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England in right shape to shed weight of history

Christopher Martin-Jenkins.

Thursday 19 June 1997


WE come this morning to the pivotal cricket match of the season. If Lord's had twice its present capacity of 28,000, they would still have sold all tickets for the first four days. All but the weather is set fair.

Mike Atherton, newly awarded the OBE, leads England in a Test for the 42nd time, passing Peter May's great record, and he may be on the point of reaping what would be the most satisfying reward for his fortitude during the largely barren four years since he took over from a defeated Graham Gooch after four of the six Tests of the 1993 series.

England have won only 11 of the 41 games since, but it is the fact that they have won three in succession which accounts now for the mood of national optimism and, more relevant, their own self-belief. Fit, focused and playing as a genuine team, they bowled Australia out for 118 at Edgbaston in conditions suiting swing and seam bowling, then capitalised formidably well with the bat.

Darren Gough, though his figures of six for 169 do not necessarily suggest it, proved finally to be the match-winner and if, as is more likely than not, he bowls as well here, this Test will be won for England too and the Ashes will be on their way home.

The fact that the draw is odds-on favourite is due to the imminence of what one weather forecaster yesterday called the north European monsoon. If it falls less heavily than expected, the conditions should again be to England's advantage, but the arrival of Paul Reiffel to fill the place he should clearly have occupied in the Australian team in the first place, evens the scales somewhat.

Shane Warne, too, now has 20 wickets in his bag on the tour and this is a ground where England have often been embarrassed by leg-spinners, not least by Mushtaq Ahmed last year.

England's defeat of the West Indies here two years ago, inspired by Dominic Cork, laid the Lord's bogey, but a victory over Australia during the next five days would still fly in the face of history. A tired statistic it may be, but true nonetheless, that they have lost to England here only once this century - and that only because it rained overnight and Hedley Verity took his immortal 14 wickets in a day.

How the English cricket enthusiast loves these famous pieces of bowling against Australia: since the war it is Laker, in 1956, and Willis, in 1981, whose individual performances stand out like beacons in a rather bleak sea.

When it comes to matches at Lord's, however, Australians have ample heroes of their own. Laker, for example, may have dominated them throughout 1956 but in the second Test it was Keith Miller, who took 10 wickets for 152. He will be here for the match again, frail of body but unquenchable of spirit, and so will Bill Brown, who made 105 in the 1934 game before Verity prevailed. The scorecard is in the Lord's museum, along with a beautiful exhibition of cricket art, which is the place to go if it rains.

England in their present mood should not feel the weight of history. Their job is to maintain the momentum gained in the one-day internationals and marvellously sustained at Edgbaston. Bowling a length in swinging conditions was the key to success there and it surely will be again here on a pitch which has dried out well over the last 48 hours.

Mark Taylor said yesterday that the cloud cover this morning would have to be very heavy if he were not to bat first should he win the toss again, especially as the surface cracks on the pitch suggest help for spin bowlers later in the game.

The probability of cloudy skies, however, makes it likely that Phil Tufnell will again be left out by England. He and Peter Such had very ineffective games here four years ago.

The really attacking option, perhaps, would be to omit Mark Ealham and play Tufnell in his place, but this would leave a long tail after Robert Croft at eight and Ealham, bowling at his best (which he certainly did not in the first Test, despite his burst of wickets at the end), should be capable of prod ucing the tidy, containing spells which Atherton may well need when the sun comes out and if the pitch is comfortable as it looks.

Relaid with Boughton loam, a soil which tends to promise spinners more than it delivers because the cracks stay firm, it was first used by Middlesex in 1995. Tufnell did take five wickets in the game but as their opponents, Sussex, were at a low ebb at the time and Middlesex had scored 602 for seven declared, the precedent may be apt only to warn the captain winning the toss against putting the opposition in. It was cloudy on the first day of that match, too, and Middlesex made 415 for two by its close.

There were only two doubts about the all-round excellence of England's performance in the first Test. One was Mark Butcher's modest start, the other the lack of a bowler like Angus Fraser to bowl a reliable line and length when conditions eased for batting in Australia's second innings.

Paul Reiffel is essentially a Fraser-style seam bowler, reliable but no great swinger of the ball. Apart from his nine wickets at eight runs in the last week, he may be fortified by the way that Fraser joined the last Ashes series as a replacement and almost bowled England to victory at Sydney.


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Date-stamped : 25 Feb1998 - 19:28