Another chance to turn the screws on chastened Australia
ENGLAND made a great and heartening start when they defeated Australia by six wickets at Headingley on Thursday and most of those who flock to the Oval this morning for the second one-day international will be expecting more of the same.
The short, sharp series for the Texaco Trophy (all the better for that) concludes at Lord's tomorrow and while the uncommitted might wish for an Australian win today to ensure parity for the deciding game, England supporters are in no mood to be objective.
Surrey officials have begged them to arrive well before the 10.45 start but if the necessary security checks cause some frustration, even with 15 extra entry points to the ground, spectators will be sustained by the glorious image of Surrey's new captain, Adam Hollioake, pulling Jason Gillespie over the square-leg boundary for six to win the first game.
For Hollioake, an innings of 66 not out might prove to have been another step on the way to a Test career which should probably have started a year ago, but winning the match was what mattered to him, and so it should have been. Other than conveying the signal that this is an England side who will not lie down and die when the battle is getting fierce, however, nothing of long-term significance should necessarily be drawn from one limited-overs game.
Certainly, the Australians must feel a little chastened. England's performance at Headingley was more than spirited, it was organised and skilful, too, and if it is repeated under clearer skies this weekend, it will be they who start the Test series with their tails up. England's coach, David Lloyd, spoke in glowing terms of the gutsy performances of players like Adam Hollioake, Graham Thorpe and Robert Croft in the Headingley match.
In his own inimitable, passionate, West Lancashire way, Lloyd is determined to stress that, while one swallow definitely does not constitute a whole summer, England's performances have not been so poor as has been maintained:
``We're flipping great at self-doubt as a country, and there are a few things I'm hell-bent on changing,'' Lloyd said, before reiterating the evidence. ``We were un- defeated in Test matches during the winter and our A team and Under-19s both had great tours, too. Last summer we beat India twice, in Tests and one-dayers, and we beat a very good Pakistan side in the one-day game. The Australians are, of course, a top-class side, but what I'm striving to do is talk our players up as well.''
The only change England are likely to contemplate today is the inclusion of Warwickshire's slow left-arm spinner Ashley Giles at the expense of either Dean Headley or Phillip DeFreitas. The other spinner is sure of his place: it is Robert Croft's 27th birthday tomorrow and he would love to celebrate it with further success in the third and final international at Lord's. It will be a first international appearance for him at Lord's and he said yesterday: ``To do that against Australia will be the ultimate.''
Not quite the ultimate, in fact, because it is more important that Croft should play a major part in the Test there in the middle of June. That game may prove the barometer of the summer. For the moment, at least, England can enjoy the feel of the sun on their backs and the chances are that the glow will still be there by tomorrow evening.
ENGLAND (from): N V Knight, * M A Atherton, - A J Stewart, G P Thorpe, G D Lloyd, A J Hollioake, M A Ealham, P A J Defreitas, R D B Croft, D Gough, D W Headley, A F Giles, J P Crawley, C E W Silverwood, B C Hollioake.
AUSTRALIA (from): * M A Taylor, M E Waugh, S R Waugh, M G Bevan, G S Blewett, M J Slater, - I A Healy, S K Warne, M S Kasprowicz, J N Gillespie, G D McGrath, B P Julian.