WI 'A' 343-2 Oh dear.

Will Ian Bell's 52 be enough to save him???



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Mr 2nd place will join.

Just found out this test series is under the "appeal rule" bout time England accepted it, no more dodgy Rudi Koertzen decisions.



There is a new appeal system for disputed dismissals starting in the the first Test. Here is a synopsis of how it will work:



* A trial system of referring disputed dismissals is being used in the series, the first time England have taken part.



* The trial method, approved by the ICC, has previously allowed teams to make three unsuccessful referrals per innings but that number has been reduced to two to save time and discourage the art of trying it on.



* Either side can ask for the television umpire to review a decision. The fielding captain might think an appeal was wrongly rejected, a batsman that he has been unfairly given out.

What time does the test start today?

bring this in for the ashes

3pm UK time mate

I dunno if it's been mentioned. But Hair-gate has now been awarded an England [url=http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12343_4881260,00.htmlwin[/url again.

Anderson and Shah left out. Team as follows:



1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Andrew Flintoff, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Ryan Sidebottom, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.

Strauss wins toss and England will bat first in around 15 mins time.

Bell..



I have stuck up for him in the past, but he really has to do it.

Agreed, I think he's lucky that Shah isn't really a number three. He really must be in last chance saloon now though, but you know that he'll get the whole series so he can relax a tad.



Collingwood needs to watch out, Shah will be breathing down his neck, he looks a Test Match number 5.

Trouble is, by not selecting Shah for this series, if Bell has a shocker then its basically Shah's first decent run in the team....during the ashes. All the recent uncertainty regarding captains can't have helped.

Strauss gone 8/1.



He'd already been dropped once.

Where has it come about that Shah isnt a number 3???

He's batted at 3 for Middlesex for years.

31-2 now





And as for dropping Anderson for Harmison and Sidebottom...doesnt surprise me one bit as the selectors have proved themselves incompetent for years now...get rid of arguably our best bowler these past 12 months for someone who a) is notoriously poor away from home and b) someone who hasnt played for about 4-5 months...excellent stuff

Is Bell still in?

It's come from me, he's not a number three in my mind, not ideally. I'm not disputing that he's played there, he only averaged 30 odd in First Class cricket for Middlesex playing there last year. In my opinion, he's an ideal number five but he's too twitchy & jerky at the crease for a number three. He's so intense, I'm not convinced with the ball moving around when your new at the crease it's ideal for Owais. I have to say, I'd find a place for him to be honest, I think his time is now, if he keeps getting overlooked, it wouldn't surprise me if he drops down the pecking order, as you'll get the clammer from the media for the likes of Bopara to be included if he ups his game.



If It was my England team, I'm a nailed on Key at three, Shah five man. Big thanks to Colly & Bell for their contributions, every time you think this though, Colly pulls a score out of the bag, Bell may well do today, although it's more likely he'll get out for 51-60.

He scored over 1,000 runs at an average of 42.16 last season...whether he got all of these batting at number 3 I don't know.



I know what you mean about him being twitchy and intense etc but I seriously think he'd do a good job for us there if he's given a decent chance...but it seems that Vaughan is more or less guaranteed the number 3 spot if he even thinks about getting some runs next season which would mean Bell would move back down to 5 or 6 and Shah won't get a chance at all.



And if only Bell had got 50-60 today too!!!

He's clearly a talented batsman but the problem is one of concentration and mentality - I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't think he's right for top class test cricket because of this/these flaws.

Pietersen is just different class, Freddie would be just as good a batsmen if he wasn't a bowler as well

Pietersen gets himself out going for a glory shot.



I'm shocked.

To be fair I think he got carried away after the previous 3

I take it your a KP knocker, and I must admit to having a little groan at his dismissal, but when push comes to shove, he's Englands best batsmen by a billion miles, was looking to dominate a bowler than an hour before looked unplayable and if your creaming your tweeds like I was at the way he went from 83 to 97 in 3 shots, then when he plays that next shot, you can have no complaints.



I just want Flintoff to knuckle down now, he's done the hard work, he should just bat out the rest of the day, finish 45 n.o. and do it all again tomorrow. I always fear when he's been batting with KP, and done the second fiddle thing well, when KP departs Flintoff feels like he has to take that mantle and entertain.



Really impressed with that Benn, lets hope Monty extracts the same turn & bounce. I nice 5'fer for Monty and his poor stints in India will be forgotten and I'll dust off my 'Montys Cricket Madness'.

When he puts himself before the team, then yes.



Last I saw cricket was still a team sport, and the team wasn't in a position where an unnecessary dismissal could be forgiven.



He was dominating the bowler but he didn't have to prove it by going for a 6 from every ball. If we were 400/5 then it might be different.

That's your angle, there's no way somebody like me would sway you from it.



From my point of view, he got to 97 dominating in the main, it's by playing the way that he does that he's got the stats that he has, add to that it's his style that's made him pretty much feared the world over, I just wouldn't want to start giving him orders to curb what he does naturally, otherwise he might not have got say his Ashes winning 156 as he'd have been content just occupying the crease say. He recognised that scoring at 2.15 runs per over in Test Cricket on a spinning track, the game isn't moving along, he decided to change that and to be fair since his dismissal Flintoff & Prior to a degree have kept this up.



I've more issue with the likes of Colly scratching around for 65 balls for 15 then playing a crap shot.