wooooooh got into the guardian ashes countdown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/nov/24/the-ashes-2010-brisbane-gabba-harmison
my email is at 9 hours to go 'Fraternal Greetings around the world'

Thanks for sharing the link. Pissed off that I'm at work today. think an early lunch down the pub is called for...

wooooooh got into the guardian ashes countdown
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/nov/24/the-ashes-2010-brisbane-gabba-harmison
my email is at 9 hours to go 'Fraternal Greetings around the world'

Well... what we know from today...
-Funky wants to have Siddle's babies,
-it was the right decsion to have Siddle
-Johnson's form is a worry
-Doherty is a useful option who can bowl
-Bell and Pietersen are the key wickets in the England lineup
-The pitch should get faster the next 2 days
-Gooner is a dedicated pom and is deserving a summer of sledging
-something ALWAYS happens on the first morning in Brisbane ;)

Brisbane, Australia

How did you celebrate your last birthday - a slice of cake, perhaps, or a long lie-in followed by a nice meal and a few relaxing beverages with friends and family?

Maybe on his next birthday, Peter Siddle will do the same. For his 26th, he'll have to be content with a Test hat-trick, the adoration of 40,000 pumped-up Aussies at the Gabba and blowing a six-wicket hole in England's Ashes hopes.

England probably thought there could be no moment more calamitous than the dismissal of captain Andrew Strauss for a duck to the third ball of the day. They were wrong.

Having already accounted for a bristling Kevin Pietersen and shuffling Paul Collingwood, the man nicknamed Sid Vicious blitzed through Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad with consecutive deliveries. God save the Queen indeed.

It was only the fifth Ashes hat-trick by an Australian, the first in this old ding-dong since Darren Gough's for England 12 years ago and just Australia's 11th in all Tests against any opposition.

The last Australian to bag one in an Ashes series was Shane Warne back in 1994. But while he accounted for three tail-enders, one of whom was Devon Malcolm, Siddle's lit a powder-keg under the middle of England's innings.

And he wasn't finished there. When he had Graeme Swann trapped plumb lbw shortly afterwards, he had claimed four wickets for 10 runs in three overs. England, cruising at 117-2, had lost six wickets for 63 runs in 11 overs.

It was an astonishing burst in a day that looked to be defined by cautious sparring rather than knock-out blows.

That it was Siddle who was the destroyer, rather than the more hyped Mitchell Johnson or wannabe Glen McGrath Ben Hilfenhaus, was stunning vindication of the selectors' decision to bring him back in place of local favourite Doug Bollinger.

Over the past year Doug the Rug has become something of a nascent folk hero to Australian cricket fans, a Merv Hughes in the making - uncomplicated, big-hearted, with a comical attitude to hair and a serious talent for taking big wickets.

Most of the locals who poured in to the Gabba on a warm, sunny morning would have preferred to see him steaming in from the Vulture Street End rather than Siddle, who had an inferior Test record and hadn't featured for his country since January.

When they poured out into the suburban streets of Woolloongabba eight hours later, there was only one name being chanted. The song of choice? Happy birthday.

As a young man growing up in Victoria, Siddle was a promising competitive woodchopper. If that sounds quaintly 19th century, there was something old-fashioned about his virtues here.

Snarling, aggressive, he bowled fast and full and made the batsmen play. If they missed, he hit. If he occasionally found late movement, the pitch was in the main pretty placid. His main weapons were pace and placement.

He has been responsible for an England collapse before, taking 5-21 in the crushing win at Headingley last summer. He finished that series with 20 wickets. But few were expecting he would fell so many English oaks at the Gabbatoir this week.

At the start of this year he was crippled by a stress fracture to his back, any thought of Ashes heroism buried beneath the more prosaic aim of just being able to bowl again.

Like many born in Melbourne, he is a big Aussie Rules Football fan, and it was with local club Carlton that he regained his fitness, working on strengthening his legs and rebuilding his core. Here was the happy payback for all those hard hours.

After the dread horror of that worst possible start, this was a sobering day of what ifs and oh no's for the toiling tourists.

Tantaliser-in-chief, as so often, was Kevin Pietersen. Forget the sometimes mixed feelings he seems to stir back in Blighty. Here in Australia, there are no nuances about it. He is the big fish, the prize scalp, the one player Ricky Ponting's men fear more than any other.

