Aussies pushed to the wall .........

England made history beating Australia in the 2nd test in Lords breaking the long standing loosing streak.The England victory came at the right time of the series with 3 more tests the Ashes 2009 is wide open now. All credit to captain Strauss for keeping the team together and playing a wonderful captains knock in the 1st innings.

Man of the Match Flintoff bowled his heart out on the last session of the 4th day and the first session of the 5th day which changed the course of the match. Having said that i would have given Strauss the Man of the Match for his splendid 150 in the 1st innings. I would say J.Anderson bowled truly well in the 1st innings to stop the Aussies from getting the upper hand.Finally England has pulled their socks and played as a team go 1 up in the series to make the already hyped Ashes interesting and absorbing.Collingwood and Peiterson played their part well to make sure that they have enough runs on the board and the final spell from Flintoff was so fierce fast bowling which proved too much for Clark and Haddin.

Very little went right for Ponting here. He was given out caught when he did not hit it, he remains 25 runs short of passing Allan Border's Australian Test record. He was forced to juggle an attack in which the spearhead went over 5 runs a over and the spinner dislocated a finger on his bowling hand.

Its very tough to make a come back in a test where you receive 4-5 dubious decisions and that too 3 in the 4th innings of the match.I am not sure why this so called media kept silent when it comes to a english cricketer when it comes to some controversy. If Strauss decision to claim for Hughes catch, ponting confirming a catch against India is no different. I don't understand why the umpires resist from using technology when it is available on doubtful decisions.

The biggest problem with the current Australian team is the self-belief that they can win the series. There has been lot of doubting themself on various aspects and which shows on the field. I don't think that it will improve dramatically once Brett is back. Over the years it has been proved time and again that the team should belief they have it with in them to win. I am sure Ponting & the senior pros like Hussey will not let go easily and try to pull back things in Aussies way. I feel one good win here will make the total out look of the team totally positive.

Hoping to see a fighting display from the Aussies in the 3rd test, with Peiterson ruled out for the rest of the series its not going to be easy for England.

Ashes 2009

1st test in cardiff has proved that ICC should never think of tinkering with the Test cricket format. The match was a treat to watch with some superb exhibition of skills with the bat and ball. The life time innings from Collingwood and the tail playing for time to save the match should make the ICC officials think hard before embarking on any kind of change in the format.

Aussies were on top right from the go and never gave the english men a chance to dominate the proceedings. The only session England can take heart of was the lower order batting well to get runs on the board in the 1st innings and the last session of the last day.

Australian batting line is back to its own with all the top order batsmen except M.Hussey getting runs and its only matter of time that Hussey gets into form. The big plus for australia is the find of the youngster North playing some important knocks, he did very well in South Africa and continues the good work here. I like the way he bats, in the sense he knows when to attack and when to defend and his technique is solid. The big relief for Australia is Ponting getting back to his own, i enjoyed every movement of his 150 and the flow of strokes and what not, if he continues to perform like this i am sure it will reflect in his captaincy. Katich is the most under-rated player in the Australian team and i remember the way he played in India in his early days and has come a long way to seal his place in the team, even though he is not the great player to watch (chanderpaul style) but very effective. Haddin has taken the big burden of filling the great legacy left by Gilli and has been pretty successful till now, even though its early days to compare with Gilli.

As for as the England batting, its a side that rarely perform as a team. England i would say is the most over-rated team in world cricket today. All the players are good individual players and perform to keep their place in the team and rarely play as a team to win. Kevin Peiterson and Strauss are the two solid batsmen who can make a difference to the side and i would say Cook is fine player but lacks confidence now with string of medicare performances. We have not seen much from Boppara in the test arena and all others Collingwood,Flintoff,Prior are all absolutely over rated players as batsmen. Even though Collingwood played the innings of his life, i would say he will fail often than perform. Flinoff is the utterly over-rated player i have ever come accross in cricket history. I do not remember his batting winning a Test match in the recent past, a player with so many injury problem and uncertainty is not worth the kind of backing he gets from the ECB.

Australia missed the fire power in the bowling department and were a bit too defensive in the field. May be the 2005 ashes loss is still rankling hard in Ponting that he was a bit defensive and let the tail to score runs and play time in both the innings. Ponting back to form should help his confidence and show in his captaincy. There is only one strike bowler in Johnson who can run through the opponents and that is hurting the chances of taking 20 wickets. All the other bowlers can support and take wickets but not take wickets in quick time which is very important in test cricket. I feel this is what had cost the 1st Test for Australia.

I see england is a better bowling side compared to the batting even though they gave away 650+ in the 1st test. If the conditions and wickets are going to favour seam bowling they can prove very difficult to tackle with. Anderson & Flintoff with Harmison can prove to be a solid seam attack in helping conditions. S.Broad is listless if the wickets are not helping, i would prefer harmison or Sidebottom for him. Paniser has been out of form for too long and may be needs a tour to India to get back to form with helpful wickets. Swann is yet another ordinary spinner who will be carted even in our TNCA First div league but he is ratted so high.

Overall Australia as a team is a better side compared to England and its going to be Aussies yet again.