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Try as they might to make things tough for England on Saturday, the Chairman’s XI couldn’t quite get on top of Graeme Swann who might have bowled himself back into form.
The 34-year-old Swann, who had elbow surgery earlier in 2013, was belted around the park in last week’s first Ashes Test in Brisbane.
But after claiming 0-80 and 2-135 at the Gabba, the offspinner finished with 4-56 at the Traeger Park Oval in Alice Springs, triggering a top-order collapse of 3-29 after the home side had been 0-78.
Marcus Harris (49) and Steve Cazzulino (48) had given the home side a solid start but Swann combined with fellow spinner Monty Panesar (3-41) to restrict the home side to 8(dec)-254 in reply to England’s 7(dec)-212.
“They’re both world-class bowlers,” Cazzulino said.
“The ball that ended up cleaning me up from Monty was a pretty good one.”
Cazzulino says the home side tried to hit Swann off his line, but it just didn’t work.
“I certainly didn’t try to hit him out of the attack. I was happy to nudge him around the square,” Cazzulino said.
“The general idea was to try to hit him off his length. He was well and truly up to that.
“The mindset was if we could get after him early, we might be able to throw him off settling into a rhythm.”
England’s quicks Boyd Rankin, Steven Finn and Ben Stokes however took only one wicket between them in a below-par effort when a possible Test spot was on the line.
“They certainly seemed to be targeting upper body. The leg side is probably a strength of mine so I didn’t mind them bowling there too much,” Cazzulino said.
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