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| July 19, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-us-Sani 11, 1426 |
Bookies back Trescothick to become McGrath’s 500th victim
SYDNEY, July 18: England opener Marcus Trescothick is the bookmakers’ favourite to become Australian bowler Glenn McGrath’s 500th wicket when the first Ashes Test begins at Lord’s on Thursday. McGrath is sitting on 499 Test wickets and will become the second pace bowler to achieve the milestone should he take a wicket in the match.
West Indies fast bowler Courtney Walsh retired with 519 Test wickets.
British bookmakers William Hill have offered the left-handed Trescothick at 9-4 to become McGrath’s 500th victim with fellow opener Andrew Strauss 11-4. England captain Michael Vaughan, who is expected to bat at number three, is third favourite at 7-2.
Australian bookmaker Centrebet had Trescothick at A$3.25, as was Strauss, while Vaughan was paying $4.50 for every dollar invested.
McGrath has dismissed Trescothick and Vaughan four times each in Tests.
The Australians are heavy favourites to retain the Ashes for the ninth successive series with Centrebet offering odds of $1.37, while England are priced at $4.65.
McGrath’s Australian team-mate Shane Warne is the all-time leading wicket-taker with 583, followed by Sri Lankan off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who has 539.
Walsh is third and McGrath fourth.
Meanwhile, England were suffering from a lack of confidence, according to McGrath.
McGrath said the Australians had noticed England’s players were exuding self-belief during earlier one-day matches on the tour but had started to slump with Australia’s comfortable victories in the last two matches.
“To me, body language is the biggest key and that is one thing Australia does so well,” McGrath was reported as saying by The Australian on Monday.
“During the last two one-dayers (at Lord’s and The Oval), it was quite obvious to see that their body language had dropped.
“It was so quiet out there (on the field), that is a sign that it won’t take much to get on top of them. It is easy to get aggressive when things are going well.
“They believe in themselves more than in the past. They have world-class players and that helps, but whether they really believe they can beat us, we will have to wait and see.
“In the back of their minds, they will know we probably had the edge over them in the one-dayers.”
McGrath said he also felt that England relied too heavily on certain players to perform, notably Trescothick, Strauss, Vaughan and fast bowler Steve Harmison.
England needed to ensure that Harmison was right for the series after he had a disappointing return in South Africa, where he admitted to suffering badly from home sickness, McGrath added.
“I thought England had a far better team and should have beaten South Africa, but Harmy (Harmison) didn’t perform as well as I thought he would,” McGrath said.
“Hoggy (fellow seamer Matthew Hoggard) bowled pretty well and that helped them out, but they won’t get away with relying on just two guys performing. If they do, we will win and win well.”—Reuters
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