Subscribe DAVID GRAVENEY England's chairman of selectors is prepared to resign to deflect criticism away from the management partnership he believes can
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DAVID GRAVENEY, England's chairman of selectors, is prepared to resign to deflect criticism away from the management partnership he believes can turn around the team's fortunes. Innings closed 11.08am.Stewart's 50: 93 min, 83 balls, 7 fours, 1 six.South Africa won by an innings and 21 runs.Umpires: D L Orchard (SA) and S Venkataraghavan (Ind).Compiled by Jo King. Bad light stopped play at 5.52pm-close at 188-7 (Flintoff 26, Caddick 4) 67 overs Fourth day: play began at 10am 200: 299 min, 70.3 overs New ball taken after 80 overs at 242-8 250: 341 mins, 81.1 overs. After Paul Adams had removed Flintoff for 36 - a wicket that prevented the opening bowlers from sharing all 20 - Pollock ended proceedings by dismissing Caddick, who made his highest Test score of 48, and Mullally, with the second new ball.By sharing 19 England wickets between them, the pair have shown not only how they justify their billing as the top two fast bowlers in world cricket, but just how reliant their team is upon them, especially when Jacques Kallis is unable to bowl.If the lack of back-up was not a problem here, it could become one and the South African selectors have included both David Terbrugge and Mornantau Hayward in the squad for the next Test at Port Elizabeth in 11 days time.Neither are experienced and providing England can get past the new ball spell of Donald and Pollock without being four or five wickets down, all is not gloom and this series may still be alive come the millennium.Henry Blofeld, page 11ENGLAND'S DOWNHILL RUNOpponents Venue Result England captAug 1998 Sri Lanka The Oval lost by 10 wkts A J StewartNov 1998 Australia Brisbane Draw A J StewartNov 1998 Australia Perth lost by 7 wkts A J StewartDec 1998 Australia Adelaide lost by 205 runs A J StewartDec 1998 Australia Melbourne won by 12 runs A J StewartJan 1999 Australia Sydney lost by 98 runs A J StewartJuly 1999 New Zealand Edgbaston won by 7 wkts N HussainJuly 1999 New Zealand Lord's lost by 9 wkts N HussainAug 1999 New Zealand Old Trafford Draw M A ButcherAug 1999 New Zealand The Oval lost by 83 runs N HussainNov 1999 South Africa Johannesburg lost by inningsand 21 runs N HussainSCOREBOARDFourth day; South Africa won tossENGLAND - First Innings 122 (A A Donald 6-53, S M Pollock 4-16).SOUTH AFRICA - First Innings 403 for 9 dec (H H Gibbs 85, D J Cullinan 108, L Klusener 72; D Gough 5-70).ENGLAND - Second Innings(Overnight: 188 for 7)M A Butcher lbw b Donald 32220 min, 138 balls, 4 foursM A Atherton c Boucher b Pollock 04 min, 1 ball*N Hussain b Pollock 1633 min, 27 balls, 2 fours, 1 sixM P Vaughan lbw b Donald 544 min, 38 balls, 1 fourA J Stewart c Rhodes b Donald 86160 min, 130 balls, 14 fours, 1 sixC J Adams c Boucher b Donald 16 min, 4 ballsA Flintoff c and b Adams 3686 min, 62 balls, 7 foursG M Hamilton c Pollock b Donald 06 min, 3 ballsA R Caddick b Pollock 4897 min, 72 balls, 7 fours, 1 sixD Gough not out 1638 min, 26 balls, 2 foursA D Mullally c Kallis b Pollock 02 min, 2 ballsExtras (b4 lb10 w6) 20Total (353 min, 83.4 overs) 260Fall: 1-0 (Atherton) 2-31 (Hussain) 3-41 (Vaughan), 4-145 (Butcher) 5- 147 (Adams) 6-166 (Stewart) 7-166 (Hamilton) 8-218 (Flintoff) 9-260 (Caddick) 10-260 (Mullally).Bowling: Donald 23-7-74-5 (w1) (7-5-11-0, 5-1-17-1, 7-1-24-4, 2-0-16- 0, 2-0-6-0); Pollock 24.4-11-64-4 (w1) (9-5-22-2, 5-3-9-0, 6-1-21-0, 3- 2-1-0, 1.4-0-11-2); Klusener 19-3-55-0 (7-0-19-0, 7-3-12-0, 1-0-4-0, 4- 0-20-0); Adams 11-1-31-1 (6-0-14-0, 1-1-0-0, 4-0-17-1); Cronje 6-3-22- 0 (one spell).Progress: Third day: Lunch 4-1 (Butcher 0, Hussain 0) 5 overs 50: 95 min, 21.5 overs 100: 160 min, 39 overs Late tea: 107-3 (Butcher 27, Stewart 46) 42 overs 150: 235 min, 56.3 overs. The irony between this match and the one here four years ago is about as extreme as it gets, and his only consolation was that both balls were nigh on unplayable.With England beginning the day on 188 for 7, play ended much as it began, with Donald and Pollock wreaking havoc.
