Ashes 2010-11: Only luck can save Australia from defeat, says Michael Vaughan
As in all sports, luck has always been associated one way or the other with the outcome of a cricket match: a sudden change in weather, an inopportune injury to a star player, an unexpected display of brilliance by a down-and-out
athlete. And perhaps that is the reason why, while pondering Australia’s chances at the Ashes, former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote in the Daily Telegraph that only luck may still be able to come to the Aussies’ rescue now.
"They will need to win a good toss and everything fall their way because I do not see them beating us at the moment in these conditions,” wrote Vaughan.
On that same note, Vaughan also said that playing upcoming Ashes matches on fast, green wickets would be in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s favour, calling this the “only way” for the Aussies to salvage the series as it would allow them to make best
use of Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus.
"If they play us on dry, flat wickets that bring Graeme Swann into the game then it is all over and England will win by two or three Tests," he said.
Vaughan lauded the efforts of the English team, who he said won the last Ashes Test with pure hard work, not by relying on luck. He contrasted this with Australia’s haphazard performance, which he believes shows that the team has
failed to strategize.
“What plans they have had have been abandoned within a couple of overs,” said Vaughan of the Australian team. “It is muddled thinking from one team while another, England, ploughs on with a clarity of purpose that will win them
the Ashes.”
He further expressed the belief that Australian players were playing for individual glory, not for the good of the team as a whole. "You can see players are looking over their shoulder and not playing as a collective unit,” he
wrote.
In a five-match Test series, Australia are down by 1-0, for which Vaughan puts the responsibility squarely upon Aussie captain Ricky Ponting’s shoulders. “As a captain you can make an average team better through your tactics and
management,” Vaughan opined. “You can make indifferent bowlers look better by giving them more plans and working out a system. Ponting is not doing that at the moment and I wonder if it is because he is so used to being an aggressive captain for so long because
he had such great players at his disposal.”
Vaughan suggested that Ponting should adopt a different strategy now, and gave the example of former England skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nasser-Hussain-c78777 who got England to “make it difficult for the opposition to get a score and try to force wickets
by bowling consistently and patiently and not think you are going to blast the opposition out."
The next Test match will be played at the WACA Ground in Perth, beginning on December 16.
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