stmookeyj
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Australia Day holds many traditions for so many. For example, it's often Barbeque, Backyard Cricket, a swim in an inflatable pool, perhaps listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 and generally getting drunk. Oh plus fireworks that often come in the middle of the pivotal 3rd set in the night tennis match. But to top all of that for lovers of Cricket, the great Australian Summer pastime, is the tradition that is cricket on the Adelaide Oval. Some bemoan the scheduling that now sees the test match that was held on and around this day moved to an earlier timeslot (usually December) but others are just happy to see a game on the tube.
OK, enough reminiscing and nostalgia. Time to get to the matter at hand. In this 7 match series England have been beaten by individual performances courtesy of Shane Watson at the MCG, Shaun Marsh at Bellerive Oval and to a lesser extent David Hussey at the SCG. It hasn't helped that England's batting has been well below their best, particularly in the 2 most recent games where they never looked like chasing 230 last Friday nor did they give Trott enough support to put a decent score on the board on Sunday.
This is the 3rd time that the sides have met at this ground in this format on this day. Past results are
- 2006/2007 COMM BANK SERIES: ENG 110 (34.3) [Johnson 4/45 (10)] lost to AUS 1/111 (24.3) [Ponting 51 (61)]
AUS: Gilchrist, Hayden, Ponting (C), M.Hussey, Symonds, M.Clarke, White, Hogg, Johnson, B.Lee, S.Clark
ENG: Strauss, Loye, Bell, Joyce, Collingwood, Flintoff (C), Dalrymple, Nixon, Plunkett, Tremlett, Panesar
- 1998/1999 CU SERIES: AUS 8/239 (50) [M.Waugh 65 (80), Martyn 59* (68), Lehmann 51 (68)] def ENG 223 (48.3) [Hick 109 (118), Warne 3/39 (10), McGrath 3/40 (9.3)]
AUS: M.Waugh, Gilchrist, Blewett, Lehmann, Martyn, Law, S.Lee, Julian, Warne (C), Dale, McGrath
ENG: Knight, Stewart (C), Hick, Hussain, Fairbrother, Crawley, Ealham, Croft, Gough, Headley, Mullally
- 1986/1987 WSC: AUS 6/225 (50) [Border 91 (122), S.Waugh 83* (120), DeFreitas 4/35 (10)] def ENG 192 (48.1) [P.Taylor 3/29 (7.1)]
AUS: G.Marsh, Wellham, Jones, Border (C), S.Waugh, O'Donnell, Matthews, Zoehrer, MacLeay, P.Taylor, Davis
ENG: C.Broad, Athey, Gower, Gatting (C), Lamb, Botham, Richards, Emburey, DeFreitas, Small, Dilley
(they also played on this day in the 1982/1983 WSC in Sydney, won by England in a low scoring match. ENG 207 (41) [Hogg 3/44 (10), Lillee 3/34 (8)] def AUS 109 (27.3) [Jackman 3/41 (10), Hemmings 3/11 (3.3)])
Looking at team possibilities, we know one thing for certain regarding the visiting team. James Anderson has returned from England at just about the right time now that Tim Bresnan's out for the remainder of the series and the bowling just needed that something extra. Just who he comes in for will be a big question. Would they prefer to keep the extra batting strength that Woakes (who isn't in the WC squad) and Wright (who is) possess, or would they like an extra specialist bowler to support Tremlett and Shezad? Kevin Pietersen's status is still unknown, if he's fit he's almost a certain starter as well. But again who he would replace is a question for the selectors as to whether they could use Paul Collingwood's bowling or if they think that Collingwood's runs are too much of a liability to the team? The final question facing them is the batting order. Would they persist with the Prior opening experiment which in this series has yielded a pair of 3rd ball ducks? Or are they content to leave Bell at 4? The answers certainly won't be known until early Wednesday.
The best news for Australia apart from the 3-0 lead is that there were no additional casualties (that we know of) from Sunday's win. In fact Mitchell Johnson's throat problem and Shaun Tait's thigh strain are apparently good enough to see them considered for selection. If Johnson is fit then John Hastings would no doubt be the player replaced in an almost like for like replacement. Finding room for Tait on his home deck though is a little less simplistic given the form of Bollinger (who may be the one replaced if Johnson is also in if the selectors are not favoring a duo of leftie quicks) and Lee, so there's a chance that he'll be given a few more days to recover. Of most concern is the batting, and the form of both Clarke and White who with the lack of suitable replacement options that don't affect the balance of the side will be given every chance to find rhythm.
Another note is that on Australia Day, we have a local (literally) umpire on debut in Simon Fry. The South African Marais Erasmus joins him on the ground with New Zealand's Baxter (don't know his first name, Billy for all we know, but he didn't have a great game on Sunday) in the booth and Javagal Srinath is alongside him. Fine and partially cloudy the forecast with a top of 29 on Wednesday, although it is forecast to be 36 tomorrow so moisture in the deck may not be any factor.
SQUADS
AUSTRALIA: Michael CLARKE (C), Shane WATSON, Brad HADDIN, Shaun MARSH, Cameron WHITE, David HUSSEY, Steve SMITH, John HASTINGS, Xavier DOHERTY, Brett LEE, Doug BOLLINGER, Mitchell JOHNSON, Shaun TAIT, Peter SIDDLE
ENGLAND: Andrew STRAUSS (C), Matt PRIOR, Jonathan TROTT, Ian BELL, Paul COLLINGWOOD, Eion MORGAN, Luke WRIGHT, Chris WOAKES, Michael YARDY, Ajmal SHEZAD, Chris TREMLETT, Kevin PIETERSEN, James ANDERSON, James TREDWELL
MEDIA COVERAGE
Usual outlets. ABC Grandstand on Local Radio from 2PM ADST. Digital listeners may get Tennis later in the night session.
Channel 9's coverage starts at
- 2PM in Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne, news in dinner break
- 1PM in Brisbane with news cutting in 30 minutes into the 2nd session
- 1:30 into Adelaide but at this stage there's no coverage after 4PM, meaning that there's still tickets available
- 12:30 in Darwin with News cutting in an hour into the 2nd innings
- 11:00 into Perth with News AFTER the 2nd innings