<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (QLD @ Nov 8 2008, 11:59 AM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Nov 8 2008, 07:53 PM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (wairarapa_cullen @ Nov 8 2008, 05:50 AM)
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Nov 8 2008, 03:53 AM)
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Botham has been getting his dig in about the Aussies' bowlers saying that without Warne and McGrath they don't amount to much outside of Lee and forecasts an easy win for England in the Ashes cause they do have the bowlers.
Anyway taking wickets is all well and good but you want your spinner to be tying down an end not getting hit out of the park.[/b]
Botham usually talks sense, so it seems strange to hear this. Are you sure it wasn't Nasser Hussein who predicts an "easy win"? That guy is the most one eyed tosser ever.
Australia are getting hammered at the moment because they have no spinner. Lee, Johnson and Stuart Clark are still a pretty decent pace line up when you compare them to any other team in the world. They just have absolutely no spinners, which is obvious in the way the Indians are scoring such huge totals against them.
When Australia come out to bat, it's Harbahjan and Mishra (both spinners) which have been there undoing. This is the obvious gap between India and Australia at the moment.
England? They have Monty Panesar who is pretty damn average, and England wickets don't turn as much as Indian ones, so this is a whole new ball game. Australia will still thump them because England's bowling attack isn't anywhere near India's. The English batsmen might have it easy also with the bat, but their line up is not as strong as the Aussies so I can't see how they will win.
Might be a few draws in the series, but I cannot see England getting at least one win at all to be honest.
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Panesar is better than average and he takes plenty of wickets in English conditions. There's still a lot of ifs with the England bowling attack, Harmison seems to be back to his best, but can he keep that going through to the end of next Summer, Anderson and Flintoff are class bowlers but fitness is always a doubt with them as it is for Jones and Broad is coming on in leaps and bounds so the bowling attack is there to take 20 wickets, the problem for England is will their batsmen back up the bowlers efforts, they didn't during the Summer tests but maybe an easy tour to the West Indies should see a few of them making some scores, bar Pietersen of course.
Yeah I can see how you'd think it'd be Hussein it does have his air to it but Botham's as one eyed as the best of them, it's just because he's achieved so much more in the game than Hussein that he's got more respect.
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Whatever happened to Simon Jones? He's like the Jonny Wilkinson of rugby, wins the ashes for England then gets injured and hasnt been seen since seriously whats happened to the bloke?
England must be a tad desperate if they are still hanging on to Harmison and Anderson. Panesar I havent seen too much of lately but I like for some reason, well he took 5fa in his first ever match against Australia at the waca (a fast bowlers paradise with no spin at all) and well.. I just laughed that the went defensive for the first two test matches last ashes series in picking Giles. England won the 2005 ashes playing attacking but they crumbled in Australia going with defensive tactics.
AT who do you go for in test cricket and the Ashes?
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I would normally want to see England do well but it's not the be all and end all, it was watching Malcolm take 9 wickets in the second innings against South Africa 14 years ago that got me interested in cricket and not having Sky at the time England were the only team I regularly got to see so I think it was fairly natural to want to see them do well, plus it's a lot easier when Ireland aren't involved so no conflict of interest bar the last world cup of course. More recently though I've been able to watch more and more cricket so it's not really a question of supporting one team over another.
Jones has been on the comeback for Worcester this season, doing well in division 2 of the county championship but not sure if he's in the England selectors' thoughts for a recall or even his current state of fitness, he is the sicknote of international cricket.
