Strauss and Swann's tactics
For the most part England bowled and fielded pretty well this morning and they can consider themselves very unlucky not to have broken the Hussey/Haddin partnership. Things that they could have done better were Finn's length, Swann's consistency and Cook's drop.
We hear they're constantly evaluating their performance and thinking about how it can be bettered so I suspect those will be discussed at lunch, but I wonder if they'll talk about their fields for when Swann is bowling to Hussey? I wasn't watching live yesterday but the field seemed to go back early and made it easy for Hussey to accumulate while waiting for the short ball to put away. Today, before he came down the wicket and hit Swann down the ground over mid-off, I was gutted England hadn't put a straight mid-on and mid-off as deep as they could go while saving one. Having not done that, in my (relatively humble!) opinion, Strauss then compounded the error by immediately dropping cover out to sweep and put out a long on and long off. Exactly what Hussey was looking for - that's why he took the risk of coming down the wicket to hit straight.
I'd love to see England attack with Swann and make Hussey hit over the top half a dozen times before dropping the field back. And even then, deep point shouldn't be required if he's pitching it up, which surely he must if he's got two straight fielders on the boundary.
Anyway, going to sleep now so fingers crossed England's luck will change!
1 comment:
One crushing session may define the series if past results at the Gabba are anything to go by. Eng were v unlucky in the morning session and JA was superb. The curse of DRS struck again of course. I know Eng had used their referrals, but the Lbw for Hussey which was not given when abs dead (he had 86) is the precise sort of outcome affecting umpiring mistake technology is supposed to remove from the game. Rather than just adding another level of complexity to an already complicated game.
Matt G
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