The ASHES 2006/2007With their Ashes defense hanging by a thread, England selectors face some tough decisions for the third Test against Australia, starting tomorrow at the WACA.
Down 2-0 and on the verge of Ashes failure, there is no margin for error for England and plenty for the selection committee of captain Andrew Flintoff, coach Duncan Fletcher and a handful of senior players to ponder.
Flintoff, himself battling ankle soreness, and Fletcher have copped plenty of criticism for the teams they have chosen for the first two Test defeats and haven't always presented a united front.
With uncertainty over what type of pitch the third Test will be played on, the English must get their bowling line-up correct, with both teams expected to delay selection until the morning of the match.
England speedsters Steve Harmison and James Anderson failed to fire in the first two Tests and are under the gun, but most pressure is on left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, who has previously been favoured over Monty Panesar.
Panesar bowled impressively in the tour game at the WACA last weekend and is widely expected to replace Giles in the side.
Giles' best chance of playing could be the pitch, with the prospect of England playing both spinners if it looks like being another flat deck.
A batsman's paradise this season, the WACA has suited spinners like never before and been barely recognizable as the fast and bouncy surface that was once considered the home of fast bowling.
The Test pitch is not expected to be too lively either and is tipped to be a little two-paced.
Coming off a century at the WACA in the tour match against Western Australia, England opener Alastair Cook said that after Adelaide, he wondered if all the talk of hard and fast Australian pitches was a myth.
"You hear everything about coming to Australia and the bouncy wickets, but the bounciest wickets I've played on in my career so far have all been in England," Cook said on Monday.
"It's been surprising ... so I don't know what's going to happen on the wicket this week," he said.
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
EL CLASSICO: La Liga champions Real Madrid would face Barcelona in the Super Cup final tomorrow. Barça secured their final spot after a 2-0 win over Bilbao on Wednesday Real Madrid would chase a record-equaling 14th Spanish Super Cup title in the final against Barcelona after second-half goals by Jude Bellingham and Rodrygo helped them to a 3-0 win over Mallorca in the semi-finals on Thursday. England midfielder Bellingham broke the deadlock after the hour mark with a low shot into the middle of the goal before Mallorca defender Martin Valjent’s own goal doubled the lead in stoppage time followed by a Rodrygo strike from close range. Spanish champions Real are to play Barcelona for the trophy tomorrow after goals by Gavi and Lamine Yamal earned Barça a 2-0 win over
RSS