England v Australia -Natwest Final- Lords

[Irish Left Armer]

Match tied, an incredible finish!

[English_Al]

Whoah!!

England look relieved, Australia looked cheesed off. Yes, Oz should have won it with Eng 33-5, and then towards the end. But at the same time England could have won it themselves if Collingwood hadn't done that silly run out.

In fact, I reckon at the end, England made more of their own mistakes than Australia, particularly the terrible bowling at the start and dreadful batting in the beginning, so I reckon they did really well to tie.

Having said that, I think Ponting should have gone for Englands throat and kept McGrath and Lee on...

Great game in the end

[monotonetuba]

can anyone please tell me why gough is still in this england side?????????

[Kirsty Harris]

What a game - if this is a sign of the summer ahead, then it really is going to be a cracker!!!

I think a draw was probably a fair result - both sides made some mistakes, but had individual players who performed very well.

G Jones has proved his worth to theside today, and he is clearly happier batting lower down the order. Collingwood has generally impressed for England in this series; and today he was in fine form again.

Oh, and I trust that the over-confident Aussie posters from earlier today continued to enjoy the game! Oh, and didn't McGrath look really tired at the end of the match....I guess that must be a sign THAT HE IS GETTING OLD!!! Ashley Giles certianly wasn't worried about him, anyway!!!

[greg]

This will feel like a defeat for Australia,they wouldn't have let any side get away with this result in previous years.
On a serious note,both sides showed why they wouldn't be able to win if this was World Cup year.Australia miss Warne and England need more experience for some of the younger players (Pietersen,S.Jones and Strauss)


Can't wait for the Test matches as both sides would admit to being better at the longer form of the game at the moment.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by monotonetuba

can anyone please tell me why gough is still in this england side?????????

Today isn't the day to pick on Goughie, he just played a big part in us securing a tie in a game that looked totally out of Englands reach!

He bowled poorly in the first couple of overs, but pulled it back a fair bit in the end.

[greg]

Was Jones MOM? I missed presentation ceremony,was putting kids to bed.

[Kirsty Harris]

Originally Posted by greg

Was Jones MOM? I missed presentation ceremony,was putting kids to bed.

yes, he was but...the viewers voted for S not G!!!!

No, only kidding, for once they actually got it right and went for G Jones....well done, they must have figured out how to use the Sky remote control at last!!

[rineet]

Gough's batting in the end helped England salvage a tie. I think Gough deserves a place in this English Side. G. Jones has proved his worth in this team as an excellent batsman-keeper.

[Victor Frankenstein]

a good game in sense of the result and tension, but it was only made like that because of the god awful pitch provided by lords, it seems to have a habit of producing poor pitches over the last couple of years, either way too bowler friendly or way too batsman friendly, never any balance.

I'm happy for jones and colly, especially jones as he needed to show that he could still bat and just needed to apply himself rather than swing for it, that's exactly the kind of innings we need from him in the test matches, I hope he takes a tape of it and remembers this come lords at the start of the ashes.

Batting, no real point in saying anything, they should know better and hopefully they'll do something about it next time, on the plus side at least the lower order are getting some much needed practice. Last years england team would have been all out for 80, well played for getting to their score, but next time take advantage of the hard work our bowlers put in and just grind out the score properly.