Momentum with Australia
Glorious sunshine once again at Headingley today. But black clouds of a different kind loomed over the players’ balcony. Strauss and Flower sat deep in sombre conversation through most of the mornings play.
Long gone were the conversations of how to save this game. Instead, how do they fix this in a week and 3 days?
England hung on longer than many expected today, adding 185 to their overnight score of 78-5. Exciting and attacking performances from both Broad and Swann restored a small amount of pride for England. It certainly gave some value for money for the near capacity crowd, who took every opportunity to vocalise their support.
England lost the early wicket of night-watchman Anderson, caught by Ponting of Hilfenhaus for 4. Prior left half-an-hour later for 22, caught by Haddin in a stunning dive in front of first slip. Broad’s gutsy 61 ended with a catch by Watson at backward square leg.
England were 245-8 at lunch. Swann looked like getting a career best, beating his 63 not out against the West Indies at Lord’s in May, but it was not to be. Replays remained unclear as to whether he got an edge, but Haddin took it and it was given. He left on 62.
Johnson finished with 5 for 69, hitting the top of the off stump to dismiss Onions for his second duck of this Test. Harmison was the last man standing with a valiant 19 not out.
Stuart Clark suffered the most from the burst by the lower order. He finished the innings with no wickets, conceding 74 off 11 overs. Ponting stressed that this would not affect his possible selection for the final test; he and the selectors will pick the right combination for the pitch on the day. They have a lot to choose from.
The performance by the tail today is a positive for England. But a worrying statistic from this series so far is that the England top 5 have scored 937, whilst the bottom 5 have made almost as much with 916.
Strauss does not want to get ‘carried away’ with talk of selection, and remains ‘resistant to wholesale changes.’
Few are petitioning for Bopara to keep the number 3 spot. Key and Ramprakash are just 2 of the names being bandied around to replace him.
The key issues will be whether or not Flintoff is fit. If he is, a straight swap back for Harmison seems likely. Strauss said that Flintoff was ‘bitterly disappointed’ not to have played here, and is ‘desperate’ to play in the final Test.
There is also the issue of Anderson’s fitness. Whilst England have been reluctant to admit to it, he has not been fully fit in this Test. 12 wickets in the first 3 Tests have been followed here with figures of 18-3-89-0.
Thankfully since that final session at Edgbaston, Broad seems to have found some form. He spent a lot of time working on his bowling in Birmingham with coach Otis Gibson. With a spinner a likely pick for the Oval, the batting is strengthened down the order with Prior, Swann and Broad all set to feature.
Strauss refused to portion any blame for the performance here to the events leading up to the start of play on Friday morning. He conceded that it was ‘far from ideal not knowing the team at 1030’, and a 10.40 toss being a bit close to opening the batting. Matt Prior’s injury scare was said not to have affected his decision to bat first.
Looking ahead to the final Test he remained positive that they still have a chance of winning this series. As a team he says they have come back well from some bad results.
‘We need 11 guys to stand up and want it badly enough for it to happen.’ The decision on whose those men will be will not be rushed, and will no doubt centre around one man’s fitness.
Australia seem to have found form just at the right time. Ponting said today that he believes momentum is all about what an individual takes from a game. If that is the case then Australia must have bags of it.
