ASHES - 2005

[ycr007]

England took a stranglehold on the fourth Test at Trent Bridge as the bowlers ripped out five Australian wickets in the final session to follow up Andrew Flintoff's first Ashes century. Matthew Hoggard was the chief destroyer with three wickets while Simon Jones grabbed one and Steve Harmison removed Michael Clarke with the last ball of the day.

Close Australia 99 for 5 (Katich 20*) trail England 477 (Flintoff 102, G Jones 85, Warne 4-102) by 378 runs

Did'nt See this Match at all

[akhilis2cool]

LAgta hai aussies ki to lag gayi isbaar

[ycr007]

Kya ? Waat??



Buddhe Ho Gaye SHayad Sabke Sab....

[akhilis2cool]

Team moral is down badly....ponting anna ko steve waugh se kuch seekhna hoga

[ycr007]

Steveda tak jaane ki zaroorat Nahin,Micheal Vaughan se Kuch Sikhnaa PAdenga....

[akhilis2cool]

Vaughn ko kuch nai aata....he is succeeding coz the aussie team is down...

[ycr007]

Vaughn ko kuch nai aata....he is succeeding coz the aussie team is down...

Nai Re, I Read that His Captaincy Was Inspiring in the Field.....

Still the Australians refused to shut away their attacking instincts - a marked difference from the ultra defensive attitude Ponting adopted in the field - as edges flew wide and just short of the slip fielders. While Ponting's only answer to England's batting was to post men on the boundary, Michael Vaughan was constantly thinking. His decision to recall Harmison brought the wicket of Clarke, when he was the fourth player to be trapped lbw

[akhilis2cool]

But then the aussie bowling is out of form too

[ycr007]

But then the aussie bowling is out of form too

Hau....Kasper & Gillespie r Outta Rythm,McGrath is Injured,Tait is New,Lee is SOmetimes-Good-Sometimes-Pedestrain.

Warne is the Only one who Puts in a 100% Effort Everytime....

[akhilis2cool]

But then the aussie bowling is out of form too

Hau....Kasper & Gillespie r Outta Rythm,McGrath is Injured,Tait is New,Lee is SOmetimes-Good-Sometimes-Pedestrain.
Warne is the Only one who Puts in a 100% Effort Everytime....

warne + mcgill wld. not have been a bad idea...

[labelle]

what abt the new guy called peiterson the one who has a fancy hair style da guy has got tremendous strength and power. i support the englishmen. they have definitely put a brave front fighting back!!!!!!

[SeH]

Albeit an ardent Aussie fan, I am in all praises for the English men. What an amazing performance that was. This is the first time tat i've ever heard Aussies were made to follow on. Hope Aussies recover

[Long gone HP]

I guess the Aussies were taken in by a big surprise in this series. They came to England pretty complacent about their performance in the series. On top of it, they were hit by an ill-timed loss of form to its frontline bowlers. And they put the icing on the cake by talking too much too soon.



Now, Aussie supporters are pinning the performance of their team down to reasons like loss of form to Dizzy & Kasper; injury to McGrath etc. Isn't this the same team that used to harp on its bench strength and discipline etc. just days before the start of this series?



IMO, this is just the beginning of the end for one of the most wonderful teams to have ever worn the green baggy. Sad, but true. All good things come to an end and so will this. Over the last couple of years, the Aussies have been matched well by nothing less than 3 teams - India, New Zealand & now England. And they were also beaten, albiet just once, by the babies of international cricket, Bangladesh. The nucleus of the team is nearing the end of their careers. McGrath, Warne, Langer, Martyn, Hayden are all in their mid-30s. Gilly, Ponting & Dizzy too are on the wrong side of 30. 8 players retiring over the next 5 years is not a very sweet proposition for the Aussies but they have to face it, come what may.

[ycr007]

Well Said HP Saar,

I agree with u on th Age Factor.The Core Of the aussie team has been the same since the waugh Bros' Retirement.And as u said,all of them will be making thier exit well within a Few tests of each other.

But Looking at the brighter side,This core Bunch have been fighters to the end and I'm sure they won't go down without a Fight.

As I Write this,I read tht Aus have lost the wicket of Matthew Hayden for 50 Odd runs on da board.

[SeH]

[quote="Long gone HP"][/quote]



HP saar kahan gaye bhai.......bahut din baat..attendence diye board peh.... welcome back.....

