Yeah as much as it pains me to agree, it looks as if the Poms have a reasonable outfit to contest this series. You must be pretty happy with the $4 you got sportz.

So now we face the prospect of backing up with a two day break. With the lackluster bowling attack and a out of form batting line up i'm afraid the poms may go 2-1 up after Old Trafford - weather permitting.

Can someone explain to me how the poms managed to get so much movement with the ball and we did not???
How good was that delivery that got Ponting?
What's more what will happen when Mcgrath and Warne finally call it a day?
Is a drawn series now a reasonable chance?
Will these inane questions ever cease?
Ha ha ha

Poms win by 2 runs :(. They wont win another match this series :). Aussies will get more out of this game then the poms.

I can't hardly ever remember Australia winning a close match. If ever a match is decided by a small number of runs or wickets, we tend to be on the losing side. I didn't watch any of the play today, but I was following the scores on the net and the only time that I allowed myself to think we might actually win was when there was 4 to get. Silly me.

Must be heartbreaking for the Aussie players. :(

I tell ya now though that poor decision by bowden when simon jones was plumb lbw when poms were leading by 260 or so now becomes extremly costly.

you are right Racing novice..i forgot all about that decision...

still a great test..,fantastic fight back,,,,

Geez, BIG difference between 2-0 and 1-1. We were 3 runs from basically retaining the Ashes. At 2-0 down, England would have had to win the last 3. Now we're under real pressure.

I don't know about your theory, RN. I reckon the poms would have taken a LOT out of this!!!

Old Trafford is supposed to be a spinning pitch. Normally, they would bring McGill in and only have McGrath and Lee as pace bowlers, but with no McGrath, would they take a risk? Perhaps, Gillespie might get dropped. Or Kasper??? The big difference is we still can't find a genuine all-rounder. If we had someone even remotely like Flintoff, we would be unbeatable. With only 4 bowlers in our team, there's too much pressure on them to get it right.

I reckon the batsmen are the real problem though. If Warne, Lee & Kasprowicz can do so well, what happened to the earlier batsmen? Batting like millionaires and throwing wickets away. Personally, I think Mike Hussey should be in the team for English tests, but he's not even in the squad.

Yeah the top/middle order for the aussies really needs to be looked at. They have under performed in all games sofar including the one day matches. Enlgand are running at 90-100% aussies are at 50% lol. If the aussies can get there batting in order the poms have no chance. England has already shown they cant handle warne could you imagine mcgill aswell. Flintoff and pieterson are the only ones to take on warne but they wont be able to do it every innings.

Still think the aussies are way to good.

The turnover & turnaround in odds on Betfair was amazing.
England blew from $1.04 to $3.90 in the last half hour of the test, with about $800,000 changing hands. $56,000,000 in total was traded. The stupidest bets being placed towards the end of the match were the fools taking 200/1 the draw. I don't think they knew the difference between a draw & a tie.

Yeah, looks like it. Don't laugh. With that one-dayer a few weeks back that finished in a tie, I think it was Ian Botham that actually called it a draw in the commentary and it was also called a draw in a couple of news items I saw and heard. No wonder a few were confused here.

Sportz,

What stats do you have for Eng vs Aus at Old Trafford?
Early market (Davidson) has Poms $3.85, however most have yet to make thier market.
Might be worthwhile taking Poms early again, considering current form and the fact the Poms will be bouyed by recent success.

It's pretty much 50-50.

Lets face it, Australia were playing at around 80% and were completely outplayed in the match yet they came within 2 runs of victory. If Iwas a pom I would make sure I celebrate long and hard this btest match becuase Australia will still roll them.

last time we played at Old Trafford, we won by 268 runs...Warne had match figures of 9-111, and McGrath 7-86. Steve Waugh hit two hundreds, and Warne got a fifty!

The time before that we won by 197 runs, Warne with match figures of 8-137

3 runs makes a big difference. If we had won last night, England would have been totally demoralised and the series would probably have gone 5-0. But now they've got a big emotional high and will be damn hard to beat from here on.

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/s...storyid=3576622

Two great bowlers our saving grace
By JON PIERIK in Birmingham
August 9, 2005

FORMER Australian captain Ian Chappell believes Australia's second Test loss to England proves they are overrated and just a "very good side with two great bowlers". And he has also taken aim at struggling opener Matt Hayden, saying he has shown England's bowlers a lack of respect and symbolised what was wrong with Ricky Ponting's team........







