Sydney : Day 2 : This feels familiar

No, you didn’t read that wrong, the title of this post IS moreorless identical to the one I used yesterday. Because, sadly, it IS all too familiar. England got a start and then crumbled to all out for less than 300. I’m struggling not to use the word capitulate as I’m aware that I’ve used it all too many times before in reference to England’s batting. Why on earth are England’s batsmen so incapable of batting on Day 2 of a test match? But our last 6 wickets cost Australia only 50-odd runs, of which 5 of them scored a combined total of 4. Flintoff hit a series-best 89, and would conceivably have scored a hundred had he not been surrounded by the same witless tail that prompted KP to move up to 4 in the order. I don’t think you should depend on your bowlers propping up the batting by scoring lots of runs, but if you look around some of the other test sides it’s quite common to have a few of the “tail” consistently whack a quick 30 – look at Warne and even Lee. An extra 50-80 runs from your tail is invaluable both in the runs scored and also frustrating the opposition bowlers for an extra couple of hours. But for our last 5 to score only 4 runs between them really tells a story. I still don’t really believe in planning on having these magic all rounders, such as Flintoff and Gilchrist – they’re the exception and not the norm but that is rapidly changing – personally I want to see specialist players in the team who perform a role (e.g., New ball fast bowler, spinner, keeper etc.) but I don’t see the harm in giving these players extra time in the nets to de-bunny them.

Australia closed on 188-4, with Mr Cricket and Andrew Symonds both not out. 4 wickets will have lifted England’s spirits towards the end of the day, but Hussey seems intent on his innings at Perth being the only blip on his impressive series average, whilst Symonds has demonstrated how destructive he can be once he gets going.

It just seems like the work ethic that Australia have so effectively demonstrated in this series is severly lacking in the England camp. Well, it’s time for another cut and paste job from a previous post: England need to attack early on tomorrow and get some quick wickets. Otherwise, the only thing that will be stopping the whitewash will be the rain.