The Ashes First Test Lords Thursday 21st July..Day 2.

[Teatime FatCat]

England all out for 120. Australia, amazingly, are bowled out again for around 200. However, the resulting 270 is way too big an ask for us, and Warne spins us out for 150.

Unbelievable - we had a real chance here, and the batters messed it up. I'm seething. I wouldn't have minded if they'd all ground out 20's at 1.5 runs an over and we'd got to 200 in the most boring fashion imaginable. We have have to stand up and play on a par with these Aussies right now if we are to have a good series.

Oh, and it would appear that Pieterson showed more application and determination than most of his colleagues. I know that one half-innings does not a summer make, but he's really up for it - there's a few boys that need to be stood up and counted in our second innings.

Oh, and I stand by my assessment of Tresco against the Aussies. He got out in exactly the way, to the exact shot, and to the exact bowler that so many of us predicted months ago. McGrath and Lee will have to be having a very bad day for him to get runs this summer, because his technique is not up to it against the very finest. However, before you all have a go at me for saying he should be dropped, i'm not. I think he should bat at 4. Strauss and Vaughan open, Bell (or AN Other) goes three, Tresco 4 and KP 5. I'd like to see him take on Warney I think!

[Teatime FatCat]

Originally Posted by Oliver

Ok that's a reasonably terrifying point regarding Ian Bell's bowling. Matthew Hoggard is presumably pretty accurate, otherwise why the hell would he be in the side - not because he's an English conditions swing bowler, as eight overs for forty proved.

Hoggy is neither accurate nor consistent at the moment, and he's really going to have to be this summer as he's bugger all use when the ball's not swinging!

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Teatime FatCat

Oh, and I stand by my assessment of Tresco against the Aussies. He got out in exactly the way, to the exact shot, and to the exact bowler that so many of us predicted months ago. McGrath and Lee will have to be having a very bad day for him to get runs this summer, because his technique is not up to it against the very finest. However, before you all have a go at me for saying he should be dropped, i'm not. I think he should bat at 4. Strauss and Vaughan open, Bell (or AN Other) goes three, Tresco 4 and KP 5. I'd like to see him take on Warney I think!

I think that England's batting was over excited by the position that their bowlers had got them into. Almost as though they didn't really believe it could happen... and unless we manage to do something about it in, either what is left of this innings, or in the second one, it is entirely possible that our bowlers' confidence will drain away and we will not manage to do it again.

That said, I noticed from the few overs before tea, that Trescothick was trying to employ the "forward press" so beloved of his coach and his skipper, and I just thought (though I've only seen his dismissal once) that for the ball immediately after tea, Trescothick failed to put it into practice.

For Trescothick particularly, but all out batsmen effectively, the problem is one of concentration.

It has struck me over recent years, that England have managed to identify a bowler who they will have to be very careful against, be it Kumble, Muralitharan, Pollock or whoever.

It struck me that they didn't try hard enough against Mr. McGrath... perhaps it was because they were all thinking too much about the weaker second string to come.

"Focus boys, focus."

[Victor Frankenstein]

mcgrath is a freak of bowling nature, but the fact that lee was able to control it too, far more than the england bowlers managed, would suggest to me that it was just an average display. I do agree with your sentiments that a proper test batsman should be able to get runs on those sort of pitches, but as you know, the current world selection policy is to select teams made entirely of flat track bullies and instantly dismiss the likes of kirsten, hussain, richardson et al as slow and boring. I'm more inclined to agree with seamer's comments though that the aussies could see it had indifferent bounce and decided to just go for it until they got the unplayable ball, causing them to miscue the hook etc.. Not saying that was the right approach, but it did seem in hindsight to be what they were doing, they certainly didn't seem overly bothered about having only got 190, no heads dropped or nervousness in the field, they looked like a team that had just put on 600 declared, even before mcgrath ripped everyone out.

All our bowlers bowled some superb deliveries, harmison and flintoff were bowling 4 out of 6 unplayable deliveries, jones 3 and hoggard 2, but it's the rest that were 4 balls, not just singles but easy pickings. I'm not being harsh on them, we forget just how inexperienced our bowling attack still is, it seems like they've been around for ages but they're still very new compared to the aussies, so they did do really well and i'm glad to see them taking the fight to the australians.

Our batting was always my fear though, Strauss seems to have lost it completely, i haven't seen him bat properly all year, for his county or country, i'm not for a second saying he should be dropped, but someone has to help him out and get back his judgement. Tresco unfortunately is always going to need a couple of half chances to go his way to get a score, if he can get past 20 with some good shots then i'd back him to get a big hundred but it will take a big effort for him to get to 20.

