The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : We want to square the series: Strauss

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 08, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Cricket

We want to square the series: Strauss

Special Correspondent

London: It has been a while since Andrew Strauss last scored a Test hundred. A year to be precise, but the England opener hasn’t the fondest memories of the series he last got to three figures in.

It was at The Oval last year that cricket witnessed its first ever Test forfeit. Strauss, who scored two centuries at Lord’s and Leeds before arriving here to face Pakistan, regrets being part of the match.Ahead of the third Test against India starting Thursday — the first at The Oval since the infamous match in 2005 — Strauss said, “I think the over-riding memory was that the game of cricket was the loser. (It was) something that could possibly have been avoided. It was a shame to be part of that Test, but there were lessons learnt.”

Cause for concern

His form since has been cause for concern. “I clearly haven’t scored as many runs as I’d have liked, but we’ve had some tough series — the Ashes away series — and it’s been a tough year. I don’t know about hundreds, 96 (at Lord’s) in a low-scoring game was probably worth more than a 100 on a flat batting track. But, the good thing is that I feel I’m contributing to the team.”

Strauss said he was more confident of his gameplan against India’s left-arm bowlers at this stage than he was at the start of the series.

Strauss said England was looking to move on from Jellygate and win the Test to square the series. “We don’t want to lose this series. I don’t think we’re a worse side than India and it’s up to us to go out and prove it. We’re not going to be short on motivation this Test.”Towards the end of the press conference came the googly from left-field: did he think Sreesanth must be banned? “It has nothing to do with us,” said Strauss. “It’s up to the umpires and the match referee to decide if it was intentional or not. He is a good aggressive cricketer.”

In team news, Kevin Pietersen missed Tuesday’s practice because of an unexplained illness. The team management isn’t aware of his availability for the third Test.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail