Gilchrist - England's first over was telling
Adam Gilchrist's thoughts on the first game of the CB Series
Brydon Coverdale
12-Jan-2007
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It was not quite a Steve Harmison wide-to-second-slip moment, but Andrew
Flintoff's first over of the opening CB Series match at the MCG was an
embarrassing start to England's limited-overs bowling efforts. A wide
outside off stump, a leg-side wide that went for four and another that
went to the boundary outside off gave Australia 11 from the first over -
and none off the bat.
It was a clear indication that not all the demons England carried through
the Ashes series had been exorcised and Australia were keen to continue
hurting the tourists as much as possible. Adam Gilchrist, who faced
Flintoff's wayward deliveries, said Australia would aim to use England's
weaknesses to humiliate them further.
"That first over was quite telling of maybe their mindset at the moment,"
Gilchrist said. "That's a big bonus for us, a little launching pad to work
from. They're relatively inexperienced in comparison to a lot of teams
around the world at the moment. They didn't quite get it right and they
allowed us a little bit of freedom to free our arms up and hit over the
top a little bit."
Gilchrist's "little bit" included seven fours and one six on the way to 60 from 61
balls. Australia required only four batsmen to reel in England's 242
and it rarely looked like wickets were around the corner, which was further evidence
that England lacked the killer instinct required to challenge Australia.
"Any team that's been on the receiving end of losses like they have, their
confidence is going to be dented and morale is probably a bit low,"
Gilchrist said. "Their body language probably shows that. The challenge
for us is not to let them come out of that and it can happen in an
instant, particularly in one-day cricket, so there's still plenty of
motivation and incentive for us."
But Kevin Pietersen's tour-ending rib fracture will almost certainly
lessen the chances of England breaking their two-month winless streak in
Australia. Ricky Ponting said although England's other top-order batsmen
were capable of making a big score "on their day", the injury to Pietersen,
who top-scored for England with 82, was a massive boost to Australia.
"That's a really big blow to them," Ponting said. "He looked really good
today. He has been right through the summer their best batsman and looked
very comfortable today. I think a lot of their one-day cricket's based
around him so they'll miss him a lot."
Ponting was keen for Australia to keep improving ahead of the World Cup,
but he admitted there was little more his fast bowlers could have done to
restrict England further. "Our bowling in particular was excellent," he
said. "It was a really good wicket, probably one of the fastest outfields
I've seen at the MCG for quite some time. It was pretty conducive to
high-scoring."
After all the praise lavished on him - justifiably - during the Ashes,
Stuart Clark was the one fast man who proved costly. His ten overs went
for 58 and it was the newest face in the attack, Mitchell Johnson, who
impressed the most with 2 for 34. Having encountered such a strong bowling performance, England still have Brett Lee to worry about when he recovers from a chest infection.
Brydon Coverdale is editorial assistant of Cricinfo