So there you have it. Australia bounced out by short pitched bowling, bounced into complete disarray. A tactic that was co-incidentally suggested in the first post on this blog. 5 out of 8 of the batsmen to fall so far out hooking and pulling. And on top of that Anderson and Onions looked very zippy pitching it full. Goes to show that Australia are very vulnerable nowadays, and that their own bowling attack really were quite rubbish.
Despite all this, I'm counting on many more twists and subplots ahead in the next 3 days action. Should the match in fact last that long...
If I were Strauss I would definitely not enforce the follow on... I would use the large lead as a buffer and ask Australia's demoralised bowlers - one of whom is crook, another with an injured finger, and a third with a virtual case of the yips - to front up again, and aim to declare with a lead of around 550 and about 2 days play remaining.
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Turning off my TV did wonders for the demise of the Australian batting order ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat first post really did hit the nail on the head:
Tactically, England must bowl aggressively, particularly with short pitched bowling... which would work well on this Australian team, from 11 down to 1.
Really did show to be the case with the way the dismissals went down.
This match certainly is turning out to be a good'un.