England and Wales Cricket Board
Concerned by England’s batting woes in the recent Oval test, England coach Andy Flower vented his anger at the under performing English batting arsenal. At the third test of the n Power five test series a dismal outing by the England batting attack let Pakistan claw their way back into the series. Pakistan eked out a nervous four wicket win, and pulled the score line to 2-1 before the upcoming Lords decider.
The England batting showed a lot of promise and stamped their authority on the series with a 2-0 lead after their nine wicket win in the second test at Edgbaston. But the English batting faltered in the third test as they could manage measly scores of 220 and 230 in the two innings. Even after conceding a 75 run lead in the first innings, the English boys looked set to claw their way back into the game. Alistair Cook ended his season drought with his 13th Test century as England looked positive at 156 with two wickets down.
But Cook’s dismissal for 110 started brewing trouble for the English batting order as they lost wickets in quick succession. The last seven wickets managing to add only 28 on the board as England saw all of them back at the dugout for only 230 at the board.
Even though after being let down by the batsmen, coach Andy Flower seemed to be impressed by Cook’s return to form. The former Zimbabwe glove man and a veteran of 63 Tests was impressed by Alistair Cook’s aggression and flair with the bat during his ton that came to be England’s saving grace for the match. But the man who impressed Flower the most was English Wicket Keeper and number 7 batsmen Matthew Prior. After his second innings ton at Trent Bridge, Prior followed his heroics with a crucial undefeated 84 that pulled England out of the dark, when they were reeling at 94 for 7 at the first day of the Oval Test.
Flower was pleased with Prior’s organized approach to a pressure situation and to further improve his batting skills made him undergo training with former English batsman Graham Gooch.
By: Soubhik Ray
Tags: Andy Flower, Coach, Cricket, England, Oval Test, Pakistan, Sports World, Test Cricket, World Sports
