Ashes decider

[Hibs Class]

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Well done England

Fascinating series - Australia dominate the batting and bowling averages yet England made the most of their periods on top and thus secured the series.

Strauss has looked convincing as a captain and an opener. Real breakthrough for Stuart Broad in this series too. Jonathan Trott has booked his place for South Africa and Graeme Swann has cemented his position.

For Australia Hilfenhaus and Siddle have emerged with credit and answered any questions about their selection. North has done well enough and Clarke has reinforced his position as Ponting's successor.

Some great cricket during this series and a firm riposte to anyone who doubted the validity of the five-day game

It will be interesting to see how Johnson comes out of it. I agree Hilfenhaus (22 wkts) and Siddle (20wkts) have been the stand out bowlers for the Aussies, yet Johnson also got 20 wkts, after a very poor start.

[Toaods]

My thoughts:

Top marks to England for this 5th test - I didn't think they had it in them as Australia seemed to tighten the screw.

Cook - took the winning catch and stuck the ball right in the old trouser pocket and took off like a bat out of hell. How much do you think he'll get for that on E-Bay 2050?

Harmy - straight out of the Csaba Lazslo school of gibbering interviews but who do you think he was taking a swipe at re: Ex-England players slating his big chum Freddie..

Strauss - great bottle under pressure after being mince last time around.

Swan - tremendous bowling today.

[Mibbes Aye]

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It will be interesting to see how Johnson comes out of it. I agree Hilfenhaus (22 wkts) and Siddle (20wkts) have been the stand out bowlers for the Aussies, yet Johnson also got 20 wkts, after a very poor start.

Johnson struggled to find his bowling form early on but it's clear how importantly Australia view him. A home series against the Windies should give him the opportunity to show what he's got. If he can maintain his batting then he has the potential to be a genuine all-rounder although I think the selectors would settle for him doing the business as a strike bowler.

[Sir David Gray]

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I'm surprised whoever wins the boat race each year, is not honoured in the same way. A bloody 2 team match, and the winner gets a gong, only in england eh.

Exactly my thoughts on the matter.

You'd think they had won the world cup the way they are going on. God forbid that ever happens.

Guess what the national BBC news at 10pm had as their top story tonight?

It's incredible that such a big deal is made out of a sport that only about eight or nine countries in the entire world actually take seriously.

[hibee62]

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Exactly my thoughts on the matter.

You'd think they had won the world cup the way they are going on. God forbid that ever happens.

Guess what the national BBC news at 10pm had as their top story tonight?

It's incredible that such a big deal is made out of a sport that only about eight or nine countries in the entire world actually take seriously.

Like rugby you mean? It is waaay over the top but its not the only sport where this happens...

Anyhoo, I still look on the english test team as more of a British team and cant stand Ponting, so well done England!

[Sir David Gray]

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Like rugby you mean? It is waaay over the top but its not the only sport where this happens...

Anyhoo, I still look on the english test team as more of a British team and cant stand Ponting, so well done England!

I don't mind English sportsmen and women winning at individual sports, as long as they are not directly competing against a Scotsman or woman.

But when it comes to their football, rugby and cricket teams, I hope they lose every single match that they play in.

As for Ricky Ponting, I don't pay much interest to cricket (as you can probably tell) but he seems to be very well respected amongst the cricket world and any time I've heard people speak about him, he seems to be someone who holds the ethics/morals of the game in very high regard.

I have a lot of time for people like that.

[borders.cabbage]

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Like rugby you mean? It is waaay over the top but its not the only sport where this happens...

Anyhoo, I still look on the english test team as more of a British team and cant stand Ponting, so well done England!

Then surely they would be called Britain and not England

[hibee62]

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Then surely they would be called Britain and not England

Its more a case that England are the only ones in Britain who have a test team and so should anyone come along from Ireland or Scotland who is good enough (such as the current Scotland captain was 10 years ago) to play test cricket, then they will allow them to play for them.

As for Wales, the team is actually the team of the England and Wales Cricket Board so they are already covered by that.

Ponting just annoys me, but I think the reason for that is the same reason that he is so good. He has this attitude of I will win and I am better than you, the same attitude as Warne, Gilchrist and McGrath had, although I do still like Warne.