I'd probably say the most dissapointing performance was Bell, when he came in he let some balls go over off stump that were only just missing, he got a few snorters past his face from Lee but he kept on smiling and seemed relaxed, i was impressed with him for that but the ball that got him out was just poor technique which isn't something i expected to see from him. Again, i'm not trying to be too harsh, he's still young and i certainly think he's the future, but those sort of things should be pretty basic and it didn't appear to be nerves that let him down or the pressure situation, just a lack of thought, hopefully he's learnt from it for the second innings.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Victor Frankenstein

I'm more inclined to agree with seamer's comments though that the aussies could see it had indifferent bounce and decided to just go for it until they got the unplayable ball, causing them to miscue the hook etc..

Boycott's piece in today's Torygraph suggests that only Hayden and Ponting could be said to have fallen to great deliveries. The rest (Clark excepted as he shouldn't have been given out) were on a scale from poor to just plain horrible.

Originally Posted by Victor Frankenstein

Our batting was always my fear though [...] I'd probably say the most dissapointing performance was Bell.

Boycott singles Bell out as well... but only as one of a handful of England batsmen who just didn't have the technique to stand up and be counted. Vaughan and Flintoff get an absolute slating for playing back to good length deliveries.. but Bell gets noted as the worst of many at dealing with the Lords' slope - he basically says that McGrath uses the slope well.. forcing you to play forward at balls that pitch 10" outside off stump.. and that Bell just didn't look capable of adjusting to that fact.

ps. Boycott has no quibbles about the pitch: he notes that England played Lee and Gillespie OK... and blames the Aussie batsmen for trying to dominate an attack that needs to be shown some respect for the Aussie collapse. I think he's right: had the Aussies shown more respect to the England bowlers they would have batted out the day and no one would be mentioning the pitch at all.

[Collyisamackem]

Right - my plan for today:

Hoggy - block everything.

KP - Go crazy.

Jones - slog.

Harmy - more of them down-the-ground slog sixes and cheeky edges to third man, with one extraordinarily well-timed cut reminiscent of Robin Smith.

[Victor Frankenstein]

Originally Posted by Rachael

Boycott's piece in today's Torygraph suggests that only Hayden and Ponting could be said to have fallen to great deliveries. The rest (Clark excepted as he shouldn't have been given out) were on a scale from poor to just plain horrible.

Indeed, but did he also mention why the other aussies were going for their shots? there were plenty of balls that snorted up or went in at a slower pace than expected etc.. it's just that because we were pitching it up they came out as looking like bouncers and intimidatory bowling, i'll give the credit to the aussie batsmen that they aren't stupid. Not saying it was the right or wrong tactic, i'm not a cricketer so i don't know, i'll believe boycott if he thinks it's all their fault, but bear in mind his batting ethos when considering his analysis.


Re: Bell, yes, i wasn't picking on him as the only one to have bad technique, i wasn't surprised by vaughan, tresco or flintoff as they aren't known for their technique, but Bell is, so to see him all at sea when he looked ok to start with was just dissapointing.

As for us playing Lee and gilly well, i'd disagree with boycs, gilly bowled poorly yet again so we didn't need to play him well, he gave it to us on a plate, but Lee was as unplayable as mcgrath for the first session and then he was just overbowled a bit by ponting and was starting to stray off the decent length. The pitch isn't completely full of demons, but it has an area that if you hit it will give indifferent bounce, mcgrath hit it constantly, we hit it sporadically.


Anyway, what's done is done, today we'll see a masterclass in batting from matthew "mcgrath and warne are past it" hoggard, i fully expect him to get a run a ball hundred off these ageing net bowlers

[Victor Frankenstein]

nice bouncer there from the ageing, past it, mcgrath to hoggard.

i'm concerned at the amount of rip warney is giving it, i thought hoggard said he was past it? he's turning it from leg to off at the moment..

balls, wicket :/

[Victor Frankenstein]

50 for the slogger no technique pieterson, 14 off of 3 balls from the ageing has been mcgrath :P

As seamer suggested though, the pitch has suddenly lost all it's venom, I expect to see 2 days of batting from australia and warne spinning us out in the second innings, or a rainy draw.

[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Collyisamackem

Right - my plan for today:

Hoggy - block everything.

KP - Go crazy.

Well those bits look good.