4th Test: England vs Australia
England v Australia, 4th Test
Headingley, August 7-11
The biggest question Australia must answer before the remaining 10 days of this Ashes series is how can they get 20 wickets in a Test?
At one stage on day four of the draw at Edgbaston the tourists had England in some trouble at 168-5 but then skipper Ricky Ponting had to turn to Shane Watson. That summed up Australia’s problems for me.
Unfortunately for Ponting, Watson and Peter Siddle dished up some filth to the new batsman, Andrew Flintoff, and the big all-rounder was away.
Flintoff loves playing against Australia because it is a chance for him to show that he is a genuine all-rounder and he was simply awesome with the bat on Sunday.
His explosive innings almost gave England enough time to try and fashion a result despite all of the time lost to rain and, while the dross he faced helped, he proved once again what an inspirational figure he is.
So Australia need to find a strike bowler and fast. Is that man Stuart Clark, the guy who bowled so impressively the last time these two sides met Down Under? I’m not so sure.
The New South Wales seamer has got precious little cricket under his belt in recent weeks and I wonder if he has still got sufficient nip?
Clark will certainly give Ponting more control than Siddle, who has been disappointing so far, and the conditions could favour him at Headingley while those at the Oval would be more up Brett Lee’s street.
I certainly wouldn’t bet against Clark coming in for the next Test but there are signs that Johnson is finding a little bit of form and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Australians stuck with him.
England have issues themselves – most noticeably the fitness of Flintoff and their current inability to get enough hundreds – but overall I thought they played well again at Edgbaston.
There will be some disappointment in the camp that they could only pick up three wickets on the final day and couldn’t force a result but they were confronted with a day three pitch on Monday and the ball simply didn’t swing.
Rather than be critical of them, they deserve credit for the way they managed to set up a position from which they at least had a chance of wining the game.
At the forefront of that effort were Graham Onions and James Anderson, who is arguably the best swing bowler in the world at the moment.
There were times when I faced him in county cricket when I had no idea if it was swinging in or out and Australia’s batsmen were no different before lunch on day two. Anderson is more difficult to play because he has a trajectory that keeps coming at you and his length is awesome as well. He’s a real asset to any side.
I’ve always stated, even when he was going through some difficult times with his action that people should watch out for James Anderson because he will be an exceptional bowler and he is proving that now.
Onions is not someone who just relies on conditions – he is a line bowler who has a little bit more nip than people give him credit for.
He is also the kind of bowler that England haven’t had for a long time; they’ve had bang it in bowlers, and swing bowlers, but they haven’t had too many really good line bowlers with a bit of nip. He is a really good foil to Anderson at the other end.
He’s got a quick bouncer as he showed when he got Ponting out in the first innings and he’s a good honest worker who gives it his all throughout.
He was bang on the money on that second morning when he turned the course of the game with two early wickets and all credit to Andrew Strauss for recognising that his bowlers got their lines wrong on the first day and then going to a better line bowler on the second.
Perhaps the man most under pressure going into the Test was Ian Bell and I thought he came out of the game alright.
Sometimes playing on your home ground can bring added pressure but I thought he looked as fluent as ever at the crease.
There are those, of course, who will argue that we simply saw the same Ian Bell as we’ve always seen. Someone who looks good, gets some runs and then gets out.
But he battled his way to a fifty and, while he did have some luck on the way, it took a good ball from Mitchell Johnson to get him out in the end.
He’s starting off on a new phase of his career and scored a fifty first up, so let’s give him some credit and hope that next time he goes on and gets a much bigger score.
Watson was another player under the spotlight and I thought he equipped himself well as an opening batsman. He looked pretty good technically he played his shots as well. He’s not someone who gets stuck and he played the short ball better than Phillip Hughes.
To be honest, I was surprised Australia left Hughes out. I thought that with his record the selectors would give him another go. But all credit to Watson for his two fifties; now he has to learn how to play the longer innings.
Sometimes as an opener you get a beauty first up so one thing he will learn is that when he gets the chance he’ll need to turn those scores into hundreds.
He need look no further than his skipper for the perfect role-model. Ponting tried to play down his achievement of becoming Australia’s leading Test run-scorer but the truth is he’s one of the best players the game has ever seen.
He has 38 hundreds to his name and is probably eyeing Sachin Tendulkar’s current tally of 42. At present, though, his job is not statistical; it is to try and get an imposing score in the first innings of the final two Tests, just as he did in Cardiff.
In the last two games Australia have been bowled out relatively cheaply in their first innings and it has cost them dear because that is where you win and lose Test matches.
Michael Clarke, another high-class player, said as much in his post-match interview.
When we saw him four years ago in England he struggled against the moving ball but since then he’s moved his game onto a different level.
He is now capable of getting hundreds in any conditions and is very honest to boot; he realises Test cricket is not just about getting runs but about getting important runs, which he did on Monday.
But he looks fed up with trying to save games for Australia. Like Ponting, he wants to score big in the first innings and pile the pressure on England. Australia’s batsmen are capable of doing that; the question remains if they do, can the bowlers ram home that advantage?
To win at any cost?
Unusual tactics England could employ against Australia
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Regular changing of gloves
We really don’t know what the Aussies were complaining about in Cardiff! It gets hot and sweaty out there in the heat of battle and may well do so again when we’re nine wickets down needing 450 to win with ten overs left
Open with Jimmy and Monty
There seemed to be absolutely no way Australia could get out the world-class batting pair of Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar. So why not open the batting with them?
Get Simon Jones back on the pitch
Even if it means Jonesey skidding up to the wicket in a wheelchair, we need the man back. It also might provide some nice little marks for Monty and Swanny to take advantage of . . .
Starve them out
Give Mike Gatting and Robert Key access to the Australian lunch and tea buffet trays ten minutes before the end of each session. The Australians’ stamina and powers of concentration will soon fade.
Get Derren Brown to talk to Tresco
Marcus Trescothick made a significant contribution to England’s Ashes-winning 2005 effort before losing the plot. Perhaps someone could call upon the mind-altering services of Derren Brown to tell Tresco he’s the English Don Bradman and get him out there!
Tactical fielding substitutions
Remember Gary Pratt? With the Aussie skipper already riled by England’s apparent ‘time-wasting’ tactics, why not encourage more liberal use of fielding substitutions. Imagine seeing the look on Ponting’s face if the Durham man ran him out again!
Bring back the skunk
Ever since KP lost his trademark ‘skunk’ haircut of 2005, his powers have seemed to wane. Bring back the skunk KP!
Recruit more Aussies to play for England!
Okay, so the likes of Martin McCague, Alan Mulally, Adam Hollioake and Geraint Jones were by no means world class so perhaps Andrew Symonds or Stuart Law might like to re-consider playing for us again?
Get the England ladies to play instead!
The current world champions also recently retained the Ashes. On current form, they may well do a better job against the Australian men.
Pray for rain
It worked for us at the Oval in 2005. So if any of the previous tactics somehow enable us to eke out a lead, then let the rain-dances begin!
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