RE: ASHES 2013: FIFTH TEST - THE OVAL
RussyRover > 22/08/2013, 09:01
You have to agree there mate, the day was certainly Australias, but the wicket of Watson was well overdue, only to see Peter Siddle come in as night watchmen and bash a quick 18 off 15 balls, and Steve Smith still stoically there on 66.
Kerrigan seemed to have the jitters, as he only bowled 8 overs for 53 runs, which wasn't too bad considering his first 2 went for 28! At least Cook brought him back before the new ball to give him some confidence, hopefully he and Swann can have a better day today with the ball. There's now talk of should Monty have been picked instead of Kerrigan but his off pitch antics has pretty much scuppered that chance, perhaps he'll be picked for the tour.
Watson played an innings of class for his highest test score, let's hope he's back out of form by the time they go to Aussie land, and Clarke yet again is struggling, the curse of the captain perhaps, he'll be mightily disappointed with his tour, not only because of the series loss (which was virtually inevitable according to everyone before the series started) but his own poor performance, again lucky for us as if he and Watson had fired from day 1 of the first test the urn might well be travelling back down under.
A few early wickets need to be the order of the morning and get stuck into the bowlers, though Mitchell Starc has proved he is very useful with the bat... We'll see in a couple of hours...