The need to feel positive
Judhajit
25-Feb-2013
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Allan Border feels that Lord's has a special atmosphere, and that is why visiting teams have an advantage. The Australians regard it as their Mecca. It has that special, intangible quality which is difficult to put into words. In his column in the Courier Mail, he believes the visitors need to feel positive after the drawn first Ashes Test at Cardiff.
You might get one chance in your life to actually visit the place and play cricket there. It's a ground where, as a kid, you dream of playing.
I believe there is a percentage lift across the board with Australian players at Lord's, If you're all playing at your best plus 5 per cent it makes you pretty hard to beat.
Writing in the same paper, Shane Warne believes Australia are no longer in transition. They really gelled on the way to winning in South Africa, and if the team was underestimated this time last week, it won't be any more.
If England are to be competitive, they must axe Monty Panesar and bring Steve Harmison back in, regardless of Andrew Flintoff's fitness, says Darren Lehmann in the Herald Sun.
Steve Waugh feels Phillip Hughes is twice as tough as he was at the same age, as the young Australian continues his gruelling Ashes examination on cricket's most prestigious stage. Waugh overcame a weakness against short-pitched bowling early in his career and Hughes faces a similar challenge, especially if England include Steve Harmison in their attack for the second Test. Chloe Saltau has more in the Sydney Morning Herald.
On the Line and Length blog on the Times website, JRod, who runs the popular blog Cricket with Balls looks at the lighter side of the time-wasting controversy surrounding England in the first Ashes Test.
I can see the beauty in the way England wasted time. England didn’t just stop play, they sent out a physio doing the best impersonation of Bo Derek, from the film 10, that I have ever seen.
In 2013 I can’t wait to see slow motion shots of the physio running out there. It will hypnotise people into watching the Ashes.