Soft centre makes it hard to catch up

  • The Observer,

What makes the depressing news from Down Under hard to swallow is that twice England have had the chance to bat Australia out of contention in the first two Tests and twice they have failed to grasp it. In Brisbane, we were 268 for three before stumbling to 325 all out and on Thursday things were looking even better at 295 for three when Michael Vaughan got out in the last over of the day.

Any analysis of where things are going wrong on the field has to start with those two collapses because in the first innings of a Test match you put down your marker and look to score 500 to make the game safe, even if you do not have the bowlers to win it. England ran up big scores regularly during the summer, so what has gone wrong?

Both collapses were sparked by an established batsman getting out - Nasser Hussain when well set in Brisbane and a weary Vaughan in Adelaide - but when a team then lose their last six wickets for so few runs, you have to take a hard look at the engine room of the batting: numbers five, six and seven.

John Crawley could not have done any more in the first instance because he simply ran out of partners, but Mark Butcher has to hold his hands up for another soft dismissal first thing on Friday morning. I would be amazed if the captain and coach hadn't drummed it into him overnight - not that he should have needed telling - that England's priority in the first session was to reach lunch with as little damage as possible. So what does Butch do? He wafts at one outside the off stick and nicks it.

Ricky Ponting knew what to do for Australia yesterday. 'We were looking not to lose wickets before lunch,' he said. And they didn't. Ponting accumulated runs through mid-wicket and square leg and hardly hit a shot in anger in closing out the game. That is just one of the differences between these two teams: England know what they should do, Australia know how to do it.

It is about discipline. Every team knows little mental tricks of breaking sessions into different segments. Let's survive the first couple of overs, let's see off Glenn McGrath, three overs to the drinks break, and so on.

Yet it is down to each batsman to deliver the goods; only he can cut out the risks and it is not happening in the middle order. Alec Stewart, at six, escapes much of the blame, though. OK, he made his first pair for England in the first Test, but you can only feel sorry for someone who is unlucky enough to play on and then get caught by Matthew Hayden's shirt. He played a poor shot in Adelaide after making 29, but, again in mitigation, when Matthew Hoggard is at the other end there is not a lot of time left.

The major disappointment for me has been Craig White because he can bat. In my book, someone who regularly opens for Yorkshire and has scored quality centuries is a far better bet at seven than Andy Flintoff, but he is not playing with his head.

On friday, he had survived five balls of a fantastic over from Jason Gillespie and then fell for a sucker punch. Gillespie had cut him in half twice and put one past the outside edge, and I am sure I can't have been the only one expecting a bouncer to complete the over. In White's shoes I would have been desperate for a short ball that I could get under quickly and safely and breathe a sigh of relief. Survived, still here.

With Gillespie bowling that well, the only objective was to live to fight another day, but when the ball bounced around his throat, White could not resist a flap and was on his way back to the pavilion.

I am not pretending that we are as good as Australia, but we could have had 500 on the board in both Tests and, no matter how good they are, that would have made us hard to beat.


Today's best video

Today in pictures