Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002
Wednesday, Aug 28, 2002 |
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Cricket
By Ted Corbett
The Indians built up a score of 628 for eight declared so their spinners had time to induce batting untidiness in the England line-up. Only the imperious Michael Vaughan and Alec Stewart offered prolonged resistance. Stewart's improved technique against the spinners — at 39, not normally an age for extra batting lessons — almost brought him one of the few landmarks that has evaded him in the last 12 years. He has never scored a century against the Indians although he has made hundreds off the seven other cricket nations he has confronted. He still has two innings at his home ground — The Oval — to put this final notch in his bat but, having reached 78 not out and 47 here, he may feel wonderful chances have gone. His new method is ascribed to Duncan Fletcher, the England coach, whose teaching methods one-to-one are without equal in this era. The power men at Lord's have formed the unanimous opinion that he — like David Graveney, chairman of selectors, and the selectors' scout Geoff Miller — should be retained for another year. Despite everything that went wrong at Headingley, Stewart will be a main plank in the unsurprising party England will send to Australia this autumn. James Foster, the 22-year-old who has hardly lifted gloves or bat in anger this summer after two bad injuries, will be his deputy. Chris Read and Mark Wallace of Glamorgan will be sent to the Academy in Adelaide, as further back-up. So England will have a formidable top six batsmen, with half a dozen tall, powerful quick bowlers. There is no spinner except Ashley Giles which may give Vaughan plenty of overs, a burden he does not need. The greatest sadness is that Darren Gough will be absent. Indeed his Test career may be at an end after two unsuccessful knee operations. Not only is he England's finest fast bowler but his stature — 5ft 8in compared with the 6ft 5in of Tudor and Flintoff — ensures that he provides a skidding contrast to the giants around him. If he had been at Headingley India might not have made 200 in its first innings. Gough is not the only English seamer who would have been in tears if he had taken fewer than five wickets on this swinging, seaming dream pitch. Neil Mallender, a prominent county fast medium bowler, aged 30, walked into the Test team cold in 1992 and took eight Pakistani wickets on his debut as England won by six wickets. Mallender played in the next Test but never again. If only England had found another Mallender for this match there would have been no question of fighting throughout the final day to save the match. It would probably have won it by day four. Once India enforced the follow-on it was always down to that bonny battler Nasser Hussain to provide the steel that drew the match. His fiery temper is notorious and when he became angry about the performances of his own bowlers, his own batsmen and the passion of the Indian appeals, his obvious response was to use his fury to energise his rearguard action. When he went after 268 minutes of unrelenting determination the end came quickly. Andrew Flintoff, an embattled figure with a batting average of 18 and a bowling average above 60, made a sort of king pair. His first ball was a no-ball, his second edged comfortably to second slip; the rest merely delayed the inevitable. It is time for Flintoff to have his operation for double hernia and the selectors to ask themselves what in the name of sanity caused them to pick him. Craig White's absence provides an excuse but if England is so bereft of players that the selectors cannot account for two injuries, county cricket is as destitute of talent as its detractors suggest.
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