It's going to be a great Ashes series!

[Sean]

98-5

If it is, it needs to be as cunning as a fox that's just being appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University.

[Gob]

Yeah, they are going to leave Aus win this one, to make the series more exciting.

Tey're doing this so the gate takings for the rest of the series are enough to give them bonus pay.

[Sean]

Sounds reasonable. All the same, I'd prefer it if Bell could score alot of runs...

[Lord Jim]

Q: What's the difference between cricket the game, and cricket the insect?

A: The insect cricket can actually keep you awake.

[oldr_n_wsr]

[Gob]

You know, I think Aus may just win this match.

That's good as it adds an extra frisson of excitement to the remaining two.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Maybe a tie and a two month tie breaking match???? Be still my heart, oh wait it already stopped

[loCAtek]

[Lord Jim]

Q:What's the difference between a cricket match and a forty year prison sentence?


A: A forty year prison sentence eventually ends.

[Gob]

Aus will level the series today (one win each, one drawn match).

England need to win one or draw one after this, to retain the Ashes. Aus need to win the next two remaining matches to regain the Ashes.

Perth, Western Australia

Sometimes statistics don't make sense.

A bowler who returns figures of 0-170 in his last match takes four wickets in nine balls in his next. A batting unit that scores 1,215 runs for their last six wickets loses five top-order men for 20 and then five more for 58. A team that was 69-5 on day one goes into day four with an enormous lead and only tail-enders between them and crushing victory.

At other times, they cannot lie. England have never successfully chased anything like 391 to win a Test match. They have only ever passed 300 on the way to a win three times in history. In 11 Ashes matches here at the Waca they've come out on top in just one.

With 310 needed, just five wickets in hand and two days of unbroken sunshine heading this way, they won't be coming out on top in this one either. Even for the most optimistic of cricket calculations can't conjure a way out of this mathematical mess.

When the Waca clocks showed just over an hour to go to the close, there was still optimism alive in the massed ranks of England supporters spread out on the grassy banks beyond the mid-wicket fence and clustered around the bars beneath the Prindiville Stand.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tomfordyce/2 ... lance.html

[Sean]

Aus will level the series today (one win each, one drawn match).

England need to win one or draw one after this, to retain the Ashes. Aus need to win the next two remaining matches to regain the Ashes.

Wouldn't a win and a draw suit Aus quite nicely after this for a 2-1 series win?

[Gob]

Shit!! Yeah! Fuck....

[Sean]

If this one was a draw then what you said would be accurate. Wishful thinking mate...

[Lord Jim]

Aus will level the series today

I wish somebody would level the stadium....

[Sean]

Aus will level the series today

I wish somebody would level the stadium....

So do I LJ.

That way this test would be declared a draw and we'd move on to Melbourne with a series lead. It's nice to see how much you have gotten behind England in this...

[Lord Jim]

Now, this is disturbing:

I wish somebody would level the stadium....

So do I LJ.

That way this test would be declared a draw and we'd move on to Melbourne with a series lead. It's nice to see how much you have gotten behind England in this...

Willing to have a stadium ceiling collapse on thousands of people, if it meant "we'd move on to Melbourne with a series lead"....

That's not team devotion....

It's a sickness....

[Sean]

You think that's disturbing? Try this...

Aus will level the series today

I wish somebody would level the stadium....

Willing to have a stadium ceiling collapse on thousands of people, if it meant 'this game that nobody is forcing me to take an interest in and yet I find it strangely compelling and visit the thread for updates at least once a day' would end....

That's not disliking cricket....

It's a sickness....

[Gob]

Well, well, well....

Australia crushed England by 267 runs in the third Ashes Test at the WACA ground today to level the series at 1-1 with two matches to play.

Play lasted only 48 minutes on the fourth morning as the tourists were rumbled out for 123 after being set 391 for victory, losing their final five wickets for 42 runs.



Australian pacemen Ryan Harris (6-47 in the second innings and 3-59) and Mitchell Johnson (3-44 and 6-38) rounded up the England tail, and shared 18 wickets between them for the Test.


The Australians’ decision to play a quartet of fast bowlers was vindicated completely, and may now be the approach taken by the national selectors for the rest of the series.

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/aus ... 191r3.html

[Scooter]

the tourists were rumbled out for 123 after being set 391 for victory

Is this written in English? I'm just wondering if I have suddenly been struck by some form of aphasia.

[Gob]

Translation:

The English side, who are playing in Australia, (hence "tourists",) were bowled out (deprived of playing further) for one hundred and twenty three "runs" . Therefore not reaching the amount of "runs" set for them, which Australia made during their batting spell, some three hundred and ninety one, in order to claim victory.