As England tried to rebuild either side of lunch, the midday sun providing him a perfect patch of limelight on the green outfield, Pietersen was in his element - clouting Johnson back down the ground and through cover, sashaying down the track to Xavier Doherty, punching Shane Watson straight with dismissive ease. Even when leaving the ball he somehow managed to hold the attention, lifting his bat high in with a matador flourish and holding the pose in ostentatious fashion.

The England fans spread in small clusters around the three-tiered stands, unaware of the nightmare to follow, loved every second. The Aussies, chugging away on plastic pots of beer, chuntered and jeered. Pietersen, Captain Hook moustache on his upper lip, revelled in the role as pantomime villain.

Then, just as we started to dream of series-steering centuries and match-winning totals, it was over - a firm-handed drive at Siddle's fuller one, a little away bite taking the edge, Ponting clinging on at second slip before wheeling away in triumph with index finger wagging.

Pietersen departed with a rueful downward glance at the track, but the blame lay elsewhere. Even at his best, he is the sort of batsman who can perversely be excruciating to watch - not because of any crabbiness or technical flaws, but because he sometimes looks so utterly at ease that the thought of him failing is almost impossible to stomach.

England fans can handle Collingwood or Prior departing for low scores. Our expectations of them are limited.

Not KP. When he's in this sort of dreamy form, anything less than a century feels like short change, the cricketing equivalent of taking the family silver to the Antiques Roadshow only to be told that it's worth less than the bus fare over.

At least he got a start. His skipper barely got a look-in.

First overs in Ashes series are taking on near-mythical status. In no other series is there anywhere near the same importance attached to them as there is in this contest. Blame Michael Slater for his four off Phil DeFreitas, or Steve Harmison for the brute he served Justin Langer in '05 or the tripe he delivered four years ago.

When Strauss left the very first ball of the match alone and dabbed the second into the ground, it seemed like that sequence might be at an end. Then he cut hard at Hilfenhaus's third, sent it straight down Mike Hussey's throat at gully and horrible history appeared to be repeating itself.

Strauss scored more runs than any other player in the last Ashes series. As England skipper he is the totem Australia will attack. To lose him without a run on the board sent the home fans into high-fiving frenzy and the travelling supporters into head-shaking disbelief, and may have set the tone for what was to follow.

Was he guilty of a rash stroke at the most inopportune time? The ball was short and wide, but it did just come back in a fraction and cramp the batsman up. On another day the ball would have flashed in the gap between gully and point, or flown over Hussey's head.

Wise old sages were divided. Former England captain Michael Vaughan felt he should have upper-cut it high over the infield. Slater, speaking on Test Match Special, blamed the tension of the occasion - long hours of pent-up nerves and adrenalin forcing the error.

England were grateful for the runs from Cook and Ian Bell, both of whom have attracted their fair share of criticism in the past. While Cook's 67 off 163 balls threatened to provide a backbone, Bell's classy 76 put some meat on the bones.

There is a long, long way to go in this match and in this series. But with Australia 25-0 at the close and both openers entirely untroubled, this was an ominous opening salvo for England.

question... is there a better sporting event in the format of two nations going against each other than the ashes? ryder cup, bledisloe, pakistan india test series etc etc?

The Bledisloe is the only other one involving Australia that comes close, but they always do it during the Tri-nations so it can loose its feel a little bit.

I don't really know of any other ones internationally, but there are surely a few big ones


Sidenote: Has anyone else been watching Magical Tales on channel 9 :p

Sidenote: Has anyone else been watching Magical Tales on channel 9 :p

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Did you get conned into watching it by the constant reminders about it during ad breaks yesterday? :lol:

Marcus North. GTFO.

[size=6]Resurgent Hussey gives Australia the edge[/size]

The Ashes contest lived up its billing of being too close to call on a fluctuating day at the Gabba. England's bowlers staged a spirited fightback before being quelled by a resurgent Mike Hussey whose unbeaten 81 gave Australia the edge when bad light ended play. The hosts lost four wickets during the afternoon session as James Anderson and Steven Finn produced fiery spells, but Hussey was joined by Brad Haddin and the sixth-wicket pair added 77 to leave Australia sensing a vital lead.

