Here’s a run down on the posts from last week in case you missed them. If you don’t want to miss them in the future, maybe you should subscribe to the daily Newsletter with all the posts delivered to your email. Click here to subscribe:

Results of 2nd Test Poll. Third test poll opened

Greatest spin bowler ever! (Video)

Boon’d – Posts for the 04/12 to 10/12

Boony wants your pics of him (and Beefy)!

Monty WasTheStar – Third test end of Day 1 summary

Beefy Doll Fan Video – Take that! (Video)

Mum was Right!

Bye, Bye, Ashes good Bye!

Boony and Beefy Sayings for the third Test (and Match updates)

(Come to the site and press the play button below)

GO AUSSIES

Molly

We have the Ashes back!

Molly

So the Third test is upon us and the series is dominated 2 – 0 by the Aussies. England are likely to spring changes with at least Monty Panesar likely to be added and possibly Chris Read replacing Jones behind the stumps.

Will update when I can the Sayings of Boony and Beefy and also with the match situations. Please feel free to add information about what your dolls are saying below:

DAY 1, Day 2, Day 3 , Day 4, Day 5
Go to the Latest update

Day 1

Match Update:

Teams in:
Australia: JL Langer, ML Hayden, RT Ponting, MEK Hussey, MJ Clarke, A Symonds, AC Gilchrist, SK Warne, B Lee, SR Clark, GD McGrath
England: AJ Strauss, AN Cook, IR Bell, PD Collingwood, KP Pietersen, A Flintoff, GO Jones, SI Mahmood, MJ Hoggard, SJ Harmison, MS Panesar
Monty and Mahmood in for England and Symonds in for the Aussies. No word from Boony or Beefy yet.

Match Update: Aussies win the toss and bat! Bring on Monty!

Cricket is about to start and Boony wants Beefy to get him a beer. Beefy declines.

Match Update: Langer and Hayden off to a Flyer. 0/27 off 7 odd.

Boony obviously thought we would bowl and gave me a bit of “Oh Uh Glenn McGrath” action!

Match Update: Hayden Gone, Caught Jones Bowled Hoggard. 1 / 47 Hayden made 24 and Langer on 20. This is the good news for England, the bad news is this brings Ponting to the Crease and he has a Shabby 448 runs to his name, this series! at an average of 148.

Match Update: 1 – 54 at Drinks. Ponting 2 Langer 25

And Beefy is looking for some of the sponsors finest for himself and the Queen!

Match Update: Shock Horror. Ponting out for 2. Not only that, Harmy got him! 2 – 54

Match Update: Oh dear, Langer out Bowled Monty Panesar. Could this have been a worst start for the Aussies? Bowled him. Must of been a little turn (from the commentary). 3/69. Up to Clarke and Hussey to bat for a while. Both are averaging over 100 for the series. Won’t the England press have a field day over Monty! That is lunch by the way. Apparently Punter (Ponting) was concerned at the toss that there would be something in it early for the bowlers.

Boony wants a beer for him and Beefy. Normal Banter about Ian’s being in the Fridge.

Boony tries a bit of the giant scaring tactics on Beefy, who just laughs.

Match Update: Mr Cricket and Pup have put on a solid 50 at a little over 3 an over. Hussey on 19 and Clarke has raced to 35. Lets hope these guys can see out the day.

Match Update: Wicket. I spoke too soon. Clarke gawnski for 37. Symonds off the mark with a 4. 4 – 125. Hussey not out 17. I ain’t saying anything more!

Boony decides “That’s Tea” and Beefy (obviously happy with the game situation chirps up with “English Breakfast Please” Could there be a secret sponsorship by a tea company or is there going to be a new line of VB? hmm…..

Match Update: Symonds hits Monty for 2 six’s and a 4, then a 1 to take 17 off one over. I guess that was the worry with the Montster. Aussies onto 4 – 167 (RR 3.46). Symonds on 26 (22 balls) and Hussey on 37.

Match Update: Monty has the last laugh. Symonds out for 26. Caught Jones bowled Panesar. 5 – 172. Damm, that would have been exciting if it had of lasted another hour or two! Gilly hasn’t been in the best form. Hussey on to 42.

Match Update: Gilly out Caught Bell Bowled Monty. Bit of bounce. Wonder if Warnie will roll them as well. A quacker for Gilly. Horror continues. Warny to the crease and he always fancys himself against the fellow spinners. 6 – 172 and Hussey could be on his way to more red ink (oh that’s a jinx if I ever heard one)! Current average for Mr Cricket? 83.

