Exactly, the best players never (or rarely) let themselves get dictated to. If you bat negatively you let the bowlers get on top and when chasing a huge score you are doomed. If say, Brian Lara* had been batting out there today he would have more than likely scored a blistering ton. If you play to lose, surprisingly enough you will.

* For Lara insert Ponting, Richards, Gower......

Regarding the ashes. Theres a stat which says that the team which scores at the highest run rate nearly always wins

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Mark.

Interestingly though, the player in question here suffered in his innings from both not scoring any runs - thus piling pressure on himself and then (being that the pressure had built up on him, I would imagine) he ended up playing at a ball that he should have left - and lost his wicket for it.

Now, I've only resurrected this thread as Prior could well be an example of one swallow not making a summer. A couple of decent scores against a weak West Indies side have been followed by a string of low scores and let's be honest, a woeful display behind the sticks. This was always my worry with Prior whenever his name was mentioned.

If only there was a player out there in the England set up who could average 50+ with the bat and still be a fantastic keeper.... Oh.... wait.... there is!!! Where's the call-up for Andy Flower??

Stewart never faced the rubbish the Windies threw at Prior. We all know that Prior can score runs against rubbish bowling, even Read averaged 40 against Pakistan last summer and allegedly he cannot bat. Prior has looked lost against India most of the time. We're going to have to put up with it for quite a while.

The comment that Prior didn't have anything to do with Dhoni and Kumble scoring so many is badly mistaken. Do you really believe that either would have done so well had they been at the crease with a hundred or two hundred fewer runs on the board and an England attack with some momentum? Dropping Tendulkar was a HUGE error and has cost England any chance of winning this Test. No need to worry though, apparently he's working on his footwork!