AUS_LEICS_14-16JUN1997_MR

Taylor needs to regain lost momentum

By Scyld Berry at Grace Road

Australia (220-8)

IT was Leicestershire`s turn to prevent the Australians getting into their stride, and the county champions did their bit. They forced, rather than invited, the tourists to bat on grass which came up green after a morning`s drizzle, and the pitch was damp, the air cool, the ball swinging and seaming, and the Midlands weather grey enough for every Australian to realise that his ancestors were right to emigrate.

The Australians want some momentum to get their tour on the road and with the rain around Leicester they might not have time to win their last match before the Lord`s Test. They have not won at all since their second match, against Northamptonshire, their only win out of nine since their Arundel opener. They are as far from finding the formula as England were in Mashonaland.

The questions about their captain are far from resolved, as Mark Taylor claimed after the Edgbaston Test, only shelved. Noone could have deduced from his brief, out-of-synch innings yesterday that he had made a Test century a week ago, and England should be all too happy that Taylor has kept his place by making runs which did not affect the outcome.

Aside from his mental fortitude, Taylor`s Edgbaston hundred was all legside and thick edges. When play began at 2.10pm at Grace Road, he was so keen to get his front foot over to the offside ball that he fell across his crease and missed everything on his legs, which made a step back from Edgbaston. Taylor also missed a yorker which plucked out his middle stump as he fell towards cover.

The bowler was James Ormond who not only replaced David Millns but looked like him. His only previous first-class match was against Oxford University last year, but some of the top-order Aus- tralians on a seaming pitch and short of form were hardly more daunting than undergraduates at The Parks.

In the first Test England kept in reserve the cunning plan of bowling their seamers round the wicket and drawing Taylor into the front foot off-drive. A couple of failures for him at Lord`s and the captaincy issue will be festering again.

Not that Michael Slater has made sufficient runs yet to reclaim his place. He began in shot-a-ball style, making up for lost time, steering the first ball of the match to the third-man boundary as if it had been the Brisbane Test of 1994/95. In this same first over he crashed another four through mid-off and lay back in the attempt to crack a straight one past cover. When Slater bats now it is a champagne moment when he leaves one.

His dismissal was unlucky in that he cracked a half-volley barely off the ground, yet Iain Sutcliffe at cover took the first of two fine low catches, the second as Michael Bevan mowed a long-hop to square-leg.

The Australians` discomfort could have been made far more embarrassing in the conditions, but Alan Mullally was in his England form. He did everything with the ball except make the batsman play regularly at it. Time is getting on if he is ever to make the transition from a steady third seamer who could slant the ball away from right-handers into a reliable, inswing opening bowler.

So much did the ball move around that of the Australians` first 100 runs, 30 came in extras and Paul Nixon did not spend much of his afternoon in the vertical. This waywardness allowed Ricky Ponting to settle down after throwing his bat and missing some extravagant drives, and produce his first tour innings of substance. Greg Blewett would normally have had a game here but his left knee is so damaged that he is being rested entirely between Test matches.

The Australians` difficulties do not end there - while England`s are so relatively few that their selectors did not have to meet last night, and had only to nominate Ashley Cowan as the young paceman to supply bowling practice at Lord`s on Tuesday. The Australians are used to being front runners, and have not won a series from behind since 1968/69.

Despite the loss in status of their formally dominant allrounders, the tourists have been strengthened by the call-up of Paul Reiffel who will walk into their Lord`s team, provided his back does not break down in this match, ahead of Brendon Julian. Ian Healy, promoted for practice, struggled as much as anyone against Leicestershire`s seamers but enjoyed lofting the offspinner Adrian Pierson - when will an English captain ever post a deep midwicket for Healy against a spinner? - while Ponting moved to 64, when he was bowled after an ambitious pull.

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

By Peter Deeley at Grace Road

Second day of three: Leics (62-4) trail Australians (220-8 dec) by 158 runs

THE Paul Reiffel conundrum was once again the main talking point on another rain-affected day of this troubled Australian tour.

The Victorian fast bowler again demonstrated his potency on English pitches with three wickets in an opening 10-over spell at a cost of only 12 runs to make one wonder, not for the first time, why he was omitted from the original tour party.

At Trent Bridge in midweek Reiffel took three for 15 and, on the last Ashes tour four years ago, claimed 19 wickets in the last three Tests of the series.

Many counties, seeing how suited Reiffel is to our conditions, expressed an interest in signing him and at least one was actively pursuing the matter on discovering, inexplicably, that he was being left at home.

Reiffel - predictably nicknamed Pistol and who wears an earring shaped like a miniature revolver - had injury problems during the recent tour of South Africa where it is said he received a poor management report because of "attitude".

With injuries to Andrew Bichel and now Jason Gillespie, Reiffel is certain to step into the side for the second Lord`s Test and he seems to have hit prime form at just the right moment for the tourists.

With only 30 overs bowled yesterday Australia have now lost over two days` play in the two county games between the Tests. After another delayed start they declared on their overnight 220 for eight and Reiffel`s first over then proved a handful for the Leicestershire batsmen.

Darren Maddy was bowled with his third ball, one which left the opener and took off stump and Greg MacMillan was very close to being leg before from the next delivery.

After lunch Ian Sutcliffe was caught behind and, in Reiffel`s next over, Leicestershire captain James Whitaker was taken at short leg.

The home side would have been in deeper trouble if Brendon Julian had not made a rare mess of an chance when MacMillan, then on two, pushed at Glenn McGrath and the ball looped up to backward short leg. The catch seemed so easy that McGrath was still punching the air in triumph when the ball slipped out of Julian`s fingers.

It was difficult to know whether Shane Warne came in for more punishment from the batsmen or a section of the crowd. MacMillan hit him for three boundaries in his first two overs before the spinner had him caught at point.

Less acceptable was the attitude of some foul-mouthed yobbos seated on the balcony of the adjacent Cricketers public house who screamed vituperation at Warne. Success for England in sport seems to give free rein to the worst elements of jingoism among some so-called followers of the game.

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