Ashes 2013/14

[eastie]

I really am starting to worry about cook- his form has been poor for a while now and I wonder if the captaincy is perhaps hindering him - maybe Warnes  criticism of him has affected his confidence but he doesn't seem the same man as a year ago - either as a captain of batsman .

Today was the day for him to stand up and be counted but sadly he threw his wicket away with a reckless shot .

[OzVilla]

For a player with such a fantastic record for Test match runs and big hundreds, Cook is a surprisingly one dimensional as a player. Get him on the front foot. Playing down the ground and starve him from his pulling and cutting and suddenly he's a very scratchy player.

The Aussies got their plans spot on to him in the Summer and executed them really well, Harris and Siddle in particular are perfect bowlers for that tight line off stump drag forward type consistency.

Cook's been found out a bit so he needs to work to find a way to compile innings against this sort of high class, disciplined bowling.  Confidence is such a massive thing in any sport but especially Cricket.

[PaulWinch again]

Well at least today has a couple of positives, which is a first. Root showed he could play very well at 3, KP showed patience, Stokes showed some grit and there is plenty to work with there. Prior getting some runs is very important as well as being not out over night. We're clearly going to lose, but what we need to do is drag it out as long as possible and hope Broad and Prior in particular can get us some runs to get a bit of confidence in the lower order. We will need a miracle to turn this series around, but at least there is stuff to take out of today. Worryingly Bell, Cook and Carberry all got themselves out unnecessarily.

The problem with Cook is that he is a player who is either in form or not and there is no middle ground. If he is out of form he is shocking and doesn't look like he can do much, if he's in form he's fantastic and immovable. We need to take whatever we can out of this match. As far as selection for Perth I'd go -

Cook(needs to front up)
Carberry(needs to go on when he gets a start)
Root(needs to continue from today)
KP(He's got a couple of 50s now and has to go on)
Bell(play like he did in the first innings)
Stokers(he showed grit and his bowling will be very useful)
Prior(now he has shown something)
Bresnan(adds batting)
Broad(Needs to bowl with aggression and show guts when batting)
Anderson(Needs to start showing he's the leader of the attack)
Finn(We need pace here)

I wouldn't bother with a spinner in Perth, as neither Swann or Panesar have shown a great deal to mean we'd lose much by bowling Root. Swann has been atrocious and shown no guts at all.

[eastie]

@MichaelVaughan: Plenty of cloud around in Adelaide.... !!!!! Rain is forecast ......  #ashes

[PaulWinch again]

The words 'straws' and 'clutching' come to mind, it'd have to rain pretty much all day to save us, one wicket and the floodgate opens. It may be open already, but at least we've dragged to a fifth. Root's post game interview was very impressive, much like his performance. Whatever happens we need to front up now.

[willywombat]

You'll be pleased to hear it's pissing down  and looks set for most of the morning at least

[eastie]

The words 'straws' and 'clutching' come to mind, it'd have to rain pretty much all day to save us, one wicket and the floodgate opens. It may be open already, but at least we've dragged to a fifth. Root's post game interview was very impressive, much like his performance. Whatever happens we need to front up now.

Remember that free George Davis campaigner who dug into the pitch ahead of the last day and sprayed graffiti causing the game to be abandoned in the 70s - we need bumble to do the business with his spade for us

[eastie]

You'll be pleased to hear it's pissing down  and looks set for most of the morning at least

Pleased - I'm fucking delighted.

[eastie]

@MichaelVaughan: The rain dances in the UK are working....

[PaulWinch again]

I pray it rains, but I think we'll be 2-0 down come Perth. If we're not then fantastic, but we need a massive change to take place whatever happens.

[willywombat]

The current forecast is for rain until around 3pm

[dave.woodhall]

11/2 the draw still.

[willywombat]

That's looking a decent bet at the moment Dave

[PaulWinch again]

The current forecast is for rain until around 3pm

Which won't be enough sadly.

[OCD]

We would be very lucky to not lose this after our batting. It would make the series interesting though.