- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
I know, I know, I know, it wasn’t a pretty sight. I reduced my nightmare quotient by peering through my fingers at the scoreline then flicking over to the golf.
Fancy getting marmalised by the Poms at Lord’s. Headquarters is supposed to be our favourite overseas hunting ground but a 300 run defeat is a genuine pantsing.
For some reason I’m not quite as demoralised by this loss as a few of my colleagues are.
Maybe the optimism emanating from the close run thing at Trent Bridge had us expecting more, even though the tail had outscored the specialists for the fifth Test in a row.
I figured the top order were due. After all, the rub of the green went distinctly England’s way in the first one.
Nothing much changed in the second: the umpiring both on the field and in the armchair upstairs was abysmal and unfortunately Australia got the worst of it again.
Maybe the TV ref from the NRL was doing the cricket and visa versa because the decisions the third umpire was making bore no relation to what I was seeing on my screen.
Imagine the chaos if the rugby league players only had two referrals on all those dodgy “check the offside and grounding” calls.
Having said that, and bypassing the DRS system and its usage by Watto, there can be no shrinking from the dreadful batting performance, especially in the first innings when the pitch was still in pretty good nick.
Losing teams can get into a trench mentality where heads are kept down to avoid being shot off rather than peeking above the turret to let off a few well-directed attacking volleys.
The psychological wars that are fought between the ears can be won and lost without a shot being fired or a decent delivery taking a wicket.
Tense and foggy thoughts lead to tense and foggy actions, which result in missing straight ones and slogging spinners badly when discipline and practised technique are de riguer.
Shane Watson has million dollars drives, cuts and pulls, but a parking meter attention span.
Test batsmen of quality do not miss straight balls eight out of their last ten innings.
Some fine focus and a technique that keeps the bat straight and in FRONT of his left pad are needed. No one doubts the speed of his reactions, most question just how long he can concentrate for.
Rogers and Watson have put together three starts of sorts from four attempts. There is a glimmer of greater things to come from the odd couple, and unless Simon Katich is resurrected, they will simply have to get better.
Darren Lehmann does not so much find himself galvanising a dysfunctional team and gilding a spirit but rather actually coaching batting technique.
Yes, I know it’s revolutionary to get a modern coach to … well … coach but it’s worth a try.
The intention to attack Swann is the correct one but it must be done with dancing feet and outfield targets in mind. The step and fetch methods of limited over (concentrated in Twenty20) do not work against the flighted ball landing on receptive surfaces.
Spinners in Twenty20 bowl flat and wicket-to-wicket, so footwork is composed of getting the front leg out of the way and having a heave and be buggered if you hole out.
It is expected and often rewarded by indolent coaches and team mates who pat you on the back and say “never mind, it nearly got over the fence”. Nearly is not good enough in a Test match.
There is talent in the Australian team now they have to find the framework to display that talent.
I am convinced of the deleterious blur of short form cricket on our Test batsmen.
When you make 50 in a Test match, you cannot get out straight legged thrashing, even if you do think it was a half volley. Quick outfields ensure the efficacy of timing and placement rather than the need for the outrageous power so prevalent with the white ball.
The successful Open Golf methods of control, placement and touch and Test match requirements were not worlds apart. The big hitters are not winning on the links or the greenswards over four days.
Australian batsmen must play their way out of trouble not smash their way clear.
England are a very good team but not a great one.
They are beatable and the Australians may as well start at Old Trafford next week with some long boring innings studded with lively footwork and plenty of singles that result in hundreds not handfuls.