Posts tagged with ‘Mitchell Johnson’

England’s Test batsmen are often accused of making starts but failing to convert them into centuries. Generally, blame is placed upon the proliferation of limited overs cricket. Today, England again lost an ODI against Australia, and again a number of their batsmen established themselves, only to lose their wickets.

This (impending) defeat will rank as highly as, if not higher than, any of England’s regular ’90s maulings. They have been truly embarrassing, like senile old men who have soiled themselves, shuffling about aimlessly, muttering incomprehensibly.

The news from Phillip Hughes on his personal Twitter account is that he will not be playing in the 3rd Test, presumably with Shane Watson taking his place.

All of the attention over the last 10 days has surrounded players either injured or badly out of form. Both sides are in a certain amount of disarray, but it promises to be the weather that holds the trump card at Edgbaston.

Northamptonshire have enjoyed facing Mitchell Johnson as much as England did at Lord’s. In the 1st innings of their tour match against the Australians, they took 42 from Johnson’s 7 overs.

With Australia now trailing in the Ashes, the flimsy excuses have started to show their acne-ridden faces. First we had all the fuss over umpiring decisions and “dirty cheat” Andrew Strauss, and now Shane Watson reveals that it is all because Cricket Australia have imposed a sledging ban on the squad.

At 198/0 halfway through this first day, England were dreaming of a mammoth score of the type they should have achieved at Cardiff. As it turned out, a dream was all it was, barring more tailend heroics on day 2.

Limited as I am to listening on TMS (and I had to go out to collect my son from nursery. And he’s not even that interested in the cricket. Yet…) my first impressions are somewhat limited. But here goes all the same.

The Ashes are upon us. In an attempt to crack the mainstream league of Broadsheet Cricket Punditry, I am offering up my exclusive Ashes preview. We can exclusively reveal the key battles that will decide the series and who will win.