The Hindu : Sport : Catching has been England's grey area

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 26, 2005

Sport

Sport

Catching has been England's grey area

Australia did just enough in the last session to wrest back the initiative

STEVE WAUGH

Australia will be glad to go one up in the Ashes series, which will be a relief for them after the build up that preceded the Lord's Test. Once again, the hosts had their opportunities, but they dropped catches at crucial points in the game. Catching has been a grey area for the England team for 15 years, and they will have to loosen up a little on the field if they want to hold on to their chances.

The Test understandably got off to a very dramatic start as both teams wanted to make a positive beginning to the series. The body language was very upbeat from both sides, but it was clear that all 22 players were edgy, and eager to get off to a good start. Things obviously did not go according to script for the Australians, but that first session was a lot more even than the scoreline suggested. Even though five wickets fell, England could have done a lot more. There were many wasted deliveries with Matthew Hoggard in particular guilty of wasting at least five-six overs.

Positive note

Plenty has been written about the Australian team's ability to do well in the first Test of a series. What has not been noticed, however, is the way in which the team tends to end each day on a positive note. If one were to study trends in the Tests that we have played over the last decade, one would see that we almost always won the last session. This held true for every day of the Lord's Test. Just when England seemed to have some momentum going in the first half of the day, Australia would do just enough in the last session to wrest back the initiative.

The heroes of the game were without a doubt Simon Katich and Glenn McGrath. I had predicted that Simon would do well in the Ashes, and it was great to see him fire from the first game itself. The runs he scored in both innings came at critical points in the match, and once again he showed tremendous mental strength while batting with the tail.

Sound performance

Glenn had spoken pretty aggressively before the series, so it was great to see him back his words with a sound performance. He has always enjoyed bowling at Lords since he uses the slope well and on the first day, the exaggerated movement off the seam made him nearly unplayable. The batsmen just did not know which ball to leave and which to play. It's also good to see Glenn bowling so well once again — since he was struggling with his fitness 18 months ago — and he has proved to his critics that he is as good as he was before the injury. England will have to find a way to counter his accuracy if they are to get anywhere in this series. Overall, Australia played better in crunch situations right through the game.

Good debut

Kevin Pietersen had a very good debut, but the catches he dropped will weigh heavily on his conscience. As I said earlier, England have always had a problem with their catching, more so against Australia. Perhaps they put too much pressure on themselves when the chances come, in which case they need to loosen up on the field. The hosts did have their moments in the game, but from day two onwards there was only one side that was going to win the Test.

Gameplan

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