England's batting as fragile as Hussain's fingers

By Ted Corbett

LONDON, JULY 18. Of course, not even Tiger Woods is bound to win the British Open which begins, like the second Test between England and Australia, tomorrow. Didn't Pete Sampras crash out of Wimbledon less than a fortnight ago leaving the wild card Goran Ivanisevic to capture the title?

Don't rely on such an upset this weekend at Lord's. It requires a storm of tropical intensity to leave the match drawn and a miracle of Biblical proportions to give England victory.

Australia is the finest side in 20 years, it won the first Test on England's lucky ground, by an innings and 118 runs; in three sets in tennis terms, by seven and six if you are Mr. Woods, by a lap in the 3000 metres.

The Aussies will probably be unchanged tomorrow even though Brett Lee did not bowl well at Edgbaston and is rumoured to be only three-quarters fit. Damien Fleming, who might walk into many Test sides, stands by.

England will once again be without Nasser Hussain, who has a captain's mind, an athlete's body and matchstick fingers. Instead it has chosen Michael Atherton, who has been its captain 52 times in the past and now anticipating retirement to the TV gantry and the Press Box at the end of the summer.

So desperate is England for runs that Graham Thorpe, its finest batsman, is being rushed back after six weeks without an innings in any class of cricket and, although Atherton and Marcus Trescothick are developing into a fine opening partnership, the rest of the batsmen are almost as fragile as Hussain's hands.

The England bowlers lack match fitness since on the orders of coach Duncan Fletcher, Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick have been rested when they really needed more overs; the strike bowler Craig White has been injured and lost both fire and accuracy while the fourth seamer Dominic Cork is another frail sportsman, dependent on creaking knees.

To add a touch of ginger to this spice-free cake, Gough last weekend was rested by Yorkshire, which described him as `tired and jaded' after he conceded 60 runs in 10 one-day overs but turned out in a charity match. He has been forgiven but just imagine the fuss if he had strained a muscle, been hit by a misdirected throw or damaged one of his many tender spots. What a daft lad!

It's now or never

Lord's, with its result pitch, is also England's last chance to seize the Ashes after 11 years. Did I really write that sentence? In theory, England might win this weekend, draw the third Test on the batsman's paradise at Trent Bridge, win on that nasty strip at Headingley and finally defeat a tired Australia at The Oval. Yes, but these Australians are no ordinary men.

The side contains great players, brilliantly led by the ruthless Steve Waugh, coached by John Buchanan, whose impeccable record has witnesses everywhere except Lord's where Middlesex found no value in his services. That tells you more about Middlesex, now languishing in the second division of the championship, than Buchanan.

No English player would force his way into the Aussie ranks, unless you prefer Thorpe's 4,476 runs to Mark Waugh's 7,130, or Alec Stewart, a marginally better wicket-keeper, to Adam Gilchrist's thunderous batting or Atherton's stern defence to Matthew Hayden's heavy bat.

As for the bowling, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie shared 11 wickets at Edgbaston while Gough and Caddick had an aggregate of four and Shane Warne collected eight. England has no spinner; Australia has 384 Warne victims in the bag already. In a decently organised society, this Test would be declared such a mismatch that it was a fraud to ask spectators for their cash. Yet this is the Ashes and Lord's will be full.

The teams:

England: Michael Atherton (captain), Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher, Mark Ramprakash, Graham Thorpe, Alec Stewart, Ian Ward, Craig White, Dominic Cork, Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick.

Australia: Steve Waugh (captain), Matthew Hayden, Michael Slater, Ricky Ponting, Mark Waugh, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath.

Umpires: John Holder and Steve Bucknor (West Indies). Match referee: Talat Ali (Pakistan).

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