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Adelaide Days 2 and 3: Good old Collingwood forever

Submitted by rickeyre on December 4, 2006 - 7:03am

My lack of updates over the weekend is not a sign of dismay over England's superb performance at the Adelaide Oval - my feelings about England are indeed quite the opposite. I've just been either too busy or too tired.

Australia suddenly looks brittle. Did I mention 2005 revisited?

Midwinter-Midwinter points for Saturday: Paul Collingwood 3 pts; Kevin Pietersen 2 pts; Stuart Clark 1 pt.

Midwinter-Midwinters for Sunday: Matthew Hoggard 3 pts; Ricky Ponting 2 pts; Michael Hussey 1 pt.

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Adelaide Day 1 Midwinter-Midwinters and xspf

Submitted by rickeyre on December 2, 2006 - 1:38pm

I think this Test is going to be a draw already.

Midwinter-Midwinter points for Day One: Paul Collingwood 3 pts, Ian Bell 2 pts, Kevin Pietersen 1 pt.

Please note: the official pronounciation of XSPF is "spif", even though it stands for "XML Shareable Playlist Format". About eighty minutes of poddage from the ABC, BBC, Guardian, CricInfo, Telegraph and Daily Mail.

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Experience counts

Submitted by rickeyre on December 1, 2006 - 1:11pm

Looking at the teams that Australia and England have fielded for the First and Second Tests, it is obvious where the real experience lies.

Australia has seven players with one or more books published. England has just two.

The teams, with links to their books as listed on Abebooks.com:

Australia:
Justin Langer
Matthew Hayden

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Australia 1, England 0: Remember 2005

Submitted by rickeyre on November 28, 2006 - 7:14am

First Test, Lords 2005: Australia defeated England by 239 runs. England won series 2-1.

First Test, Brisbane 2006-07: Australia defeated England by 277 runs. Is history about to repeat itself?

I doubt it. The yawning experience gap makes the difference this time, added to the intense hunger that the Australian team feels to regain the Ashes.

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Gabba Day 4: Has Australia's wheel fallen off already?

Submitted by rickeyre on November 27, 2006 - 8:27am

Has Australia blown its best chance of regaining the Ashes?

I'm serious.

Honestly, what was the point of batting on just long enough on Sunday morning to allow Justin Langer to get his hundred? Apart from allowing Ricky to strain his back while taking a run and thus keeping him off the field for the rest of the day... and possibly for the Second Test.

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Gabba Day 3: It's hard being insecure when you're Ricky Ponting

Submitted by rickeyre on November 25, 2006 - 10:28pm

Do you think Ricky Ponting has enough confidence in his team? How big a target will he set England before he can breathe easily at the thought that the opposition can't win? Will 700 be enough? Maybe he'll bat till tea-time Sunday and hope that even Australia's bowlers can contain Strauss and Cook to less than 800 runs in four sessions.

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Gabba Day 2: It's Deja Vu All Over Again

Submitted by rickeyre on November 24, 2006 - 10:29pm

Australia 602/9, England 53/3. We've been there before. Many times.

What if Freddie had won the toss yesterday? And said "this pitch has a bit of life in it, we'll bowl first"? Yeah well, what if he decided to have a bat? Maybe they would have gotten 400 and felt happy with themselves.

Instead, they batted second... starting about an hour before stumps on the second day. They might make 400. In fact, they need 403 to avoid the follow-on. That's not looking too good right now.

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Another audio playlist

Submitted by rickeyre on November 24, 2006 - 2:38pm

ABC Radio National's The Sports Factor recorded their show from the outer at the Gabba yesterday. The MP3 of this morning's half-hour program is part of the attached playlist. The Sports Factor's podcast feed is http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/feeds/sportsf.xml and it's a program I recommend very highly.

Also on the playlist, I've linked to a few cricket stories from ABC Radio's news programs, AM, http://www.abc.ne

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Gabba Day 1 podcast playlist

Submitted by rickeyre on November 24, 2006 - 9:34am

Just over an hour of bedtime listening late last night for me, with MP3 audio summaries from the ABC, BBC, Guardian, Telegraph and CricInfo. The BBC, Guardian and Telegraph are all producing special daily podcast programs.

The ABC's Ashes podcast feed consists of a collection of four clips, being the stumps summary, two press conference interview and a radio highlights package. All of the ABC's material is also available for download from the Cricket Australia site (which does not have a podcast feed).

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