We'll never know what the Australia selectors would have done if Hussey had failed in the second innings of the Sheffield Shield match against Victoria last week where he struck a hundred. His first ball today was inches short of reaching second slip but that was about his only alarm during an assured display, where his attacking approach against Graeme Swann laid down a marker for the series. Five fours and a six came against the offspinner who, along with the quicks, regularly dropped short to feed Hussey's pull.

However, England's attack showed enough to suggest they can more than hold their own in Australian conditions with Anderson the most impressive as he began correcting a poor record down under. Not only did he claim two vital wickets, but his economy of under two meant the hosts didn't raced away. As a whole, England maintained good control when wickets weren't falling although Finn's two wickets came at a slightly high cost.

England were denied the early wickets they wanted during the morning session as Shane Watson and Simon Katich rode the occasional moment of good fortune. The first major alarm came when Katich, on 22, raced off for a single into the covers which Watson declined. A direct hit from Alastair Cook would have had Katich well short but the throw missed while Matt Prior couldn't reach the stumps in time.

The tussle between Watson and England's quicks was engrossing. The bowlers targeted his pads and Watson responded with handsome straight drives, but he also got into a tangle against a well-directed short ball from Broad which struck him under the arm and lobbed just clear of the stumps.

England thought they'd broken through when Katich was given lbw against Anderson but the decision was overturned on referral for height, then the visitors tried their luck with a review against Watson but it was only clipping leg stump and couldn't be changed. By now, tensions were starting to mount - especially between Anderson and Watson - but to Anderson's credit he kept his composure and his line as Watson edged a good-length delivery to first slip.

Anderson then gave the team a perfect start after lunch when Ricky Ponting glanced an edge down the leg side. With his tail up, Anderson gave Clarke a working over and was well supported by Finn who produced a fine spell having begun nervously on his Ashes debut.

Katich had reached a nuggety half-century from 103 balls but hadn't added to his score when he scooped a full delivery back towards Finn, who stooped low in his follow through to hold a fine catch for such a tall bowler. Having made an impact, Finn then found Hussey's edge first ball but the nick fell agonisingly short of Swann at second slip.

England were convinced they had Clarke caught behind before he'd scored when Finn nipped one back to find the inside edge and they used up their final review after Aleem Dar said not out. However, Hotspot didn't show an edge so the decision was upheld although Snicko - which can't be used as part of the UDRS - did suggest a feather from Clarke's bat.

England had a stranglehold over Australia but Hussey broke the shackles with two pulls off Finn. There was then a clear indicator for the series as Hussey took the attack to Swann - who had previously bowled two one over spells - and used his feet to on-drive a six before cutting through the covers. When Swann continued to drop uncharacteristically short he was pulled twice through midwicket.

Finn, though, returned for another spell and made an immediate impact when Clarke's painful 50-ball innings ended with a top-edge pull. Clarke had already been struck on the helmet and the glove by Stuart Broad as he refused to attack the short ball, and his first attempt at something aggressive brought his downfall. Swann, during his poorest display since the Cardiff Test in 2009, then produced his best delivery of the innings that spun to take the edge of North's bat as he collected his latest failure which will reignite the debate of his position at No. 6.

Haddin, who is playing his first Test since March following injury, immediately looked solid at the crease and after tea began to chip away at a tiring attack while Hussey maintained his role of aggressor. Hussey's fifty came from 85 balls and the midwicket fence continued to be his favoured location for boundaries. England were desperate to reach the second new ball, but the moment it became available the light closed in followed shortly by rain which meant the next key stage of this match had to wait. The morning should be compulsive viewing
http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2010-11/content/story/489096.html

Marcus North. GTFO.

if the team win they won't change anything regardless of runs unfortunetley... but yes i agree Marcus North GTFO (had a good arvo at the pub cricket + pool @ the pub... a real australian summer arvo) if the team draws due to weather or lose (don't even think it) i think they'll have to drop North but do you bring in Khawaja or Ferguson with any confidence?

They do have a few options, it all depends on the way they want the bowling lineup to shape up for Adelaide. If they are looking at playing an extra spinner Smith and O'Keefe immediately become strong possibilities. Otherwise the other only real contenders would be Ferguson, Khawaja or White. IMO the best person to fill the void would be David Hussey, he's a great batsman who also can chip in a few overs when necessary, however I don't think he'll even get a look in.