England's Lord's jinx continues

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, JULY 22. As 30,000 dazed Test match spectators left Lord's on Sunday, slowly trudging back towards their Tube station, their bus journey or their date with a lawn mower it was easy to identify their purpose in life. They had all seen the most complete destruction of a team and its morale.

England, beaten by eight wickets following its innings and 118 runs thrashing at Edgbaston has still not won a match at Lord's since 1934 and it has never won a series against Australia after being 2-0 down. Goodbye Ashes for at least another 18 months then.

The men and women with expressions of shock were spectators who had been dreaming of the return of the Ashes since last autumn when England staged a revival and never looked likely to lose its last six wickets for 39 in 48 deliveries, as it did this morning. Men in MCC ties, who dislike Tests since they disturb their daily routine, were grumbling as usual. The second Test had ended half an hour before lunch which meant that they missed their meal, their large glasses of red wine and their siesta in front of the pavilion.

Australia made its traditional leisurely trip round the ground to wave to its own spectators. It was still celebrating with its team song an hour after the game ended. Steve Waugh said: ``The difference in this match was the fielding. We took our chances, they put their's on the floor.''

England's stand-in captain Michael Atherton said, ``there's still a lot of hard graft ahead'' as his players crept quietly home, knowing that Graham Thorpe its finest batsman was at hospital having his hand X-rayed. He sees a specialist on Monday.

One group of five men wore puzzled frowns which are unlikely to go away before they pick the squad for the next Test at Trent Bridge on August 1. The selectors have nowhere to go. There are no brilliant replacements for the men who failed here, no batsmen threatening to extend an England innings beyond two sessions - Sunday's 66 overs is the longest England has batted in four attempts - and no bowlers tearing up wickets. The selectors' headaches are unlikely to fade before the end of the season when a 5-0 Ozwash looms large.

England restarted its innings at 163 for four with a flurry of strokes, as Australia's plans to use Mark Waugh's off spin misfired. He conceded 12 runs in his second over and in the next three overs the match was brought to an end. Alec Stewart was lbw to Glenn McGrath, Ian Ward caught at third slip off successive balls and Mark Butcher, who batted courageously for 83, was caught at the wicket of Jason Gillespie.

No doubt he was already wondering if anyone would keep him company long enough for his third Test century. He deserved it.

Craig White deserved a Little Boats at Dunkirk award for his 27 in 29 balls but McGrath and Gillespie swept away his prospective partners without ado and Australia was left with only 14 to score.

Somehow it lost Michael Slater and Ricky Ponting, who has hit just 29 runs in three knocks, before Matthew Hayden nudged the winning run, but, there was still a day and 75 overs left when the crowd began its exodus. Mark Waugh grabbed the final England catch, his 158th, a world record, Gillespie finished with five for 53 and McGrath was man of the match for his eight for 114.

The final group of men and women with bewildered faces were the hundreds of police and security personnel. They ringed the ground as the scoreboard put up its zillionth declaration and the loudspeakers insisted that no-one must run onto the grass. As they prepared to fight off the invaders they must have wondered if any of the thousands had the desire to try anything so desperate.

This defeat has, by its suddenness as well as its size, left the spirit of a cricketing nation at its lowest ebb and it is difficult to see how it can be restored. The game is as dead now as it ever was when the Ashes tradition was born in 1882.

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