Arspective: Preview to Arsenal- Fulham, the Ashes 2nd test

Wow!......what a turn arround week for the gunners. We beat Villa away (ok, agreed that our home record this season has been worse than our away record) , Chelsea drop two points and then we win the Carling cup quarters and also get a favorable draw for the semis. Not trying to be cocky, but we should beat Ipswich (despite the Roy Keane factor) over two legs. More good news, as Eboue made a 'miracle' recovery. He was to be out for "four weeks" according to Wenger. While he did struggle against the teenaged left-winger of Wigan, his return is vital as he is one who is willing to play in any position (left-back, right-back, left-wing, right-wing).



.......mircaulous recovery but not quite "he-man"ual against Wigan


17-yr old Brazilian starlet Wellington Da Silva will be joining in January. We had actually signed the youngster some time back, but he has been biding his time in Brazil as he could not get his work permit in Europe until he turned 18!!

Looking ahead to the Fulham game, it is a home game. The good thing is, after our horron performances at home, there is no chance of there being any complancency in our locker room. Fabiansky (I still dont trust him :( )will start. TV is, worryingly, still injured The last time we heard anything about him, Wenger said

"We have to be patient. We know a lot medically nowadays but there are some mysteries that we do not know about. At the moment we have no rational explanation for his pain. That means there is no reason to have surgery and there is no logical explanation for his pain. We have to be patient and just hope it will go. That means rest at the moment."

So, Koscielny and Squilacci along with Clichy and Sagna complete the French back four again. Wilshere and Song in front of them. Nasri should be back after picking up a "knock". The boss went on to say:

“It is a knee problem but he should be alright"

It looks like the Frenchman will play on the left, Rosicky in the "Cesc" role and RVP on the right. The Dutchman had, fingers crosses, a good (more importantly healthy and injury-free) return against the Lactics with the Moroccan up-front.

The 2nd test gets underway at Adelaide today. The Aussies are under the kind of pressure they have never been before and the English fans must be delighted. England do look more and more favorites to retain the 'urn'. Mind you, the original urn is always held in the MCC. From wiki

"The urn is erroneously believed by some to be the trophy of the Ashes series, but it has never been formally adopted as such and Bligh always considered it to be a personal gift.[1] Replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series, but the actual urn has never been presented or displayed as a trophy in this way. Whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's since being presented to the MCC by Bligh's widow upon his death"

England have pretty much a settled side and there should not be any changes.
Potential Weaknesses?

Complancency in the dressing room. While they are better than the Aussies at the moment, it is because of the fact that they have lost great players and have become weaker rather than England becoming stronger over the years.

Swann?? Is he over-rated?? All the English commentators go gaga over the 31-yr old Northampton man and call him the best-spinner in the world. Well, may be he is the best, but that again is due to lack of quality spinners around and not down to him alone. He enjoyed success against a weak Paki betting.....err batting line-up. He has picked up a wicket in his first over some 21 times. But, I dont think he has been tested against quality batting yet. He dint seem to have too many answers when Michael Hussey counter-attacked him at the Gabba. Lets see.....

Collingwood and Prior's lack of time in the middle. Their middle-order (as Siddle showed) could be brittle due to lack of match-practice.

Strengths are obviously, high-on-confidence, Anderson's form with the ball, Cook's form, Pieterson's form (though he made only 43 in the 1st test, he was looking in ominous touch) and Bell's form.

As for the Aussies, well they would love to win the toss and make first use of the wicket (kind of a cliche I know). Ponting loves the ground and is the highest scorer at Adelaide. Katich and Watson looked reasonably assured in the 1st test. Clarke's form will be a worry for the Aussies. Mitch Johnson is out and looks like Dougie the Bollinger will replace him. Bollinger has been one of the top bowlers in the last 2 years and his exclusion in the 1st test was surprising. So Johnson's bad form could be blessing in disguise for them. Bollinger, Doerthy, Siddle and Hilfenhaus is not going to make the English batsmen lose sleep. Wonder what happened to Jason Krezja, who picked up 8 against India on his debut at Nagpur. Wonder why Shaun Tait does not play? Tait, Bolinger, Siddle and Krejza sounds more potent to me.......

