IF all things were equal, Victorian Peter Siddle picking up the English captain as the first wicket on a Boxing Day Test would have been cause for riotous celebration.
But things are far from equal this summer.
Alastair Cook, the barometer of the crestfallen England unit he leads, is in such bad form that his wicket has become more a matter of time than the motivation for a public holiday that it was on the previous Ashes tour three years ago.
The execution on Thursday took slightly longer than most of the previous times in the first three Tests of his wretched tour that has yielded just 181 runs in seven knocks at 25.8.
It's about as far removed from his dominant 2010/11 tour - when he clubbed 766 runs at an imperious 127.7 - as possible for a player of his talent and who once, at least, was revered for his powers of concentration.
But, a day after his 29th birthday and the candid admission that this Ashes debacle had exposed cracks in his captaincy, Cook was still a matter of "when" not "if" to the Aussie bowlers.
The Australians, with ample justification, believe that if they keep plugging away with balls on a length outside off stump that he will eventually fall into their slips cordon trap because he simply doesn't stretch far enough forward in defence.
So, after glimpses of at least some of his armory of strokes on Thursday, it barely engaged a yell from Siddle when, on 27, Cook just shuffled across without conviction and gave Michael Clarke catching practice at second slip.
On Christmas Day, Cook had said he'd have to shoulder more of the batting load.
And when he shuffled forward nervously on the first ball, specifically to cover the possibility of a repeat of the magical Ryan Harris ball that skittled him for a golden duck in the second innings in Perth, there were signs he'd dug in for the fight.
But in the second over, when he pushed a full toss on his pads from Johnson's second ball for two, his complete lack of confidence was evident for all to see because, on his previous Ashes tour, that ball would have crashed into the mid-wicket fence.
He played a couple of nice pushes through the off side and belatedly displayed the cut shot that was the trademark of his previous cavalier best.
There was even a hint that his luck might have changed when he attempted to withdraw his bat from a Harris delivery, but the resultant bottom edge flew short and wide of keeper Brad Haddin and the ball scurried to the third man fence.
But, after reaching 17 before opening partner Michael Carberry troubled the scorers, the frugal Harris tied Cook down and his demise looked ever more imminent.
There'd been some less-than-flattering jokes made during the week that he was the third most popular Cook - behind Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson - as a choice to lead England this week.
The lame dismissal on Thursday won't have done anything to ease that perception.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Aussies have captain Cooked
Dengan url
http://sportfoxer.blogspot.com/2013/12/aussies-have-captain-cooked.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Aussies have captain Cooked
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar