The Hindu : Sport : England's middle order needs to fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 20, 2006

Sport

Sport

England's middle order needs to fire

Runs and wickets are more important than hopes and speeches, writes Ted Corbett

— Photo: S. Subramanium

HARD TALK: Owais Shaw speaks to Umpire Simon Taufel after S. Sreesanth exchanged words with him.

MUMBAI: Andrew Flintoff warned his middle order batsmen that they were not scoring enough runs after the first and second Tests and as things stand at the end of the second day at the Wankhede Stadium he will have to repeat that homily again when this Test finishes.

No matter that he is one of the culprits and that he may have lectured himself repeatedly about his shortcomings; the lesson has been confirmed.

Lone exception

We can forgive Owais Shah, the sixth England debutant in this winter of discontent, for getting out on 88. He had clearly felt at home in the atmosphere of this scruffy stadium from the moment he got off the mark. He had battled with cramp and the memories of the day in Sri Lanka a year ago when he spent time in hospital on a drip before he returned to the field after becoming dehydrated. England did not risk a repeat episode and when he came back on Sunday he looked fresh and prepared to sell his wicket dearly.

Incidentally, it is worth International Cricket Council looking into the comings and goings around cricket fields. There are times when a procession of people are either heading for the pavilion or making their return. I counted the ground staff, the drinks bearers, the medical men and the sponge carriers during one drinks break and found a dozen extra people on the ground. Is their presence really necessary? I doubt it. While the world governing body are counting heads they ought to look at the numbers surrounding the toss, a moment of pageantry as the game starts.

As for the rest of the England middle order they ought to be ashamed. Kevin Pietersen says he wants to dominate the bowlers. Good but he had better weigh the state of the game, the state of his own team and the shape of things to come before he goes headlong into battle. Paul Collingwood might not be part of a full England side although it is difficult to see how he could have performed more manfully this winter. He emerged last summer with six centuries in the county championship and found a place in the final Ashes Test. Now he is a keystone in the middle order, but he is also not scoring enough runs.

Huge responsibility

So we come to Flintoff who carries a huge responsibility. He claimed before this Test that England did not deserve to go home having lost this Test series because they had fought so hard. But fighting — ``scrappin'' in the lingo of the current squad — and ``working hard'' — another modern cliché — is no substitute for scorin' runs and takin' wickets.

I thought before the match that if England were to put together enough runs and collect 20 wickets to win it, their hero would have to be Flintoff. He says he feels up to the task, refreshed by a brief pause between Mohali and Mumbai, driven on, no doubt, by the prospect of glory and cash if his rag tag and bob tail collection of raw professionals should happen to level the series.

But, once again, he got out when a century in a grand total of 550 and a stressful few hours for India loomed. Speeches about ``England expecting'' and ``once more into the breach, dear friends'' are fine but runs and wickets count for more. If Flintoff can deliver those during the last three days of this series he will have earned his captain's fee and can make as many pretty speeches as he wishes.

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