Hello, it's been a while since my last column hasn't it? Anyway I'm back for this Ashes series with the blind optimism only an England cricket fan could have, hoping that by some miracle our batsmen can put up a good score on the board after a horrific day at the Gabba.
There have been patches of brilliance from the English bowling attack and Steve Finn's 6-for on his Ashes debut is certainly one to tell the grandkids about. James Anderson was the best in the tourist's bowling attack - of that there is no doubt. He somehow only took two wickets in the innings but should have had more - we will get onto that later! The first Australian five wickets fell for for 143, and the last five for 31, it was the 307 in between which was the problem!
There is no doubting the class and quality with which Mike Hussey scored his 195, although had England taken their chances he wouldn't have had the mammoth total which he amassed, being dropped by Cook on 67 and Anderson with a relatively easy one on 113. He had more good fortune when he was reprieved by his own referral on 82, and having scored just three more runs he was facing an appeal from the England team when James Anderson hit one straight on Hussey's pads in front of the stumps. It was out, but umpire Aleem Dar said no on the basis that he heard two noises. It transpires that these two noises were caused by the ball hitting both of the pads, but England couldn't ask for a referral as they had already used up both of their chances.
What's worse, one of the chances that England 'wasted' was on Shane Watson, where on the hotspot graphic there were no signs of an edge, with the 'Snicko' system showing obvious contact with the bat. However, because the third umpire doesn't have instantaneous access to 'Snicko', the original decision was upheld.
Readers of this site will know that I wasn't a massive fan of the umpire referral system at first and it's fair to say that it's definitely grown on me. However there still remains a major, major flaw in the system. If the idea of the reviews are to eradicate mistakes made by the umpires, why do we still let obvious mistakes be made? The ICC certainly need to find away to make sure all human error is eradicated without the teams being able to ask for a referral every time the umpire makes a decision.
I think that realistically, this test is lost. It is unlikely that we will be able to bat for two days, and unlikelier still that we can get 400+ to defend in the time that is remaining, especially on a pitch which is cracking up under the Brisbane sun. Tomorrow the test will be won and lost, and unfortunately I feel that it is advantage Aussies.
