Thetownend.com

I'll get us started then.

I think we'll win but I've got a horrid feeling it's going to be anouther dour affair, especially as the pitch is apparantly looking as lifeless as the it did in the first test.

Oram and Mills out as well so it's not really an even contest. I'd like to see us go all guns blazing when we bat first, I know that sounds dodgy but ffs NZ are missing their 2 better seamers, to be frank we could get knocked over for 180 first time around and we still shouldn't get beat.

Hope Jimmy A's fit.

napier was the scene of that highscoring ODI wasn't it?

i think we'll win, especially if they're without oram and mills. i'd be tempted to drop strauss for shah still..

It was indeed but if it was going to be quick or a bit green, I can't see why NZ would revert to 2 spinners.

I went there last year, nice ground but the pitch is very flat, if it's anything but a draw i'll be amazed

didn't realise they'd dropped gillespie as well. odd.

come on England!! lets end well ...

This match will be decided on who wins the toss, best batting wicket in NZ, come on Vaughan win the bloody toss and bat.

Same team. 'Mon england

I'm confident we won't lose :D , but Monty is going to have to stand up and be counted in this test as there isn't going to be much for the seamers.

I'll go for a victory to us though, KP to get a ton as well

Batting first :)

booooo. Here comes the collapse

:-))(  What a fantastic start.

arse

And off goes Strauss

Let us hope KP gets this ton.

fuck

Fuck sake.

fucking hell

Fucking hell!  18 seems a long way off right now...twats...

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Oh Straussy.

oh dear. thats fucking terrible.

Gaaaawd, watching our top order is like watching paint dry.

Fuck it, even if Tresco's in straight jacket and frothing at the mouth, get the fucker back in!!

On a happier note, I saw a Town fan during the last test...wonder if he's at this one?

4 down, 50 on the total.

Oh lord KP, deliver us from evil.

And what does Owais Shah have to do to get picked.

129 for KP, rescued it a bit.

Lets hope that Broad carries on batting like his dad tonight !

NMH

Broad needs one more run to get the scores of Vaughan, Cook, Strauss, Bell, Collingwood and Ambrose put together.

KP produces the goods when we really need them. At least someone had a decent innings.

Good shout about the ton cib.

Like this Broad....hes a good fielder as well,hope he stays in the team for years.......300,will be a decent score after being 4 for 3!

Yeah he's a good player. Seems he could be the man to finally fill the number 8 role of having a bowler who can bat a bit.

Iffy`s Onion Bhaji wrote

Initially an opening batsman in Leicestershires youth set-up

Broad was out to the 1st ball of the day.

sidebottom vs nz again then.

personally i would like to see some kp off-break come into the bowling attack.

Anderson, 7 overs, 0-74, flipping hell.
Sidebottom, 7 overs 1-10, fantastic bowling again

it's bizarre.

we've shown both extremes in such a short time. shit batting then kp's batting. awful bowling then sidebottom's bowling.

quite odd

forty-five minutes later:

sidebottom 4-28 off 13 overs  8)

0-54 actually, but fair point.

Super Sidey 8)

we're immense

All out for 168 8)

this is fucking great. just bat all day tomorrow and weve got the cunts

A stayed up watching until 2.30am, Sidebottom was awsome, and Broad what a prospect, I've never seen a game turn round so quickly. Brilliant.

2 poor sides at play here.

end of the road for vaughan as captain?

Who would you replace him with, there is only Collingwood and hes not a world class player, I cant see him being a forceful captain either?

Definitely the end of the road for Strauss and Harmison, back to the counties you go.

Thats the future though, poor sides they maybe, but one hell of a good test match ahead.

Why is it then end for vaughn?

you're probably right, there's no obvious candidate to replace him. we do seem to be relying on individual brilliance rather than a concerted team effort these days though.

Great comeback from us. Well done Sidebottom. We are actually going well for once. I'm getting back into cricket now. Summer is on it's way  8)

Glory supporter

Feck off. I was on here moaning every day when we gifted the ashes back to them aussie cunts  :D

:D  Ok grumpy-guts

Colly's done an excellent job in one-day cricket, he'd do a grand job in Test cricket I'm sure. That said, I don't think it's the end of the road for Vaughan. He's out of nick yes, but we're about to win a series away from home and the guy has proved himself to be one of the best captains in history.

MV in form makes batting and captaincy look an absolute doddle, he won us the Ashes... you don't lose it overnight.

A much better innings than the first one so far. :) 114 - 2 at the moment. Building a good lead.

Fifty up so far, but he'll need a big ton today if he wants to play EnZed on home soil this summer

Pretty good catch to get Pietersen :shock:

Probably give him the kiss of death, but he is playing a very unlike Strauss innings, playing every ball on its merits instead of flashing the blade and nicking the ball to gulley or the slips.

