Ashes downunder

So the knives are out for England's cricketers ans management. The only real fault had been raising our expectations for this tour. On reflection it has progressed in much the same manner as all but one of of the previous Australian series this century. 

Unfortunately the plain matter of fact is that Australia did the basics better. They took their catches and gave less ducks.

The first test was a bit of an outlier. The only person who batted in any sense was Head in the second innings and by all accounts it was a T20 innings. However England should of had a plan. But when you are defending 200 in a second innings you can't afford to let anyone get in. 

Their was an element of self sabotage in the second test. The 5 dropped catches allegedly cost 143 runs which does bring the 1st innings defecit down somewhat. Still would have left Australia around 200 to chase. Very achievable as the 1st test proved. So there were also 4 batsmen in the first innings that failed to trouble the scorers. Ducks happen especially in the tail. Even so it did put a lot of pressure on the rest of the line up.

In the third test England failed to reach 300 in the first innings. Had they achieved a higher first innings total they woukd not have left themselves so much to do in the last innings. And we gave a pretty good stab at chasing 430. A bit more application from the batsmen early on migjt of led to a closer result even a victory. 

So in summary Australia have obviously played the better cricket and they have done it by doing the basics better. 

The knives are out for the management team but I think it is premature. The ECB must not pay heed to folk that have played their cricket firmly in the past i.e. all the British press. Keeping Mcullum et al until the next visit of England, they would at least be run by a team that has experience of a tour. 

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