3. Other options from outside the squad are probably Doolan, Burns and Ferguson.

Stumps Day 1 England 215 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 37 J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 3/69 (17) M. Starc 2/54 (17) Australia 4/75 S. Smith 38* C. Rogers 16 S. Watson 13 J. Anderson 2/25 (10) S. Finn 2/37 (8) Well not a good start for Cowan in his number 3 role with a golden and Clarke getting a globe also at 4. Pretty even you'd have to say and all in all I'm reasonably happy with where we're at. We've probably got the strongest tail of all time with all of Siddle, Starc, Pattinson & Agar more then capable with the bat. Fingers crossed we can manage to get to lead of at least 50 runs for a bit of a psychological edge. If we can leave ourselves chasing an amount under 300 I reckon we're a real shot! Big first session of Day 2 coming up!

Tea Day 1 England 6/185 J. Trott 48 J. Bairstow 32* J. Root 30 P. Siddle 5/50 (14) J. Pattinson 1/51 (13) Great sessions by Australia and especially Siddle there taking all of our 4 wickets. Fingers crossed we can knock Bairstow over early in the next session and bowl England out for under 250. That's it for me for the night, decided I'll only go the full night on friday & saturday nights. Hopefully I'll hear good news when I turn SEN on in the morning.

Siddle again! Gets Bell and that's 4 of our 5 wickets. To think this guy nearly didn't play in this test... Edit: Make that 5 of our 6 and that's Prior gone! England 6 down for less then 200 before tea, lets roll them for under 250 Aussies. Siddle for 8!

Siddle you little ripper! two wickets in the first hour after lunch, Pietersen & Trott. Thanks god we didn't play Bird!!!

Also thought I'd mention that I feel for Nathan Lyon. His form in the warm ups was solid and he did reasonably well over in India. Could still possibly play a role this series if Agar struggles or as a 2nd spinner at The Oval which does spin a bit.

Lunch Day 1 England 2/98 J. Trott 37* J. Root 30 A. Cook 13 P. Siddle 1/28 (5 overs) J. Pattinson 1/31 (9) Evenly balanced at lunch. Trott's looking good and Pattinson and Starc have both bowled well. Glad Siddle got the wicket of Root as his first 4 overs were very ordinary and I was thinking I wish Bird was playing. Agar looks a likely type, tall left arm spiner with a bit of bounce and grip. 0/8 off 3 overs and as another poster mentioned, seemed to worry Trott more then any of our seamers. First ball in test cricket was a full toss that went for 4 but steadied after that. Here's hoping for at least 3 wickets in the next session!

As mentioned Banfield is one that could be looked at by way of a delisted free agent (like how we got Gillies), others who could fill that role and be recruited a similar way as they seem to be out of favour with their clubs are Robin Nahas or Leroy Jetta, both have shown an ability to rotate through the midfield.