That's his ton, really pleased for him, met him a few years back in a pub in Eastbourne, top fella. Having said that, i think i could bludgeon a century on that track against NZ's bowling attack, and i'm proper shit.

Century for Belly as well.

Bada-bada-bing!

Lead is now 501. Strauss is only 23 from 200. Will Vaughan let him bat on to get his 200 and bat NZ out of the game.

well chuffed for strauss as much as anything - great knock. might have been slow but he needed to build an innings, stay in and score runs for his confidence.

vaughn's due a good innings but his captaincy and ability with the bat cannot be in doubt.

cook's worrying me though - he's got a decent average this series but keeps getting starts but doesn't convert them into big totals like he used to. not too concerned because he'll come good again but it'll be interesting to see how he reacts back on home soil - he did alright in sri lanka after all.

i can't see the kiwis being able to bat the game out either.

Flintoff will be fit for the summer, who would you drop - Anderson?

I think Cook has done a great job with the bat, but his fielding (not including that one golden test this winter when he pulled off three great catches) is very poor for such a young chap.

every team is reliant on individual brilliance - it is an individual game.


I think ideally Flintoff would come in for Anderson, but I really doubt whether he will ever be fit enough to be part of a 4 man attack. And then I doubt whether he is a good enough batsman to make it a 5 man attack.

As for Cook - his fielding and running between the wickets have impressed immeasurably in the last year and i think they will continue to improve.


I have given Strauss a lot of criticism and do actually still believe Owais Shah should be batting at 3, but that innings says everything about his character. Mentally one of the best players in the world, which is why he's had a pretty successful Test career despite some glaring technical weaknesses.

Jonathan Agnew's blog says that he was exposed countless times on day 3 but had the mentality to see it through. That is exactly what we have come to expect from Strauss, but for me he has capitalised on a weak attack on a flat pitch and is not a sustainable option at 3. However, this innings has guaranteed he'll have at least a few opportunities this summer to prove me wrong.

dont be silly now, if only one batsman, or bowler, is contributing, then we wont win!

it's a team game.

that sidebottom chap - old and useless.

I would Drop Vaughan to 3 and open with Strauss and Cook for the opening test at lords against Nz.

You don't drop anyone, Freddie shouldn't get near the team until he's got a few months worth of overs under his belt bowling 100% for Lancs.

Agreed DMR......i dont think Flintoff will play for England again,his ankle has gone,he would always get in the team if fit....its time to move on,we have a very good team,my problem is with the coaches and selectors who seem to be more interested in the laptops than the cricket,also Ambrose has had a good start but ime not convinced hes better than Prior......Cook,Vaughan,Strause,Bell,Petterson.Collingwood......all brilliant players,if we could just get some fast bowlers we would be a real force.

Says in the times that they are going to go out swinging for the first few overs so i reckon they'll declare at his 200 or before if he gets out

467-7 declared. Straus out for 177. NZ need 553 to win

Jimmy Anderson going all round the park... NZ to get them, anyone?!  :wink:

Draw

ye of little faith. peter moores cream and white army!

Barmy Army in super voice.

Eveeeeeeeeeeeeeeerywhere we go

one down 9 to go

143-1 :shock:

Flumming looks in the mood, suddenly 553 doesn't seem like such a big target :o

woooooooooo bye bye bell

Yay, Phlegm gone, Mont-ster on fire.

Typical Fleming really, 46 half centuries, but only 9 100's. Still, at least he's retiring with a test average of 40+.

162-4 try to go to sleep go on try :)

5 more needed tonight, neh bother

Am I only one who thinks the magic 40 isn't really the mark of a good player. With todays flat feather-pitches, modern bats, small boundaries, one bouncer rules etc etc you need to be looking 45+, maybe even 50, to be regarded as a genuinely good player.

we're crap then cos KP is the only english batsmen to average over 45 in recent years

As the only England player who'd probably unanimously get in a World XI I'd say it's fair to say he's our only world class batsman, yes.

That the others all are crap, no, that's not what I said at all.

As the only England player who'd probably unanimously get in a World XI I'd say it's fair to say he's our only world class batsman, yes.

That the others all are crap, no, that's not what I said at all.

sorry, i misunderstood - i didn't think you meant an average of 45+ was world class.

in that case i'd agree.

interestingly, bell's average isn't far off 45.

Bell is a very good player technically, second only to Pietersen. Contrast that to somebody like Strauss, who has huge holes in his technique (particularly his footwork).

Boycott, for all his madness is a good judge of technique and he rates Bell to the moon and back. And Cook for that matter. Although, I think that's just because he sees himself in Cook.

was interesting to read harmisons piece on the fact that the england dressing room think boycott is full of shit and his opinions aren't worth listening too.

