The great Ralph Ellison once said ‘Cricket is to be lived on the field, not analysed from the stands, and humility is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.’ Or he would of if he actually played and watched cricket.
By tea time on the second day of the second test at Lords, Ninemsn’s crystal ball gave Australia an 8% chance of winning and England a 76% chance of winning.
For Australia to play out 3 days and one session in the face of such terrible odds gives one courage and strength of character or at least I hope so.
Australia was certainly outplayed by both England and the umpires. Where or with whom should the blame game start?
Rather than the usual finger pointing which typically aims to single out certain players, I have compiled my armchair list and wish to share it with all and sundry.
The first culprit is the toss.
Batting first was a tremendous advantage for the usual reasons and in particular because it largely shielded England from the horrors of day two.
With the barometric pressure dropping at a pace only matched by Mark Webber, the rain came in and out and some 13 wickets were lost in the day. For England that meant Strauss and the tail end. For Australia it meant the top order.
The second blame factor was the bowling.
To put it simply, the occasional spell of great bowling by Australia was surrounded by some very ordinary efforts. By contrast England bowled well for the majority of the match.
As an aside, and putting aside Flintoff’s excellent bowling in this match, does anyone else think Flintoff is overrated? He averages over 31 for god’s sake. For comparison and if I remember – correctly McGrath averaged around 21.
The third culprit was the umpires.
There is no doubt Australia was on the rotten end of some terrible decisions in both innings. I think the team has every right to complain about consistent umpiring.
Australia doesn’t seem to get much sympathy from the international cricket world but we really were done over here.
So what to do?
Australia’s second innings of 406 was the highest ever losing run chase by Australia.
It shows a determination to persist against the odds, the pitch and some great bowling. On the last day, the way the ball was moving sideways off the pitch it was a real testament that the team even made it to 400.
Kudos to Clark and Haddin. And kudos also for Johnson. He really looks like he could be a match winning batsman in that spot (ironic really!).
Australia has become so used to winning that the much needed mental strength to tough it out in the adversity has hardly been required in the last ten years.
Perhaps the last time was in England in 2005. The team should be patting itself on the back and looking forward to the next challenge. Bring it on!
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