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| 'Lord's should provide us with a very good opportunity to put things right and it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that happens |
England's coach, Andy Flower, has told his underperforming batsmen there is no place to hide after two poor performances in the third Test at The Oval allowed Pakistan to pull the four-match series scoreline back to 2-1 with just the decider at Lord's to come this week. On a good batting track, England suffered collapses in each innings, including a remarkable subsidence of 7 for 28 second-time around, to muster scores of 231 and 222, as Pakistan held their nerve to win a tense contest by four wickets.
Although England have shown faith with their team by naming the same 11 players plus the nominal12th man, Tim Bresnan, Flower knows that his players have to front up if they are to avoid squandering a series victory that seemed preordained when they went 2-0 up after the second Test with a nine-wicket win at Edgbaston. "On the batting side, I thought we underperformed without a doubt," he said. "On a good Oval pitch, scores of 230 and 220 weren't good enough to win a Test match, and we need to produce better results, simple as that."
Having bowled Pakistan out for 80 and 72 in the first two games of the series at Trent Bridge and Edgbaston, England's own batting frailties had been masked to a certain degree. "I think the first two pitches we played on were very tricky surfaces," said Flower. "So they would undoubtedly have contributed to collapses. But as a batting team we need to produce better results, simple as that. Lord's should provide us with a very good opportunity to put things right and it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that happens."
Despite conceding a first-innings deficit of 75, England were inching back into command of the game at 156 for 2, with Alastair Cook ending a season-long batting drought with his 13th Test century. But once he was dismissed, caught down the leg-side for 110, the innings lost its momentum and the twin dismissals after tea of Kevin Pietersen and the well-set Jonathan Trott proved decisive in the final analysis.
"At The Oval, although we won the toss and batted, they were still quite trying conditions," said Flower. "But in the second innings there were no excuses whatsoever. We set up a brilliant platform through Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott and we performed poorly after that. Any batting collapse is concerning and there have been too many of them."
Nevertheless, Cook's return to form, and the steady tempo that Trott displayed in his three-and-a-half-hour 36, were pleasing to Flower, who believes that - while Cook's innings was a more aggressive affair than he is used to producing - both men have the ability to buck the current trend of fast and aggressive Twenty20-influenced scoring, for the greater benefit of their team. "There is a different style of batting in international cricket these days," said Flower. "It is without doubt more attacking, and with that has come a heavier percentage of results and shorter games.
"We thought that when Trott played an obdurate innings in our second innings and it was looked at as very rare and questioned by certain people. That was good, old-fashioned Test match batting. I thought it was quite a good example of how attitudes to strike rates in Test cricket have changed.
"Cook is quiet but he is quietly strong," he added. "After failing in the first innings and having a rough time of it recently, I think it was a courageous knock filled with really exciting strokeplay. He is a tough young man and that is why he has the record he has. But he has got to back that up now, at Lord's and into the future."
The man whom Flower was most impressed by, however, was England's wicketkeeper and No.7, Matt Prior, who followed up his century in the second innings at Trent Bridge with a vital 84 not out that dug England out of a big hole at 94 for 7 on the first day at The Oval. "He's looking probably the most organised I've seen him as a batsman since he started playing international cricket," said Flower. "Graham Gooch and he have worked hard at the basics of batting and I think we can see the results of some of those hours in training."
Despite the Oval loss, Flower was confident that his players would bounce back with a strong performance. "Lord's should provide us with a very good opportunity to put things right and it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure that happens," he said. "Once the boys step over the boundary it is their job to embrace that responsibility and be skilful enough to deal with the pressures of international cricket. I think we're underperforming. I think our batsmen believe that as well. And they will be doing everything to put that right
