Cow Corner Blog

Lightning Lee leaves England reeling at Lord's

Sat Sep 12 07:16PM

Brett Lee ripped through the England lower order with a stunning five-wicket haul as the hosts' insipid batting saw Australia clinch a series victory with a fourth successive win at a sun-drenched Lord's.

As much as England were inept, Australia were clinical and commanding. Their two leaders, Michael Clarke and the returning Ricky Ponting, pummelled their timid hosts into submission like Tim Bresnan flooring Ian Bell when wrestling is finally brought in to replace football in the team's warm up.

England's lacklustre display with the bat was largely due to a lull in the middle overs in which 75 balls and 46 minutes passed without a boundary, and a French Cricket stance would have been more effective at combating Lee's persistent yorkers than the tardy wafts offered.

The hosts were as pleased to see the return of Ponting as they were to cast their eye down the Long Room at Lord's to see the heavily-mulleted figure of umpire Asad Rauf counting and recounting the pebbles in his coat pocket, but this time the Australia captain would make the greater impact.

England told Paul Collingwood and James Anderson to 'take a blow' for this game as the pair swapped places with Stuart Broad and Joe Denly. The phrase 'new-look England' continues to be used as regularly as the 'Shah cannot decide which way to run' line.

The running between the wickets was hardly electric early on with Strauss sending Denly back twice in the time that it took for Mike Hussey to haul the ball in from the leg side - the Kent man was clearly left slightly bewildered after running three but seeing the scoreboard still stationary.

In offering Matt Prior a central contract earlier in the week, team director Andy Flower gave his wicket-keeper what sounded like a patronising 'most improved player' tribute at an age group end of season dinner. "Prior's improvement with the gloves has been impressive," he said. "He still has a lot of work to do."

In Justin Langer's infamous dossier on the England players, the Australian insinuated that the wicket-keeper had an ego the size of the Betfair blimp, but after he was demoted to number four, Prior was less than bullish after he became Lee's second victim for 29.

Strauss brought up his imperious half-century with an impeccably-timed pull shot for four, with Mitchell Johnson making a mockery of the scattered post-powerplay field setting by diving over the ball on the boundary, to the disgust of Shane Watson.

Nathan Bracken, who still remains adamant that he operates in the 'fast-medium' pace bracket, suffered the ignominy of being struck for three boundaries by Strauss before Ponting gave him a middle-over stint from the Pavilion End. Perhaps the seam-wobbler will have to settle for a 'military medium' tag after Tim Paine was instructed to stand up to the stumps to his bowling without even deeming it necessary to wear a lid.

Strauss was then caught by Bracken off Nathan Hauritz after the England captain played a sweep so premeditated he was almost down on one knee as the spinner brushed against umpire Rauf's mullet on his way through the crease.

In came Owais Shah, looking as revved up and fidgety as Peter Siddle bowling to Graeme Swann after a Vindaloo. The Middlesex run-out merchant chewed gum furiously as Clarke was treated as if he were Bishen Bedi with his left-arm spin during an extended lull in the dreaded middle overs.

Shah, to whom a quick single involves a mid-pitch contemplation followed by an ungainly sprawling dive back into his crease, did 'the usual' in sending himself back for a run he initially fancied. Fortunately for him, Hussey's throw was wild.

Eoin Morgan then performed a 'riverdance', skipping airily out of his crease to flail the bat at an innocous delivery from Bracken, and Paine whipped off the bails like a latter day Godfrey Evans. It was another sloppy dismissal.

Luke 'Tonker' Wright was present to oversee England's belatedly-deployed powerplay in the 41st over, but not for long as Lee cleaned up with a clinical approach rarely seen since the days of Bob 'loo brush' Willis.

If the cardinal sin of batting in limited-overs cricket is to not see out your allocated overs, then England committed the bowling and fielding sins too of spraying the ball about carelessly and fielding like a team of Inzamam-ul-Haqs.

The clamour for Adil Rashid's selection was answered in an unsatisfactory manner with the leg spinner replacing Graeme Swann, who Flower described as his "premier spin bowler". A glum Swann was left to watch Shah bowl his off-break twirlers from the 18th over.

Ponting batted with his usual certainty while England bickered in the field as their total of 220 was slowly and inevitably eroded as more and more spectators in the ground decided that their programme was probably worth a read after all.

The cavalier Clarke remained at the crease until the winning runs were prodded by Callum Ferguson, with the vice-captain unbeaten on 62 as England's despondent players left the field in front of an eerily subdued and sparsely-populated Lord's.

STAT OF THE DAY: Following all the talk of England aiming to become the number one Test side in the world, this one-day international series may serve as a reminder that nobody should be waiting with baited breath in this format. Strauss's side lie seventh in the ICC ODI rankings, ahead only of West Indies (having played five more matches this year than Chris Gayle's side), Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Ireland and Kenya.

SHOT OF THE DAY: Prior looked remarkably like a less agile Tillekeratne Dilshan as he played an over-the-shoulder flick for four runs and appeared incredibly uncomfortable in the process. Bracken was left to rue bowling a leg-side bouncer with the wicket-keeper standing up to the stumps.

USER COMMENT OF THE DAY: "I accept­ that once England won the Ashes there was bound to be­ something of a let-down about contesting this­ badly-scheduled and absurdly long series. But­ surely the mark of a professional player is that they approach­ every job with all due pride in doing it to the­ best of their ability. That seems to be lacking in­ some of the England players, along with any obvious hurt at­ being continually outplayed and out-managed by their­ opponents (Mirandola gets tough on England's malaise in limited-overs cricket).

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