Gillespie: Well played England, but now the aim is 4-1
Jason Gillespie - 22 August 2001
Well the Fourth Test was an amazing game.
We were very disappointed to lose after dominating four out of the five days. There has been talk about a generous declaration and weather intervention but at the end of the day we couldn't take the 10 wickets required to win the Test match.
At the start of the final day, we backed ourselves to get all the wickets and we quite simply didn't do that. I thought we bowled well in periods but the consistent pressure was not applied and we let them get away. That is the way the game goes sometimes.
Full credit to the English batsmen. Mark Butcher played a great hand and received huge support from Hussain and Ramprakash. They applied themselves and set about the target and got through some testing times early in the day where we got the openers out. They took some risks and they came off. You always need a little luck to go along with a positive attitude and I think Butcher in particular played fantastically well.
The Fifth Test
Preparations for this match have been great considering the short amount of time between games. The bowlers haven't done any bowling as we bowled on the last day of the Fourth Test and we just felt that a rest, massage and some swimming would be the perfect tonic in preparation for the game ahead.
The batsmen and keepers like to get down to the ground and have a hit and a catch to keep in the groove. Adam Gilchrist and Wade Seccombe have what they call "catching bonanzas" where they will hit each other hundreds upon hundreds of catches!
These two guys have been fantastic for each other over the whole tour and have both learnt a lot off one another during the course of the summer. The Ashes tour is the only Australian tour where two 'keepers are taken so it certainly gives the wicketkeepers in domestic cricket in Australia something to really strive for.
We are excited about this Test. This is the last game on tour and for some the last game they will play in England. It is a special occasion. I for one, cannot wait. We really want to win this series 4-1. There are a lot of hard yards to make to achieve that but the lads are hungry and raring to go. C'mon Australia!
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