Posted on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 6:11 pm:

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England v Australia, Twenty20, The Rose Bowl

England braced for step up in class

Andrew Miller

June 12, 2005



Ricky Ponting in action during the Twenty20 international against New Zealand in February © Getty Images



Warning: Batting against Bangladesh can seriously damage your health. That is the lesson that Michael Vaughan and his men learnt way back in 2003-04, and tomorrow, they will be reminded how vast the gulf between the best and the rest is, when they take on Australia in the Twenty20 tour opener at the Rose Bowl.


Visualising the step up in class is one thing; putting it into practice is quite something else, as England found out to their cost in November 2003. Following a facile one-day series clean sweep in Dhaka and Chittagong, they crossed the Bay of Bengal to Dambulla ... where Sri Lanka obliterated them by ten wickets, after chasing down a target of 89 inside 14 overs.


Now, as then, meaningful practice has been in short supply for England. They might have expected a Hampshire side led by Shane Warne to put up some resistance, but once Darren Gough's hat-trick had reduced them to 14 for 6, that game was dead as a dodo. It did allow the squad a timely chance to practice their slogging when a 12-over knockabout was arranged to fill the spare overs - and Kevin Pietersen took full advantage with a 15-ball 46 - but Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie will prove harder to take liberties against.


England is the birthplace of Twenty20 cricket, but the team has never yet played an international of that length. Indeed, three of the squad, including Vaughan himself, have yet to take part in the county competition either, because it clashes with the annual NatWest Series. Australia, therefore, have the edge in terms of experience after their bad-haired encounter with New Zealand earlier in the year, and judging by the way Andrew Symonds treated the Leicestershire attack yesterday (92 not out from 59 balls), they can't wait to be reacquainted with the format.


Ricky Ponting was the star of Australia's first Twenty20 game, thumping a formidable 98 not out from 55 balls against their beige-and-moustachioed New Zealand opponents, and he was back on the offensive during an interview with BBC radio last night, claiming that the only man who would make his team would be Andrew Flintoff. "We have most bases covered," said Ponting, "but the one thing we haven't got is a world-class all-rounder - a Flintoff sort of player."

Such jibes are nothing new in Ashes confrontations, but they do highlight the immediate and unavoidable need for England to hit the ground running in this campaign, starting from the moment the first ball is bowled at 5.30pm tomorrow. The Twenty20 format and atmosphere could not be further removed from the first Test at Lord's, but for two sides that are currently brimful of confidence, there are some vital psychological battles to be won and lost in the coming weeks.



Hamish Marshall's bad hair was a highlight of the first Twenty20 international © Getty Images



For that reason, England have resisted the temptation to pack their team with Twenty20 specialists - Darren Maddy is one name that has cropped up regularly - and instead have backed the 14 men chosen for the NatWest Series and Challenge. Steve Harmison, who missed the Hampshire fiasco with an injured ankle, is expected to play, and has four overs in which to lay down the first of his many markers this summer.

It is England's batting that is the greater concern, however, for they misfired a touch against Hampshire, until Pietersen and Andrew Strauss - with a welcome and timely contribution - baled them out. Tomorrow's encounter promises fun, frolics, a full house and several fireworks. But it will also be fearsomely competitive, and the first glimpse of what promises to be an epoch-making series.

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