Eng vs Aus - Back to normal then...

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Beny

Does anybody have the score? I didd'nt get to watch.

Gosh Beny, did you miss the last 3 overs, Gough hit 9 sixes, and 9 fours, what a dramatic England win

[Beny]

Actualy Ern, it was 7 four's and no sixes!Nice try.

How's the ageing Aussie attack doing by the way?

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Beny

How's the ageing Aussie attack doing by the way?

It's had it's day for once this summer Beny, sorry I meant night.

What a dipstick, winning the toss, than giving Australia the best light to bat in.

Lee bowled well, but knowing his pace, electing to face his bowling under artificial lights, what a wally. .

[AussieCricketLover]

Im led to believe that the lights had little to no effect on the conditions of the oval, didnt it get dark at 10pm or something... something totally unheard of in Australia.

[Seamer]

The commentators did say that the artificial light was pretty average, but while it was still very good for batting (Did'nt Gough get 40 odd for example?), it may make it harder for the fielders. Good strategy by Trescothic but his team failed to back him up in execution unfortunately for him.

[Occasional Fan]

I neither saw nor heard the game, but most of the comment here seems to suggest that it was England's decision to field first which cost them the game. I can't say whether that is right or wrong, but I am a little surprised to see that they elected to field in a day/night game. We know that England tend at the moment to be better chasers than target setters, but my gut says that the floodlight issue should override that in the absence of any other factors. I'd have said based on no information at all that Trescothick should have elected to bat this time around.

In answer to the question above, yesterday was the second or third longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Durham sunset was at about 2147 BST. The nights are now drawing in, and it won't be long now before Christmas.

[English_Al]

Hi again, and thanks for your welcome!

Yes, I agree that putting Australia in wasn't the best move, but having said that, there were reasons why Tres did that and looking back, IMHO I'm not sure it had a huge bearing on the result.

There was quite a lot of chat about Brett Lee being a big factor, but I'm not sure thats the case. Although Lee certainly had an impact at the start of the innings, I dont feel it was because of his pace alone, it was because he was swinging it as well which is why I think he got Strauss bowled off his inside edge. If it doesn't swing, I dont think that his pace troubles our current batsmen quite as much as is made out. I thought our bowlers did OK last night against a very strong Aussie line up, it's the batsmen that need to sort themselves out a bit...

[Rachael]

Tresco's own explanation seems frank and reasonable:

Originally Posted by Times ONline

Granted that hindsight, Trescothick conceded that his decision might have been different. “I don’t think that the lights had much effect, but the wicket deteriorated more than I expected,” he said.

See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...667573,00.html

ps. For Brett Lee discussion see see http://www.world-a-team.com/showthread.php?t=3432

[greg]

I think that batting first is a must in day-night games anywhere in the world if you win the toss.It might not have changed the result but you need to take every advantage you have got against a great team.

[Rachael]

I think Tresco's decision was absolutely right in principle: the pitch was one on which judging a "par" score (and pacing an innings) was quite possibly going to be well and truly beyond both him and most of his team-mates.. and possibly (he might reasonably have hoped) beyond most of the Aussies as well. It was the sort of pitch on which players like himself and Vaughan have frequently perished trying to set a run-rate that was quite unrealistic.

Players like Knight, capable of gettig that judgemet right more often than not, appear to be few and far between: Collingwood's the best England have had since Knight and even chasing he perished trying to force things: fearing an Aussie chase that reached 300+ they would have put undue pressure on themselves and would have been odds-on to end in a right mess.