Ponting quaking in his boots

[Alison]

Originally Posted by R W S

Alison - what's that avatar?

A photo of the England team celebrating after having won the final Test this summer.

[Statto]

I wasnt even born when we won the ashes last time. I've had to make do with watching us win the odd dead rubber but at least I cant remember us being awful, which is a definate plus.

[Beny]

Never Trust the English Media.

This is what he really said.

ENGLAND
Ponting: England will struggle
05/08/04

Ashes will be true test




Australian skipper Ricky Ponting believes England's psychological scars will prevent them from performing in next year's Ashes series.


England has climbed to second spot in the International Cricket Council Test rankings, thanks to 15 wins from its past 22 matches.

"We've been recognised as the No.1 team in the world for the last few years. Until you've been tested against the best, you never know how good you are," Ponting said after making 117 for Somerset against Glamorgan at Taunton.

"Sure, they've done a lot of things well and a lot of things right over the last 12 to 18 months, but as history shows they just never play their best cricket against Australia and hopefully that'll be the case again next year."

"They've still got to play us. A lot of their players have got a lot of bad memories of cricket against Australia. If we can manage to play well early on in the first Test match, hopefully those psychological scars will come back."

"A lot of things are going to happen between now and the Ashes. The papers can write whatever they like, but it's up to the players to go out there and perform on the day and perform when it really matters and the Australian team has done that a lot over the last few years."

[Goatman]

They said that about the rugby.

As I said above, the important thing is that - for the first time in recent years - the ENG media aren't completely writing the series off before it has started. If the AUS camp think its the noises coming out of thier camp that cause ENG to choke time and again, thier so far up thier own arses they can probably see thier own teeth. The reason ENG fail to live up to thier potential is because they are always told they are going to fail by people who are (supposed to be) in thier own camp - Brearley, Botham, Selvey, Boycott, Blofeld and so on. Thus far, and it may yet change during the winter, these negative comments haven't appeared. If AUS go into this Ashes series expecting Vaughans men to fold, they will themsleves go down because this genuinely is the most able ENG team that has been around for quite some time. It is fortunate for the Aussies that, unlike SA, they avoid that kind of hubris and rarely fail to play to thier own potential, and if they do so, I expect them to be going home winners. They are the better team, after all.

[Beny]

The rugby and cricket cant be compared. The Austalian media never even thought we would make the final and england was always the favourites to win.


All i'm saying is that the actual squads of both teams are yards apart. The English squad dosent masure up to a team such as Austraila or India, both statisticly and practicly. England dont have the batting or bowling depth that either side has.

[Ernest]

There was a Time when Australia and new Zealand were supreme at rugby, so it would be fair to compair them.

The mighty Australia rugby team as fallen, I would think it is now the turn of the cricket , wheels go round.

[DaveGillespie]

Funny one there, Benny! But seriously, you are joking aren't you?

No doubt about it, the Indian batting lineup is superior to the English one. But the bowling is weak. Apart from Anil Kumble they have Harbajahn Singh who hasn't been a force for a while now. Khan and Nehra both make Richard Johnson look like a sturdy reliable stock bowler, Khan hasn't acheived as much as even Hoggard and Anderson has almost as many wickets as Nehra from 2/3 of the games at a better average and strike rate. Balaji is a solid bowler but hardly likely to run through an international batting lineup. That leaves Pathan who I will admit is already a very good bowler with the potential to become a great one. Outside that in the seam bowling department they have the awful Ajit Agarkar followed by precisely nothing. For spin backup they have the consistently unreliable Saharaj Bahutule and Murali Kartik who has been tucked into by international batting lineups on a regular basis. To top this all off, there is a still a misguided notion that Khan and Nehra are their first choice new ball partnership over the clearly superior Balaji and especially Pathan.

Call me a bit funny, but the England attack is better than that. I'm not saying it's the best thing since sliced bread, but it is better than the Indian attack.

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by DaveGillespie

Call me a bit funny, but the England attack is better than that. I'm not saying it's the best thing since sliced bread, but it is better than the Indian attack.

That has been a problem for India for as long as I can remember, they have never had a decent pace attack, they have had the odd one, but never enough in the team at one go to make them world beaters.

[Beny]

England are pretenders. There bowling attack is inconsistant and Harmision is a strike bowler, not a McGrath or Vass who can tie down a batsmen. They rely on the batsmen stuffing up and would suffer from a team like India who can bat deep and make minimal mistakes whilst taking the attack to the bowler.

Now that I think about it, the English bowlers are probebly similer to the Aussie team that played against India last summer minus McGrath, Warne and Lee. Gillespie is better than Harmison though, but otherwise it's very similer.

When I saw India play last summer Pathan and Nehra Oppend. Pathan gave us hell and Nhera did ok but was good enough to bowl a partnersip with Pathan. Kumble was good too and Singh was decent although looked a bit weak compared to the others. Balaji only played the last 2 or so tests and I diddent really see him bowl although he is ment to be preety good.
In the end though it dosent really matter when your batsmen have posted 700+ as they did against us and Pakistan.
(Saw the Pakistan team bowl last night, wierd actions, shoib was averaging 130km/h for the first few overs. Hard to tell how good they are though since it was a shocking pitch.)

[Alison]

I think you're seriously underestimating our bowlers.