Andy Flintoff and Michael Vaughan also showed both stomach and skill for the fight and for once England's tail-end managed a wag.Further succour can also be taken from the fact that after his second pair in successive overseas Tests - he bagged them in Melbourne last winter before pulling out of the Sydney Test - Michael Atherton's Test scores can only get better. Herschelle Gibbs proved particularly adept at leaving the ball and both he and Daryll Cullinan batted extremely well when the pressure was on.For England, only Alec Stewart, with 86 in the second innings, came close to matching their chutzpah, though he batted almost entirely when the sun was out, a factor that seemed to calm the lively pitch. Caddick, in particular, will not have been happy with just a single wicket on a pitch that helped seam throughout the game.The tall Somerset man is a talented bowler who beat the bat consistently. Unfortunately, he did not force the batsmen to play often enough, a fault more of his length, which was two yards too short, than of his line. Mistakes were made, mainly in the length and line bowled by England's three front-line bowlers and South Africa should never really have sniffed 400 with the bat. It's interesting cricket, but I don't think it is the sort of cricket purists want to see."Gough, incidentally, is on a hat-trick after Hansie Cronje declared following the dismissals of Pollock and Allan Donald in successive balls on Saturday.Considering England's players ply their trade at county level on pitches every bit as bad, perhaps they should have made a better fist of things. The ball is going over the keeper, shooting along the ground and going sideways and you've got Donald, Pollock, Gough and Caddick running in.
It should also bring all forms of technique and talent, such as spin, into the game."You sit there and watch, and it's a three-day game again. Unfortunately it was us who had the bat in our hands."The point of Test cricket," he added, "is to have an even contest between bat and ball. In this instance, though, it was not entirely self- inflicted, and any soul searching ought to be limited to that of the groundsman, Chris Scott, whose damp first-day pitch was in direct contravention of ICC directives.Hussain will make his own views known in his captain's report, a document never made public but which hinted that the pitch had been a huge influence on the result."The pitch was there and it was damp," said Hussain "You can't not start a game, so you just get on and do it. All evidence suggests it will not be and, by having net practice just an hour after Alan Mullally had sealed defeat by edging Shaun Pollock to third slip, England showed they clearly had frustrations to work off.For those who simply feel outraged by another loss, the small print of mitigating factors will be of little interest. And yet, is it truly realistic to expect a side widely claimed to be the worst in the world, to beat a team adjudged second only to Australia, especially when they are caught on the wrong side of a crucial toss?To sharpen the focus further, this was South Africa's 10th successive win at home, a record that supersedes even countries like India, whose dominance in their own backyard is virtually a law of nature.Defeat, if becoming something of a habit for England, is not getting any easier to take. But hopefully it will be character building and we can learn from the way some of their players coped."Despite the margin - it is only the second time in 116 Tests that South Africa have beaten England by an innings - defeat can be taken lightly. "I said going into this game that the first session of the first day of the first Test would be crucial and all three went against us."For a new set of lads making their debuts, to be so severely tested first up, in conditions like that, was really tough.
But, as Hussain pointed out afterwards, it would have tested just how far his combination of young thrusters and salty campaigners had come, following a build-up that had brought genuine optimism and spirit. "Losing is a set-back, definitely," said Hussain. Fortune is a forbidden word in sport, yet Nasser Hussain now finds his side 1-0 down, largely on the toss of a coin. That is not to say that England would definitely have won had South Africa been given first dig on a damp, grassy pitch in marginal light. Few teams could have recovered against South Africa after being 2 for 4, let alone one as punch drunk by calamity as England have been of late. THE HISTORY books will record that England lost this Test match an hour before lunch on the fourth day by an innings and 21 runs, but in truth it was over much earlier than that. Earlier this year it snapped up the 18.6 per cent interest in Scottish Media held by Mirror Group, amid speculation that a foreign buyer was attracted by the stake.. The review may be completed next month. As Britain's biggest commercial television player, Granada had been expected to play a lead role in reshaping the ITV system.
The Carlton/United merger would give the new group 36 per cent of commercial television advertising sales. This could allow Granada to buy out Carlton's 50 per cent interest in ONdigital, the money-losing digital terrestrial television broadcaster. Granada and BSkyB are expected to lodge complaints with the Office of Fair Trading, which is reviewing voluntary competition undertakings that limit any one ITV group to 25 per cent of total television advertising. United fared even less well, ending up 3.2 per cent at 769p, well below its all-time high of 902p reached last year. Granada is also considering whether the bid, which amounts to a reverse takeover of Carlton by United, also signifies a change in control of Carlton. Commenting on the market underperformance of Carlton and United, traders said many investors were using the opportunity to cut losses and move on amid fears that the regulatory authorities might modify or even scupper the deal. Carlton closed on Friday only 4 per cent up at 576.5p - well below its 12-month high of 656.5p.