Match Update: 6 – 205. 33 partnership between Warne and Hussey. Hussey on to 59 and Warnie on 16. Got to run now. Hopefully do a stumps update later tonight.

Match Update: Australia all out for 244. England 2 – 51 over night. More details in the Summary.

Check out the day summary.

Day 2

Match Update: Hi all, Sorry about the late start to the reporting, had some family matters to attend too. In the mean time the Aussies have 2 wickets and have the English at 4 – 85. Batsman out are Collingwood for 11 and Strauss out for 42. Pietersen and Flintoff are in. McGrath has 2 wickets, Clark and Lee one a piece. This is definitely not going to go the distance!

Match Update: Flintoff is out. Caught Warny Bowled Symonds for 13. Big wicket. We are now into England’s extended tail. Not quite the 5/57 that Jones loves but still England in a lot of strife (Hear sound bite of Jones interview in this post). CricInfo got my hopes up with a double post, thought Symo had got another one!

Boony and Beefy are speechless today!

Match Update: Roy (Symonds) has another one. Jones for a duck. Come on down Chris Read for the Boxing Day test. Aghh, at least the Pommy press will have something to complain about. 6 – 114. Guess we might see the Aussie batting again soon.

Boony knew the cricket was on but still was wondering if someone could get him a beer (obviously doesn’t realize its beer O’clock in about an hour).

Also thought there was a cracking shot

Match Update: 6 – 122 at Lunch. Pietersen 27 and Mahmood 6.

Match Update: 7 – 129 Mahmood Caught Gilly bowled Clark. KP on 30. Guess mum was right!

Match Update: Warnie strikes! Hoggard out for 4. Pietersen is on 50 and Harmy joins him. The Cat and mouse game of the Fielding side giving Pietersen a single and him not taking it has started. This wicket leaves Warne 5 wickets from being the first Bowler to 700. Will he do that here at the WACA or wait till he gets to the MCG?

Match Update: Pietersen out for 70. Caught Symonds bowled Lee. Pietersen had gone after Warne in the last over. Now Monty arrives with applaud. Now if Warnie gets the last wicket each of the bowlers will have 2 wickets. 9 – 175. Aussies lead by 69, dude!

Match Update: Finally! 40 runs for the 10th wicket, the highest partnership for the POMs. Harmison 23 Caught Lee Bowled Clark (again the leading Wicket taker). Monty not out 16. 215 for England leaves them 29 behind. Its Defiantly ON!

Match Update: Oh dear. Langer out first ball. 1 – 0.

Match Update: Australia dominate from the last report to the end of the day with Hayden and Ponting both getting to 57 by the close of play with the score on 1 – 119 and a lead of 148. They seemed to have given Monty a little more respect this innings but he still would appear the guy that can just make things happen around him.

Click here for Day 2 summary

Day 3

Match Update: Man, what a day (for me that is as well as the cricket). Just a quick post. Aussies moved on to 2 – 354, a lead of 383. Hussey just brought up his Century is on 102, Clarke is in with him on 73. Ponting made 75 and Hayden made 92. Australia is fast batting England out of the game, maybe the series!

Match Update: Wow! Gilly comes to the party and the POMs are set over 550 and have already lost one wicker. Gilly scored the Second fast Century in the history of test Cricket.

Days Summary available here

Day 4

Probably be slim pickings of my summaries today but will see what I can do. Keep your Boony and Beefy comments coming!

Match Update: Slow day for the Aussies. 2 wickets so far. 3 – 245. Cook his hit his straps and is on 109. Pietersen on 26. Warne and Clark the wicket takers today. Collingwood went cheaply for 11 and Bell went at the unlucky number of 87. England have batted themselves back into the game. The problem is they can’t afford to loose wickets as they drop away quickly. I have to admitt that I thought when England declared for 550 in the 1st innings that the aussies normally went for 600. I thought the same thing yesterday when the declaration came.

On the Boony and Beefy front, missed most of the day but I like Mickk (in the comments) noticed a strange sound come from them at about the same time. Will see what I can find out about it.

Match Update: Double wicket over to McGrath picking up Cook and the night watchman, Hoggard. Man, the English must be happy that McGrath has had it (or so they say). Now Warne is asking a lot of questions. Pietersen is 35 and Flintoff is forced to face the music tonight!

Match Update: McGrath to bowl the last over at Freddie and on the first ball they take a very risk single.

Match Update: Second ball they give Pietersen a single by pushing the field back.

