Ashes 2013 – Lucky England or bad Captaincy?
August 6th, 2013 by G WaldorfHaving seen England retain the Ashes by virtue of a rain soaked Manchester, many observers will speculate what would have happened if the rain hadn’t come over and Michael Clarke’s team had been given a full day to bowl England out, however, history shows us that August test matches at Old Trafford, Manchester are always interrupted by rain. We should have known and acted accordingly.
Clarke, whilst a hero with the bat scoring a delightful 187 as Australia piled on the runs in the first innings, has certainly been left wanting as a captain. Sure he will improve as he gets more and more experience, and the way England swatted Australia aside in the first two tests will hurt Clarke deeply, however, it is the simple stuff that Clarke appears to have gotten wrong.
Wasting DRS chances on utterly spurious reviews was a critical factor in the first 2 tests, time and time again, Clarke used or authorised the use of reviews that were clearly out, thus missing out on opportunities to overturn incorrect decisions later in the innings. To be fair to Pup, England also flagrantly wasted DRS reviews, which makes a mockery of the whole system in my opinion. The best solution for DRS is that it is reserved for use by the Umpires, they can review a decision, whenever they wish, and only they can do so.
Clarke also missed a golden opportunity. His side was 2-0 down in the series, had racked up a pile of runs against England, and they’d had no rain…yet. We think he should have sent his team out for the second innings with a Twenty20 mentality…only Ten10 instead. Try and smash England’s bowlers all over the ground for 60 balls and see if they could add 50 to 100 runs. Then put England into bat again, with them having a realistic target to aim for, but with plenty of time to bowl them out.
It was always going to rain at some stage of this test match, and certainly this cricket fan would have preferred to have seen Clarke take the gamble and try set England up for a fall rather than give them the chance to retain the Ashes from the safety of their ECB umbrellas. Clarke played it safe, knowing a draw was the likely outcome and it would stop the rot, but a draw wouldn’t win Australia the Ashes would it? Playing it safe? Australia cricket? Makes me feel ill just thinking about that as a tactic.
We’ve reviewed the best bets for the rest of the 2013 Ashes series and we think backing the Draw for the series at super odds of $12.00, backing both Rogers and Smith to be Australia’s top runs scorer at odds of $10.00 and $11.00 respectively is a good bet. Finally back James Anderson to overtake Swann and finish as England’s top wicket taker at odds of $3.00.
Come on Clarkey, let’s show the world we can compete!
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