The Ashes: Butcher's tour is blighted by his latest cut (6 November 1998)

6 November 1998

The Ashes: Butcher's tour is blighted by his latest cut

By Christopher Martin-Jenkins in Adelaide

AN authoritative performance by England in the four-day match starting against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow would be timely.

It is needed if Australian pundits are to revise their early opinion that another collection of no-hopers has arrived on Australian shores with a talent for self-inflicted wounds. The latest occurred when Mark Butcher, his neatly stitched right eye having healed quickly, collided in practice with his team-mate Peter Such yesterday and sustained a cut over his left eye as well.

Such came off worse, cutting and bruising his nose as a result of the accident, which occurred during a game of Rat and Rabbit, played to keep the players competitive and nimble while yesterday morning's net practice was being held up because of rain. Trying to evade each other, the two players instead went the same way and their heads made painful contact. The damage was insufficient to keep either from playing tomorrow.

It will be a big game for them both. Butcher has to regain confidence quickly after ducking into his second ball of the tour in Perth and he will have every chance on what is recognised as the best batting pitch in Australia, so far playing up to its high reputation this season.

Such is expected to play and to try to make a case for himself as the spin bowling alternative to Robert Croft. On Perth form he does not have to bowl especially well to be preferred, although Such's first-class figures for Essex last season - 38 wickets at 38 runs each - were only slightly better than Croft's miserable 20 wickets at 57.

Mark Ramprakash, suffering from a cold, missed yesterday's afternoon net practice when the sun came out, but only Ben Hollioake has been eliminated from today's selection to allow more time for his strained groin muscle to recover. Whether he will get a chance against Queensland in the third and last first-class game before the Test series will depend, no doubt, partly on how Alex Tudor and Dean Headley get on here.

Both are expected to play in lieu of the anticipated Test new-ball pair of Darren Gough and Alan Mullally. This would give Angus Fraser and Dominic Cork another game to find their feet. The batting choice will depend, no doubt, on whether Nasser Hussain decides to try to maintain the form he showed in the opening match in Perth. If so it would be at the expense of John Crawley.

Alec Stewart and Mike Atherton have both recovered and will be looking forward to a chance to renew their acquaintance with Jason Gillespie, still rated as one of the three fastest bowlers in the country and, having missed the tour of Pakistan, by no means a certainty for the first Test in Brisbane.

The strength of South Australia is reduced by the absence of two members of the national one-day side in Pakistan, Darren Lehmann and the left-arm spinner Brad Young.

However Gillespie and Greg Blewett, who is captaining the side in Lehmann's absence, will have every incentive to do well in this match, and the left-arm fast bowler Mark Harrity, one of the Cricket Academy bowlers who so embarrassed England four years ago, also has eyes on an international future.

Blewett and Gillespie have both had particular success against England. Three of Blewett's four Test hundreds have been against Australia's favourite opponents, including two in his first two matches four years ago. He averages 48 from eight Tests against England, only 36 from 31 matches overall.

It is a not dissimilar story for Gillespie, who broke down again last season after his long lay-off for a stress fracture of the back suffered in the course of taking 16 Test wickets at only 20 each in the Ashes series in England in 1997. The absence of Peter McIntyre with a damaged shoulder - the bane of all leg-spinners - deprives England of a chance of practice against an experienced exponent of the art. His place is expected to be taken by a 24 year old leg-spinning all-rounder, Evan Arnold.

The Redbacks, as the South Australians are now known, are also giving one of the Cricket Academy students a chance. Andrew Crook, 18, is an off-spinner who has done well for the State's Under-19 and second eleven.

On paper England's opponents tomorrow are inexperienced, but that is deceptive. Fewer first-class matches and stronger club (grade) cricket means that players are actually hardened to a higher level before they make the State side.

One would not expect the tyros to be overawed. Still, England managed to beat South Australia at a similar stage of their last tour, with a second-innings century from the veteran Graham Gooch, now manager, but as obsessed with his fitness as ever. They ought to be capable of a repeat.

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