[talking]

england is going to winn ths....and on man of the series kevin pietersen and flintoff have their chances

[akhilis2cool]

England 2-1 up!



they cant loose the series now but they almost screwed it up again. Had the aussies scored a few more runs, then it would have been more interesting.

ne ways...theres little chance now that the aussies will level the series, but u never know.

[SeH]

England 2-1 up!

they cant loose the series now but they almost screwed it up again. Had the aussies scored a few more runs, then it would have been more interesting.
ne ways...theres little chance now that the aussies will level the series, but u never know.

i dont wanna c the seris levelled.....

[Tom Cruise]

It's just a matter of time, Aussies will be back. It's a bad phase for them. And also blame needs to go to the selectors. Look at their ageing players. So many are over 33 years of age. But there are so many talents there. They may loose this Ashes but beware they are still dangerous. Look at the way England is winning. With some luck the results would have been 3-0 in favour of Australia.

[crypt]

Well!!!



England and Warne managed to manufacture an exciting match which Eng shud hav won more convincingly. There were some glaring umpiring errors against the aussies . But Aussies have done their cause no good..Their thinking has been very rigid...I think Mc Gill cud hav played instead of their third seamer...He's a decent leg spinner n wud hav a spot in most sides in the world and given the english men's capability against spin i think it is high time he shud get a chance - Specially on the Oval pitch which offers a bit to the tweakers.



Aussies are getting a taste of life without McGrath and soon when Warne hangs his boots they cud b in a real soup. Hayden, martyn n Gilly havent got big scores this series. I expected a lot from Gilly . The arrogance and swagger associated with the Aussie team hav vanished...



Matters went worse when ponting gav a piece of his mind to the umpire n some english men...This clearly shows that fear has crept in to this Aussie side. I think this is very gud for the game as a whole that Aussies are struggling to save the Ashes. There were some outrageous statements at the start of the series which hav been reduced to a joke now...The media back home has slammed this team and this is a real unchartered teritory for this team...



Steve Waugh pointed out that this team lacks hunger...( i doubt that seeing at Lee n warne bowlig yesterday)



http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/engvaus ... 17465.html



But if there is one person who is doint it for England...It is Freddie...



England are a vastly improved team but no where as clinical as Aussies are...Hope they get better with time...



Anticipating a great final test.....

[KK]

England 2-1 up!

they cant loose the series now but they almost screwed it up again. Had the aussies scored a few more runs, then it would have been more interesting.
ne ways...theres little chance now that the aussies will level the series, but u never know.

i dont wanna c the seris levelled.....

I want to see a change, I dont want Aussies to be at top all the times.

[Long Gone HP]

Strange are the ways of sports fans. KK's comments above clicked some interesting tennis parallels in my mind.



The later half of the 90's. People said men's tennis is boring because of Sampras' domination. Then comes back the comeback man - Agassi. IMO, it was a rivalry to match Borg-Commors, Lendl-McEnroe & Becker-Edberg. Sampras still dominated, but men's tennis got a fillip. With the retirement of Sampras and the ageing of the ageless Agassi, came the short reigns of Hewitt interspersed with some dominance from quarters like Agassi & _. Spectator interest again started going down but in came the swiss master Federer and fans are flocking back.



The current decade. Women's tennis was being dominated by the Williams sisters. And fans again started losing interest. Then came the belgian duo and the russians to destabilise them and women's tennis kept getting interesting. Till came a time in 2005 when there was no clear dominance and women's tennis is on a downslide in popularity.



The analyst in me drew a couple of inferences from all this and numerous other similar parallels I saw in other sports.



1. Dominance in a sport is something that the sport cannot do without. At the same time, if the dominance doesn't get a proper challenge, it becomes boring.



2. When there as no dominant force in a sport, it loses in popularity. Because, however much people may berate & hate dominating forces, they cannot deny that these dominant forces raise the level of the game and its only when there is a dominant force, we can enjoy the best of the sport.



Cases in point - Tiger Woods in Golf, Michael Schumacher in F-1. People hated their dominance but even their worst critics will agree that they both are unparalleled in their sports. And the icing on the cake happened when a Vijay Singh happened to golf and a Fernando Alonso to F-1. Figures show the rise in popularity of both golf and F-1 since the rivalries I've spoken about began.



The Aussies have dominated cricket for quite a while and its good to see England come up as serious threats to their dominance. No doubt that the aussies will soon strike back and this should augur well for true cricket fans as they're in for some classic cricket from the two teams in the near future.

