Defeat was a 'kick up the arse', says Vaughan
Michael Vaughan was a concerned England captain in the aftermath of hisside's comprehensive seven-wicket defeat at Potchefstroom, describing the result as a 'kick up the arse'
Andrew Miller in Potchefstroom
13-Dec-2004
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Michael Vaughan was a concerned England captain in the aftermath of his
side's comprehensive seven-wicket defeat at Potchefstroom, describing the
result as a "kick up the arse" ahead of the first Test against South
Africa, which begins at Port Elizabeth on Friday.
"It is a worry," he admitted. "We've been convincingly beaten, and we've
had one decent session in three days. We haven't batted well as a unit,
and though they bowled exceptionally well throughout, there was only one
period, yesterday morning, when our guys were able to get it right, and
put them under pressure by bowling in tandem. On the whole, we bowled too
short and didn't entice the drive enough."
Vaughan denied that England had come into the match undercooked, and
pointed out that there had been similar accusations ahead of their 3-0
victories in the Caribbean and at home to New Zealand. But he was
nonetheless concerned about the ramifications of such a defeat.
"Cricket is largely a mental game," he said. "There are technical aspects
- time in the middle, overs under the belt - but a lot is about what goes
on up top. We've got to rally round in the three days between now and
Friday. There's a lot of experienced guys in the side, and they've got to
do a bit of talking over the next few days.
"I thought there were times in the field that we were a bit quiet for a
team that's won ten out of 11," he added. "Perhaps this is a timely
reminder that we're not quite at the standard we think we are. We've got
one hell of a surprise in store if we play like this over the next few
weeks."
Vaughan was equally critical of his batsmen and bowlers and admitted that
the players had perhaps underestimated the opposition. "Our shot selection
in the first innings was questionable," he said. "The ball was swinging
and six of us got out to flamboyant drives, which was a tough shot to play
in the conditions. They just dangled the carrot outside off stump and we
had a go. It was a pretty good deck and we should have cashed in."
The particular concern for England is the lack of match practice for the
batsmen, particularly Mark Butcher and Graham Thorpe. But Vaughan was
adamant that they had enough big-match experience to cope. "Butch has a
tradition of getting nothing in these fixtures, and then going into the
Test and putting in a good score. He's certainly mentally prepared enough
to do that on Friday, as is Thorpey.
"But it could be a good time to lose," he concluded. "We were trying to
get too clever, and perhaps didn't take it as hard as we should. Right now
we are hurting from a bad loss - and the result suggests it was a
hammering. The next few days are crucial, but tomorrow have a chat and
move on to Port Elizabeth."
Andrew Miller is assistant editor of Cricinfo.