England 289-7. Stumps.
I have a conundrum for you: if England have so many world class batsmen, why can’t they put decent first innings totals on the board? This has been a big problem for a while now; it stretches back to last summer.
Perhaps it’s because Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell and Prior are unlucky? Or maybe they simple aren’t as good – and by good I mean consistent and ruthless – as everyone thinks they are. When was the last the big guns fired at the same time?
Yesterday was an utterly deflating day. We won a crucial toss, had the chance to effectively put the series beyond Australia, and we screwed it up embarrassingly. What’s more, we only had ourselves to blame.
If it wasn’t for Ian Bell, and a very fortuitous knock by Jonny Bairstow (who did little to suggest he’ll score consistently in this series) we would’ve been rolled over for less than two hundred.
Now I don’t want to dampen your spirits, or sound too much like a grumpy old man – though I must admit to being a cantankerous git who’s no longer in the first flush of youth – England’s performance simply wasn’t good enough. The bowling was decent (but nothing more), the skies were blue, and the pitch was an absolute bloody belter.
In short: you will never see easier batting conditions in a test match. All things considered 289-7 was a pretty dismal effort.
Early wickets can fall in the first hour of a test match, so I’m not going to panic too much over the fact we somehow lost three wickets in the first six overs (lamentable though it was). What really gets me is losing three late wickets to Steve Smith . Yes, Steve bloody Smith, ginger rodent and probably the worst legspinner currently residing in the Greater London area (and I include all fat amateurs who play one village game per season in this assessment).
After Ian Bell had singlehandedly dug the team out of yet another hole, our middle-order then threw all the good work away. How Jonny Bairstow managed to drive a full toss straight back to the bowler is beyond me. And as for Matt Prior … well, the least said the better. Prior has now got out to abysmal shots three innings in a row. Sort it out you numpty.
In my estimation, 450 would’ve been nothing more than par on this pitch. Unless something miraculous happens, we’re going to fall a long way short of this. If Australia bat well, they’ll be in a great position to win this game.
Not for the first time, we’re going to need a superhuman effort by the bowlers to keep us in this game. I’m unsure whether this will happen. On the one hand Australia’s top order is brittle; on the other hand Clarke and Watson are bound to fire at some stage. Oh, and did I mention that the pitch is a complete and utter featherbed?!
James Morgan
Some interesting comments here , I totally agree that 450 is a par score on the track and you always get good value for your shots at Lords.
If the media and general public thing England have a world class batting line up then it is symtomatic of the modern age. If you look at the best teams in the world over the past fifty years how many truly world class players would they have? Two at a push, (I am sure this wil cause a reaction from Stato’s everywhere!) what they did have was reliable, accumulator of runs and excellent test players. We have Cook and Trott in this category, our true World Class batsmen who turns a game is KP and he is vunerable early on (and to left arm spin!). Bell is a very classy player but to become world class he now needs to turn those hundreds into “Daddy” ones.
Criminally he was out to Steve Smith (the aussie experts say the ever improving Steve Smith – and he did need to improve!) when he should have gone on to make a score of 150 plus which would have got us nearer the acceptable score we require to put the team in the driving seat.
Bairstow’s dismissal was poor, a club cricketer dismissal.
Prior is out of form but has no first class cricket to get into form. The same applies to Root.
So in summarising England have a useful batting line up having four established quality players, there would have been many times in the past when twenty odd for three would have resulted in England being 180 all out. If the tail wag a score of 350 is not that bad and takes time out of the game.
Our bowling is better than their batting – all to play for I say.
Slats