England hopes in ashes

Published on Saturday 8 August 2009 21:07

THE Ashes, just like in 2005, will be decided in the final Test at the Oval and on current form it is hard to envisage any way in which England will gain the necessary victory to win the cherished urn.

Only a dropped catch off the last ball of the day yesterday prevented the extra half hour being taken and England possibly suffering a humiliating defeat in two days.

They lack both the depth of talent, so palpably obvious in this match with both Kevin Pietersen and Freddie Flintoff being tended to by the sawbones, and the attitude to confront a resurgent Australian side.

Andrew Strauss apart, the batting has been shocking all series and Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell must be considered lucky to still be in the side. Never mind that only three days ago England were 1-0 ahead courtesy of Flintoff's passionate efforts at Lord's. To quote that scoreline in defence of the selection for this team is to ignore all the evidence of the past fortnight that Australia have started to find some form with both bat and ball and England have been be travelling at same considerable speed in the opposite direction.

Australian selectors further advanced their team's cause by finally selecting the dependable Stuart Clark while their English counterparts could hardly have done more to hinder Strauss.

Headingley is notorious as a result ground so England needed to plan shrewdly to balance their side without the giant, talismanic figure of Flintoff. The bowling would be weakened, the batting also, so the selectors sent for Jonathon Trott.

A curious choice. A decent batsman but one without any Test experience. So if the loss of Flintoff demanded bolstering the batting line up – and goodness how a line up of Cook, Bopara, Bell and Paul Collingwood needs bolstering – then surely summoning the next best opening batsman in the country would have made sense. Rob Key perhaps, a man in form with two centuries and a double century in the past four weeks.

The selectors did not and then compounded their stupidity by deciding that five front line batsman with Matt Prior at six was enough. Not even Adam Gilchrist batted six and Prior is some way short of his class. Shuffle Stuart Broad up to seven and runs would be aplenty.

Oh what folly.

Strauss has just had his Ricky Ponting moment. Remember Edgbaston in 2005 when Glenn McGrath turned his ankle in the warm-up and could not play. Undeterred at the loss of his strike bowler Ponting stuck to his plan of bowling first. The rest is history.

In case the selectors read this piece let us remind them of the form and pedigree of their main batsmen. Andrew Strauss has been exceptional, Cook had scored 145 runs in three matches, Bopara 104 runs, Bell 53 from his only Test this series and Collingwood a relatively mammoth 221 runs. So only Strauss of the top five was in good form or a potential threat to Australia. Even worse is Prior, who suffered a back spasm before play on Friday and was loaded with more drugs than an Irvine Welsh novel.

Strauss won the toss, batted first with a hint of cloud cover and gifted Australia a superb opportunity to attack the nervous, weak underbelly of England's batting. Good luck to the Australian captain. He has endured some moronic crowd behaviour this trip but with his improving side bolstered by the return of Stuart Clark into a four man pace attack, he set about England by filling the slip cordon and demanding his men pitch up and let the ball swing and the pitch seam.

Clark and Peter Siddle did and prospered. Having dismissed England the game was won but to seal it a substantial first innings lead was needed. Ponting, Michael Clarke and Marcus North ensured this by disciplined, technical batting. North was superb, patient, clinical and a deserved centurion. He and Clarke were helped in the morning by lacklustre England bowling. Teams lose matches, but what irks is when so much of the damage is self-inflicted. The England selectors are stubbornly refusing to address England's weak batting. Bopara is not, has not and until he tightens his technique considerably will not be an international number three. Bell? Well, we have been here before.

Their brief second innings yesterday merely confirmed this.

What should concern England, especially for the final crucial Test, is that Ben Hilfenhaus is continuing his good from of the past month, Siddle has rediscovered the discipline that made him so formidable in South Africa, Clark is as miserly and niggardly as ever while Mitchell Johnson is back with a vengeance.

The Oval is looking like a bonfire of England's vanities. How apt. It is where the Ashes was born with an Australian victory.