England seek balancing act in Victoria match (4 December 1998)

4 December 1998

England seek balancing act in Victoria match

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins

IT was no wonder that England's tour selectors felt they would rather wait until after a full-scale practice at a green-looking Melbourne Cricket Ground today before choosing an XI to play against Victoria in the four-day game which starts tomorrow.

Filing on to the plane for the flight from Perth, the players looked refreshed from a two-day break, but there did seem to be an awful lot of them.

Eighteen have to be whittled down to 11 today and with only four first-class matches left after that, there will be some disappointed cricketers, one or two of them wondering why they are being paid some £30,000 for endless sessions of nets and physical training.

Graham Thorpe, standing for much of the flight, did not exactly look comfortable, but he was hopeful of being able to pass another stringent test of his stiff back today.

Warren Hegg is likely to get a game to enable Alec Stewart to concentrate on his batting but it is unlikely that either Peter Such or Ben Hollioake will get a chance, despite the fact that they have played six days of cricket on the tour between them.

Hollioake, yet to play a first-class game, mainly as a result of pulling a groin muscle during the opening limited-overs game at Lilac Hill, will be hoping to be chosen as third seamer.

The other two will, presumably, be Angus Fraser and Dean Headley, one or other of whom can be expected to join Darren Gough, Alan Mullally and Alex Tudor at Adelaide. Fraser would have to bowl very badly here, surely, not to be restored to the team, probably in place of Dominic Cork, now that the WACA and its uniquely-quick pitch has been and gone.

Today's selection obviously has to be made with the third Test in mind and the balance of the side for that match is causing as much debate as it did before Perth.

Seven batsmen were no help to England in the crucial first innings there, but the fact that Colin Miller got only 12 overs (and Mark Ramprakash two) suggests that if Robert Croft had played he would not have been given much bowling. Nor, for all his batting improvement, could he have taken the attack to Australia in the second innings as Hick did in the course of his 68, which was easily the freest innings of any substance played by any batsman on either side.

The ability of both Hick and Ramprakash to bowl spin might keep Croft out of the side at Adelaide. If so, however, they both have to get a substantial bowl in this match. Hick may be ahead of John Crawley in the pecking order again, largely because of the loose way in which Crawley played in the first innings.

No doubt more than one delegate to the meeting at Lord's over the last few days pointed out that if the batsman who was head and shoulders above the rest in county cricket last season could come into a crucial Test and play with such recklessness outside the off stump, something had to be done to produce a championship which requires harder-headed cricket.

The penalty for his nervous, rather scatty first innings may be that Crawley now finds himself in the wilderness for the second winter running, although he would be in my one-day team for later in the tour, whether or not he is given a chance to redeem himself against Victoria.

If he plays, of course, he will need runs almost as much as Stewart and Michael Atherton. The captain has only 101 first-class runs on the tour at an average of 12.6 and Atherton, with 122 at 15, is not much less embarrassed.

Stewart's tutorial with his father in Perth and the fact that Victoria have taken a leaf out of the book of too many counties and rested players for the game against the touring side, should lead to a return to form and confidence here. England will be playing against a state whose priority is to try to hold on to their lead in the Sheffield Shield, with matches coming up against Queensland and New South Wales.

It is in these matches that Shane Warne is hoping to make a stronger case his return to the Australian team for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG. It is still possible that he will, despite a return of only eight wickets from the 94 overs he has bowled in a variety of matches since the operation to repair ligaments and the cuff of his right shoulder.

Darren Berry, the Victoria wicketkeeper, one of seven senior players missing this match, said of Warne's bowling against South Australia last week, when Darren Lehmann in particular gave him some mighty stick: "The major difference is that at the moment he is slower through the air. The good players are therefore getting to him, or waiting until he falls a bit short. Shane at his best never gets cut or pulled because he's on you too fast."

Apart from these two, Matthew Elliott (averaging 99 this season), the Test bowlers Paul Reiffel and Damien Fleming and the other two most experienced members of the team, Ian Harvey and David Saker, are missing. In their absence, Brad Hodge, who played dominating innings against England four years ago for both Victoria and the Cricket Academy, leads the state for the first time. Brad Williams, believed to be the fastest bowler in Australia, will take the new ball.

The young Lancashire leg-spinner, Chris Schofield, will be one of several English professionals bowling in the nets today. Much hope is invested in him.

Darrell Hair has ruled himself out of matches involving Sri Lanka during the Australian season.

Hair yesterday acknowledged the publication of his book, in which he criticised spin bowler Muttiah Muralitharan's bowling action as "diabolical" was "inappropriate".

Victoria (from): B Hodge, J Armberger, S Flegler, S Craig, G Vimpani, J Davison, A Gilbert, M Inness, J Bakker, M Mott, P Roach, B Williams.

England (from): M A Butcher, M A Atherton, A J Stewart, G P Thorpe, M R Ramprakash, G A Hick, J P Crawley, B C Hollioake, R D B Croft, W Hegg, D W Headley, A R C Fraser.

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