A note for Ern

[Beny]

Mumbai farce changes nothing

Vic Marks
Sunday November 7, 2004
The Observer

It was grand theatre and we all succumb to a touch of schadenfreude whenever the Aussies are defeated, but let's not pretend that India's Test victory over Australia in Mumbai on Friday changes the balance of power before next summer's Ashes series.



You do not have to be an Australian cyclops to explain away that defeat. The pitch was like a desert; the ball exploded upon landing. There is nothing wrong with the home side playing to their strengths, an option that was peculiarly neglected by India in Nagpur for the third Test, but when 40 wickets fall in just over two days as was the case in Mumbai, it makes a mockery of the game. Moreover, Australia had to bat last upon the dustbowl. Shane Warne was injured. If Michael Clarke, part-time spinner - a sort of embryonic Allan Border with the ball - can take six for nine, what might Warne have achieved?

Nor can we ignore the Dead Rubber Syndrome that has been a common affliction of Australia teams. This infection has frustrated their last three captains, Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and now Ricky Ponting. I suppose the Australians are more prone to this problem since they are always ahead in the series. The blunt statistics are that since 2001, when the Australians were last in India, they have lost six Tests; five of those defeats have been after the rubber has been decided. If you are going to lose a Test match that is the time to do it. England must crave to be prone to DRS. So, in the wake of the Mumbai defeat, England should not plot to shave all their wickets next summer and galvanise Ashley Giles to torment the Australians like Murali Kartik. For a start, David Collier, the new chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board, if he retains the endearing optimism of the new boy, will be craving England victories, not on the third day, but at tea time on the fifth just to make sure those coffers are overflowing.





The England team are genuinely more concerned about getting through Zimbabwe and trying to defeat South Africa at the moment, but the rest of us are already tempted to salivate about the Ashes series. We yearn for victory against Australia so much and we have become past masters at convincing ourselves that it can happen this time. We have a bold young captain, the indomitable Freddie, and, in Steve Harmison, the most dreaded paceman in the world. The Aussies, we decide, are in decline. After all they could only muster 93 against India on Friday. Often the gap between rhetoric and reality is as wide as a Simon Jones loosener.

Straining for objectivity, we can conclude that the Australians are not invincible; they can panic, especially when batting last in pursuit of victory. Friday was not their first aberration batting in the fourth innings. But their line-up is hardly wobbling. On this tour, another little gem has emerged, Michael Clarke. For their forthcoming series against New Zealand and Pakistan, the Australian selectors will be agonising how they can accommodate Clarke. Who do they omit, Simon Katich or Darren Lehmann? That's the sort of choice selectors relish.

The batting remains strong despite the Bombay blip. If there is a weakness it is in the bowling, although this was not so evident in India. Glenn McGrath will surely start creaking soon and the replacements, though brisker, will not be in the same league as the cranky New South Welshman. When Warne is absent - through injury or indiscretion, both of which are becoming more frequent as his career proceeds - the Australians are vulnerable. But for the Ashes series, they are still odds on favourites to prevail - just as they were in Mumbai on Friday morning.

[Ernest]

Well Beny,
I am not posting to Vic Marks if you will care to bring out some of his points, then I will answer, but Beny, newspaperes publish reports to sell papers, and reporters such as Vic Marks, writes what he thinks the readers want to here, that can be a million, miles from the truth.
Whay does Vic Marks know about that tour in India anyway, or you, or myself, we just put out interpitation on things that happened.

Ern