Australia 298 (49.1 overs). England 249 (48 overs)
Well, the bowling figures said it all. Boyd Rankin took 1-26, Chris Jordan 3-53, Stokes 5-61 whilst the others had combined figures of 20 overs 1-150.
England had the Aussies on the ropes at 48-3 but then we had to bring on the part-timers – because we failed, for the umpteenth time in a row, to pick a balanced side.
Watson and Clarke duly picked them off like prawn tempura at a Thai buffet, and suddenly the Aussies had set close to 300 – a total which is hard to chase under lights, at the end of the summer, no matter how many extra batsmen you pick.
I’m afraid we have to assume, at this point, that Ashley Giles thinks he knows better than every other cricket fan (and pundit) in the English-speaking world.
Message to Ashley: You were always very sensitive as a player. You got upset at the slightest bit of criticism – whether it be Wheelie Bin jibes or Glamorgan fans’ claims that Robert Croft was both a better bowler and batsman than yourself.
I’m afraid you’re going to have to grow thick skin to survive as England cricket coach – especially if you continue to make dumb selections and then intransigently stick to your guns.
Well, I suppose Gilo warned us that we’d probably have our backsides handed to us on a plate this series, so everything transpired as he’d foreseen … or was it a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Here’s a run down of England’s ODI performances since Giles took over. Lost 2-3 to India & beat New Zealand 2-1 in the winter. Lost 1-2 to New Zealand and 1-2 to Australia in the summer (a team who hadn’t won a single match for over 200 days). That’s three series lost, and just the one won.
In between we had the Champions Trophy, in which our record was won 3 and lost 2. We might have won every game – and lifted our first ever 50 over trophy – had we not employed an archaic methodology which involved scoring extremely slowly at the start of innings, and assuming 270 was always a match winning score.
I hate to say it – and I especially hate sounding like a broken record – but as fans we want to see a sound rationale to tactical decisions, and most importantly of all, some improvement in the team’s performances. I’m afraid we’ve yet to see this from the heir apparent to the test coach’s job.
Ideally, we’d also like to see an interview in which the England coach sounds like (a) a leader (b) a good communicator, and (c) demonstrates he’s got a fertile cricketing mind. At the moment, I’m afraid many of us are wondering how Giles has risen so far, so quickly, in the English game.
When we look at the England balcony and see brilliant former players who are also respected coaches across the world (like Graham Thorpe), we’re beginning to wonder why Gilo is the one in charge. We’re not saying there isn’t a place for Giles in the England set-up – he’s reputedly a good man manager and administrator – but we’re yet to see anything that makes us believe in him.
Ashley, please give us something, anything, that makes us optimistic that life after Andy Flower will be good. You’re an Ashes hero from 2005. We want you do to well, in the same way we wanted Steve McLaren to do well as England football coach (if only he had the charisma).
Perhaps we need a plan similar to Kerry Packer’s strategy in The 12th Man’s Final Dig – the one when he stops Richie Benaud from retiring by appointing his arch-nemesis, Max Walker, as commentary team captain. Richie decides, with a heavy heart, that he’ll give it one more year just to stop Max from taking over.
Perhaps the ECB should phone Robert Mugabe and invite him to become England cricket coach? Andy Flower might have second thoughts about stepping down after the Ashes.
James Morgan
