English August

As I write this post all the hype surrounding the first Ashes test is over. It seemed to be the same old story except for the first 2 sessions of the match. On a difficult pitch for batting the English bowlers bowled really well and restricted the Aussies to a low score. But still ended up losing the match by a huge margin!!

What went wrong ?

First of all Vaughan seems to be losing his edge in captaincy. He seems to over rely on Matthew Hoggard who it must be said got Clarke out in the second innings, but then went for a lot of runs as well. But on the other hand Simon Jones who after Harmison was the most penetrative bowler in the side was underbowled. I think had Jones had a bit more luck then things could have been a wee bit different. The other of course is the non chalance with which Clarke and Martyn handled Giles. After facing upto Murali, Kumble and Bhajji, Giles is just a walk in the park. England might be well advised to play Gareth Batty since the Aussies seem to play the away turners better than the offies who give lesser room to the batsmen. Theres no use of using Giles to bowl over the wicket, he wont take a wicket neither will he stem the flow of runs since there are 4 left handers in the top 7 of the Aussie batting line up. And anyways Martyn Clarke and Ponting are all good sweepers of the ball. He might as well give the ball a bit of air going around the wicket since the Aussies dont mind leaving the crease when playing the spinners and he just might end up appealing for a wicket, though his getting one seems to be remote right now. For all it might help Vaughan would be tempted to bring himself on.

The batting seems to have come undone as well. Trescothick as usual will have a tough time since he does not move his feet too well at the beginning. On the other hand Strauss is probably playing a spinner a real spinner for the first time in his life and is being found out. Vaughan for all he might say played a poor shot in the first innings though he would like us to belive that the ball stayed low. Bell though needs to be more positive if he has to score runs since the only way you can get runs against McGrath and co is by attacking since once you start defending the runs just dry up and you end up putting lot of pressure on yourself. Flintoff of course has always had a problem playing spin usually committing himself too soon and going very hard at the ball. He would be well advised to use his feet when playing forawrd and go right back instead even if the ball is marginally short and look to score. Warne is a much easier bowler to play now that he has hardly any variations, just a straighter one. And Gillespie is still not into his stride as yet, so England have to win this match if they dont and as the pitches get drier Warne will become a bigger looming threat and Gillespie might soon re discover his touch and McGrath's prediction of a 5-0 whitewash might well come true. Englands cause wont be helped by the fact there are only a couple of days between the tests.

Only time will tell whether English August is going to be good or bad.