AUS_GLOUCS_27-29MAY1997_MR

New failure puts Taylor on brink of resignation

By Simon Hughes at Bristol

First day of three: Gloucs (55-1) trail Australia (249) by 194 runs

HAVING lasted only four balls yesterday, Mark Taylor is clinging onto the Australian captaincy by his very fingertips. The resignation of a decent, intelligent man and a brilliant leader may be only days away as each new layer of rust obscures a fine old model.

His batting seems to need more than a mere spit and polish in the garage and the team are looking unbalanced as a result. Their abject performance owed more to their careworn state than to Gloucestershire`s current status as championship leaders.

What complicates the Taylor situation is that Trevor Hohns, the chairman of Australia`s selectors, has abrogated his responsibility in favour of the on-tour selection committee of Taylor himself, vice-captain Steve Waugh and coach Geoff Marsh, leaving any such decision to them. Yet Waugh has the greatest respect for Taylor and Marsh is a close friend. Australia`s second innings here may determine whether Taylor`s position becomes totally untenable.

As Gloucestershire took the field, Marsh made a conscious effort to video his troubled pal`s innings for later analysis. He was too late. By the time he had rigged up the camera, Taylor was walking back to the pavilion. Mike Smith directed the first ball of the match down the leg side then allowed the Australian captain the liberty of a couple of sighters outside off-stump, but the fourth started on a straight line and perfect length before ducking wickedly away towards the slips. The edge from Taylor`s textbook-straight bat just carried to a sprawling Jack Russell.

Having won the toss, Australia`s initial fortunes on the field went from bad to worse. After one imperious off drive, Matthew Elliott went hard at a ball from the inaccurate Jon Lewis that was drifting down the leg side and snicked to the diving Russell, then Justin Langer chased one equally unreachable outside off, resulting in another edge.

The South African captain, Hansie Cronje, recently summed up the Ashes as England against the Waugh brothers, and watching the twins settle in seemed like an entirely different game. Mark warmed up with a couple of sweet clips off his toes and dabbed Smith past gully for a third four. The remainder of his 14 boundaries were firm drives through the off side, several played on the up.

Steve was more watchful, but his defence is so secure and measured it makes engaging viewing, especially when interspersed with the occasional rapier-like square cut. He tucks leg-side deliveries away neatly and latches onto wider short balls with feverish enthusiasm. He outlived Mark, as he often does, the former seeming to get frustrated by Richard Davis`s nonturning spinners, and holeing out to mid-on just before lunch.

With a predominantly strokeless Michael Bevan, the elder twin forged on and had contributed exactly half his team`s runs when a ball from the persistent, but a little too low-slung, Smith jagged back sharply, causing him to drag on. After only two strokes in anger in an hour, Bevan nibbled at one slanted across him from a better-directed Lewis and then it was only the determination and resourcefulness of Ian Healy that kept the innings going until tea.

The Australians` first-choice attack bowled steadily with the new ball, Glenn McGrath finding an excellent length, but could not find a way past the obdurate bats of Tony Wright and Nick Trainor, and it took a humdinging bouncer followed by a quicker, fuller ball from Jason Gillespie to prise out Wright. Shane Warne found more drift than turn, and when he strayed wider, Trainor`s attempted cut sliced the ball viciously at Taylor`s head. Taylor stayed intact, just.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)

Trainor puts Australians into a sweat

By Simon Hughes at Bristol

Second day of three: Australia (249 & 43-0) trail Gloucs (350)

IF the watching David Graveney wanted conclusive proof that these Australians do not particularly like playing on mottled strips of Plasticine, this match provided it. Especially having not played a proper match for two months.

Apart from the Waugh twins, the batsmen struggled to find their touch on the first day, and some of the bowlers located the wrong length on the second, assisting Gloucestershire to a lead of 101. Graveney should order Edgbaston, venue for the first Test next week, to be flooded forthwith.

This sluggish surface, the kind Courtney Walsh would describe as having "gone to sleep", was ideal for a young apprentice to compile a maiden century, and in just over five hours 21-year-old Nick Trainor obliged. The feat was even more notable when you consider that his previous three scores were all ducks. It is the sort of recovery that Mark Taylor can only dream of at the moment, but the Australia captain for once did not attract the unplayable ball or bizarre dismissal, and came unscathed through the final 24 overs.

That the Australians would be in for a frustrating day was soon evident by the ease with which the nightwatchman, Richard Davis, survived the first hour, before trying one sweep too many at Shane Warne. Trainor had one or two hairy moments against Warne, chipping him twice perilously close to outstretched hands, but seemed to gain confidence from Rob Cunliffe`s more authoritative approach. They added 87 in the 70 minutes to lunch and 142 in all.

Trainor began life in Durham and had various trials in their second team to no effect. He finished up writing to every other county and was taken on by Gloucester last year. A singleminded type, he broke all records in the Johannesburg Premier League last winter and is clearly adept at sniffing out an opportunity. Yesterday, restricting his shots largely to a solid smear through the covers and a neat flick off his hips, he seized his chance with hands that just happen to be the dimension of dinner plates.

He had more trouble than Cunliffe with Jason Gillespie`s severe pace, taking one glancing blow on the helmet, but seemed to read Warne well, and took sensible toll of anything the bowlers dragged down, which in the case of the two Michaels, Bevan and Kasprowicz, was rather too much.

Eventually he was tempted into an injudicous hook at Glenn McGrath and departed to a second good running catch by Kasprowicz. The Australian fielding, at least, held up well and the new ball did the trick for the bowlers, though not before the lower order had weighed in with some cheerful clumps. Tasmania`s Shaun Young, anxious to remind his compatriots of his credentials, was one exception to this, soon getting a bottom edge to the wicketkeeper.

When Australia went in again, Taylor`s desperate quest for a score was encouraged somewhat by the sight of slow leftarmer Davis opening the bowling.

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)