h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think half our office is going. I might try giving you a bell, but doubt if you'll hear it!

Whhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Bell for sure is not test material. In the cauldron of test cricket when mental toughness is called for, Bell doesn't have it. G Jones is more difficult. He for sure has the mental toughness, but maybe not the skill as a wicket keeper.

Overall though I feel more optimistic than for years cos we've finally got a bunch of blokes with guts and balls




Brilliant day!

Can I refer you all to A3479411, written in January?

B

You didn't mention the two men who dominated the series.

Thorpe didn't play, and Katich and Ponting were very ordinary.

Not all that insightful really, is it?

Yes, you can.

Smug git!

Give me a call when you're in the vicinity of Trafalgar Square tomorrow, Roymondo!

Anyone else going?

RF

Master B for predicting our Ashes victory. You're in good company, so did Richie Benaud say the Aussies would find it tough if our bowlers stayed fit, which they did.

I still think overcoming the psychological barrier of losing so often to the Aussies was a big ask. I salute vaughanie and our boys for managing it.

You mean the same Ponting who saved the Aussies single-handedly at Old Trafford?

I grant you Katich was pretty rubbish, but it was quite hard to predict the rise (and apparently, continued ascendance) of Pietersen when no-one had heard of him in January.

B

Oh, treblepost.

B

Ponting was worse than Katich otherwise.

While I'm at it, where's this idea that Geraint Jones (the man who really saved Australia at Old Trafford) has bottle come from? what about the shot he played in the second innings at Trent Bridge?

Surprising but true fact - England have won the Ashes with the worst wicketkeeper, the weakest spinner and the most pathetic series performance at No.4 in living memory.

All right, our No.4 was actually no worse than their No. 4.

Now, B, if you'd predicted Pietersen being in the side for your mate Thorpe, that he'd make more runs than anyone on either side, that he'd drop every catch that came to him, and that he'd be deemed a dodgy pick until the final day of the series when his innings clinched the Ashes, THAT would be worth reminding us about.

Particularly if you also correctly predicted the colouration of his coiffure.

And the two men who dominated the series, incidentally, were Flintoff and Warne, not Pietersen.

Yeah, but Pieterson didn't do bad.

We had blokes who stood up to be counted when it really mattered.

We had a brilliant team ethic

They had a really dumb captain

I've said it before, Ashley Giles is not a bad spinner. He just pales in comparison to Warne and Muralitharan. Last year, when the pitches were dry and rock-hard, he took a hatful of wickets.

B

...and Pietersen was not considered dodgy until the very last innings by anyone with a memory longer than a goldfish. (with all due respect to Wandering Albatross .
Who was the batting hero of the second test then?

I agree.

Warne and Murali are all time greats,


Gilo is a decent team player capable of taking wickets as an average test player, But hey how brilliant he's been in the last 2 teasts with his batting. An exellent all round player in a test can sometimes make all the difference.

It's the mental thing in test cricket that makes it so fascinating.

Do I take it you mean the psychological aspect, and not Jason Gillespie?

B

yes

Bowlers these days have to be seen as all-rounders to get into the side. The idea of the "rabbit" has long gone in international cricket. There have been sterling performances by pretty well all the bowlers, on both sides, in this series. Giles's performance today is just one in a long line - Hoggard's at Trent Bridge, Warne's big score at ...

RF

Harmison?