Date-stamped : 21 Jan96 - 22:16 Electronic Telegraph Monday 22 January 1996 S Africa Tour: Experiments lead to alarming lack of cohesion David Gower on the task facing Ray Illingworth as his charges re- group for the one-day summit THE two teams made their way to Port Elizabeth in contrasting styles for yesterday`s final one-day international. While the South Africans, businesslike but relaxed, caught the 40-minute flight and bantered their way south - "Hey, Polly, your old man`s got you a seat up front," said Craig Matthews to Shaun Pollock as father, Peter, convenor of selectors, took his place in business class - England eschewed the team bus and made the trip by car. Maybe the three-hour drive with a gentle lunch thrown in allowed just a hint of respite from the latest problems to dog them on this tour. Those problems just will not disappear, whatever England try, though they have persisted doggedly with the unorthodox, as if, had they followed the usual tenets of one-day cricket, they would have earned themselves nothing more than hollow success. For instance, in Friday`s chase at Buffalo Park, they persevered with the same batting order that had been apparently carved in stone before the game began, when surely they needed Graham Thorpe and Neil Fairbrother to bring their skills to the crease earlier, thus saving Jack Russell to play his more practised role at No 7. At other times, mistakes at which any county second-team coach would have gone ballistic made the task of chasing 130 even hard- er. Russell`s run out was a prime example, when a moment`s hesi- tation, after which the correct response would have been a sharp shout of "No", led to a desperate dismissal. Now it did cross my mind that Russell and Fairbrother would rare- ly have batted together, the third match of this series being one of a limited edition, as it were, and that Jack might have been momentarily surprised by his partner`s first couple of strides down the pitch. However, the golden rule is that, whether as striker or non-striker, every batsman must take responsibility for the judgment of every run and call accordingly. Such things merely reflect an overall lack of cohesiveness in this team, hence my feeling last weekend that a team should be settled upon for these last three matches so that the members thereof could become accustomed to their roles within that set- up, something which one expects Ray Illingworth to understand. His successful Leicestershire side of the mid-Seventies, the one to which I gained entry as an 18-year-old, would walk on to the field for each and every one-day match with every man knowing ex- actly his position in the field, pretty much for every bowler, with only the usual adjustments to be made as the game developed. The big question is whether England will be able to overcome the debilitating effects of these last weeks in South Africa With all the changes and experiments of the last two weeks, such a settled atmosphere has been impossible to generate, and it seems that all that sort of planning will now be left to the warm-up period in Pakistan immediately prior to the World Cup, when, in effect, England will be starting from scratch. The big question is whether England will be able to overcome the debilitating effects of these last weeks in South Africa in time to build form and confidence in Pakistan. In their favour is the fact that psychologically it is possible to convince oneself that, whatever the tribulations of a particular tour, a new ve- nue, a new tour gives one the perfect opportunity to put all behind. Plus the fact that everyone will be fully aware that, come the quarter-finals, for which it is 99 per cent impossible for England not to qualify, just three good games could win them the trophy - not quite the same as approaching a seven-match series with not so much at stake. On the other hand, while the bowlers have been steadily improving through this series, the ability of the top six batsmen to per- form as a unit and collectively dominate as they should has been glimpsed as rarely and as fleetingly as a shy little duiker might be in one of this country`s national parks. It is the batting which has exasperated Ray Illingworth most on this tour, leading to bouts of muttering in the vein of "What`s the point in having such a vaunted batting line-up when half the time they can`t get you two hundred in a one-day match?" Even so, there is little scope for any last-minute adjustments to the plans for the World Cup as far as the personnel are con- cerned, and the manager and captain are likely to concentrate their efforts on getting more out of the same men than they have so far. With flat, dry pitches expected in Pakistan, the squad will al- most certainly include two specialist spinners, with Neil Smith likely to get the nod ahead of Mike Watkinson to accompany Richard Illingworth. Along with the Lancashire captain, it looks as though Dermot Reeve and Mark Ramprakash will also have tomor- row night`s flight home as their last official one of the winter. As far as the chairman of selectors is concerned, anyone coming, quite literally, cold from the English winter is unlikely to do any better than those judged the best back in September, so it would appear to be a question of "same team, better cricket, please". Source :: Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) Contributed by Ravi (sista@*.latech.edu)