The Ashes Series (Cricket: Australia Vs England)

What are the most important things to know, so that I can understand Cricket on a baisic level?

 

OK.

The game is played by two teams of 11 on an Oval Field. There is a rectangular 20 meter pitch in the middle of the oval, with three wickets or "stumps" at each end.

One side fields whilst the other bats. All 11 people on the bowling side are on the field, whilst only two of the batsmen. One person on the fielding team bowls an over of six legal balls and cannot bowl two in a row. The batsmen try to hit the ball and run up and down the pitch between the lines or 'creases' to score runs.

Batsmen can do this until they get out. Batsmen can be out if they are caught out (they hit the ball and someone on fielding side catches it on the full), bowled (the bowler hits the stumps), leg before wicket or LBW (the ball hits the pad and is judged by te umpire to be going on to hit the stumps), run out (a fielder throws down the stumps before the batsmen reaches their crease) as well as others.

Batsmen must bat in pairs, so once 10 wickets have fallen the team is out and the other team gets a bat. In test match cricket, teams get two innings each over five days to try and score the most runs.

More later.

 

Good to see England showing some fight, more of the same tomorrow please.

Although this test may be a little bit to much to hope to draw, its good that we seem to be growing in confidence.

 

Hmmm. If we can get Pietersen early we should knock over the tail fairly quickly. But that's not going to be easy to do.

We cannot draw this test.

 

Ponting should not have batted again, if you do only manage a draw from the position you were in he will get slaughtered in the media. Reminds me of Edgebaston last year.

However, KP, Jones and Giles will have a tough job trying to hold on, come on the rain

 

I missed most of today's action, but good on Collingwood and Pietersen for what sounds like good knocks.

I doubt anything like that would happen, barring rain. With only 5 wickets in hand, and the last 5 at that, no way will they survive one full day. A calculated and convincing win by Ponting.









PRENN, sources like Wikipedia could help you to get a grasp on the game as well. You really need to see a match in action though once you have read the basics so you know how they are put into play.

 

It will be tough for sure, but it would be worth more than any victory if we could somehow scrape the draw.

*Prays for rain*

 

Quite seriously, if the weather and a bit of good fortune can get Enland a draw in this match, then England will come out the much happier side, The Aussies have played to win and win hard, they want to give England a lesson, but if a draw is the result, that'll be a huge blow to them.

 

I agree. If we fail to win after so utterly dominating 3 days of play, it'll be a huge psychological blow to the Aussies. C'mon Warnie/McGrath/anyone else!

 

Unfortunatly, rain is not forecast for Monday, so if England are to scrape through a draw they will have to do it the hard way. I can't see it personally, but stranger things have happened, I suppose....

 

Actually, it was a fairly smart ploy if executed well. If the orders went out to not quite 'go the slash', but put on quick runs without losing too many wickets it would have given the bowlers a rest and demoralised the English some more. Then you declare with enough time for England to have to bat at the end of the day 3. You stand the chance of getting a wicket or two in the last small session and then still have 2 full days to wear the batsmen down.

Personally I think that it wasn't the decision to not force the follow-on, but leaving it so long until declaring again that could be the deciding factor.

 

It's not that short a time though. 5 and 3/4 sessions should be enough to bowl any team out, whilst a day to get the five last wickets looks pretty good.

 

All Over

Pieterson (and Collingwood) deserved centuries though

 

But didn't get them.


Australia: 1
England: 0


Looking good. Can't wait for Adelaide!

 

Neither can I

Went to see the score on my lunch break and found out we'd won already

 

pretty dismal showing. Monty will be back for the 2nd Test. question is do they play two spinners? i hope not.

 

I'd be inclined to go for it from here on in. I'd rather they lost the series but really tried to win it than set out their stall to simply contain Australia each time (something which, on recent evidence, does not work).

 

That applies to a lot of games. If you don't go to win, well, you lose more than you draw/tie/postpone.

It would make for a much better game to watch as well if they do what you say, Everton.



As a side note, the Australian side was announced for the second test and it is unchanged. So no MacGill or Watson yet.

 

Watson is still injured.

I'm surprised they kept all thirteen though, especially after Stuart Clarks excellent performance.

 

Can always use KP as a second spinner. I reckon Saj can't be far off a call-up, replacing either Harmy or Jimmy A

 

Anderson was pretty ineffective - I'd be surprised if he played again this series.

Whats Sajid like? And is he the only extra pace bowler England have brought out?

 

Mahmood is quick, there is no doubt about that, but he has acuracy issues. He will be a great bowler, but is not there yet. Saying that though if he bowls well he could get through your top order, if not he could go for a lot of runs.

 

He can also have a useful knock with the bat

 

All you English types hoping for a Vaughan miracle

Check here

 

Out for a duck. Encouraging.