1 week to go to the start of the Ashes, the squads are in:

England:
Andrew Strauss (c)
James Anderson
Ian Bell
Ravi Bopara
Tim Bresnan
Stuart Broad
Paul Collingwood
Alistair Cook
Andrew Flintoff
Graham Onions
Monty Panesar
Kevin Pietersen
Matt Prior (wk)
Adil Rashid
Ryan Sidebottom
Graeme Swann

Australia:
Ricky Ponting (c)
Michael Clarke
Stuart Clark
Brad Haddin (wk)
Nathan Hauritz
Ben Hilfenhaus
Phillip Hughes
Michael Hussey
Mitchell Johnson
Simon Katich
Brett Lee
Graham Manou (wk)
Andrew McDonald
Marcus North
Peter Siddle
Shane Watson

The Cardiff wicket looked unlikely to lend much aid to the spinners, its groundsman, Keith Exton, having been punished some time before for creating a bunsen of almost subcontinental deviation. Of late what turn it had elicited was slow turn, and the spinners had gleaned but seventeen wickets (at 45.00) out of a possible 120 thitherto in the 2009 season. Northamptonshire's recent abode had yielded figures of three for 149 for Monty Panesar, making his chances of playing alongside definite spin choice Graeme Swann unlikely.

Hopefully we can get off to a good start and get the lead against the Aussies early on




Edited at 20:26 Wed 1/07/09 (BST)

i got tickets 2 see 1st game

Cmon the england!!! Cant wait for this, been watching my 2005 season review in preporation

In the warm up - oz V Lions, Harmison and Bressnan took 3 wickets each and onions got 2, I think Onions deserves a place int he team for the 1st test.

my team would be

Straussy
Cooky
Ravi
KP
Colly
Prior
Freddie
Broady
Swanny
Onions
Jimmy

That would be what I'd do but got a feeling they will go with a 2nd spinner or Sidebottom instead of Onions which I think is unfair considering the form he was in against the WINDIES.

But, whoever takes the field, good luck to them, bring the ashes back home!!!!!!!!

cmon australia

I love the Women's ODI series, last two matches, we have won on the final ball, needing 2 to win with 1 ball, we get it, then needing 1 from 1, we got it. Unassailable 5-0 lead now

Clair Taylor should be playing in the Ashes instead of collingwood

Come on Ireland!

First Day

Close of Play:

England 336-7

Anderson 2 (NO)
Broad 4 (NO)

Each player got in, worst score being 10, but only three got their 50's. Not brilliant by England, but better than what 90-3 was suggesting! And you never know, Broad and Anderson could knock up a little partnership in the morning!

they could have had 410

Yes, they could've. They could've had 572 too, but they didn't. Still could tomorrow though, something special could still happen.

They could have also reached a total of 1 and gave up, but they didn't

You're all a bit glum about 336-7 it sounds, we've done alright, but we won't really know how good the target of whatever we eventually finish on until we start bowling at the Australians with the exciteable Monty Panesar. lol

I never said we didn't do alright! I said our players could've done better considering they got themselves in, and after the start we had we did quite well!

And Monty'll have a 10-wicket haul by end of the second session!

Come on Ireland!

Ah no, not a bad score today, 336 can easily become 360-380 before the end of the innings and then who knows...marathon not a sprint...bleedin English

Are Ireland still losing to English county teams

England still losing rugger matches?

Ah in fairness to the gents, in our eyes they're a bunch of heros...

Brilliant comedy the other day...lad on stage slaggin the irish cricket team...say he heard an interview from a certain Irish hero...

'G'day mate! Trent Johnson, captain of the Ah-land cricket team'.......'beat Bangladesh yesterday...the old enemy them'....brilliant!

I think its a good score looking at the wicket and how it will play for the next couple of days, as it is cracking and you can already see foot holes appearing meaning the spinners will come into play very soon, this is where england have the upper hand with swann and panesar, so the score set today was good, but i feel as if some of the batsman could have done a bit more i.e. Pieterson, dont know why he keeps going for those sweep shots, and hauritz done well to notice he was pre meditating the shot so played it wider than normal, you could argue it was a good shot as it come off his helmet. I was impressed with Prior and Flintoffs innings! I would say England have an upper hand at the moment

Thing about KP, can play amazing shots and gets quick runs and tons, but then seems to get out with a sloppy shot too often. But that's his game and probably best not to change it really

Bring back Twenty20

TBH the poms looked in trouble when they were 90/3 the partnership of collingwood and pieterson was a good one at that, i think australia is just got the car is drive, they could get into bat pretty quick!

Edited at 02:07 Thu 9/07/09 (BST)