The Ashes First Test Lords Sunday 24th July..Day 4.

[vvvrulz]

I too am with Seamer, there is absolutely no reason to drop this team. Their batsmen let them down and need a good look at themselves, but thats entirely on the individuals, not so much the team. I think this is the most balanced England team I have seen ... well in my life, lol.

[Pete]

Australia's relationship with Vaughan took a turn for the worse when no England fieldsmen came over to inquire about the health of Justin Langer (elbow) and Ponting (cut cheek), first-morning casualties of some hostile bowling. The Australians were not impressed.

Ponting moved on to the wicket block to deliver some strong words in Vaughan's direction a few hours later when the England skipper came in to bat.

Do they want our players to kiss it better or something?

[GlennMcGrath500]

Go Aussiessss

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by Pete

Do they want our players to kiss it better or something?

Hehe. Vaughan's a nice guy, he was only asking if they were ok. What's wrong, can't they take the fact that they all got hit by Harmison. Trescothick and Strauss both got hit by Lee, who after every ball would sprint down the pitch and stare Tresco out, plus he took an illegal catch off Strauss (I noticed Gilchrist celebrating, I hope he had a word with Lee afterwards when he saw the replay), Strauss and Tresco just got on with it. This is a man's games, getting hit in the arm or face is part of it and Langer and Ponting have to take it.

Or are they scared???

[davo ramone]

England are basically not up to the standard of Australia at the moment and i cant see this changing in the next 4 tests. Some notable points-

*Australia threw away their wickets in first innings
*England dont seem to be able keep bowling pressure up for whole innings
*Hoggard is a pie chucker
*England cant catch and their aussie wicketkeeper is a dud! (5th best in QLD)
*England's bats lack footwork and mental strength
*England had the best of umpiring with a wicket off a no-ball, 3 clear lbw's turned down(Lee's full toss appeal on judas pietersen was laughable) and suss one on clarke in 1st innings
*England had the best of the pitch
*Englands best bat isnt even English

and we still won easily

[Richie Benauds Love Child]

Its hard to argue with a lot of that.

*I dont think ALL the aussies threw there wickets away, and some of is was down to pressure, but one or two did.
*No they cant, and against most teams they can get away with it, but I still see the main problem is the batting.
*WHen he's in form he's pretty useful, when he isnt (like now) he is indeed a lobber of pastries.
*Very bad day fiedling wise, but on the whole freddie is one of the best slip fielders in the world. Cant judge them all on one match (although Jones is a repeat offender..and I think gilchrist said something to him to make him heave it to mid on in the second innings)
*Tresco has made a career of not moving his feet so no change there, the rest did lack a bit against Warne. Mental strength wasnt the probablem apart from Bell possibly.
*About evens. Jones (S) had terrible luck.
*Rhubarb.
*Best bat ON THE DAY wasnt english. Actually the second overall (in theory strauss) isnt either. So we're left with vaughan (awful at the moment) and tresco. You're probably right then.

[Lemming]

Originally Posted by davo ramone

Hoggard is a pie chucker

Wait until it starts really swinging!

Originally Posted by davo ramone

...and suss one on clarke in 1st innings

Clarke's lbw was hitting the wickets! What's the problem. Lee didn't deserve his lbw from Pietersen after claiming a blatent illegal catch off Strauss.

Originally Posted by davo ramone

England had the best of the pitch

Your captain chose what to do when he won the toss!

Originally Posted by davo ramone

Englands best bat [i.e. batsman, I assume davo ramone doesn't mean the little flying creature] isnt even English

Yes he is! Graham Thorpe was born in Farnham, Surrey, England! Or do you mean the best batsman in the current England team?

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Lemming

This is a man's games, getting hit in the arm or face is part of it and Langer and Ponting have to take it.

Or are they scared???

If I got hit in the face and had a cut, I can't really say i'd appreciate some muppet coming up and asking if i'm alright.

[Trescothick]

Originally Posted by davo ramone

*Australia threw away their wickets in first innings

So did England through stupidity and in the second innings.

*England dont seem to be able keep bowling pressure up for whole innings

True... But the Aussies will find that they won't always be able to maintain the pressure later in the series.

*Hoggard is a pie chucker

I cringed everytime Hoggard was ready to bowl.. I just didn't see anything happening with him except for a few boundarys. Bowled ok sometimes but has to pick his game

*England cant catch and their aussie wicketkeeper is a dud! (5th best in QLD)

The man who took 4 catches in the 1st innings? People have long forgotten this and now everyones raising doubts about him because he dropped a couple... Let him be and if he does it a couple more times.. Then we worry

*England's bats lack footwork and mental strength

Three batsmen showed mental strength; Tresco, Strauss and Pietersen.. Maybe G O Jones as well.

*England had the best of umpiring with a wicket off a no-ball, 3 clear lbw's turned down(Lee's full toss appeal on judas pietersen was laughable) and suss one on clarke in 1st innings

These things happen mate. Clarkes was out and thats proven. The LBWs with spin always happen, the umpire has to be sure, and you couldn't be. England evened out the 'bad' decisions by dropping all your wickets anyway and more.

*England had the best of the pitch

Thats not even true

*Englands best bat isnt even English

Is Trescothick not English I'm sure he was born in Somerset

[Occasional Fan]

Originally Posted by Aussie-Yank

Yes, but if they had that much trouble keeping Australia down to a winnable total on that wicket, how are they going to stop Australia scoring even more runs on a good wicket - that would be the concern.

The answer, hopefully, is that they will catch a few more and drop a few less. England's fielding at Lord's was abominable, but I simply don't see them repeating that performance elsewhere in this series. Most of the dropped attempts were sitters which should never have gone down and, as has been suggested elsewhere here, if half of the drops had been caught, the game would have had a very different complexion. The encouraging sign for England is that, even with butter-fingers, they still managed to take twenty wickets. We should expect them to do the same next time out, and hopefully a lot more efficiently.