""Although they are loath to admit it, England ordered and prepared a dodgy deck. As it turned out the talk about producing a typical Oval pitch was all smokes and mirrors. England provided a track as dry as a camel’s tongue and as eager to spin as Gandhi. Graham Swann turned the ball sharply on the second morning. An interesting few days awaits as resolute batsmen contend with fast bowlers bent on exploiting uneven bounce and modest spinners trying to make the ball bite. Far from playing hard and true, the strip was thirsty from the opening hour. Evidently the curator overdid it. Still, Australia had in their party the best performing tweaker in the series. Obviously England were intent on avoiding a high-scoring draw. In that case the Ashes could not be regained. Although rigged, the pitch was just about tolerable. Helped by a fast outfield and umpteen sundries caused by poor footwork behind the sticks, an unsung England batting order reached 332. That makes it harder to grizzle. How different it might have been had a draw been enough for England."" http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/cr...epared-to-order/2009/08/21/1250362213031.html so did we use a double headed coin to win the toss? and "if" we get to say 250 in the 3rd innings what does that make their 2nd innings total look like? cant blame the pitch entirely for me, you've still gotta bat and bowl well
They were always going to cry foul about something. Last time it was sub fielders, this time it will be a doctored pitch. Poor losers them Aussies.
dont get me wrong, it is an iffy wicket, but you've still gotta play well, we have most of the time, they aint! we've had nearly 50 runs in sundries so far!!
They should've picked a f.cking spinner then. They weren't complaining when they got to Lunch yesterday with none down. Although if the North & Clarke dismissals had been English batsmen we'd be spitting feathers.
What about Strauss in the first knock and Collingwood in the second. Clear no-balls, especially the Strauss one which was bowled from 21 yards!
They used to do it when they had their really good pacemen wickets were green to facilitate that pace.Anyway if we keep knocking runs up they are going to look really pathetically stupid
They spout on as if they have never produced a wicket which would aid a spinner. Its called home advantage.
g'day im off to put a shimp on the barby n crack open a tinny, cobber i love it when we get them on the rack, its nearly always someone else's fault. still wary o ponting though, best cricketer in the world and he'll go down fighting
RE: aussies STILL got the monk on ""To make matters worse it was a South African - the new England batsman Jonathan Trott - who hit 119 to seemingly take the Old Urn out of Australia's reach. Trott, who like Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen was born in South Africa, became the 18th England Test player to make a hundred on Test debut and the first since Graham Thorpe in 1993 to do so against Australia. Tailender Graeme Swann swung hard to make 63, helping South Africa to declare at 9-373"" guess they forgot about matt prior http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25969508-601,00.html
RE: aussies STILL got the monk on If there's any wingeing to be done, there's always an Aussie there. I worked in Queensland on contracts for a Japanese company in the late 80s, and the workforce moaned about how hot it was etc. Having worked in central Oman, it was a nice cool day.