Match Update: 1 1 1 1  Flintoff got off strike on the third ball and again they gift Pietersen a run on the fourth. Here is the 2nd to last. No run. Last ball. I away it should be Englands day but with the late wickets, the Aussies are probably in the box seat again. Last night the Beefy doll started the “Freddie, Freddie, Freddie” chant and they sure need him tomorrow. Pietersen, Flintoff, Jones, Mahmood, Harmy and Monty stand in the way of the Aussies getting the Ashes. Well those guys and the weather!

Smooth Boony professes his love for VB. Its smooth like him!

Day 5

Reports from the Ground are that Rain won’t be a factor. Pietersen and Flintoff will be keys to England not losing this game. Still think a draw is out of the question. Can England force a win!

Match Update: Freddie is going after the bowling. Has raced to 29 and Pietersen is 42. Guess he figures he is either going to get away with it and make the runs quick or go down swinging. England 298 for 5 and still need 258 to win. At this rate this will be over by tea without a doubt. One way or another. Bring on the first innings destroyer, Symonds!

Beefy thinks the Tabloids will love this!

Match Update: Warne into the attack! Should be interesting/Entertaining! Apparently the biggest forth innings score was by England in a timeless test, well it was meant to be timeless but they had to call it off early or England would have missed the boat. I think Freddie doesn’t want to miss the boat. Just hit Lee for 6.

Match Update: Freddie, Freddie, Freddie, is gone, gone, gone. Warne got him bowled. Thank goodness for that. Makes me feel a whole lot better.  4 wickets to go and Warne has 697 and needs 3 more for 700.

Match Update: You don’t have to be dead to be stiff. Here is how CricInfo describes the latest wicket, Jones out Run out:

Warne to Jones, OUT, closer again, an LBW shout, and Australia think they’ve got their man. And they have! But run-out. There’s a close call for the LBW, from another sweep. Jones’s foot stays out of his crease as he waits for the umpire to give his decision, but meantime there’s a shy in from the alert Ponting at silly point, great anticipation from the Australian captain and that’s a duck for Jones, a pair, in fact

Still not calling victory yet, funnier things have happened in test Cricket (remember Adelaide?)

Match Update:  Eight down, meaning just two wickets lie between Australia and the Ashes. Mahmood out for 4. Score is on 345 and Pietersen onto 57. Surely he has to look to score the fastest 250 in the games history to have any chance of not losing this match, but it seems hopeless from here.

On other matters, Boony is have Nachos and Beefy Scones for lunch it would seem.

Match Update:  Harmy, gone. 1 to go. Harmy out LBW to Warne for a golden duck. The Fat lady is up and Monty is coming to the crease. By the way, Clark got Mahmood LBW (I think). They survivor till lunch meaning England have 40 mins to enjoy the ashes.

Interestingly enough the Ashes are in Australia on tour. I say the government should pass a law that they aren’t allowed to leave the country until the English win them again! Lets see how long this lasts after Lunch. Wonder what the Fat Lady is having for lunch? She surely will have some singing to do not long after the break!

Match Update:  Warne picks up wicket 699 and the Aussies have won back the Ashes and England have another record, Shortest time holding the ashes, in the 450 odd day mark. Monty out Bowled!

Itttsssss Ovvvvvvvvvvveerrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Dads Army does it! Where’s our MBE and our Parade? 

And straight after the game Boony had these comments for the Poms!

Bottom

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JUST as the ghosts of the WACA Ground’s recent past began swirling ominously around Ricky Ponting’s team yesterday, a 36-year-old paceman who had hardly threatened all day stepped up to almost certainly ensure the Ashes would be back in Australian hands some time today.

Source: McGrath’s blitz breaks English grit – News – Ashes Tour 06-07 – theage.com.au

Freddie Flintoff has to face his demons and the only way this will end in a draw is if rain or bad weather get involved.

No summary would be complete with out a few comments by Ian Chappell (from CricInfo Turning Point) (Click the Play button to listen. If you don’t see a player below and are not on the original site, follow the link to the site):

Molly

So what happened:

THE most tormented 15 months in modern Australian cricket were almost certainly belted into history at the WACA Ground yesterday by Michael Hussey, Michael Clarke and the extraordinary Adam Gilchrist.

Source: Brutal Australians put England to sword – News – Ashes Tour 06-07

Australia are on the verge of reclaiming the Ashes in emphatic style after Adam Gilchrist, who carved the second-fastest Test century, led the demolition of England’s bowlers on the third day at Perth. His 57-ball assault built on more measured tons from Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke, leaving England with the almost impossible task of scoring 557 or batting two days to keep the series alive.

