Celebrating a darw about sums England up though.

Superb effort from Anderson, Panesar, Swann and especially Collingwood.

I think everyone failed in this match, so massive improvement needed for Thursday.

All hail to the tail.

What no Fredie yet? pfft

Is that the longest Panesar has spent at the crease for England? Must be, surely.

I was pleased for Monty. Takes alot of stick for his batting (and rightly so

) but it was a really disciplined batting display and he looked pretty confident out there too.

Devon Malcolm Mkii.

In fact, despite people lampooning him i also remember him hanging around at the crease for longer than he had any right to, given his batting skills.

Do we look at it like, Englands bowling was bad in the Aussie innings or do we look at it Aussies frail attempt at knocking over an English they should have done considering the position they found themselves in at the start of the day?

We played like a Sunday League side but yet the Aussies couldn't take the win. I see that as a positive but only if England pull their socks up - starting on Thursday at Lords.

Well that was nailbiting.I kept turning the tv over in the last hour as I couldn't bear watching Monty bat

Looks like Collingwood has been teaching him well in the nets.

Strange captaincy from Ponting I thought, perservering with the bowlers like he did, not seen such inept death bowling since Harmison's efforts at the end of the Old Trafford test in 05.

Good work from our last two to hang in there, but a hell of a lot to work on before next week.

Oh, and that is what cricket is all about, more tension and excitement there than any T20 can provide.

Well done Monty and Jimmy.



I'm sure I wasn't the only one thinking we were f*cked when Colly went.

couldnt agree more

Good old Ricky Ponting the whinging aussie to$$ pot

You're not wrong there...for him to have a go about England not playing to the spirit of the game when he brazenly claimed that "catch" off Collingwoods pads is very much a case of Hello Mr Kettle I'm Mr Pot...now where's Gary Pratt when you need him, finish him off!!

boo hiss boo. we going lose 4 - nil

No.

(But we didn't lose either, and thats what counts.)

Well done to the tail and Colly. Good effort was very much backs to wall and we did well to hang in there.

Wouldn't surprise me if Harmison gets a call-up for Lords.

I haven't read this thread .....it's too long....so apologies.
But I would like to say that it was a Brucey bonus to have got a draw out of such a debacle.
What struck me was the gulf between the to sides in two areas:-
Technique and determination.
The Aussies had better technique.......they played straight to balls on the stumps and picked their shots. England were playing across balls heading obviously for the stumps, hanging their bats out and turning their backs on high balls while leaving their bats up.
Poor.
On determination the Aussies had the mentally of 'under no circumstances will I give my wicket up recklessly'.
Those are the two main areas England need to catch up on.
But do they ever learn???
I wonder with some of the comments from the likes of Pieterson.
They will continue with the same faults.....yet we have the class.

He will and Onions...

Could be good for England as it will hit a psychological blow to the Aussies that they haven't been able to convert their dominance into a win.

Remember last year when we dominated South Africa in the first Test, Bell got 199 and Pietersen got a century as well, we made them follow on then they batted out the draw. That was a turning point.

The worry is that our "escape" will paper over the cracks and we will rest on our laurels, it's something English cricket (and sport in general) is good at doing.

Truth is, on that pitch, neither the batting or bowling were up to standard. The batsmen are probably safe, there isn't much competition out there, but Bopara and Cook in particular need to step it up at Lords.

The bowling was pitiful, but at least there are a few options about to do something about it. Panesar will go, to be replaced by a seamer which should be Sidebottom or Onions, but I won't be surprised if some nice collective amnesia overcomes to selectors and Harmison gets chance 2479, bowling wise I'd be looking at Stuart Broad's place too, but I think he's safe for now.

The bowling was truly awful throughout. The batsmen have ability but far too many careless shots. Need a massive improvement all round to have any chance in the rest of the series.

Also, Ponting has never been a 'sportsmanlike' player. He has personally overseen the use of sledging as a basic tactic of Australia. And he looks odd.