The legacy of the Fletcher years seems to linger on: I thought the superbly disciplined 1st innings performance in the first Test was clear evidence that England had turned the corner... but the obsession with swinging the bat continues.

At least Vaughan wasn't doing that... but the Fletcher effect was still in evidence: Moores needs to eradicate years of coaching centred on commiting to early movement towards the ball rather than lingering on the back foot to play the ball late.

Well we will see now how Bell plays under the pump. The fact of the matter is this is not that a bad a track.

Its not that we're losing wickets but we can't even score.

It's all down to KP now as I have no faith in Bell. Please God he proves me wrong.

Pathetic.

Well done New Zealand,they have us down and almost out already.It will take one hell of a performance to come back in this.

I read this morning on the BBC website that Vaughan was saying that Anderson and Broad have to keep up the good work to keep their places.

Now that would be fair enough if Vaughan was performing - I think those comments a bit rich when he was averaging 29.25 on this tour before he was 2 in this innings.

I think maybe it's time for changes in the batting (long overdue), and I would wager Harmison and Hoggard would agree.

These two players have done no worse than Vaughan - and that's a fact.
EDIT: LOL Rachael why defend him? - fact is he was out for 2, being caught LBW is just as bad as rash shots, in fact worse in a way.

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Ern

How is that? Under Fletcher England actually won matches and series, something under Moores we are unable to do! Under Fletcher we could bowl sides out regularly and post competitive scores. Under Moores the batting is brittle and the bowling inconsistent

It may have been disciplined but we lost the match so was an ultimately worthless exercise. IMO I thought we were a bit too negative in that innings and most observers (either English, NZ....) also thought that.

That wont help you much if the bowlers are pitching it up and getting swing. You will end up getting caught plumb in front or struggle to drive the ball correctly. i.e

What the batsman have to learn is to play each ball on merit something we are unable to do at the moment, its almost as if our batsman are playing by numbers.

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Mark.

Ern,we all know you love it when Vaughan fails but i am more concerned with Strauss who is doing worse than Vaughan.He was brought back after doing nothing to warrant his return and has failed miserably.

If i was Shah i would be expecting to play in the 1st test this summer as there are enough candidates to be dropped.

As it stands the only players safe in my mind are Cook,Pietersen and Collingwood.

After the way Hoggy got treated its scandalous that the under performing bats continue to keep their places.

The hard part is who to bring in? We are not exactly awash with top quality bats (please, NO Ramps!).

I think Strauss is finished for a bit, and we need another decent opener.

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Mark.

I think its important that Kiwis's keep things. Keep the runs down as well. England were looking for a flyer they stopped that they must make every run difficult.

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"Checkout the big brain on Brett" Pulp Fiction

Nope you are wrong there greg: Vaughan has annoyed me with the way he treated Flintoff, but I would love him to have done well along with Hoggy and Harmison to try and keep as many of the class of 2005 as possible.

It's not just Vaughan I am disappointed with Strauss, I was sure he would have made a decent comeback.

Truth is greg the England batting has been poos(ish) for decades.

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Ern

Well I wonder could Ramp's have done any worse?, seriously England need to look for bread and butter players from the counties. The so called stars are failing.

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Ern