2nd day of the 4th cricket test at Headingley

At the start of day 2 Clarke and North were at the crease and they followed there great form with some great batting Clarke just missed another 100 getting out for 93. North went on to get his 100 he got out at the end of Australia's innings for 110. After Stuart Clarke getting 3/18 in his bowling he went on to humiliate England further with the bat smashing 32 from 22 getting three 6's and one 4. Australia got all out for 445

At the start of the England's 2nd innings Cook and Strauss looked solid leaving many balls and playing very good cricket. However as soon as Strauss got out it was all down hill for England. In the last hour of the 2nd day Australia rolled through the top order of the England batting line up getting 5 wickets in the hour. At the end of the 2nd day England are 82/5 still 261 behind Australia.

Australia are on course for a massive win

1st day of the 4th cricket test at Headingley

Team update

England:
Andrew Flintoff (out) for Steve Harmison (in)

Australia:

Nathan Hauritz (out) for Stuart Clark (in)
Graham Manou (out) for Brad Haddin (in)

Well what a great first day of a cricket test match 14 Wickets and 298 runs. England won the toss and decided to bat first and what a shocker they had with the bat. Not much to say about the England batting they only survived 33.5 overs. The Australian bowlers had an impressive 4 man pace attacked and it paid off with Stuart Clark getting 3/18 and Siddle cleaning up the tail of the England's bats men for 5/21.

Then Australia came out to bat, Ricky Ponting and Shane Watson combined for a 119 run partnership. At the end of day one Australia are 196/4 with Clarke (34 runs) and North (7). My opinion is that Australia will be looking for around a 250 run lead on england before going back into to bowl them out. On the other hand England will need to quickly bowl Australia out and put up a quality batting score to have any chance of winning or drawing this 4th test match.

Cricket Squad update for fourth Test at Headingley

Will update you on players that are in doubt and some that could be selected in tomorrows Ashes.

Brett Lee- Looks like he will be 100% fit to play however with limited match practice it could be a big risk for Australia. I would hold Lee off until the 5th test match where he can get some match practice in the lead up game before the last test match.

Andrew Flintoff- It appears that he could possibly miss the next test match with his sore knee. England will make a decision on Flintoff tomorrow. If he is out possible bowlers to be selected are Ryan Sidebottom and Steve Harmison. I would pick Ryan Sidebottom he is a great bowler, could play well for England.

Brad Haddin- With his recent fractured finger Haddin is confident that he will play tomorrow. He will most likely have a pain-killing injection into his finger for him to be able to play. I would think he is a very good chance of coming back into the Australian side.

In tomorrow post i will talk about day 1 of the fourth Ashes test at Headingley.

Cricket Umpire Rudi Koertzen shocking umpiring decisions

In the last ashes test match Rudi was a joke. Just in the last test match alone he made these mistakes.

1. Gave out Australian batsmen Mitchell Johnson & Michael Clarke LBW to balls that were going down leg, and too high.

2. When Johnson was bowling, he gave a not out decision against Ian Bell , which hit in line and would've hit middle stump about halfway up

3. Another LBW not out against Ian Bell from the bowling of Siddle, it looked like a replay of how Mitchell Jonson got out.

So that is 4 mistakes just in one test match. In the previous tests these other mistakes happened.

5. Ponting out caught behind to a ball he didn't hit.
6. He missed the obvious no-ball that Simon Katich was caught off a Flintoff delivery.

That's 6 mistakes just from 3 test match's. Do you think Rudi should get the sack or continue on?
My comment on that is he should be sacked.

Australia draw 3rd Ashes test

In an eventful 5th day of innings in which England were looking for a victory to go up 2-0 series lead. However this was not to be, Australia fought back to draw at Edgbaston. This was done by three great batting performances on the final day from Michael Hussey (64) Marcus North (96) and Michael Clarke (103). Hussey and North which have been fighting for form recently will hopefully take this as a confidence boost into the 4th test. Clarke looked very impressive in his 103 runs from 192 balls however he had his fair share of luck go his way with surviving a Stuart Broad delivery that clipped the bail and a subsequent catch off a Bopara no-ball.


With England losing their number one batsmen Kevin Petersen (Achilles tendon injury) for the rest of the ashes series another player is a major doubt of playing this Friday is Andrew Flintoff.
The England all rounder, who is understood to have had two further pain-killing injections to his troublesome right knee prior to this match, fell awkwardly on his left ankle when delivering the final ball of his 13th over. Flintoff required the better part of 30 seconds to climb back to his feet and appeared in significant discomfort. His condition will be monitored with only three days between the third and fourth Tests. Another player that will be monitored throughout this time will be Australian fast bowler Brett Lee which could be a surprise inclusion into the Australian pace attack come Friday, will Lee be picked only time will tell.

England will go into the 4th test match with a 1-0 series lead. Australia will most likely have to look for a win here to have any chance of retaining the ashes.