Winter ashes...

[TANGODANCER]

Would have been nice to start the day off with a bit of good cheer. Ah well, we're alive and kicking and the Whites will surely make it a better sporting day?????.

[jaffka]

They had one good day in this test and were mouthing off like they were world beaters.

I cannot see anything other than a whitewash.

[Dujon]

Beware the wounded lion. I am quite sure that Michael Clarke will be stressing that adage between now and Jan 3, just as I'm sure Cook will be urging his troops to live up to it.

For a series that has been well and truly lost by one team the final game in Sydney should be interesting. I hope sincerely that the weather doesn't get in the way. Australia will be cock-a-hoop and looking for a 5-0 'whitewash' and England looking to salvage something from the wreckage of the tour. Yes, I know, I'm talking it up.

Has the toss been important in this series? Clarke has won four out of four so far, electing to bat in the first three tests. In Melbourne he invited England to take strike. The first innings of the first three tests had Australia with decent totals. In Melbourne England scored a pretty fair 255 whilst Australia stuttered in its first. With a wicket that appeared to be benign England then seemed to pick the wrong path through the woods and twice fell over fallen logs. Let's be honest, in anyone's language, 2 for 6 does not look good on any team's curriculum vitae any more than do the numbers 381, 218, 150 and 8 wkts.

Come on chaps, make the last one a match worth watching.

[thebish]

england are NOT a wounded lion...

savaged squirrel??
mauled mouse?

[Dujon]

Come on, thebish, it's only three months ago that the English press were lionising this team. At the same time, of course, the Australian press was tearing strips off the carcass of its own.

How can fortunes be so fickle?

[thebish]

Come on, thebish, it's only three months ago that the English press were lionising this team. At the same time, of course, the Australian press was tearing strips off the carcass of its own.

How can fortunes be so fickle?

hmmm... people suggested we might ape the wounded lion in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th tests - we didn't! I see no reason to think we'll grow a mane for the fifth!

[Hoboh]

Wimps to a man and not worth a late night for!

[Dujon]

You might well be right, Hoboh: I wouldn't really know as I'm heterosexual.

[thebish]

FFS!!!! the-fecking-same-a-fecking-gain!! 97-5 - on the ropes - then, all of a sudden, Oz in firm control... arghhhhhhh!!!!

it's enough to make a vicar swear!

[thebish]

also - Rankin - off with cramp - on day ONE????

[BWFC_Insane]

It is a shame that what was not all that long ago a great cricketing team has gone downhill so quickly. What has happened to the likes of Cook, Trott, Pietersen (ok always erratic), Swann, Anderson etc?

The writing was on the wall in the summer when it became evident that our batting line-up was weaker willed than a fieldmouse in a cheese shop, but even so this decline has been dramatic. I thought we'd get tonked this tour, but not 5-0 (which I suspect is a mere formality now).

Guess all good things come to an end.

[bwfcdan94]

england are NOT a wounded lion...

savaged squirrel??
mauled mouse?

Is?

[thebish]

england are NOT a wounded lion...

savaged squirrel??
mauled mouse?

Is?

am happy with "are".

[Prufrock]

'Are' unless you're from the wrong side of the pond. Look up metonymic shift, Dan.

[Dujon]

After yesterday's debacle it's suddenly 8-2 (Cook) with Bell edging to slip off his first ball only to be dropped by Watson. Now Anderson's in trouble with some sort of injury. This is painful. Still there are batsmen in reserve. Maybe some pairs can build partnerships.

[Worthy4England]

After yesterday's debacle it's suddenly 8-2 (Cook) with Bell edging to slip off his first ball only to be dropped by Watson. Now Anderson's in trouble with some sort of injury. This is painful. Still there are batsmen in reserve. Maybe some pairs can build partnerships.

Think I'm going to have a read before bed. Nowt on the telly....

[TANGODANCER]

It's a Shakespeare. It's winter and we're discontented. Can't see any sons of the yorker making it feel like glorious summer though.

[bobo the clown]

After yesterday's debacle it's suddenly 8-2 (Cook) with Bell edging to slip off his first ball only to be dropped by Watson. Now Anderson's in trouble with some sort of injury. This is painful. Still there are batsmen in reserve. Maybe some pairs can build partnerships.

Trying to avoid sounding like Boycott is very difficult.

This is a fckg disgrace. The players want their fees withholding. It's OK losing, having done your best, but wtf is this ??

Simple concentration seems to be beyond them. They don't all have to get centuries but b-hell.

[jaffka]

its now 14-3 and Bell has survived a review

[Worthy4England]

It's a cracking book...