Fielding blunders undo England8217;s good work

Stewart may have also been hoping that Mark Taylor would be overcome by sentiment as he was required to make a thank you speech on receiving a presentation from the Australian Cricket Board ACB honouring his achievement inplaying 100 Tests. Incredibly, Taylor walked to the microphone only ten minutes before going out to bat. What can administrators be thinking when they organise the timing of such a tribute?

However, the unflappable Australian captain didn8217;t suffer any emotional upsets and appeared set to continue his amazing habit of scoring heavily in the first Test of a series. Eight of his 19 centuries have come in that situation, but on this occasion he fell four runs short of a half-century when the aggressive Dominic Cork made one bounce outside off-stump.

This was a big breakthrough as Australia has often built around the captain8217;s solidity. In the light of the situation at the commencement of the 1997 Ashes series, it8217;s amazing to say that England has to find a way to get rid of Taylor early if they hope to restrict this Australian line-up.

With Taylor gone, England had a great opportunity to restrict their opponents to a meagre total, but a bungled run-out and butter-fingered fielding denied them an early crackat Australia8217;s long tail. Steve Waugh was well short of his crease and Stewart8217;s throw was headed right for the target when Alan Mullally incredibly deflected the ball as he tried to take it in front of the stumps.

That was the break Waugh needed and when he was joined by Ian Healy it was the old firm doing business as usual in an unbeaten 68-run stand for the sixth wicket. At the same ground, they retrieved a similarly desperate situation against the West Indies a couple of seasons ago by counter-attacking at every opportunity.

Healy is an amazing player. He has a strike rate that most top order batsmen would crave and despite giving Waugh a start he was the main contributor in the half-century stand. The England players became frustrated as this positive partnership loosened their grip on the game and when a skied Healy shot escaped the grasp of Angus Fraser, the opportunity for a great first day had been missed.

This mistake was then compounded when Nasser Hussain dropped Waugh at second slip, theunlucky bowler on both occasions being the ebullient Darren Gough.

These blunders spoilt a good day8217;s work, which was impressively guided by Stewart8217;s firm hand as a captain. There was rhythm and reason to his captaincy with most of his moves designed to make a breakthrough. His plans revolved around Gough and Alan Mullally being the twin spearheads and the rest of the attack probing for weaknesses. The two quicker bowlers responded to their billing by making an early breakthrough, but the fielders didn8217;t play their part in the operation.

There8217;s every chance that England will be punished for their mistakes at the Gabba as both Waugh and Healy delight in making opponents pay heavily. The usually positive Gough looked a little despondent as he trudged off after the two Australians and if things don8217;t change quickly in the morning all the extra effort will take it8217;s toll on England8217;s number one bowler. For much of the day it looked like being one full of pleasant surprises, but in the end it went as so manyothers have for England in recent Ashes contests. Unfortunately for England they8217;re all too aware of what those bad days lead to.

Scoreboard

Australia

1st innings: Mark Taylor c Hussain b Cork 46, Michael Slater c Butcher b Mullally 16, Justin Langer lbw Gough 8, Mark Waugh c Stewart b Mullally 31, Steve Waugh batting 69, Ricky Ponting c Butcher b Cork 21, Ian Healy batting 46; Extras

lb4, nb5: 9. Total

for 5 wickets, in 89 overs: 246

Fall of wickets:1-30, 2-59, 3-106, 4-106, 5-178

Bowling:Gough 19-4-58-1, Cork 22-3-56-2, Mullally 22-7-64-2, Croft 10-4-18-0, Fraser 16-5-46-0.