Have Australia Lost the Nerve to Sustain Pressure?
In the recently drawn first Ashes Test in Brisbane, it was seen that Australia were in a commanding position when they pressurized the English and managed to get them all out for just 260 runs on the first day.
However, later in the match it was obvious that the Aussies had lost the venom to keep the opposition under pressure throughout the five days of the game.
Australia’s flamboyant all-rounder Shane http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Watson-c96326 admitted the fact that Australia are facing a problem in sustaining pressure on the opposition. “I think it came down to not sustaining pressure for long enough and we weren’t able
to do that for the whole day,” he said.
In the second innings, Australia having put a huge total on the board, were unable to knock England out, which resulted in Andrew Strauss (110) and Alastair Cook to put on the highest ever partnership, for their country at the
Gabba in Brisbane. The two English players managed to take their team out of trouble and surpassed a first innings deficit of two hundred and twenty runs.
On the third day, the tourists finished with 309 runs on the board, having a lead of 88 runs, with Alastair Cook on 221 and Jonathan Trott on 54. Had there been Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne in this Aussie squad, they would have
sent England packing on the third day.
The new generation of Australian bowlers lack the sting that was the trademark of Australia for the last two decades. The current young lot did manage to put pressure on the English bowlers, but only for a little period. Perhaps,
the Aussies would have been successful if they had extended this pressure a bit longer to rattle the English side.
The pressure was not long enough to cause any sort of panic within the English ranks and for the first time in nearly 20 years, the British looked in control, batting against the home side in Australia.
Australia’s first innings was commendable because of the record-breaking partnership of 307 runs between Michael Hussey and Brad Haddin. Both Haddin and Hussey were coming into this game with a bad patch of batting on them, but
they both clicked at the most crucial time of the match. Mike Hussey and Brad Haddin played a match saving innings for their home side, which could have ended in England’s favour had these two not played the way they did.
However, even with this performance, the Australians failed to get their grip on the match, and the six bowlers used by Ricky Ponting failed to get any breakthrough. Nevertheless, it was a perfect situation for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 to take
advantage of the situation after Hussey had put them back in the game.
Australia’s recent lack of ability to capitalise on their strong position must be startling for Aussie selectors specifically and Aussie supporters generally. Someone in the Australian management needs to figure out the solutions
to the current Australian problems, otherwise it just might be too late for them to fix things once the problem gets out of hand.
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