Reverse Swing

I’m sure some journo has tried asking Troy Cooley about his opinion of Steve Harmison and England’s fast-bowling in the first test, but the erstwhile England bowling coach is far too loyal to come out with a rent-a-quote blast.

However, he has come out in support of one of his current charges, Brett Lee, who has been garnering some criticism from Aussie supporters for his less than perfect bowling performance in the first test. Not that Australia needed him at his best. Cooley said:

“I don’t think he’s very far off the mark,” he said. “He’s had a few things going on in his life, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes out and has a great Test match in Adelaide.” Lee became a father for the first time in the lead-up to the opening Test.

Lee has never been as effective against England as other countries, and it will be interesting to see whether he can put this right at Adelaide.

Apparently Shane Warne has been calling Geriant Jones nasty things like “club pro” in the last test. But in the same article Martin Johnson has come up with unusual sledge from 1994 – this one is Stephen Rhodes on Michael Bevan.

Bevan didn’t know that the England wicketkeeper, Stephen Rhodes, had got hold of a tape recording (via a sleepless occupant of the next room in a thin-walled hotel) of Bevan’s encounter with a rather loud and expressive young lady the previous night. As the bowler ran in, Rhodes turned on the X-certificate recording he had in his pocket, and Bevan’s scrambled brain resulted in a wild slog and a stumping.

As England fought back yesterday Adam Gilchrist captained the Australian team instead of the injured Ponting. It took me back to Headingly 2001 when Gilchrist captained the team in the absence of Steve Waugh and thanks to his generous declaration, and 177 from Mark Butcher , England won by 6 wickets. ( England supporters remember these rare and unexpected victories.)

Looking at that scorecard from that day, 7 of the Australian team are playing at Brisbane today – with Mark Waugh, Gillespie, Katich and Slater the missing personnel.By any standards that’s an exceptional level of continuity in professional sport.
In contrast none of that England team from Headingly 2001 is playing today. Marcus Trescothick came closest.

A couple of wickets, not that many runs but it’s sessions like these that make test cricket so absorbing.

Pietersen might consider himself unlucky with his lbw decision with the replay showing the ball missing the stumps, but you can’t really afford to leave a delivery from Glenn McGrath pitched in that area. Bowling around the low 80s there was much to admire in how McGrath put the ball around the same spot with each delivery just slightly different: one with a bit more bounce, one with a bit more movement, all the time asking questions of the batsman. It was the kind of consistency that England failed to achieve on the first day.

Flintoff may consider himself unlucky too, with the replay of Lee’s delivery showing the bowler’s foot clearly over the line. When you’re up against it decisions do have a habit of going against you – think of a couple of Martyn’s lbw dismissals in the 2005 Ashes.

The latter half of the session saw Warne in the attack up against Ian Bell, who had squirmed and struggled against the legspinner in the last series. This time Bell played him very well, using his feet early on to strike a boundary through the onside and not looking fazed by the hostile atomosphere that Warne creates. He’s obviously worked hard on playing Warne and although there’s still plenty to come from the Victorian, Bell’s survival was a small victory both in the context of the game and further matches in the series.

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Originally uploaded by adam stewart.

Nice shot from Adam Stewart of the 2 teams walking out at the start of the 2006 -07 series.

Not a good toss to lose this one. This new ball had a bit more swing about it and Anderson got it to go, but Hussey and Ponting were watchful without being unduly troubled. Flintoff bowled superbly – bowling Hussey on this wicket was a real achievement, and one lifter against Ponting was something special. You felt he should have been on earlier but
1) he doesn’t want to over-bowl himself
2) he chose to do the harder yards,bowling when the advnatge of the new ball was starting to wear off

As for Harmison, well occasionally he looked dangerous, but his line was still often erratic, and a test match in front of 40,000 is not the ideal place to bowl yourself into form if you’re feeling fragile.

Ponting batted magnificently and you could see why he holds the number one spot in the world rankings. It was a great batting wicket but England bowled pretty ordinarily for the most part – Harmison out of sorts and erratic; Anderson inconsistent and Hoggard innocuous without the swing. There was a rarely a period of sustained pressure, and it was Flintoff who had to dig deep rather early in the series to provide some inspiration. In the end it was left to the maligned Giles and the part-timer Pietersen to exert some control. At this stage of the game with some turn around England must be regretting leaving out Panesar.

The one thing you didn’t want to happen from an English perspective was for the series to kick off with a loose delivery. Harmison’s first delivery was so loose it went way beyond the reach of the batsman to second slip. And that set the initial tone, with Langer playing aggressively scoring in the third man area. It took some time for England to peg things back, with Hayden’s wicket going to Flintoff – the only English bowler to bowl consistently well in the session.

Oh and the man says…

Unlucky Shane Watson will miss the first test with a muscle tear, not the first time he has to pull out because of injury. But help and support is on hand in the Australian camp.

Andrew Symonds’ theory on Watson’s easily broken body. “He reckons Shane’s got blow-up muscles and they keep popping,” said Ricky Ponting.

This means Australia will be playing a 4 -man attack as he is to be replaced by Michael Clarke.