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| June 18, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1426 |
No respite for Aussie tail, warns Strauss
LONDON, June 17: England batsman Andrew Strauss has told Australia’s tailenders to expect plenty more short-pitched bowling before this season’s one-dayers and Ashes Test series are finished.
When the sides met for the first time this year, at the Rose Bowl on Monday, England won a Twenty20 contest by 100 runs.
But arguably of greater significance was the moment when Australia fast bowler Brett Lee was hit on the right shoulder batting against pace bowling of all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.
That in turn may have contributed to the change of bowling action that prevented the New South Wales paceman from bowling his full quota of overs in Australia’s shock four-wicket defeat against Somerset at Taunton on Wednesday.
Although scans on Thursday cleared Lee of serious damage to his right shoulder, he remains doubtful for Australia’s opening triangular series one-day matches, against Bangladesh in Cardiff on Saturday and England in Bristol on Sunday.
Such has been Australia’s dominance in winning the last eight Ashes series against England they’ve rarely had need to resort to intimidatory bowling - a thorny topic ever since England’s infamous 4-1 ‘Bodyline’ series win in Australia in 1932-33 when the tourists’ quicks were accused of too often aiming at batsmen’s bodies rather than their stumps.
However, 28-year-old left-hander Strauss, speaking after scoring an unbeaten 82 in England’s 10-wicket triangular opening thrashing of Bangladesh at The Oval on Thursday, said there was a place for short-pitched bowling.
“Someone like Brett Lee loves the ball being pitched up and he’ll try to spank you over your head if you do.
“The bowlers we’ve got, the likes of Flintoff and (Stephen) Harmison, do that as a matter of course against any tail really and rightly so because tailenders don’t like it short and at their bodies.
“It’s a good tactic and I’m sure we’ll continue to do it as the summer goes on. I’m sure we’ll be getting our fair share as well.
“It goes with the territory a little bit these days and fortunately we’ve got bowlers who can do that.”
But Strauss, who scored a century at Lord’s against New Zealand last year, warned that world champions Australia could more than cope with Lee’s absence.
“They are a weaker side without him in it. But they are certainly not a one-man bowling attack and the other guys (Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz), are more than capable of doing a job themselves.
“We’ve got the advantage in pace if Brett Lee is not playing but it’s only one component of the game really.”
Meanwhile Strauss played down the impact of Wednesday’s game where Australia lost despite scoring 342 for five.
“It was interesting Somerset got 340-odd but we all know what the wicket is like at Taunton and it is possible to do that.
“It hasn’t been ideal for them but I remember last time they came over here (in 2001) they lost to Middlesex in a warm-up game which I was playing in.
“Everyone was saying ‘are things slipping?’ and they went on and won the one-day series very comfortably.
“They’ll be very, very keen to come back strongly on Sunday. I’m sure they’ll hit us pretty hard and it should be a good tussle.”
But Strauss, who played alongside McGrath and Australia Test batsman Justin Langer at Middlesex, said that for all their desire to win on the field, the teams enjoyed friendly relations away from the middle.
“They are a good bunch of lads. It’s going to be a fairly competitive summer on the pitch but that doesn’t mean we can’t speak off the pitch.”—AFP
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