Archive for the ‘July’ Category:
Great weather for ducks
The covers remained on at Lord’s until the break – great weather for ducks. And sure enough, just after tea, the ducks arrived in force. Hoggart secured his second for the match while Harmison, Giles and Jones contributed a further zero between them.
Adding to the debacle, Go Jones did not add to his overnight total as England capitulated to lose by 239 runs, losing the last five wickets for just 22 runs – all from the bat of Kevin Pietersen.
McGrath finished the match as he started – taking four of the last five. Adding to England’s woes, Warne bowled very well, also taking four and his confidence is way up. With Lee bowling well, the selectors for the time being, have the luxury of persevering with Gillespie to give him the opportunity to regain top form.
There were few positives for England as it seemed possible to draw the conclusion that after all of the hype, nothing has changed. I believe that England will improve but it will take some digging. One obvious positive was the batting of Pietersen – the game’s best batsman, scoring two smashing half centuries. He was also the only player to clear the rope and did it twice in each innings. There were a few bowling positives, particularly Harmison, but on a pitch like that, one has to expect the bowlers to look good!!
Australia has won a crushing victory with several player performing well and most showing some encouraging signs. As usual, Australia has won at Lord’s and England has it all to do to turn the series around. Also, as usual, McGrath has won the man of the match award. He has had three Tests at Lords, three bags of five (one in each Test) and three MOTM awards!
And a closing word for the umpires. Having watched most of the Test, I was very impressed with the standard. They got most things right on a difficult pitch. True, they missed a couple of lbws yesterday but they could be excused. One was for Warne, and that’s always excusable. The other was the Lee full toss to Pietersen. Pietersen clearly lost the ball, as did Rudi – he even apologised to Lee for doing so and costing him a wicket!
The Ashley Giles Variety Hour
Jim Maxwell, ABC Cricket Ashes Edition (2005), Editorial: “… but team England needs to sustain any advantage, knowing that it needs more than a couple of good sessions to upset the World Champions.” Correct.
Peter Roebuck, ABC Cricket Ashes Edition (2005), p8: “Also, they’re no longer carrying passengers…” Wrong. What is Ashley Giles?
England were in a fabulous position by tea on Day one. By stumps they were shattered. By tea on Day two Australia was in command and had almost done enough to have the match secured. But it was the hour after tea on day one where I believe that Michael Vaughan allowed the match, and possibly the series to slip away, virtually uncontested.
It seemed fair enough to allow Giles a couple of overs before tea to see what happened. But there was nothing doing. To allow him to bowl seven overs of unthreatening, erratic, aimless rubbish in the hour after tea is unfathomable. Many of the commentators were surprisingly understanding, using terms like patience, drying up the runs and perseverance to describe Vaughan’s approach. Giles was achieving nothing accept to give Australia easy runs and playing Martyn (66) and especially Michael Clarke into form. And England did not have time to be patient – in the complexion of the game, Australia’s lead was already imposing. England needed to bring on the main man and blast someone out.
It is rather ironic that the only ball Giles bowled that beat the bat was to be his final delivery. Australia went from 150 to 250 at a run a ball. Clarke’s 91 came from 106 balls and he was dismissed only after Giles was removed, England started bowling to a plan, frustrated Clarke and he played a rash shot. During the hour after tea, not only was Giles ineffective but so was every bowler used. No only that, but the fielding was atrocious. No less than four boundaries were conceded from misfields. I strongly believe that the team morale was effected by the scene being played out before them. The run out of Langer by Pietersen aside, the English fielding was poor all day. The obvious lowlight was Pietersen dropping a simple offering from Clarke when on 22, immediately before tea.
As it was, England rebounded strongly, taking four quick wickets, including the danger man, Gilchrist (10), for less than 20 runs. However, it needed to be an hour earlier. The Australian lead is over 310 and you would have to think that is already plenty.