4th test open thread

I agree Bopara shouldn’t and neither should Harmison, and, although Panesar hasn’t featured much I would have taken Rashid instead.

I seem to agree with everything that Boycott says, certainly about this ashes series, should I be worried?

I turned on the radio at 5 p.m. yesterday, shortly after the wickets of Ponting and Hussey had fallen. “Not bad,” I thought, “after some morning rain, we’ve done of decent job of pegging the Aussies back.”

Then I heard a reference to Australia’s sixty-odd run lead, and my stomach turned slightly.

Agree about Bopara – he’s been awful. Disagree about Harmison, as mentioned above his form’s been excellent this summer, and his bowling in this match has been agressive and rewarded with a couple of wickets. In the context of England’s perfomance over the last couple of days, I would hardly single out SH. We’ve clearly been relying too much on Flintoff and Pietersen though.

I seem to agree with everything that Boycott says, certainly about this ashes series, should I be worried?
Yes.

Tom brings up another problem – reading along with the Guardian’s OBO you can never tell if they’re sarcastic or not when they go on one of the usual “oh lookie Key’s got a boatload of runs” rants. Bopara and Bell really do have to go, but haven’t we been here before with Key? The calls for Ramps, Vaughan, and hey why not Butcher or maybe we can get that Nick Knight to finally fire, hell Boyks shoots his mouth off enough why not stick him in the middle, will be coming in, and I’m not sure that’s healthy. KP’s certainly been much more stupid than anybody this series, so it wouldn’t matter to me when he’s due back. The longer away the better, almost, because the temptation’s going to be to put him in 1st fow, and then he’ll look really stupid.

If dropping Bopara’s harsh, could he bat elsewhere? I’d be looking at Denly, and I’d stick with Broad at any rate. It’s only one match, England are up 1-0, there’s still a decider to come. Mitchell J. has looked v. Harmison-esque this Ashes, terrifying one day and awful most others. I don’t count Australia the favorites yet.

One thing England’s selection policy has always been about is keeping the Test and 50-over sides as similar as possible, a strategy I’ve never understood, and I think that’s why they’re always incorporating crap test batsmen – they don’t seem to understand that if your limited-overs side is crap, you don’t want to use that as your development side.

That last hour of TMS went past excruciating to a kind of numbing black comedy. The one hope for the Oval is that you’d expect Punter to pick a winning side, as opposed to playing for a draw to keep the urn, and he’s not likely to bring Hauritz back in on a wicket that’s likely to turn.

The other thought is that YCCC is not going to be happy in the slightest with the gate receipts of a 2.3 day Test.

I think the pairing of Blowers and Viv Richards two series ago, away at Windies, was maybe the worst TMS commentary I’ve heard. Blowers’ tics everybody knows about, but Richards has a way of saying “I think the West Indies need to score runs/take wickets” with roughly 500 qualifying clauses and a nice punctuating “uhhhhhhhh” between each. Between the usual befuddled lorry-and-pigeon act it was just brutal. These days I’m often listening to Aggers trying to get Boycott’s goat with some silly trivia question or another, when those two are on it’s…painful.

I was really down on Hayden early on, he KEPT going on about his beautiful family. However, as it’s gone on, I’ve really warmed to him. He’s funny(ish), knowledgeable and really in awe about what he’s doing. It’s easy to forget that the guy was a 50+ opening batsman, who on his day could destroy an attack. Maxwell is clear minded and knows his onions.

Why no one hasn’t told Blowers that the schtick about buses and pigeons is verging on mental illness, and certainly not eccentric, I’m not quite sure.

I see KP can’t avoid the stick and remains complicit in abject defeat even when he’s not so much as put on a pad. Ho hum.

I’ll be there on day 3 and day 5 at the Oval should any one of you care to seek the benefit of my unparalleled knowledge of the game. I might even give you my autograph.

TMS is still one the dwindling number of things that makes your country great, btw.