‘Sick of it’: England legends in meltdown over Bazball ‘stupidity’

During one other day of frenetic Test cricket the place the hosts attain 4/278 of their pursuit of Australia’s first innings complete of 416, the great, the unhealthy and the ugly of England’s method was on full show.

The England aspect was hammered by Test nice Kevin Pietersen for being too pleasant and missing depth on day one, however their bowling outfit completed off the Aussie tail with aplomb – taking the final seven wickets for 100 runs.

There have been no complaints both as first Zak Crawley (48 from 48 balls), then Ben Duckett (98 from 134) and Ollie Pope (42 from 63) took aside the Aussie quicks to take England to 1/188 from simply 38 overs.

But from that place of actual dominance – particularly contemplating Nathan Lyon was off the bottom and probably out of the match and the sequence with a calf harm – England let Australia again within the sport.

Crawley had thrown away his wicket when he danced down the pitch and have become the fourth English batsman to be stumped by Alex Carey within the sequence.

“Zak Crawley has just done what Zak Crawley does,” former English captain Michael Vaughan lamented in commentary for the BBC.

“He plays beautifully, you think ‘come on, it’s your day’, he gets to 48 and then he just gifts an easy wicket.

“That’s the problem with this England side – they don’t realise when they’re on top. They just carry on with this method. There’s no need for that dismissal.

“If you get a beauty on a pitch like this … then you say ‘well bowled’. But there’s not going to be many beauties bowled on this surface at the minute. Just play sensibly!”

But it bought worse. Australia had a ball that was doing nothing, no spinner and was toiling away on a pitch that was good for batting.

So Pat Cummins pivoted his techniques and commenced peppering the Poms with short-pitched bowling.

And Duckett, Pope after which Joe Root performed proper into Australia’s fingers.

Perhaps decided to indicate Bazball wouldn’t be intimidated, the trio principally swung at all the pieces that got here their manner.

Pope was caught within the deep by Steve Smith, Duckett despatched a catch to David Warner at superb leg simply two runs wanting his century after which Root lobbed one other probability to Smith, this time at sq. leg.

There have been one other half a dozen pictures that fortunately fell safely as three wickets fell in seven overs of insanity and an Australian aspect that appeared down and out was all of the sudden again within the match.

It may have been worse if Harry Brook (45 not out from 51 balls) had been caught by Marnus Labuschagne. The carefree teenager was additionally nearly bowled by Cameron Green when he backed away and tried a ridiculous shot.

“I want Bazball to get smarter,” former England captain David Gower mentioned. “I’m getting sick of people running down the pitch and missing it when they’re playing well.”

“We can’t mix entertainment with stupidity,” added Vaughan.

Another English skipper, Nasser Hussain, was additionally essential.

“At times the percentages weren’t in their favour,” Hussain mentioned. “The pull and the hook shot – when there’s two men out – OK. But when there’s three men out then suddenly the percentages, the risk taking is not in your favour.”

Ben Stokes was surprisingly the one to rein it in, placing the pull shot away and taking a number of blows to the arms and physique as he scored simply 17 from 57 deliveries earlier than stumps.

It was an method that for another workforce would have been the apparent one, however appeared out of character for McCullum’s outfit.

Now we wait to see if Australia will return to the head-hunting on day three – and if Stokes and Brook will tackle the problem in the event that they do.

Pietersen, maybe regretting how onerous he’d gone at his countrymen the day earlier than, desires England to maintain taking the sport on, arguing if the pictures had been hit cleanly and cleared the fence it might have pressured Cummins to again down.

Andrew Strauss was additionally trying on the brilliant aspect. “We can talk about the tactics until the cows come home, the fact of the matter is England won all three sessions today,” Strauss mentioned.

Duckett additionally spoke after play completed and argued every batsman had backed themselves to play the short-pitched bowling in their very own traditional type.

And he questioned whether or not it was a tactic Australia may stick with for the remainder of the sequence, given how drained it may make the bowling unit.

“We like our chances of chasing a total on day five here,” Duckett mentioned. “If Gaz (Lyon) can’t bowl that’s a big miss for Australia.”