Oh well, 1-1 2 to go.

Time to see how this England team reacts to a setback.

A damn sight longer than it took the Aussies!!

Crap. Merry fooking Christmas.

Normal service resumed

I guess it's a bit like the NZ rugby teams recruiting Samoans etc. Is the level of rugby talent that poor there in NZ?

Beating the number 1 ranked rl team in the world in 2 consecutive finals would suggest otherwise.
The AB's arent looking too bad right now either.
Remind me again how good England are at RU and RL?
Take those South Africans out of your cricket side and you would be 2-0 down in the ashes now by now.

I'd have taken 1-1 with 2 to play before it all kicked off. They have to win one more than us remember. If we get anywhere near half of the luck the aussies have had so far in the last 2 tests then we'll be fine. And if Ponting's finger is busted he could be out too (typical of their luck it went straight in the air to the keeper)

Might even be a good thing to get a kick up the 'Arris.
Remember Headingley in 2009 was followed swiftly with an absolute ting of them at The Oval.

Anyone else mystified by the umpires as well in this test? They couldn't tell Anderson off quick enough yesterday for gobbing off yet the Aussies are all at it all the time. Typical Aussies though, love giving it out but can't take it when someone has the nerve to have a go back at them.

I think we have just found the kid who liked telling on his class mates at school!

We didn't even try in the 2nd innings!

the umpires have favoured england more than the aussies fella.. just look at the last ponting decision.. he didnt touch the ball , but was given out...the luck has been with the poms fella and that is about to change

Shane have you been in a hostel with Aussies in London or something because you are getting tall poppy syndrome mouthing off like an Aussie, when you go home you'll have your attitude knocked out of you.

This is one of the weakest Aussie teams in history but they beat NZ in NZ easily earlier in the year, Bollinger and Johnson ripped through them.

On the South African theme I don't know if you're old enough to remember, but when Graeme Hick started scoring all those runs in county cricket and the TCCB said he would have to wait ten years to quality for England in 1994, New Zealand Cricket offered Hick the chance to qualify to play Tests for them in four years so he signed for Northern Districts and played for them in our winters. We then changed the rules to let him qualify for England in 1991 instead. How successful Hick would have been playing for the Kiwis we will never know, but he would have been a lot better for England if they'd made him wait three years and start his Test career against the mighty pace attack of Heath Davis, Chris Pringle and Gavin Ln, rather than Ambrose, Marshall and Walsh. The Kiwis ended up using that four year residency rule to get Roger Twose over from England, when Twose realised he wasn't going to get picked by England.

Johnson does tend to be round armed and slingy but it does mean he releases the ball from close to the stumps, so when he pitches up the ball is likely to be going wicket to wicket. Terry Alderman was the same after his shoulder injury which lowered his arm, he used to release the ball from about level with middle and off, so the ball wasn't angling in like it usually does.



Out of those three who sank, Ilott was the one who I thought had some potential. Him and Peter Martin swung the ball well in South Africa in 1995/96 but when the English summer came around Alan Mullally got called up and he was the left armer of choice for the next few years. I never saw much in Mullally, he didn't swing it, he used to waste the new ball by bowling outside off stump so the batsman just left it alone till the shine had come off it, he'd finish his opening spell with 0-15 in 7 overs and everybody said yeah Mullally keeps it tight!

McCague was crap, not fast enough to bowl the short balls he did and was cannon fodder to good batsmen. Lathwell was a strange case, he could play some great shots. I remember seeing him open for Somerset once, he came in, smashed four boundaries in the first couple of overs and then played a crap upper cut and got caught in the gully for 16 or so. He walked off happy as larry, normally when openers are out early they come off cursing and ranting. Lathwell just shrugged his shoulders and sauntered back with a smile on his face then appeared at the pavilion balcony eating his breakfast and reading the paper a few minutes later, he was like a club cricketer who just likes to play his shots and doesn't really give that much of a toss. He retired from cricket pretty early, I don't think he could be bothered with the modern era of running miles, spending hours in the gym and having dieticians monitor what you eat....

Well that didn't last long

:

roll on the MCG boxing day

I genuinely cant stand test cricket at any level.

But I laughed out loud when I heard the result. Will the crowd get a refund because the soapies folded a day and a half early?


Maybe we should call them South Africa 'C' from now on?

But seeing as you've actually won a game, you thought you'd perk up?

Not really.

I would sooner "England" won the Ashes personally.

Maybe then the 5 day (well usually 5 day unless South Africa C fold again) form of the game might die out completely in Australia leaving more tv time for decent sports like V8 Supercars and NRL

It's still funny how you lost though. Everyone seemed to be saying the soapies would win the ashes 5-0. I havent laughed so much since the 'Stanford Superstars' bowled you out for about 50 runs in that big winner gets millions of bucks match a few years ago

Tiime to stand up and be counted!

That was utterly disgusting

Which bit?

The fact your South Africans didnt perform or just the fact they are South African?





Dont worry..it's no shame to come from a country that has to rely on South Africans to fill up it's national cricket team. South Africa 'C' will probably still win the Ashes.

There is something seriously wrong if they dont.

We suck.

Maybe in your insignificant, deluded world. I have heard no such rubbish

At least that bit was right....

As bad as we are at Cricket even South Africa C wouldnt win 5-0

I'm not even gonna bother with a bite so you may as well just f off now

No need to bite, I'm not expecting one.

The reason being I don't think anyone could reasonably disagree with what I've said.

South Africa C were never going to be good enough to win the Ashes 5-0...as bad as we are at test cricket!

Like Kepler Wessels for instance?

I was thinking more along the lines of Johnathon Trott, Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior and Kevin Pieterson who are in the current Ashes side.

Oh and your current South African coach Andy Flower

But I suppose you could include other players like Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter in the Twenty20 plus guys from the past like Tony Greig, Robin Smith and Alan Lamb.

And thats just the ones I can think of.






I'm still backing South Africa C to win the Ashes.