I think if you speak to a lot of English cricket fans they will tell you how much they love to ram it up Ponting, so to speak, however, it is clear that they do still respect him given the reception he got today when he was out.

[borders.cabbage]

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Its more a case that England are the only ones in Britain who have a test team and so should anyone come along from Ireland or Scotland who is good enough (such as the current Scotland captain was 10 years ago) to play test cricket, then they will allow them to play for them.

As for Wales, the team is actually the team of the England and Wales Cricket Board so they are already covered by that.

Ponting just annoys me, but I think the reason for that is the same reason that he is so good. He has this attitude of I will win and I am better than you, the same attitude as Warne, Gilchrist and McGrath had, although I do still like Warne.

I think if you speak to a lot of English cricket fans they will tell you how much they love to ram it up Ponting, so to speak, however, it is clear that they do still respect him given the reception he got today when he was out.

Or South Africa

[hibee62]

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Or South Africa

Indeed, although I think thats more the same sort of situation as in most sports, where they qualify by residency and England aint gonna turn down a batsman of Kevin Pietersen's calibre if he wants to play for them.

Trott seems to be more straight forward as there hasnt been anything of his dilemma as to who to play for, like i think i recall there was with with KP.

Edit: just wiki'd it and KP has an English mother, but still had to wait 4 years for residency. Trott's grandparents are Engish so same applies.

[Part/Time Supporter]

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I'm surprised whoever wins the boat race each year, is not honoured in the same way. A bloody 2 team match, and the winner gets a gong, only in england eh.

Congratulations to the #5 (out of 9) cricket team beating the #4 cricket team.

Sauce: http://www.cricinfo.com/ci-icc/conte...ry/421843.html

MBEs all round!

[Mibbes Aye]

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Exactly my thoughts on the matter.

You'd think they had won the world cup the way they are going on. God forbid that ever happens.

Guess what the national BBC news at 10pm had as their top story tonight?

It's incredible that such a big deal is made out of a sport that only about eight or nine countries in the entire world actually take seriously.

It's the leading, or one of the leading, sports in all those countries and that's a population approaching nearly two billion people.

[--------]

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It's the leading, or one of the leading, sports in all those countries and that's a population approaching nearly two billion people.

Exactly - and the Ashes is one of the oldest trophies in professional sport.

I didn't expect England to win this series, but congratulations to them and to Andrew Strauss in particular.

Tremendous performance.

[--------]

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Exactly my thoughts on the matter. You'd think they had won the world cup the way they are going on. God forbid that ever happens. Guess what the national BBC news at 10pm had as their top story tonight?

It's incredible that such a big deal is made out of a sport that only about eight or nine countries in the entire world actually take seriously.

This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote

Like rugby you mean? It is waaay over the top but its not the only sport where this happens...

Anyhoo, I still look on the english test team as more of a British team and cant stand Ponting, so well done England!

Or the World Series in baseball? World? How many countries play baseball seriously?

Or gridiron?

But then, most Americans don't seem to realise that there's a great big world out there that ISN'T American.

And when they do, they usually bomb the living daylights out of it, then denounce it as a clear and present danger to truth, justice, and the American way....

Then poison them with Coke, Big Macs and Burger Kings.

[Sir David Gray]

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It's the leading, or one of the leading, sports in all those countries and that's a population approaching nearly two billion people.

If we take India off the list, it's less than a billion.

[Hibs Class]

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If we take India off the list, it's less than a billion.

So are you saying we should be encouraging the Chinese to take it up?

[hibee62]

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Or the World Series in baseball? World? How many countries play baseball seriously?

Or gridiron?

But then, most Americans don't seem to realise that there's a great big world out there that ISN'T American.

And when they do, they usually bomb the living daylights out of it, then denounce it as a clear and present danger to truth, justice, and the American way....

Then poison them with Coke, Big Macs and Burger Kings.

Having been in florida and subjected to baseball for a couple of weeks on the tele i looked into the world series very briefly. From wiki the impression i got was that about 4 or 5 countries take it seriously but to make anything of it you have to go and play in america in the "World" Series. I dont thikn it exists very much as an international sport. This could all be total ***** though...

Gridiron appears to be entirely only USA, there was that attempt at a Euro league (which I remember seeing Scotland win once, 1996 maybe) but, although i think it still exists, i think its mostly German teams now.