Boycott is class. He's usually wrong, but not always and he says things that most people won't say for fear of offending. The fact is that Harmison has been rubbish for a long time, and deserved to be dropped.

Interestingly, the stats for the last three years give Collingwood an average of 44, second to Pietersen (49) with Cook in third (44). Go Colly, especially with his reasonable bowling and fantastic fielding, he's ace.

I would pretty much totally agree with that.

And we're off again for the day. 'mon England, wrap this up before 1ish, I need some sleep.

Taylor out caught at slip off Panesar. That's a relief, partnership was just about worrying me.

finally.

btw nemo, you are quicker than bbc text!

hurrah

'thats a michelle for Panesar'

hehe, never heard that before.

BBC text always waits to the end of the over.

And I get the idea the guys too busy trying to be witty to report what's going on. Still, it's a good read.

302-7, should be elementaryl now. Give Anderson a go to get his confidence up a notch perhaps.

We'll probably end up losing if we do.

the cricinfo text commentary is better.

as much as i dislike boycott at times, he does know a bit about cricket - if only they could gag him and only let him talk about specific cricket matters and not other nonsense.

anderson is an enigma...i kind of like him but you can see his confidence vanish as soon as he gets hit for a boundary. once he goes for a couple, he can't bowl the right length.

i'd hoped sidebottom might get three more wickets for another ten-for but it looks unlikely now, shame.

i've moved upstairs so i can listen to the live commentary.

I was thinking earlier, our tail is suddenly looking rather tasty, what with Broad emerging as a Batsman as well as a bowler, Flintoff recovering, Ambrose looking capable and Adil Rashid coming along nicely.

If we could get Simon Jones back to his best, would we have a claim for the best tail around?

that doesn't really work as i think because of flintoff's fitness he will only ever come back as a number 6. the chances of simon jones coming back are exceptionally slim and even if he did he's only a number 10/11 slogger anyway.

realistically for the foreseeable england's tail will be:
7 ambrose
8 broad
9 sidebottom
10 anderson/hoggard/onions/shreck
11 panesar

the kiwis full strength tail is infinitely stronger
7 mccullum
8 vettori
9 franklin
10 patel
11 martin

the windies tail is probably stronger too
7 hinds
8 ramdin
9 benn
10 taylor
11 powell

6 for monty. great catch by broad too.

i forgot this was on.  :oops:

You're not one of these folks who thinks that Rashid will be ready in a year to eighteen months then? I haven't seen much of him at all but he seems to be accompanied by a fair amount of hype. I guess that's natural for an English leg spinner though, lest he go the way of Chris Schofield.

What's Shreck like, not seen much of him at all.

Rashid and Monty bowling in tandem would be ace  :D

Vettori's a pretty decent batsman, why doesn't he bat higher up? He's certainly shown more than Bell (of the NZ variety) and Sinclair.

I'm liking this curse thing.

Martin looks a promising batsman :D

haha fuck off vetori:)

rashid will certainly be on the cusp in say 18 months, but as what - a bowler who bats or a batsman who bowls - it's hard to currently tell

it's worth remembering that he was given his yorkshire debut asa direct replacement for darren lehmann when he was injured - a batsman who can bowl some spin.

he had a lot of early success but that isn't surprising as english cricketers are dreadful against leg-spin. however his bowling form dropped off (as his batting really began to make a mark) at the back end of 2007 and he averaged around 40 with the ball in the end

that said, he's young and leggies usually develop late - look at bryce mcgain who has just played his maiden first-class season for victoria aged 35 and is widely touted to pip macgill to the post as the next australian test spinner

i really like shreck - a late developer (he's 30) who swings it both ways at low 80s pace and has a tendency to completely rip teams out. knows his game inside out and is also the leading wicket-taker in new zealand domestic cricket this winter. i've got a lot of time for both shreck and onions, they'll be both pushing very hard for a test spot in the next 18 months

We are producing some fantastically named cricketers at the moment aren't we :D When was the last time we had a Smith in the team. And Monty's in the slips, oh yes.

Cook-Onions-Mustard-Ambrose(ia)

Can we get a full food theme team?

sodding lunch break. i'm going to bed.

For crying out loud, Chris Martin's batting, surely they can delay lunch by two minutes.

watch ollie rayner and chris nash get in the england team in the next 18 months

oh gawd.

why dont they just bowl straight at martin, he'll miss one without a doubt.

and beamers at southee!

retired hurt would do right now.

must have heard you stroood.

some very good hitting there though.

thank fuck for that

fair play to Southee, 77no and highest scorer for NZ. finally an away series win.

We make hard work of it as always  :-))(

yaaaaaaaaaaay, whens the open top bus ride?

Jesus, lighten up a bit.

If a half decent yound crikcter is going to tee off these things will happen to anyone. Fuck me, we've seen Monty smashing Murali for 6 before now.

