The Ashes - 2013 part one

mirandashell said:

And I bet TPTB at Trent Bridge are really panicking about this Test not lasting til Saturday! LOL!

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Yeah, I was thinking that, why did they start the test on a Wednesday? Especially these days, when test matches tend to wrap up a lot sooner. It always used to be Thursdays were the first day. I guess it's a gamble on having either a Sunday or a Monday finish.

KP has 22 centuries and 30 half-centuries from 94 tests, at an average of 49. We lost 26 of those test matches, in which he averages 28. Basically, on a bad week for England, KP will get you thirty or so. If we're on top, it's anything from fifty to a hundred and fifty. He's a beast. He only looks mortal in the context of our team because Cook (with even better stats) and Trott (on course to do the same as KP) are also bestial.

mirandashell said:

It's not his averages that are the problem for me. And I'm not saying he is bad player because he's not. But he can only play in one way. He always swings his bat whether we need that or not. And the position he plays in, sometimes he needs to just stay there. Just hold his wicket. And he won't. He has precipitated more than one middle order collapse.

It's not his stats. It's his attitude.

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I've seen so many players - Ramprakash, Hick, Flintoff now and again - who are basically attacking, dominating batsmen get in to terrible trouble by trying to drop anchor. I'm not really sure playing in a way that you're not temperamentally suited to is ever a really good move. On the flip side, we'll criticise Trott for scoring slowly when we think the accelerator needs to be leant on.

It's always a bit of a gamble when KP comes to the crease but the odds really aren't that bad. In a losing cause, he averages 30.

Not too many scares for Australia in the first half hour

Smith goes! But Broad off the field for treatment again.

waylander said:

Not too many scares for Australia in the first half hour

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Many thanks for the textbook jinxing. Really well done!

And the dangerous Haddin is removed by a snorter from Swann.

tell him to stop. quick! pleeeease.

I hope the England top order are watching this closely, if a 19 year old number 11 (alright, maybe he's not a genuine number 11, but still) on day-boo is going to top score in the first innings. Clearly it's not such a bad day for batting.

It's a bit annoying when we apparently had him out on 6. Although thems the breaks, and it was a shame he didn't get his century.

Lol, looks like we're going to get a definitive answer on Kevin Pieterson's temperament after tea. Do we want him to play his natural game? Now I'm not so sure.

What an astonishing innings by Agar!

Cook and Pietersen batting very solidy up to close of play. Need a lot more of that tomorrow.

My favourite anecdote yesterday was Aggers, he said once he went out to face Malcolm Marshall, and "the first ball went through my armpit, someone in the crowd appealed, so I walked".

Fingers crossed Pieterson and Cook are going to grind out a huge lead.