Flintoff upbeat despite spilled opportunities
Andrew Flintoff admitted that England's lapses in the field had made the difference, as Sri Lanka batted out the last two-and-a-half days to secure a remarkable draw in the first Test at Lord's
Andrew Miller at Lord's
15-May-2006
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Andrew Flintoff admitted that England's lapses in the field had made
the difference, as Sri Lanka batted out the last two-and-a-half days
to secure a remarkable draw in the first Test at Lord's. But he was
not allowing the disappointment to dent his enthusiasm after a
hard-fought match, and insisted that England were all set to win the
series.
"It's quite bizarre, but I'm not going to make an issue of it," he
said, after England had shelled at least nine clear-cut chances in the
course of Sri Lanka's two innings. "You see the lads in practice and
you know how hard we work. We're a good catching unit, and we've taken
a lot of chances over the last two or three years.
"It's just one of those things," he added. "I dropped one at slip and
I'm not the worst standing there. I saw it all the way, but it hit the
wrong part of my hand and just fell out. I'm not making excuses, but
it'll be put down to experience. If it happens every week then we'll
take a look and identify it."
Flintoff himself got through an alarming number of overs in the match
- 68.8, including 51 in the second innings alone. "I've got a few
miles in my legs," he conceded. "But it's the first game of the summer
and the first time I've bowled. It's the exception rather than the
norm, and I don't envisage doing that next week, but it was something
dictated by the state of the game."
It was a bit of a comedown for England's new captain after the heady
scenes at Mumbai in March, but he refused to be despondent. "It was
tough, but not so much from a captaincy point of view," he insisted.
"As captain I did what I thought was best and went with instincts. You
place your fielders, and you bowl where you think will take wickets or
stop runs. It's tough, but I'm enjoying doing it."
Flintoff preferred to reflect on the positives of the match, in
particular the performance of the new guys in the side. "Alastair
[Cook, who made 89] was fantastic, Sajid [Mahmood] turned the game on
its head, and Liam Plunkett bowled really nicely once he settled down
and got into the rhythm."
One man who was underused in England's attack was the spinner, Monty
Panesar, but Flintoff defended his decision to stick with the seamers.
"We saw Murali bowl a lot of overs without any success because there
wasn't much spin. Monty bowled really well but I thought the best way
to take wickets was with the seamers, they looked threatening."
"The mood in the dressing-room is great," he added. "They are a good
bunch of lads, and though we'd have liked to come out with a win there
are a lot of positives. Some young bowlers have come in and performed
well on the big stage, and the batters are firing.
"We know Sri Lanka can fight, we've seen it before. They came out and
applied themselves in the second innings, but if we'd held our catches
we'd have won the game. There's no need for doom and gloom, we're
doing alright."
Andrew Miller is UK editor of Cricinfo