Aussies wreck Vaughan show

Early dismissal: Ed Joyce
14 April 2012

The Australians debunked the theory that England are one of the 'momentum teams' going into the World Cup with alarming ease.

A sobering five-wicket defeat at Arnos Vale stopped Michael Vaughan's men in their tracks ahead of their flight to Jamaica for the opening ceremony.

Read more:

• Holding slams money mad West Indies players

• Fletcher turns up the heat on Aussies

• India ready for action

• McGrath still on KPs charge sheet

• Read 'bewildered' by Ashes axe

• Fleming laments Aussie wastefulness

Their collapse to 196 all out, which saw nine balls go unused, was overhauled with 10 overs to spare, making the assorted band of English supporters and holidaymakers grateful that it was an unofficial 13-a-side match.

Thank goodness the record books will be unsullied by this lousy performance which came a week before the important opening game against a New Zealand side who beat Sri Lanka by 18 runs yesterday in Barbados.

England were poor in every department, the batsmen struggling after a decent start, the bowlers ineffective and the fielders an embarrassment.

It was hard to believe the same team had won their past four one-day internationals in Australia, but easy to remember they had lost five of the six that had gone before. The only bonus to emerge was the batting of Vaughan, who made a fluent 62 from 73 balls as England secured a platform from which they should have made a challenging score.

The skipper then stayed on the field for 17 overs before going off to rest the hamstring that he has been nursing back to health since Australia.

Vaughan said: "We've hit the boys hard with training and maybe today showed a few aftereffects. It was a good day for me but we're disappointed with the performance. There are some positives but Australia were a better team."

Ironically, given his top-scoring contribution, this was the first time since Vaughan returned that the team did not look a more cohesive unit for his presence. He will have been most perturbed by the bowling, an area where the line-up has yet to be fixed and in which nobody pressed their case.

As Adam Gilchrist and Shane Watson compiled 140 for the first wicket to put the game beyond doubt — before the softening of the ball made scoring more difficult — there was no threat from any of the seamers. James Anderson was worryingly pedestrian while the other pacemen went for seven an over when it mattered.

Monty Panesar was the only bowler to assert control, although in the debit column he led the way with two fielding howlers.

Vaughan wants to convince people he is in the team for more than just his captaincy and, after his final World Cup warm-up, it was easier to be a believer. The skipper did his job purely as a batsman, only to then watch as his colleagues jumped off the platform he had established, unable to prosper in the face of sharp movement off the pitch.

Vaughan was blameless after making 62 while exhibiting few signs of the hamstring injury he suffered in Australia, or the bad knee he now has to live with.

He was in the sort of touch last seen from him in an England oneday shirt in the series prior to the Ashes — the 2005, Ashes that is.

It must be remembered he has only played three proper ODIs since, the trio he managed in Australia that brought scores of 26, 17 and 0.

His is the kind of attendance record that has people fearing whether he will last out the tournament, but here there was a full range of footwork, drives and pulls and the odd quick single as he and Ian Bell took the total to 122 for one at the halfway mark.

Vaughan was helped by two wayward overs from Mitchell Johnson which raised false hopes that we were about to be presented with evidence that the world champions' bowling is on the skids.

There were some nifty reverse sweeps from Bell, but English batsmen struggle to work the spinners around and the introduction of Brad Hogg and Michael Clarke brought swift deceleration.

Hogg's wrong 'un deceived Bell in the over following the halfway mark and then Vaughan ended his innings in tired and inappropriate fashion, making a horrible waft and lobbing to point.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in