Divine Madness

So McGrath injured himself during the warm up. Hard not smile, wasn’t it? I may have even laughed a little. After Lord’s, the thought did cross my mind that England’s best chance of regaining of the Ashes would be to get someone to knobble McGrath and Warne, and if only one then the former. Now he’s done the job himself. Or did he? After mentioning Mr Jardine this morning, I did wonder this afternoon whether the England team might have got out the ouija board at the hotel last night and evoked the wandering, restless spirit of the old enforcer with the Harlequin cap. Was that ball there before McGrath put his foot on it? What was it doing there anyway? Jardine may have devised a radical tactic to combat one member of the Australian team (Bradman), but in the intervening years he probably reached the conclusion that it would have been a hell of a lot easier just to knobble the bastard at the beginning and be done with it.

The incident, I think, also represents justice (of a poetic variety) being served. Over the years numerous England players have suffered injuries both prior to and during Ashes series. Recently, in 2001, we lost Hussain, Thorpe and White (who was actually quite important at the time, having cemented his place in the side as a useful batsman who bowled at over 90 mph). Then in 2003 Gough, Flintoff and Thorpe (again, although not because of a physical injury in this instance) were unavailable. On each occasion the media (both Australian and English, strangely) insisted that injuries were a poor excuse for getting hammered, which was bollocks as far as I was concerned: no team loses three of its more important members without suffering a little. So I hope that the media aren’t going to make allowances because of McGrath’s absence this time.

They should, of course. Without McGrath, Australia’s pace attack looks pretty ordinary. Would any of them get into the England team? I don’t think so. Lee’s record is no better than Hoggard’s, Gillespie isn’t the bowler he was even a couple of years ago and Kasprowicz is just a steady seamer. Apart from missing his bowling ability, his loss will have a psychological impact. Without him (and Warne) the Australian attack was flayed all over the park(s) in Australia by the Indians a couple of years ago. Meanwhile the England batsmen must have felt like the school bully had been expelled. They played like they did. Either that or someone had stirred something into their morning tea. Meanwhile, spare a thought for Ian Bell.

I’m surprised by the suggestion in some parts of the media that 407 might not be a good score. Over 400 is a decent score pretty much anywhere, I reckon, especially after being put in. OK, so we were 290-4, but we were also 180-4 when Flintoff’s first scoring shot just cleared mid off. Had that been caught we would have been luck to make 300. As it is, 407 isn’t bad, not on a pitch like that, which is likely to deteriorate. Batting last on it won’t be too much fun. Of course, the true value of those runs won’t become apparent until tomorrow, after Australia have batted for a while. I hope someone has told Flintoff and Harmison not to bother banging it in.