And what makes the Aussies so good? They finish teams off and they do it well. We need to learn how to do that.

Ah. Like in their series against India, when the Indians won one test by 70-odd runs which was what RP Singh got virtually off his own back, belting Stuart clark about. Or in the following draw, when Kumble and Harbajhan batted for hours and both got shed loads.

Yeah righto. We won my miles today, if one bloke slogs a few sixes in a dead contest so what?

A debutant who is 19. Oh and it was a bit more than a few sixes wasn't it? 77 or something? come on that's taking the piss a little. But i guess when you have James Anderson bowling what can you do? He's fecking useless.

christ alive, just cos he's 19 doesn't mean he shouldn't be able to slog. it wasn't even proper batting, it happens. this would be the same anderson who's bowling with a dodgy ankle and took a 5-for a week ago then.

IOB, over the last 2 days alone here's some of your posts... are you playing up to some image or are you really just this sad? loosen up, you've got such a massive downer on everything - we WON, W-O-N, victorious, champagne, hurrah, success - i really don't get your problem and the way all you ever do is just bleat about everything really winds me up


An average game as you'd expect from a friendly really. No real bite from us. We passed well but didn't create much.

Fuck. Defeat on Friday then

Been down the pub watching the England game. Bet it's worse than the first 3.

I agree. I'm just worried as we still need to get another 4 points to stay up for certain.

We make hard work of it as always  

I dpn't understand the inclusion of Owen. He's done nothing this season and isn't even half the player he once was. Waste of a sqaud player in my opinion.

Gillingham are good at home and were god damn awful away. Let's hope the pressure is on them otherwise they'll beat us without question.

At least i'm not trying to get attention by saying something controverisal  :roll:

FFS it's a forum and there's nothing wrong with opinion. If you don't like my posts then fair enough. I don't really care  :soapy tit wank:

but trying to get attention by behaving like a sulky teenager gives you the moral high ground?

you're all cunts.

i win.

 :soapy tit wank:  :soapy tit wank:  :soapy tit wank:  

You as well?

Shreck is a very good bowler at Notts, his form in New Zealand as Boeta says shows this. Hopefully he'll be taking wickets for Notts though this Summer as it looks like we'll be needing to replace both Sidey and Broad.

Southee was probably thinking Fuck it i might as well just start slogging it. Fair play to him he did and also he was batting with the worst batsmen i have ever seen in my life in Chris Martin. oh and IOB Anderson is not fucking useless, i bet u were not saying that when he picked up 5 wickets in the first innings in wellington. He is bowling with a sprained ankle in which he got in a freak incident while playing football. Have u ever bowled with a Sprained ankle IOB, it is quite painful. I can tell u that.

ankle or no ankle, anderson hasn't changed in 5 years. one spell of swinging jaffas, the next five spells of absolute tripe. we've got better than him

An average game as you'd expect from a friendly really. No real bite from us. We passed well but didn't create much.

Truth.

Fuck. Defeat on Friday then

OTT. Same as all the other posts in that thread. Meh.

Been down the pub watching the England game. Bet it's worse than the first 3.

No idea what the fuck that is about.

I agree. I'm just worried as we still need to get another 4 points to stay up for certain.

It's not factual but it's a fair assumption. I think a draw is the most likely result here though.

We make hard work of it as always

Fuck knows what that is about.

I dpn't understand the inclusion of Owen. He's done nothing this season and isn't even half the player he once was. Waste of a sqaud player in my opinion.

At this moment in time that's true.

Gillingham are good at home and were god damn awful away. Let's hope the pressure is on them otherwise they'll beat us without question.

The first part is factual, the second part is probably a fair assumption.

All in all, not really that controversial, I wouldn't interpret as such. The manner of the posts is what makes it so grumpy but half the forum is just as bad. In fact if you went on a hunt for 'negative' posts over  the past 2 days you'd find a lot of members with just as many.

I'll leave you with this to think about though. Have you ever seen STFCBart and IOB in the same place at the same time? Didn't think so  :P

 But I have seen IOB and Fatbury in the same room.

Rich, the fact that New Zealand were slogging it was always going to happen when they were chasing such a huge total to win the game i.e the same thing that Astle did during the last tour of New Zealand when he knew that it was a bit of a lost cause.

Tbh i just think it's funny that someone has actually been sad enough to go and quote my posts from the last few days  :soapy tit wank:

Well there's no other way of making your posts look a bit stupid i.e Fatburys constant "Moores out!" posts in this section.

Funny that he hasn't posted that recently.

Fatbury likes a moan. I like to think i just moan for the sake of it. Why not? A lot of other people on here do. I wonder how serious they are about it though?  :D

 :mrgreen:

This is the internet though, what do you expect?

Exactly but some people actually take me seriously on here  :soapy tit wank: