Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Blogging by the Pool

- I surely wasn't the only one who was looking around for the 'resety' button at 2pm on Friday afternoon was I? "Ok - let's start again - it's 11am, and Australia are going to bat first."

Of course, England would probably still have been as utterly inept as they were when the game was played in this universe, rather than a parallel one - but at least the game might have lasted beyond tea on the third day...

- All the claims from the England camp about Fred's fitness, and then the counter-claims from his agent/publicist yesterday suggest only one thing - Freddie has an incredibly inflated level of his own place in cricket history, and a rather tactless approach to ensuring that that place looks better and better by the day.

- It must have been nice being an England quick bowler over the past four days - not having to let anything like logic or realism enter your tiny little brain. Bang it in short - get clobbered to the boundary - go back to your mark and run in again. Lather, rinse, repeat as necessary.

- Wonder if we'll be singing 'Super Mitch' at the Oval, like we did at Edgbaston....

- As for the eleven for the fifth test - the selectors, maybe with a slight nudge from the ECB, need to simply pick the side that they think gives us the best chance of winning the game. That means batsmen who don't look as though they'd rather be any place else than out in the middle, and a bowling attack that can take twenty wickets.

So that means Key and Ramps for Bell and Bopara.

2 comments:

harry said...

Definitely Key & Ramps for B&B.
Fred for....Harmy? I think so, Onions generally takes wickets, and let himself down at Headingly. But there's alittle nag in my mind which says thatwe aren't favourites, so a bit of a gamble is required, and at the Oval, Harmy might blow away a couple of top-order Aussies.
That said, if Jim isn't fully fit, drop him. He's our best bowler when on song, but if fitness or conditions aren't right, he's mediocre.
Final thought on bowling - surely a spinners' track is called-for, meaning the return of the Montster. (Can't imagine our tepid management would risk a talented, confident young 'un like Rashid. An Asian team would have him in, no doubt about it)

Do what the enemy least want you to do:
Pick competent batters instead of pussies
Pick fast aggressive bowlers
Play it on a Bunsen

Strauss
Cook
Key
Ramps
Colly
Prior
Fred
Broad
Swann
Harmy
Monty

AndyBatt said...

Not Trott - you can't have someone making their debut in an Ashes Test. Especially not THIS Ashes test.