Old Trafford - the grisly end

[chickenfeet]

Almost but not quite.

Fine batting by Ponting and Warne added to their earlier, equally skilful but less admirable, time wasting was just enough to get Australia the draw. I can't help feeling though that England choked. Vaughan's handling of his bowlers and his field settings were quite bizarre at times. Jones, despite being clearly the best of England's bowlers in the first innings was the sixth to be used in the second and had to wait until thirty overs had been bowled this morning before he got a second spell. When he came on he bowled beautifully and was very unlucky to get only one wicket. Who knows what might have happened if Vaughan had attacked more earlier in the day instead of persisting with a toothless Giles bowling to defensive fields?

In many ways the result is as bad as it could be, short of a defeat. The series is still all square but England will no doubt see the "almost win" as reason not to look at the composition of the side. As it is, the side is good but not quite good enough. It's the same disease that afflicts England's rugby selectors; pick a safe side that's good enough to perform adequately to well in the 6N and find excuses for why it gets stuffed against the SANZAR teams. Unfortunately beating the world champions takes more than that.
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Comments

[kaet.livejournal.com]

I'm currently explaining cricket to sphyg. I said on Sunday that I thought that it was likely England would declare with Australia needing 350.

I think them going on till they needed 420 meant that they were edging toward a low-risk strategy of narrowing the probability distribution in on a draw, rather than taking the risk of a higher (but still small) chance of an Australia win along with a much higher chance of an England win. Something like going from (A/D/E)=(10/40/50)% at 350, to something closer to (2/75/33)% at 420 (to pick numbers from the air). I don't think England are used to being good yet.

It was amusing to see Australia channelling Geoffrey Boycott with their batting strategy, though. I never was a selfish batsman, but....

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I thought England were a bit unaggressive towards the end of their second innings but nothing like as defensive as Vaughan's field placements given he had 420 to work with.

[kaet.livejournal.com]

I didn't see much today, owing to having to go ot work, and not having a radio there. Though I did find urgent business in the nearest sports pub for the last three overs. Defensive how? Lots deep, and not enough in the slips?

[jen-c-w.livejournal.com]

at one point, he had 1 (ONE) slip and no gulley. Two hours before the end of the game, desperately needing wickets. A fantastic delivery from poor little Si would have gone straight down second slip's throat. Boo, and indeed hiss.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Basically, yes