Official Ashes thread

Just for BoB, DK and myself (even though BoB has no real investment in this series). Eng batting first, I'm predicting a solid 350 run lead (Root not reaching double figures).

Well the Root prediction was wrong anyway.

EDIT Not the best start from England but let's see how Australia do in their first innings.

I'll be following this thread purely because I enjoy reading cricket gibberish.

Ashton Agar take a bow

Was loving Aussie continuing to be trout, but it's always fun when a #11 gets so many runs. Shame he didn't get his century, but it was great all the same. Not sure why they put him at #11, though, he has an FC average of something like 33, nothing to scoff at. Are the other bowlers actually considered that much better, or were they just covering him in cotton buds because he's young?

I heard that Clarke had never seen him bat and had no idea what he was like, so just stuck him in at 11 to be safe.

That was close.

I've seen worse.

Also, am I the only person here who does not and never has rated Jimmy Anderson? Not that I think he's a bag of balls or anything like that but any time I hear someone putting him up there with the best in the world I just can't get my head around it.

Yes, there's been worse, but it was still close.

And Anderson took half of the wickets England took in this Test, so regardless of how great he is in the big scheme of things they probably owe this one to him.

Anderson is a bowling wizard, the best England have had since Simon Jones. It's Broad who is trout. Goes entire series bowling dross and batting like a number 11, then makes one big performance picking up five wickets (often by cleaning up the tail), coupled with a brisk 40-odd with the bat, and he's back as England's 'backbone' vital strike bowler. He'd never get dropped anyway, his daddy has his fingers in too many pies.

That said, he wasn't too bad in this test. Got a few wickets and had his biennial good score with the bat. Some harbour bridges in the field though.