James McKeown
Gabba test (No contest in Ashes opener)
November 26th 2006 13:00
Team A scores 602/9 declared in less than 2 days..
Team B scores 157 all out in less than 1 day...
Team A bats again( I dnt kno why...enforcing the follow on could have meant 2 rest days for Team A) and piles up 201/1 and that 1 wicket was a runout..
At the end of Day 4...Team B shows some fight and resistance and manages 291 for the loss of 5 wickets...with 355 more runs required to win..they have to bat 1 whole day to save this test match...
Statistics are usually not a very clear indicator of the real action...but this time...they are... the bare fact is....England are NOT good enough to compete with Australia at the highest level....and another bare fact is..no team in the world today is good enough to compete with Australia at the highest level...thats the truth...and nothing but the truth..
In the last 10 years...Australia have lost ONLY 6 test matches in Australia.... they are by far the superior side... and the gap between them and the second best side grows every day.... a proof of that fact is when touring teams lose badly against the second string Aussie sides in the warm up games..
Bowlers win test matches...thats true...the team that manages to take 20 wickets wins the match....The bowlers won England the series last year..
the bowlers were
Steve Harmisson (At one point...rated the world's number 1 bowler)
Mathew Hoggard (Great swing bowler with the new ball)
Simon Jones (Great user of the old ball, Aussies were simply unable to tackle his reverse swing)
Andrew Flintoff (The best allrounder in the world...repeatedly troubled the Aussie left handers with his angle and length.)
This time...
Simon Jones in unfit..his replacement James Anderson would probably fail to make it to B or C Australian teams
Mathew Hoggard has not adjusted very well to bowling in Australia and is not finding the right length consistently and as a result is unable to swing the ball
Andrew Flintoff...came back after a long injury but is still troubling the Aussies with his bowling and giving his 110 %
and now...England's best bowler..the bowler who everyone thinks is the key if England are to defend the Ashes this year
Steve Harmisson....he is struggling to make sure that the wicket keeper collects his balls and NOT the slip fielder....yes..he is so wayward that his wides end up at first slip...that was his first ball of the Ashes this summer..with that the Ashes got underway in the worst possible way for England... his bowling made me wonder whether he has ever played at this level or not...because he was struggling to bowl 6 balls without a wide.. his length was all over the place..and if u bowl like that against Ricky Ponting who is the best batsman in the world currently...he will simply toy with you and thats exactly what Ponting did...
When it was England's turn to bat..the pitch which till now had looked like a batting paradise with no swing for the bowler...suddenly came back to life with McGrath swinging the ball both ways at will... once again it goes to the same old saying...'the right length and line" McGrath and Stuart Clarke bowled the RIGHT line and length and they got the ball to swing..the repeatedly hit the cracks and the ball moved both ways making it extremely difficult for the English batsmen to decide whether to commit to a shot or to leave it.
McGrath bowling like that was expected...I dont know why people thought his age would be a factor...McGrath does NOT rely on pace...he relies on control and his control and line and length is impeccable...so I was never in any doubt that this man would once again destroy the English batting line up.
But the surprise for me was Stuart Clarke. Now here is a bowler who does not find a regular place in this test side...he is only playing this test match because Shaun Tait was injured... and his line and length amazed me...I mean a bowler who does not find a place in the Australian side has better line and length and control than many front line bowlers of other teams (e.g. Irfan Pathan, Mohammad Sami, Fidel Edwards, Steve Harmisson)
Once again that shows just how much better Australia is than the rest of the world... a team that is just simply too good....
When India played them recently at the Champions Trophy...it was a no contest...they toyed with West Indies in the finals...and now...this time they are toying with the English...this Ashes will be another no contest...
The gap between them and the rest of the world is growing at an alarming rate and unless the other teams make some radical change in their domestic structure and infrastructure...that day is not far when a match between Australia and any other team would fail to attract any audience..
Team B scores 157 all out in less than 1 day...
Team A bats again( I dnt kno why...enforcing the follow on could have meant 2 rest days for Team A) and piles up 201/1 and that 1 wicket was a runout..
At the end of Day 4...Team B shows some fight and resistance and manages 291 for the loss of 5 wickets...with 355 more runs required to win..they have to bat 1 whole day to save this test match...
Statistics are usually not a very clear indicator of the real action...but this time...they are... the bare fact is....England are NOT good enough to compete with Australia at the highest level....and another bare fact is..no team in the world today is good enough to compete with Australia at the highest level...thats the truth...and nothing but the truth..
In the last 10 years...Australia have lost ONLY 6 test matches in Australia.... they are by far the superior side... and the gap between them and the second best side grows every day.... a proof of that fact is when touring teams lose badly against the second string Aussie sides in the warm up games..
Bowlers win test matches...thats true...the team that manages to take 20 wickets wins the match....The bowlers won England the series last year..
the bowlers were
Steve Harmisson (At one point...rated the world's number 1 bowler)
Mathew Hoggard (Great swing bowler with the new ball)
Simon Jones (Great user of the old ball, Aussies were simply unable to tackle his reverse swing)
Andrew Flintoff (The best allrounder in the world...repeatedly troubled the Aussie left handers with his angle and length.)
This time...
Simon Jones in unfit..his replacement James Anderson would probably fail to make it to B or C Australian teams
Mathew Hoggard has not adjusted very well to bowling in Australia and is not finding the right length consistently and as a result is unable to swing the ball
Andrew Flintoff...came back after a long injury but is still troubling the Aussies with his bowling and giving his 110 %
and now...England's best bowler..the bowler who everyone thinks is the key if England are to defend the Ashes this year
Steve Harmisson....he is struggling to make sure that the wicket keeper collects his balls and NOT the slip fielder....yes..he is so wayward that his wides end up at first slip...that was his first ball of the Ashes this summer..with that the Ashes got underway in the worst possible way for England... his bowling made me wonder whether he has ever played at this level or not...because he was struggling to bowl 6 balls without a wide.. his length was all over the place..and if u bowl like that against Ricky Ponting who is the best batsman in the world currently...he will simply toy with you and thats exactly what Ponting did...
When it was England's turn to bat..the pitch which till now had looked like a batting paradise with no swing for the bowler...suddenly came back to life with McGrath swinging the ball both ways at will... once again it goes to the same old saying...'the right length and line" McGrath and Stuart Clarke bowled the RIGHT line and length and they got the ball to swing..the repeatedly hit the cracks and the ball moved both ways making it extremely difficult for the English batsmen to decide whether to commit to a shot or to leave it.
McGrath bowling like that was expected...I dont know why people thought his age would be a factor...McGrath does NOT rely on pace...he relies on control and his control and line and length is impeccable...so I was never in any doubt that this man would once again destroy the English batting line up.
But the surprise for me was Stuart Clarke. Now here is a bowler who does not find a regular place in this test side...he is only playing this test match because Shaun Tait was injured... and his line and length amazed me...I mean a bowler who does not find a place in the Australian side has better line and length and control than many front line bowlers of other teams (e.g. Irfan Pathan, Mohammad Sami, Fidel Edwards, Steve Harmisson)
Once again that shows just how much better Australia is than the rest of the world... a team that is just simply too good....
When India played them recently at the Champions Trophy...it was a no contest...they toyed with West Indies in the finals...and now...this time they are toying with the English...this Ashes will be another no contest...
The gap between them and the rest of the world is growing at an alarming rate and unless the other teams make some radical change in their domestic structure and infrastructure...that day is not far when a match between Australia and any other team would fail to attract any audience..
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