The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : England in driver's seat

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Sunday, Dec 03, 2006
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England in driver's seat

Ted Corbett

EARLY STRIKE: Andrew Flintoff's dismissal of Justin Langer further strengthened England's position at the end of the second day. — PHOTO: AP

ADELAIDE: It was not just a record fourth-wicket stand of 310 between Paul Collingwood and Kevin Pietersen that gave England a dominant position on the second day of the second Test in Adelaide when they declared at 551 for six. There was also the quiet in the Australian section of the crowd, the sense that at last this doubting country might begin to understand that the team that won back the Ashes can compete with their giants and the hope that the avalanche of abuse that descended on England heads after the defeat in Brisbane might end.

The second day was England's in every sense. Collingwood made 206, his highest Test score and became the first England batsman since Wally Hammond in 1936-37 to make a double hundred in Australia.

Bowlers frustrated

Not only did the stand put England in a position to level the series score but their fault-free performance frustrated two of the greatest bowlers in modern times. It was tempting to think the career of Shane Warne might be at an end and that Glenn McGrath's heel injury was never more than 50 per cent cured.

Warne and McGrath were both given a tough time. Warne was reduced to bowling wide of the leg stump from round the wicket — while Pietersen kicked the ball away — and McGrath was without a success in 30 overs. Until Collingwood was out off the final ball before tea no England wicket had fallen for three sessions and, just as much to the point, the batsmen had not given a chance as they broke the fourth-wicket record set by Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe at Edgbaston in 1997.

Right tactic

It was slow, it was sometimes boring but after the humiliation of Brisbane it was undoubtedly the right tactic, up to the moment Andrew Flintoff, the England captain, declared eight overs from time and had Justin Langer caught off his own demonic bowling. Soon after tea Pietersen was run out for 158 — an innings notable for his restraint and support for Collingwood — when the Australian captain Ricky Ponting hit the stumps from only five yards and at 491 Warne dismissed Geraint Jones for one.

Collingwood quickly scored the two runs he needed for a century to right the wrongs of his 96 at Brisbane but the day turned on a decision by umpire Steve Bucknor that Pietersen had not touched a ball from Brett Lee. Every Aussie thought it was out; every Englishman demanded the benefit of the doubt. Even the technology was even handed. One electronic device detected a faint edge; another found no noise. By lunch England were 347 for three and at tea 468 for four because Collingwood had lost his wicket to a weak flick at another good ball from the striving Stuart Clark.

That flick was Collingwood's only error in eight hours; but that is only the latest demonstration of his stout heart. It may also be the only weak moment England will reveal in the rest of this series. They have made it known that after Brisbane they had a confessional meeting in which one by one they acknowledged their faults; like drunks at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is an odd variety of the Naughty Boy Nets that used to be the punishment drill for under-performing cricketers but it has worked. I cannot remember a more intense England team in the last 25 years.

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