Six and Out - Some Serious Cricket

England snatch defeat

by SixandOut on December 5th, 2006

Words can barely describe. I have so few words I can barely complete. Sentences. It defies all sense of understanding. It’s just, so… bad. Being an England fan is such a difficult task. So many questions. No answers. Just a pitiful sense of frustration and disbelief.

How England managed to lose this game is no great mystery. England did what they do best. To go from a 551 in their first innings to 129 all out in their second is simply classic England. There was a distressing sense that the England players eased off. They looked like they knew the game couldn’t be won and that a draw was inevitable. It’s like they forgot they were playing Australia. You can’t fault Hoggard’s commitment in the first innings, but any semblance of concentration, or skill, for that matter, from England’s batsmen had clearly gone straight out the window. From the moment Ashely Giles dropped Ricky Ponting to the 7, yes 7 overthrows that KP gave away England just didn’t look “with it”.

Giles was pathetic throughout the match. Harmison was moderately mediocre, despite being an improvement over Brisbane, still isn’t good enough. James Ander-who? Strauss, Cook and Jones all failed. When the going got tough, when a chance to shine was presented, nobody stepped up. KP was prepared to give it large to Shane Warne in the first innings, when he was batting well and smashing him out of the park. But when he got bowled around his legs on his third delivery of the morning, and made to look very silly, well, I’ve never seen someone leave a cricket pitch so fast. And despite Freddie’s efforts with the ball, he is still frighteningly out of shape with the bat, and his captaincy leaves a lot to be desired. I suspect a combination of being new to captaincy and having no confidence in your bowlers are the main problems. As a result, Freddie bowled himself more than he probably should have done, and just to add to England’s misery, has now potentially knackered his ankle again. Needless to say, the sight of him on the cricket pitch this morning was a miserable one. He cut a deshevelled character. His face was down, his shoulders were slumped and you could almost imagine him trying to think of the words he’d need to explain this to the media. I genuinely feel sorry for him because despite his problems, he’s about the only figure in the England team that seems to know what Test cricket is all about.

I refuse to accept positives from this match. Collingwood’s 228 runs is great for him, but in a match that you lose, it’s all pointless. England should not be allowed to take away anything good from this match and should be forced to reflect on how they managed to lose this match, effectively eliminating any possibility of retaining the Ashes, much less actually winning the series. Their task now is to not lose three games of cricket, of which they must win two. And on the basis of the performances so far, there’s no conceivable way it happening.

You can guarantee that the same press releases will appear in the usual places - Fletcher and Flintoff will “admit that they threw it away, they shouldn’t have lost, but Collingwood did bat well and Hoggard bowled well, they know what they need to do and they’re up for the challenge”. Or words to that effect. It doesn’t matter because we’ve seen it all before. I’m tired of having to support a team that is up for the challenge, that is forever allegedly learning from their mistakes, and then never actually doing it. Why can’t we just learn from our mistakes? Or revel in our glory?

Something is seriously amiss. England supporters have gotten used to England doing this, it’s been the same with an England side for moreorless as long as I can remember. The question is why things aren’t changing. Sure, England are still rated #2 in the world in the test rankings but it’s a tenuous position. We can certainly talk the talk, but we definitely cannot walk the walk.

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