egafd.com

An interesting article.

I was as pleased as anyone to see England scrape it but they were very very lucky. Aussies are certainties to win the next 3 test matches i think you can still get about 7/1 at the bookies for that,its a great bet.

certainties! wot with both Lee and McGrath out on Freddies home ground, not too sure about that one

They may well win the series and could possibly win the 3 Tests as you say but they are not certainities by any means.

If you think that I suggest you lump on at that 7-1.

McGrath is the key. He is by far the best player on either side. If he comes back then Australia will win. If he misses the rest of the series then it's about 50/50 to me (alright 55/45 to the aussies).

I will also take you up on the "lucky" tag. England played the better cricket in the last Test and thoroughly deserved to win. Something that the Australian team has had the good grace to admit.

You were lucky in one context

Ponting won the toss & bowled having just lost his main strike bowler which meant his next best strike bowler was Warne so logic said,

Bat second Bowl last

Might have made all the difference but we will never know

cheers
B....OZ

Oh I don't think that there's any doubt that Ponting got it wrong. If he had of batted then they may well have won but that was his choice and he has to live with it.

Quite why he bowled first then no one really knows.

Sure the groundman said it was underprepared due to the dodgy weather. However that was on the Monday but the Tuesday and Wednesday were very warm drying days and nearly all the local observers said that it was a bat first pitch as it would get worse as the game went along.

Basically it was a normal Birmingham pitch.

Still it wasn't quite as bad as Nasser Hussain's decision to bowl at Brisbane in the last series.