Andy Flower and Andrew Strauss are too nice! They make­ excuses for poor play by team members when they should­ be in the dressing room giving them a b******ing! ­ Don't let them get away with throwing wickets away,­ use some disciplinary methods. The shame of being­ dropped would soon wake up KP or he would just take­ his bat home and not play. Either way, it needs to be­ done. As for Bopara, he is young and needs to be told­ that he must play with some care - or leave him to­ 20/20 and ODIs. He is learning too much from KP.

I played cricket for fifty,yes 50 years and scored more­ runs in the last fifteen years than the previous thirty­ five. My secret? When the bowler moved the ball off the­ seam, I took guard six inches out of the crease and­ went forward to almost everything, it really worked!!­ why do our test players go back to these medium pace­ ossies, get to the ball before it has chance to move­ off the seam!
Andrew Flintoff is a mirror image of­ Dereck Pingle, two giants who could'nt hit the ball­ off the square most times, and both were absolute wimps­ regarding injuries.
The ossie spin bowler has my­ admiration for getting back on the field after­ dislocating a finger, if that had been Flintoff, he­ would have been out of cricket completely for a­ month!!
I dislocated the same finger twice in a match­ while keeping wicket, but played again three days later­ and scored a hundred the following Saturday.
Come on­ you guys, are men or mice???

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So once again we throw away an excellent position with­ some childish batting. Strauss and Cook at least played­ with real determination and our only hope now is for­ Broad and the rest to stick around with Strauss to get­ us to at least 500 which still might not be enough. As­ for Bopara, yes he was out cheaply but he is relatively­ new to test cricket and deserves a few more chances.­ Pietersen on the other hand continues to amaze with his­ reckless attitude. He could have been out a few times­ playing ridiculous shots. I have said many times that­ he should be dropped and usually get shot down but a­ lot of people are now saying the same. Collingwood­ played a daft shot and he knew it. Prior got out to one­ of the very few great deliveries but he has shown he­ can score decent runs and we should stick with him. As­ for Freddie, unless he gets a bagfull of wickets,­ perhaps he should take his retirement now. He has only­ taken 5 wickets in a test innings twice so I don't­ hold much hope. I see Bell got a hundred yesterday so­ no doubt we will see him again, BIG mistake.

I think I would switch KP and Collingwood in the­ batting prder.OK,I know Colly didn't get many­ yesterday but he generally is the more solid of the two­ andthe better organised.I would also like to see him­ bowl more.A medium pacer is very useful to keep one end­ going and enables the quicks to be used in shorter­ bursts.I think of people like Tom Cartwright,Trevor­ Bailey,Slasher McKay and Doug Walters who all did­ useful work for their sides.
Oh,and by the way,yes give­ Ramps another go.I know he is getting on but he is fit­ sseems more settled than when he was a young man.A­ short term solution,probably, but the priority is to­ get the Ashes back!

As the article implies and as Tufnell rightly said on­ his radio coverage on 5 live - England were on top­ under Cook and Strauss without being daft. Bopara tried­ to hit everything in sight and Pietersen may have been­ out to a reasonable ball but he was trying to leather­ it to all parts straight away. Its ridiculous that­ these batsmen cannot think properly and build an­ innings. They can still accumulate runs without being­ so bloody reckless. Don't they learn. You can't­ leave Pietersen out because he is genuinely world­ class, but his ego and stupidity are a serious flaw.­ These Aussie bowlers are the most ordinary in years -­ the Ashes are there for the taking if the England team­ start using a bit of sense. Good on Straussy and I hope­ he gave Collingwood, Bopara, Pietersen and Prior a­ right bollocking. 100% behind England but when they are­ consistently not learning from mistakes they deserve­ criticism. Schoolboy stuff.

I've said it before and i'l say it­ again...Peiterson is Englands weak link. When­ Bopara's wicket fell we needed someone to come in­ to hold steady for a while and build back up.In came­ Pieterson throwing it about and consequently lost his­ wicket for 32, we needed 60 or 70 runs from him. Had he­ took his time and slowly re-built England would be­ sitting relatively comfortable now.If he has to play he­ should be coming in at 5 or 6,but i would drop him­ completely because the Aussies know its only a matter­ of time before he throws a wild one at gives them his­ wicket.

I despair of this England side, they get a good start­ and then go belly up! I have never rated Pieterson and­ never will, the only time he actually scores runs is­ when we don't need them, if he came to the crease­ when we were of 400 I could guarantee he would score a­ double 100, but when we need the runs, he pokes about­ and gets out!! Surely there must be someone else­ waiting in the wings to take his place.

Good for­ Strauss and Cook, good knock, where would we be without­ them? Shame we haven't got Monty to prop up the­ tail again!

Lets hope our bowlers come to the party­ this test. I'm off to Tenerife this evening so­ I'll be missing the rest of the match, kinda­ don't think I'll be missing much!

Look at the dismissals of Prior, Flintoff and Bopara-­ all carbon copies of how they went in the first test.­ The Australians do their homework and plan correctly,­ they have a bit more pace also, but I just hope our­ bowlers are trying to plan too, because sometimes it­ appears we have no ideas at all.

Also, well done­ Straussy- terrific batting and good to see Cook back in­ the runs too.

michelle - baseball is a lot more boring than cricket­ can ever be, add to the fact that sometimes you have­ what you would call a "double header" which­ is the same 2 teams playing twice on a day with each­ game lasting a few hours, i mean you would have to­ have no life at all to watch that

My American wife never knew about cricket before we met­ 7 years ago, now she is a TMS avid over the­ internet.

Despite coming from the midwest she does a­ great Sir Geoffery Boycott impression.... Worringly­ good...

Don't you mean Americans are more stupid than they­ look Michelle?

Go back to America then you @#$%, to the land where­ they were so frustrated at the thought of there being a­ world existing around them that they invented all their­ own games so they would never have to compete against­ anyone else.
Questionis: why do you people insist on­ venturing out into the world and providing your­ opinion? we don't care.

Oh, and Americans have no right to comment on a game­ which is clearly far beyond their limited­ comprehensions

16.Ramprakash? He's played some cracking county­ cricket over the last three seasons but as an England­ player he was a consistent underachiever, despite his­ obvious talent: 52 Tests, 2,350 runs averaging 27.32­ doesn't really make you jump up and down crying­ 'Our Saviour!'. Besides which, the guy is­ almost 40 so he's not exactly a long-term­ investment for the future. No, we'll have to look­ elsewhere, I think.

You can't have a team comprising Bopara, Pieterson­ and Prior batting in the top six: they are all one day­ players. Pieterson has class but he bats as though­ he's just consumed six cans of red bull; Bopara­ doesn't have the temperament for Test cricket and­ Prior needs to learn to play a straight defensive­ stroke. We should have been 364-2 and looking to­ pressurise a very average Australian attack. Instead,­ we shoot ourselves in the foot again. Perhaps the­ tailenders can once again show the recognised batsmen­ how to bat! (Oh and as for Ramprakash - had his chance­ - no temperament - too old: he must be 40 if he's a­ day!)

Shut up FRED are you too sexy for your shirt?

JEEMS Donney is into CRACKET now he understands the­ rules shall I teach you too :-)

ginettothebest you epitomise the reason why England is­ so much better than you heathens go burn something or­ errrrrr play bombs and robbers either or just fack off

Pietersen is not a team player. Cricket is a team­ sport. Get rid of him for the sake of the team. His­ performance today proves it.