da prosport bet： Adam Gilchrist’s thoughts on the first game of the CB Series
Brydon Coverdale12-Jan-2007
Losing Kevin Pietersen is a ‘big blow’ for England © Getty Images
It was not quite a Steve Harmison wide-to-second-slip moment, but AndrewFlintoff’s first over of the opening CB Series match at the MCG was anembarrassing start to England’s limited-overs bowling efforts. A wideoutside off stump, a leg-side wide that went for four and another thatwent to the boundary outside off gave Australia 11 from the first over -and none off the bat.It was a clear indication that not all the demons England carried throughthe Ashes series had been exorcised and Australia were keen to continuehurting the tourists as much as possible. Adam Gilchrist, who facedFlintoff’s wayward deliveries, said Australia would aim to use England’sweaknesses to humiliate them further.”That first over was quite telling of maybe their mindset at the moment,”Gilchrist said. “That’s a big bonus for us, a little launching pad to workfrom. They’re relatively inexperienced in comparison to a lot of teamsaround the world at the moment. They didn’t quite get it right and theyallowed us a little bit of freedom to free our arms up and hit over thetop a little bit.”Gilchrist’s “little bit” included seven fours and one six on the way to 60 from 61balls. Australia required only four batsmen to reel in England’s 242and it rarely looked like wickets were around the corner, which was further evidencethat England lacked the killer instinct required to challenge Australia.”Any team that’s been on the receiving end of losses like they have, theirconfidence is going to be dented and morale is probably a bit low,”Gilchrist said. “Their body language probably shows that. The challengefor us is not to let them come out of that and it can happen in aninstant, particularly in one-day cricket, so there’s still plenty ofmotivation and incentive for us.”But Kevin Pietersen’s tour-ending rib fracture will almost certainlylessen the chances of England breaking their two-month winless streak inAustralia. Ricky Ponting said although England’s other top-order batsmenwere capable of making a big score “on their day”, the injury to Pietersen,who top-scored for England with 82, was a massive boost to Australia.”That’s a really big blow to them,” Ponting said. “He looked really goodtoday. He has been right through the summer their best batsman and lookedvery comfortable today. I think a lot of their one-day cricket’s basedaround him so they’ll miss him a lot.”Ponting was keen for Australia to keep improving ahead of the World Cup,but he admitted there was little more his fast bowlers could have done torestrict England further. “Our bowling in particular was excellent,” hesaid. “It was a really good wicket, probably one of the fastest outfieldsI’ve seen at the MCG for quite some time. It was pretty conducive tohigh-scoring.”After all the praise lavished on him – justifiably – during the Ashes,Stuart Clark was the one fast man who proved costly. His ten overs wentfor 58 and it was the newest face in the attack, Mitchell Johnson, whoimpressed the most with 2 for 34. Having encountered such a strong bowling performance, England still have Brett Lee to worry about when he recovers from a chest infection.