That's pretty much what I've been saying all along. The australians are overrated and they're arrogant and complacent because of all their previous results.

I'm used to heartbreaking losses like this one with the Australian team. In fact, as I said, I just can't remember us winning a close game. We ALWAYS lose them. :(

Those old enough will remember a VERY similar scenario back in about '92 when the West Indies were still number 1 and we were trying to take that ranking away from them. We had a lowish total to win in Adelaide, but we collapsed. It was up to Tim May and Craig McDermott who put on a great last wicket partnership and they took us to 2 runs from victory. Then, Craig McDermott was given out caught behind, when to this day, I still believe the ball came off his helmet, not the bat.

Well, the same thing has happened here. The ball that dismissed Kasprowicz certainly hit him on the glove, but that glove wasn't holding the bat at the time and as such, he was technically not out. Don't really blame the umpire in either case as they both looked out and they were put under immense pressure from the fielding team on both occasions.

Came across another forum last night whilst havin a bit of a surf.

As luck would have it was our English counterpart, a similar styled sports forum, except theirs was bigger, better, faster etc etc eh hem excuse me. Anyways within those hallowed halls of infinite wisdow i managed to procure a very interesting thread related to the third test.

Well spank my ass and call me Betsy if they weren't already picking out a spot to mount the Ashes trophy - all inche and three quarters of it, if ya get my meaning. The Aussies are this and that, no good this and that and it droned on and on and on and on and on.

Well god help us all if they ever win the thing because i'm telling you now it will be unbearable, what's worse imagine the fall-out if they lose. We may have to implement tighter controls here just in case they try to migrate over to this forum to tell us all how they feel.

That's what I've been saying for ages. If England win the Ashes, you will seriously never hear the end of it!!! I can't stand the thought of it happening, but it's looking like a very good chance.

i thought it was very funny when i saw matthew hayden say about a week ago, "England have been talking themselves up and the media has been telling everyone how good they are, and yet they've won nothing! we won the one day series and the first test. What have they got to show for the tour?"

That's a good point chuck!

To listen to them though, i hope beyond all hope that the aussies get up. When they do i'm gonna drop into their forum and give em all a spray - hahahaha

What would be real good is if they Poms won another one and THEN with Mcgrath and Lee back, Hayden, Ponting and Co to hit form, the Aussies sweep the final tests to win the series. Woo Hoo, i could have some fun with that!

Ahh, no thanks. I'd much rather they didn't win another test. Not looking good though. :o

Mcgrath is 99.99 % certain to play, he was on the radio at 7.15am this morning saying he felt "great" after his session in the nets and if he woke up the next morning feeling the same way.. he's IN , watch out pommies your in for a belting.

Hmmm, not so sure whether they'd take the risk.

The weather is the only thing that will stop the aussies winning I think ....I cant bring myself to have a decent bet because of that ......and I wont be layin the poms at over $3.50........Go you good things

Floydy - Weather forecast is for light showers thursday and saturday. The rest is for "sunny intervals" whatever that would mean to an Englishman i'm not sure. Interestingly enough i read a few posts on another forum and even the English think the weather in Manchester is bad!

Hmmm, I bet too late last week, so I missed the $5.75 on England and only got $4.

This week, I've bet too early and taken them at $3.45 when they're now getting out close to $4 on speculation that McGrath will play.

I notice the draw is coming in. Forecast I have is for a late shower today and rain on Saturday.

I was worried about the last game and didnt bet ,but the aussies are a shoe - in for this game , warnie has got 17 wickets in 2 games at old trafford,so he'll take his 8 or 9 in this game.bet up this time :)

Speaking of Warnie, who do ya like for numero 600?

Probably Strauss or Bell

In the warm up, all cricket balls have been removed of the ground and McGrath will play

I still can't believe they allowed that to happen. It's amazing how many injuries occur from seemingly innocuous situations.

By the way, don't you think we should be posting in the 3rd test thread??? :)

Yeah i thought that also [yesterday] but everyone kept posting ,so i did too,signing off from this one then!

sportz, speaking of silly injuries, Ben Kennedy last year got hurt playing beach volleyball whilst in training ?