[ycr007]

Somewhat agree with HP on the Dominance factor.But is'nt it the same dominance that caused a fall in popularity? that is what ur point no.2 propounds.so is that detrimental or advantageous?

I believe it differs from sport to sport.In the examples that you mentioned,in Formula 1,dominance was affecting the popularity but only after some time elapsed and it became monotonous.But I don't suppose Woods popularity took away the sheen of Golf.

and it is this same dominance that spurs on the second rung players to perform better thus livening up the proceedings.

Even in team sports,dominance sometimes can be attributed to individuals

eg. Sports like basketball.most of the Bulls' dominance was attributed to Jordan and upon his retirement,they were out of reckoning and now are a middle-rung team.



In the case of pole vault,is Yelena Isinbayeva's dominance detrimental? I'd say no. Even if the dominance continues it may not get boring coz there will be enough contenders to grasp our interest.



All in all I am repeating the same thing what HP saar said,that it is these dominant forces that raise the level of the game and its only when there is a dominant force, we can enjoy the best of the sport.Thatz because the level of challenge will be proportional to the level of dominance.

So as long as dominance does'nt lead to monotony,it is good.



Another thing is that,it is a common practice (atleast IMO) is to support the Underdog(s).We won't support a guy at the top but instead will root for the second-best and hope that he/she will beat the player in front of him/her one day or the other.But this again differs from sport to sport.

We've seen that the support is equally divided between Australia & England.

Some root for England beacuse they want Australia's dominance to end and see the rising of a new world order ( @jasz)

Whereas Some (Incl Me-the underdog factor notwithstanding-) root for Australia beacuse we'd like them to continue playing at the top and setting new benchmarks for others to follow.

But as Sport is agreat leveller,everyone gets his/her due someday or the other.So we should cast aside our Favouritisms once in a while and savour the best of it.

[SeH]

When there as no dominant force in a sport, it loses in popularity.

People that I know have stopped watching cricket perhaps for this reason. From my personal experineces I've seen students here at the universities watch cricket all nite and then get back to work early mornings with less or no sleep. With the predicted overcome of the seris its no more fun watching it no more.

[Long gone HP]

Maybe my points ended up confusing YCR & SeH. I hope I'm clearer this time around. What I wanted to say was that....



1. Dominance is a must for each sport. No dominating force brings mediocrity to the game which makes it boring. A counter-argument would be that the lack of a dominating force brings in an element of uncertainity which keeps up spectator interest. But if viewed from a different perspective, this uncertainity notwithstanding, the sport loses in areas like innovation, legends, above-par performances etc. This makes it a losing proposition on the whole.



2. This dominance requires a challenge too. In the absence of a challenge, the dominant force starts stagnating. Furthermore, it brings a huge element of predictability, which unlike its converse mentioned by me in the previous point, has a huge impact on the popularity of the sport. That too a negative one.



When I mentioned a rise in the popularity of Formula1, I was comparing the popularity gained by the sport right after the ascendance of Schumi. The sport had a new poster boy. Added to his on-track prowess, he had good looks and a regal media presence. People finally had a Formula1 idol they'd been missing since the demise of Senna. Unfortunately for the sport, this dominance became monotonous and the popularity of the sport started falling. But this season has seen a big rise in the popularity of the sport as a challenge to the dominance has arrived in the form of Alonso. And nobody dare put down Schumi so soon. This season has dented the pride of Ferrari & Schumi badly and they're bound to bounce back next season with venom. Alonzo better watch out.



Maybe golf's popularity didn't fall much as Tiger, however dominant he might have been, always had a challenge from some quarter or the other (Sergio Garcia, Davis Love III, Ernie Els etc.). That stemmed the fall to a great extent. But when the challenge becomes a rivalry, like Sampras Agassi, Woods-Singh etc. and mark my words, Alonzo-Raikkonen-Schumi from the next season of Formula1, the popularity of the sport always increases.



Thats where all this seemingly off-topic discussion comes in relevance. Australia always had a challenge from some quarter or the other. South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka & India have posed challenges to them throughout the reign of the current Aussie team. But none of these challenges came as strong as that of the pommies. Never have Australia been made to bite the dust so bad. And that's why I feel that this is not just a one-off challenge but a budding rivalry that'll take the sport to new heights in the next 2-3 years.