Ashes 2010/11

[Dave Cooper please]

Full and straight Broady, full and straight.

[olaftab]

Letting  a donkey bowler like Siddle get away with a hat trick on the first days of an Ashes series does not bode well.
Good  job Bear's man was there to add some respectablility to the score.

[KevinGage]

Well that was depressingly predictable.

Australia's game to lose from this point onwards.

Only realistic hope is that as this isn't the Australian side of old and if an opportunity presents itself in the next few tests England take it.

260 all out on the first day, on a flat wicket not doing much is a poor effort.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Australia will win the series, the England side have been hyped up beyond belief and the Aussies will be keen to make amends.

Pietersen shouldn't even be there, the arrogant ******.

[OzVilla]

Overall, that wasn't great.
 
To be fair, Siddle bowled probably the best spell he'll ever bowl in his career.  He was excellent and England were well and truly bowled out today.  Strauss played a loose shot as did Prior while Swann just played across a straight one - Bell and Anderson's dismissal was just slogging.
 
I thought the others were got out with really good bowling.
 
On the plus side (and there are a few) 260 may not be great but also it's not a disaster.  Cook, Trott, KP and Bell all looked in great touch.  Bell would deff have got a Ton today had we not collapsed around him.  Also Johnson bowled like a drain - just a shame we didn't really make him pay.
 
Obviously we were on the back foot from the first over, but we fought back and had a couple of chances, notably Cook and KP partnership and Cook and Bell's partnership to take it away from Australia.  But every time we got into a healthy position we'd get pegged back before Siddle broke the game open.  Prior's shot was ordinary but Cook and Broad both got good balls.
 
Channel Nine went to the Antiques Roadshow after we were bowled out so I had to go for a walk listening on the radio - unbelievable - amateurs.  Didn't see anything of our bowling however they sounded fairly comfortable to bat out time.
 
We need to really did deep 2mo, bowl and field well or we could be in big trouble as opposed to slight trouble.  Must, must, must bowl the right length - nothing short other than the odd surprise effort ball.  The right length and batsman looked uncomfortable all day today.

[Mr Diggles]

 
I thought the others were got out with really good bowling.
 

And really poor shot selection - loose drives at full balls moving off the seam is insane at the Gabba, and most other grounds for that. You're just giving your wicket away.

Thought Pietersen played well before that, Cook did ok, Bell was brilliant, and with a bit more support he would have gone on to a big century, easilyu - I can easily see him ending the series as our highest run scorer.

How laboured did our bowling look at the end of the day though? I fear for the match now.

[OzVilla]

Well Trott, KP, Collingwood, Cook, Broad all got done by good bowling.  It's not like they were going hard at the ball outside off stump. Struggling to think of another shot they should have been playing. 

Pitch it up and get some movement, either towards or away from the bat, and on this pitch it'll get wickets.  It's what England need to do tomorrow to stay in the match.

[VillaZogmariner]

View from my seat up on the top tier.

[Dave Cooper please]

New South Wales got bowled out for 260 at The Gabba a couple of weeks back and won the game by an innings.
This ain't over yet.

[VillaZogmariner]

I must say that was a strange first day.

I honestly don't know what to make of it to be honest, as in if it is as bad as it sounds. At start of play I'd have said we should've bowled first, but I can't say I've seen too much in it that would suggest that our bowlers would get much joy.

Take the Siddle hat-trick out and I think their bowlers didn't offer that much to be honest. Johnson is shit and Doherty I'm not too sure about to be honest. Only Watson I thought was possibly a danger for them.

Bell was superb, as was Cook. I'm still trying to work out what the fuck Prior was thinking with his shot though and the same goes for Strauss too.

I'm a bit concerned though that we had 7 overs to bowl at them but didn't look like taking a wicket, not to mention losing 25 runs off them. It's going to be a key morning tomorrow (something I think we'll say a lot during this series), if we can get 2/3 wickets and keep them below 100 by lunch then we are right back in it. If, however, they run a bit of a score up I think we can kiss goodbye to this match and possibly even the series.

About 36000 fans in the Gabba today, and I was sat next to a fucking Bluenose!

[ADVILLAFAN]

I must say that was a strange first day.

I honestly don't know what to make of it to be honest, as in if it is as bad as it sounds. At start of play I'd have said we should've bowled first, but I can't say I've seen too much in it that would suggest that our bowlers would get much joy.

Take the Siddle hat-trick out and I think their bowlers didn't offer that much to be honest. Johnson is shit and Doherty I'm not too sure about to be honest. Only Watson I thought was possibly a danger for them.

Bell was superb, as was Cook. I'm still trying to work out what the fuck Prior was thinking with his shot though and the same goes for Strauss too.

I'm a bit concerned though that we had 7 overs to bowl at them but didn't look like taking a wicket, not to mention losing 25 runs off them. It's going to be a key morning tomorrow (something I think we'll say a lot during this series), if we can get 2/3 wickets and keep them below 100 by lunch then we are right back in it. If, however, they run a bit of a score up I think we can kiss goodbye to this match and possibly even the series.

About 36000 fans in the Gabba today, and I was sat next to a fucking Bluenose!

We did look out for you on TV, but you really should wear a Villa shirt - it's be much easier to spot.

[PaulWinch again]

Hmmm well I was woken up by hearing Siddle got a hat trick, so I thought the score would be lower. 260 isn't great, but it could have been worse. We just need to come out all guns blazing today and bat properly in the second innings.

[timeoutbigbar]

Christ this thread has just reminded me i was watching the game for a while last night when i came back from the pub.  Must have fallen asleep soon after.  Australia to win, I don't know much about cricket but I don't think we've won on their patch for a while have we?

[usav]

Haven't won a series there since 1986.

[Chris Smith]

There's still everything to play for in this test. Our bowlers have won plenty of games for us recently and while 260 isn't a great score it's not a complete disaster either.