Anyway, the news is that :

Australia won the toss and elected to bat........so there you go

Arsenal review-preview, Ashes preview, Dementieva and F-1 news

Arsenal left it late to round off three points against a dogged West Ham side which looked like anything but a team placed at the bottom of the league. The win keeps the gunners in sight of league leaders Chelski (5 points adrift). The gunners hardly got out of second gear in the first half. Arshavin has been the most disappointing player for us this season.Arseblog makes a detailed analysis of how Arshavin has performed this season. I dont know if he needs some Vodka before the match, but if he does not step up his game, Walcott could soon replace him from the starting line-up. Our only decent chance in the first half was when Sagna pulled away from the West Ham left back and centred a cross from a Song-thru-ball. The strike from Cesc was also good, but Rob Green pulled off a really good save to deny us. (Wasn't this the keeper whose howler against US gifted thema point in the WC) We were much better in the second half, showed a lot more urgency. Nasri rattled the crossbar with a free-kick which surprised one and all in the ground. It was a superbly disguised free-kick from him with only a two-step run-up. Green was beaten but the crossbar denied Arsenal. Then, Theo was released by another beautifully weighted ball from Nasri and his shot across the goalie hit the post and came back straight to Rob Green. We looked destined for a draw when Clichy cut in from the left and dinked a delightful ball for Song to head and send the Emirates to ruptures. It was not a typical Arsenal-performance but most importantly we got 3 vital points to keep up with the league leaders.

Wilshere, meanwhile, has signed a new contract. This was, although expected, vital for us as he and Ramsey are very much the future for us (especially considering that Cesc could leave us anytime). Against Shakhtar, looks like Cesc and Song are sidelined with injuries (minor injuries, hopefully!!). So, Wilshere will be back in place of Song. And either Diaby or Rosicky will come in for Fabregas with the posibility of Nasri taking the position of Cesc. Also, as mentioned earlier Walcott could come in place of Arshavin. The rest of the team, I would expect it to be the same.






In the lead up to the Ashes, Kevin Pieterson, following his poor form, has been, surprise surprise, targeted by many Aussies. He has not responded to them, but instead, he has come out trying to shift the attention, saying that he
empathises with Rooney, likening his own situation with the United centre forward. He refused to comment back to Ponting's comments that there was a big "question mark" over his form. Rooney's is probably a much worse situation than his, for he has been involved in sex-scandals and obviously the contract issues with Man-yoo.



Elena Dementieva has announced retirement from Tennis. She is considered to be the one who revolutionised and inspired women's tennis in Russia. Her sudden and emotional
announcement after her loss to Schiavonne in Doha surprised a lot people. She was considered to be one of the "nicest people" in the tour and the pessimist in me says that could be the reason for her not to a single Grand Slam!!



Former FIA President Max Mosley said that a title win for Fernando Alonso by less than seven points would
devalue his F1 title. He won the Korean grand prix in controversial circumstances and was "allowed" to win. Massa was leading the race, when Ferrari ordered him to allow Alonso to race past him and win the race as the Spaniard is leading the F1 charts. The Ferrari team was charged $100,000 by FIA. If you really want to hurt a team, sportsman then fines are not really the answer. The only way to hurt a team is by docking points or not allowing the offender to participate in the next match/race.

It's Stumps for Warne

Here is Shane Warne career in pics. Images from FoxSports

Warne made his debut against India at SCG-1992


Star is born :Took 7-52 against the West Indies in the Boxing Day Test of 1992


Debut in Ashes : Bowled Mike Gatting :Bowl of the Century



Became Notorious for Excessive Appealing

Plagued by shoulder and finger problems in 1995 and 1996 December


Ganguly did this later , dance after securing the Ashes at the Trent Bridge 1997

Warne and Mark Waugh were fined in 1995 after admitting to taking money from an Indian bookmaker for pitch and weather information.


World Cup : Man-of-the-Match, Shane Warne

Warne is relieved of the Test vice-captaincy after sending lewd text messages to English nurse Donna Wright

Warne was given a 12-month ban by Cricket Australia after testing positive to a banned substance in 2003

Warney's 500th victim was Sri Lanka captain Hashan Tillakaratne, taken during the final day of the first Test in Galle in 2004


No.699

Gone with the wind

Legends Warne & McGrath set to Retire

We have crossed a half century of posts in such a short time kudos to team but I have a sad story to celebrate the event.

Whole cricket world leaving Australia will rejoice when in a few days Shane Warne will announce his retirement from the Test Cricket . Warne is expected to hold a press conference tommorrow to announce his retirement from the test cricket in which he is very near to 700 wicket mark. Another great bowler Glen McGrath is expected to follow soon and announce his retreat later.





The whole would see the players together for the the last time in the fifth Ashes Test against England at Sydney Cricket Ground. A side effect may be some of Australia's other veterans will prolong their careers. They'll all be acutely aware of the Chappell-Lillee-Marsh effect - when three greats simultaneously left the game to devastating effect on Australian cricket. Hayden, Langer and Gilchrist are the other veterans in line for retirement.

Warne will be the most difficult player to replace though we have McGill to replace him but warne is class apart. The key in tests is to take 20 wickets and both Warne and Glen possessed that capability and led aussies to many memorable victories and made the team the world champions, I am not playing down the efforts of other great players in the side, but still , combined loss of McGrath the third-leading Test wicket taker in history with Warne's departure would represent the end of a golden era for Australian cricket. Warne is expected to accept a position on the Nine television commentary team after the Sydney Test.

