Another good start to the final pre-series match in Hobart. Australia 'A' bowled out for 230 by our second string bowling attack. Khawaja & Ferguson, the two young batsmen in the Aussies Ashes squad, both out cheaply, as was Philip Hughes following some short stuff from Tremlett. Even Panesar held a "spectacular catch" according to the BBC report! England 22/1 at close of play with Strauss out for 10.

Excellent job done by the back up bowlers, prized out a few potential test players cheaply too. Tremlett, Bresnan and Shazhad all seemed to cause the Aussies problems.

It was indeed a cracking catch from Monty Rhodes!

Excellent opening bowling spell from Shahzad too...pace, aggression, a bit of swing at times...he looks the most likely to step up to me if anything should happen to the first string seamers.



And Strauss gone cheaply again...if that were Cook people would be going sick about it

Eh?? He got a century in his last visit to the crease

Good display today, Bell and Colly in the runs along with Cook and Trott, KP the only disapopintment. The aussies test batsmen had a shocker yesterday too!

augers well, everyone seems to be in form

Actually I don't like it. Aussie batsmen not scoring, England bowling well - I can see day one at tea now - Aus 212-1

Bresnan knocking on the door with runs and wickets.

Team for the first test is already picked IMO, but always good to give the selectors a reminder. He's the sort of nagging, line and length bowler who can prosper when the shine goes off the new ball and the pitch flattens out a bit.

I agree, Finn is the player least certain of his place, should he not perform then Bresnan has put himself into contention.

I think Bresnan should be in anyway. He is better with the bat and is a little different to the other seamers. I don't understand how Steven Finn is ahead of Bresnan in the pecking order anyway?? What has he done to deserve to be??





Pleased to see the runs flowing from different sources too. Strauss, Cook, Colly and Bell all having good knocks of late. Runs from elsewhere will hopefully lift a little pressure from KP and maybe he can relax a bit and do his stuff

Finn has 32 wickets in 8 tests @ 23

Bresnan has 14 wickets in 5 tests @ 35



Maybe that's why he's in ahead of him??