Game 4 Aus vs Eng (January 19th)

The one notable feature of game four at the 'Gabba was England's return to the old selection policy of picking 30-plus year olds at will. By handing Mal loye (34) and Paul Nixon (36) their international debuts in this series, things seem to have come the full circle. Who's the Dad's army now?

Actually these old heads have proved to be the lone bright spots in England's tournament so far. Nixon's partnership with Flintoff at Hobart last Tuesday effectively sealed the victory over the kiwis, with the Leicestershire pro showing the cool head for which he was finally selected (fans of Chris Read continue to despair, though). The 31 year old Jon Lewis exposed the Australian top order's fraility against controlled opening bowling, and Loye's cameo on debut was a delightful, inventive knock which gave the Aussie bowlers something to think about. England's one day setup has been pilloried for never having invested in youth, and being generally stale. Events in this tournament however seem to suggest England's selectors have more of a problem identifying players inherently suited to the one day game, or having the one day 'know how'. Mal loye is a classic example. The Lancashire right hander has always been at the fringes of international selection but was never going to break in with the likes of Trescothick, Knight, Vaughan and Strauss carrying the top order in the recent past. However, his refreshing approach on Friday took the sting out of Lee and McGrath for a brief while, showing that the skills he harnessed in the 20-20 competitions could be effectively brought into play in the longer version as well. It's therefore quite sad to see him make his debut at this stage of his first class career. The rest of the batting was suitably uninspired in the absence of Kevin Pietersen; I guess the scars of the Ashes will take a long time to heal. Andrew Strauss is simply unable to convert his starts at the moment, and Paul Collingwood's tour has gone into freefall after the double century in the Adelaide test. The bowlers fought spiritedly in thier attempt to defend 155, but Australia has just too much depth to be losing these tight contests. Knowing their infinite capacity to improve, the failure of the top order in this game should be enough incentive to come back with a bang when they play New Zealand tomorrow.

Like England, New Zealand have their share of probelms which seem to pile up whenever a side is in distress. Again, like England, their individual performances have been good in patches (Ross Taylor and Jeetan Patel to name two) but the sum doesn't match the parts at the moment. The injury to Shane Bond is something Bracewell should have anticipated and he should have set about gathering enough insurance against it during the Sri lanka series, rather than playing the rotation game. The side is rightly getting a lot of stick from the press as of now, but what's happened has happened so I'd rather urge the kiwis to make the best of their available resources and keep the belief that they can still make it to the finals going. The only way to get yourself out of a rut is to start winning. Easier said than done, but desperate times call for desperate cricket.