Hey, the Mariners Won in '95 Without Griffey, Why Not England Without Pietersen?

The gap of 10 days between the second and third tests of the 2009 Ashes series represents the longest such fallow period of the series.  This is a good opportunity to take a look at where the series stands.divbr //divdivAs an aside, for the uninitiated, the Ashes, competed between England and Australia every two years (or so, as it's home and away, and cricket is a summer game, adjustments have to be made) are considered one of sports all time (insert various cliche' dripping adjectives here) rivalries.  It's certainly a Big Deal in both England (and Wales) and Australia, and the way this series is shaping up sort of, when I'm not on my guard or paying close enough attention, makes me miss spending the summer in England.  One of the many weird rules of the sport and series is that if the result after five tests is a draw, the side currently holding the Ashes retains it.  Hence, while England are currently up with one win, one draw, and three to play, we still have to consider the Australians favorites to retain the Ashes./divdivbr //divdivFor starters, a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/22/kevin-pietersen-ruled-out-ashes"this news/a can not possibly be spun as a positive for England.  Pietersen has not had a great series by his standards, but he remains England's single biggest run scoring threat.  Granted, he was clearly playing injured, but any analysis of England's chances for a series victory hinged on Pietersen to some degree.  Without a fit KP, it's difficult to see how the weakness of this England side in scoring runs can be addressed.  The 2005 side had Pietersen well in form, Flintoff in form with the bat that he will never recapture, Trescothick, and Vaughan (who, while inconsistent, did hit for 166 in the first innings in the third test).  In 2009, Strauss had a sublime second test, and Collingwood has shown flashes, but batting has to be considered a weakness.  a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6723212.ece"Losing Pietersen hurts/a (though Rob Smyth at span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"The Guardian/span a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/jul/22/kevin-pietersen-england-ashes"isn't too concerned /a. . . )  Ian Bell appears the likely a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/england/8162048.stm"replacement/a, though there are a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/line_and_length/2009/07/nine-options-to-replace-kp.html"other options/a.  Indeed, I agree with commenter Max Bartlett in response to the previous on span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"The Times/span when he writes:/divdivbr //divdivblockquote"The selectors should travel down to Taunton, go down on bended knee and beg Marcus T to come back. His form clearly makes him the best replacement for KP."/blockquote/divdivbr //divdivThe Pietersen saga has drowned out any other Ashes news today, but over at Ashes HQ, they have an a href="http://www.cricketweb.net/blog/asheshq/index.php"excellent midterm report card/a on the performance of each player for each side in the first two tests.  Of course, that the writer covering Australia uses a 10-point system, while the writer covering England an A-F system, should be no barrier in comparing the two analyses./divdivbr //divdivOn to football (soccer), all I can say about this is a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/eriksson-says-notts-county-role-is-greatest-ever-challenge-1756488.html"what the hell/a?/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-7950252929747839858?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div