We will miss Glen's Head brandishing and warne's entertainment.

Cricket will be the duller without them.


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Damien Martyn Retires

Australian batsman Damien Martyn announced his immediate retirement from international and first class cricket on Friday. Martyn announced his retirement after being dropped from ashes squad for the 3^rd test. He has made only 35 runs in the 2 ashes tests of 2006 series . He was dropped from the 2005 ashes because of poor form but with great performance in champions trophy he was selected again. He averaged 76 in 2001 ashes series.

Martyn said in a statement issued by Cricket Australia he no longer felt 100 per cent committed to the sport.

Full Name : Damien Richard Martyn
Born : 21 October 1971, Darwin, Northern Territory
Major Teams : Western Australia, Leicestershire, Australia, Nottinghamshire
Batting Style : Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style : Right Arm Medium
Test Debut : Australia Vs West Indies at Brisbane, 1st Test, 1992/93
ODI Debut : Australia Vs West Indies at Sydney, World Series, 1992/93

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Ashes Eternal Records :2

Don Bradman's Final Test

The average 99.94 in today's world is impossible to beat, the best of the best of todays Laras, Tendulkars, Pontings languish in the mid 50's compared to the mighty 99.94. But is was just one googly in the oval's test match that stopped the legend from reaching the century mark and created another eternal record. At the time of the oval test of the 1948 Bradman had scored 6,996 runs in Test cricket from 79 innings, with 10 not outs, his average was 101.4 and needed just 4 runs to make it 100. Bradman scored 173 not out in the first innings and just 4 runs seemed apparent but it was not to happen he was bowled by a Eric Hollies' googly for a duck (0). No other bowl would have shocked the crowd as this and bowler also would not have wanted to take wicket of bradman before 4 runs.

In a career spanning 20 years Bradman scored 117 centuries. As a captain he never lost a series against England.

Bradman's Average against test playing nations

Opponents	M	I	NO	HS	Runs	Avge	100	50
England	37	63	7	334	5028	89.78	19	12
South Africa	5	5	1	299*	806	201.50	4	-
West Indies	5	6	-	223	447	74.50	2	-
India	5	6	2	201	715	178.75	4	1
Totals	52	80	10	334	6996	99.94	29	13

• Don Bradman
• Bradman's Batting Graph- It looks like last 10 overs slog
  
• Career Profile
  

Ashes Eternal Records :1

Records keep tumbling regularly but there are two records which I feel would never tumble.


Jim Laker 19 wickets in a Test Match

This was the only moment when no bowler wanted to take wickets but Tony Lock was the unfortunate one (2nd moment came during the Kumble's time 10-74 vs Pakistan) . At old trafford one the finest off-spinners of his time Jim Laker created a record that will never be broken, taking 19 wickets for 90 runs including all 10 in the second innings in the fourth Ashes test.

Match figures

England
1st Innings 459 all out

Australia
1st Innings
84 all out
Jaker 9-37
Lock 1-37

Laker ended the Australian first innings with 7 wickets for 8 runs in 22 balls

2nd Innings following on
205 all out
Laker 10-53


Keith Hayhurst, vice-chairman of Lancashire CC, was 19 when he saw Laker’s amazing feat.

When he got his tenth there was a pitch invasion – people were claiming bits of turf. But in a way that was just exhilaration that we’d got them all out. It was an absolutely crucial win.

I don’t think Laker’s record will ever be beaten, particularly now you’ve got uncovered wickets. I’ve seen a lot of Shane Warne but he couldn’t get 20 wickets. It’s going to take a genius.

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Next in line are Don Bradman's final test , shane warne's ball of the century.

Ashes Newses

Marcus Gone

England opener Marcus Trescothick has flown home due to reoccurance of stress related problems. This was not expected because on arriving to Australia he said he is now feeling fresh after skipping champions trophy. It's a big blow to the England side as he was one of the turning point of the last ashes.

Billy Bowden to observe self imposed media ban

One of the umpires to officiate in the Ashes first test along with veteran Bucknor will observe a self imposed media ban in the week leading to the test.



He said

"I'll let you do your job and I will do mine. I won't be talking about anything. It
will be no comment about everything. Obviously you have to do your job. I don't want
to be rude but it's just no comment."

Billy is also coming up with some new signals specially for the Ashes.

Aggression Continues

The act of aggression/rash behavior is on, now not by Australian players but infact by australian crowd abusing Monty Panesar.


One of the fan abused:

“Give us a wave Monty. You can’t speak English you stupid Indian, I’ll have to say it
in Indian. What are you doing playing in the English side, you’re not English,”

England have not lodged any official complaint but this can affect the morale of the players and team. Racial abuse was on the zenith during the South Africans tour downunder.