Source: Cricinfo – Australia scent Ashes after Gilchrist’s second-fastest ton

And just for good measure, how about a bit of Ian Chappell and his thoughts on state of the game (Click the Play button to listen. If you don’t see a player below and are not on the original site, follow the link to the site):

Molly

But the under-pressure Matthew Hayden and captain Ricky Ponting finally brought some sense to the batting in this match, with a responsible partnership which had taken Australia to 1-119 off 36 overs by stumps. This time, there would be no more torment from Harmison, no more feverish celebrations from Panesar. There was barely even an appeal as Hayden and Ponting seized the moment. Both will resume on 57 today, with Australia leading by 148.

Source: Ponting has one hand on the urn – News – Ashes Tour 06-07 – theage.com.au

So Australia will looking to turn the screws and bat England out of this game and possibly out of the Ashes. With 3 days remaining there is no hurray to get after the bowlers and in fact it looks like the pitch is flatting out into something not to bad to bat on, but as we all know, things change in Cricket quickly at times (remember the Adelaide test match?).

For a great audio summary of the day, here is a link to Ian Chappell’s report from the great folk at CricInfo.  (if you are viewing this off this site and don’t see the player below, click the link in the post title to come to the site and listen)

Molly

Aussie Batting: Hussey 74 no, Langer 37, Clarke 37, Symond 26 and Warne 25
English Bowling: Monty 5 – 92, Harmison 4 – 48, Hoggard 1 – 40

English Batting: Strauss 24 no, Collingwood 10 no, Cook 15 and Bell 0
Australian Bowling: Lee 1 – 24, McGrath 1 – 18 Clark 0 – 1 Warne 0 – 8

So what are the press saying?

I was nervous for the first few overs,” Panesar said. “But for me I just took my time, didn’t want to rush into anything, and was pretty pleased with the way the ball came out.

Source: High five for Monty – News – Ashes Tour 06-07 – theage.com.au  

IAN BOTHAM has launched an attack on England coach Duncan Fletcher for not picking Monty Panesar in the first two Ashes Tests.

Source: The Sun Online – Ashes: Beefy: Fletcher is pig-headed  

However wickets to Brett Lee, who pierced the 150km/h barrier, and Glenn McGrath in the shadows of stumps fired the Australians back into a Test

Source: Aussies launch late surge | Herald Sun

So we should be for an interesting day and possibly a short test. Situations like this remind me of the words my mum use to say when the Aussie team use to get out the West Indies at there prime. She would say “if they go out quickly, we can go out just as quick”. Lets hope this is the same for the POMs.

Don’t forget to check back for day two action (both match and Boony and Beefy banter).

Molly

Well after such a fantastic finish to the last test, its interesting to see that 45% of voters ended up with the correct result in predicting the result of the match. 26% thought that England had done enough in the first innings to put Australia to the sword (they obvious didn’t realise that Monty wasn’t playing). 23% though it was going to be a draw and 6% thought it could even be a tie.

Well now the series heads to Perth and with the prospect of Andersen, Giles and Jones all possibly being give the boot, and of Course, Monty likely to play. Will be interesting how the voting goes on this test. You can vote below.

Molly

Okay, maybe about Murali (Muttiah Muralitharan) the second leading wicket taker in the World? Nope! Wrong again.

What about a dark horse like New Zealand Left armer, Daniel Vettori or the Indian leg spinner Anil Kumble (number 4 on the all-time wicket list if I am not mistaken). Buzz, wrong again!

No the spinner I talk of is England’s Monty Panesar! Of Course! 

Okay, so the only time I have really seen him bowl is on highlights on YouTube, like this one:

But I have been listening to all the English Podcasts on the Cricket and they seem to be saying that if Monty had played in the first two test matches, England would have been 2 – nil up now instead of 2 - nil down!!

I don’t remember any player in my memory of test cricket getting so much press with out actually having bowled a ball in the test series. How bad has it got you might ask? There is now a petition on a BBC website to have him included in the next test in Perth.

I don’t see anyway that he can be left out of the 3rd Test, and as such, I am strongly considering putting money on England! I mean, come on, if they have the greatest spinner of all time playing for them! And look what the response from one Australian batsman was to the news Monty would be playing (at least this might be what some think)!

I wonder if there will be Big Monty ads advertising the next ashes series like the Big Warnie ones for this series.

Molly