Australians relieved at Harmison omission
Steve Harmison bowled a fiery spell against Australia in the practice game, but failed to find a place in the England team
Ashwin Achal
25-Feb-2013
Steve Harmison bowled a fiery spell against Australia in the practice game, but failed to find a place in the England team. Christopher Martin-Jenkins, in the Times, feels that Harmison would have been a better option than Stuart Broad, and that Broad only got the nod based on his better batting skills.
Harmison is a confidence player. When he is hot, he is very hot indeed and he is bowling with self-belief. Ask any batsman in professional cricket, whatever his nationality, and he will tell you that no one looks forward to facing him on song, even on pitches as comfortable as, predictably, this one at Lord’s was yesterday.
It was, before the end of day one at Lord's, not just the England team against Australia. It was Andrew Strauss's team. He was king before, but now he had been crowned following his with a brilliant hundred. Scyld Berry in the Daily Telegraph believes the rest of the series will be much easier for Strauss with his own game proven to be in good order.
The talk about England's time delaying strategy at Cardiff refuses to die, with Harry Pearson commenting in the Guardian that if you must bend the rules a bit, do it with some tact and guile.
Back in 1963 at Wembley Stadium British heavyweight Henry Cooper knocked Muhammad Ali (then still known as Cassius Clay) on to the seat of pants with a left hook straight to what Damon Runyon would have called "the old kazoo". When the bell for the end of the round sounded seconds later the future Greatest staggered back to his stool markedly groggy. In his corner celebrated trainer and bucket man Angelo Dundee went to work and – lo and behold – discovered a rip in his fighter's glove. A trip to the dressing room to get another pair bought Ali precious extra time to recover.