England: 5/265
I always thought it would be a tough day for Australia’s bowlers, and they actually performed better than I expected. I thought they might only be able to pull off the one wicket today, but they were eventually able to get 4 of them, the final 2 in the third last over of the day. Pietersen looks pretty determined, and could be there for a while yet. Not wanting to be outdone, I actually thought The Ego might try and replicate the hitting of Adam Gilchrist. Maybe that will come on the final day.
For the first session and a half, Alastair Cook and Ian Bell were in control. The two of them batted really well, putting on 170 for the second wicket. With his first Ashes century out of the way, Cook possibly had just the slightest drop in concentration a short time later, and was dismissed for 116:
“I’ll sit back tonight and think, ‘Yeah I got a hundred’, but I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t have that nagging thing I could be walking out tomorrow and posting a bigger one and getting us closer to our target.”
- Alastair Cook
Matthew Hoggard came in as nightwatchman, but survived just 2 balls. Then in stepped captain Flintoff, and it didn’t take long to see that the Australians no longer feared the batting of the great Lancastrian. When Pietersen came on strike, the field would spread to encourage the single and allow the Aussies to have a crack at the England captain, who has been notoriously short on runs all series. Pietersen obliged, though at the time I wondered if Pietersen might actually deny the runs on offer in order to maintain the strike. With Flintoff batting, the field came in and the pressure was mounted. He survived the torment yesterday, and will need to survive for at least 40 overs today if England hope to hang on.
Day five will be interesting. Morning showers and storms are expected, which could throw a whole number of things into the mix. You can see a rainfall radar image of any rain around Perth here. Provided we get enough overs in, I can’t see England surviving a full day with only 5 wickets in hand. Flintoff and Giles will both need a vastly improved performance, and although Harmison and Panesar have shown that they know how to throw a bat around, they aren’t the sort to last for a session or more. So it’s all up to Pietersen and Flintoff.
What are others saying?
“And Saturday was probably the day we handed back the Ashes as well, as their batsmen scored 400 runs on a wicket we should have been still batting on.
Once again, there was an opportunity to get back in the series and it slipped through our fingers.
We will fight all the way but it is becoming increasingly clear that our best is not good enough against this great Aussie side.”
- Kevin Pietersen
“In the past 20 years Ashes series have been career-defining moments for many England captains and coaches, but this tour has been weighed down more than most with misfortunes, mishaps and misjudgments. The debate about where it leaves Duncan Fletcher as coach and Andrew Flintoff as captain will probably rage until the end.”
- Sunday Times
“We have been outplayed by the aussies. It has been painful to watch and it seems we have gone backwards. We need a change of leadership.”
- nonuffin’s blog
