In the first session they played pretty decently and had blunted the Indian attack. But the fall of Ian Bell's wicket put them on the back foot. Even when they were at 89 for two no one would have expected that their batsmen would show such a negative approach and score at just over two runs per over. In 90 overs England managed just 246 runs.
The pitch was not playing any tricks and was on the slower side. It was not bad batting but bad and negative approach that got them into trouble.
England gave too much respect to the spinners and in the process lost the wickets to the medium pacers. Neither Harbhajan nor Kumble were spinning the ball too much and they did not looked like taking wickets. Yet the batsmen were playing them very cautiously and not scoring off the bad balls.
Just a good line and length by the Indian bolwers made sure that England kept losing the wickets at regular intervals. In the morning Laxman and Dravid took brilliant catches to send back Strauss and Bell and that gave a lot of confidence to the bowlers, especially Sreesanth.
For a bowler to take two wickets on the first day of his Test career is a great thing. Sreesanth applied his mind and bowled with a good pace on a dead track and was rewarded for his hard work.
But most of the wickets fell because the batsmen were just too cautious. When Cook was batting he was not afraid to play his shots and made the bowlers look ordinary. Even Flintoff batted brilliantly and both he and Cook showed that just by playing positive cricket runs could be scored easily.
When the runs are being scored the fielding team is on a backfoot but if runs are not being scored then they can put on the pressure on the batsmen. And this is what happened. Leaving aside Cook and Flintoff none of the other batsmen played with a positive frame of mind.
This meant that the bad balls were not scored off and on the good balls England lost the wickets. In a day when 90 overs are bowled there are going to be about 25 good balls and that is waht happened. England gave too much respect to the spinners and lost the wickets to the pacers.
The same thing happened to India in Pakistan during the Test matches. There India played too cautiously when Shoaib Akhtar was bowling and lost the wickets to Asif and co.
If the batsmen give one set of bowlers a lot of respect the next set of bowlers always takes advantage and picks up the wickets.
Overall the first day was very boring not only for the teams but even for the spectators.
The basic difference between Australia and the other teams is that Australia always plays with a positive approach. That is why they are the world champions. Even England won the Ashes because they were positive and aggressive.
If England have to make a come back in the match they will have to return to the approach that they applied during the Ashes series.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishinfotek.com)
About the AuthorKrishnamachari Srikkanth Krishnamachari Srikkanth was one of the most destructive batsmen who could decimate the strongest and most fearsome attacks in the world by his vast r...Read Morefirst published:March 01, 2006, 19:57 ISTlast updated:March 01, 2006, 19:57 IST
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To put it simply England gave a very poor performance. Even though some of their main players are not in the team I thought that they would put up some kind of fight. But that did not happen.
In the first session they played pretty decently and had blunted the Indian attack. But the fall of Ian Bell's wicket put them on the back foot. Even when they were at 89 for two no one would have expected that their batsmen would show such a negative approach and score at just over two runs per over. In 90 overs England managed just 246 runs.
The pitch was not playing any tricks and was on the slower side. It was not bad batting but bad and negative approach that got them into trouble.
England gave too much respect to the spinners and in the process lost the wickets to the medium pacers. Neither Harbhajan nor Kumble were spinning the ball too much and they did not looked like taking wickets. Yet the batsmen were playing them very cautiously and not scoring off the bad balls.
Just a good line and length by the Indian bolwers made sure that England kept losing the wickets at regular intervals. In the morning Laxman and Dravid took brilliant catches to send back Strauss and Bell and that gave a lot of confidence to the bowlers, especially Sreesanth.
For a bowler to take two wickets on the first day of his Test career is a great thing. Sreesanth applied his mind and bowled with a good pace on a dead track and was rewarded for his hard work.
But most of the wickets fell because the batsmen were just too cautious. When Cook was batting he was not afraid to play his shots and made the bowlers look ordinary. Even Flintoff batted brilliantly and both he and Cook showed that just by playing positive cricket runs could be scored easily.
When the runs are being scored the fielding team is on a backfoot but if runs are not being scored then they can put on the pressure on the batsmen. And this is what happened. Leaving aside Cook and Flintoff none of the other batsmen played with a positive frame of mind.
This meant that the bad balls were not scored off and on the good balls England lost the wickets. In a day when 90 overs are bowled there are going to be about 25 good balls and that is waht happened. England gave too much respect to the spinners and lost the wickets to the pacers.
The same thing happened to India in Pakistan during the Test matches. There India played too cautiously when Shoaib Akhtar was bowling and lost the wickets to Asif and co.
If the batsmen give one set of bowlers a lot of respect the next set of bowlers always takes advantage and picks up the wickets.
Overall the first day was very boring not only for the teams but even for the spectators.
The basic difference between Australia and the other teams is that Australia always plays with a positive approach. That is why they are the world champions. Even England won the Ashes because they were positive and aggressive.
If England have to make a come back in the match they will have to return to the approach that they applied during the Ashes series.
(Krish Srikkanth is a former skipper of Indian cricket team. He maintains a regular blog on IBNLive. His website is www.krishinfotek.com)
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