England are losing everything ....including their way!

From Times Online

April 9, 2007

Between a rock and a hard place

Simon Wilde, Sunday Times Cricket Correspondent, in Antigua

Another day, another loss, another battering for self-esteem. That England lost to Australia in Antigua was no great surprise; that their principal Ashes heroes - Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen - endured more disappointment at the hands of the team they famously conquered two years ago was further evidence that this is a side that has terminally lost its way.

The route to qualification for the World Cup semi-finals has become mathematically remote and realistically irrelevant; unless England can raise their game significantly they have not got a hope of winning their last three Super Eight games, which must happen if they are to have a chance of making the last four.

They have had their moments against New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Australia but have been unable to play consistently even within one game of 100 overs, let alone throughout a tournament comprising 11 matches for those who make the final.

In the big events, such as the Ashes or a World Cup, teams rely on their big players producing big performances. Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden are scoring heavily for Australia. Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene and Muttiah Muralitharan are time and again making their impact felt for Sri Lanka. And yet who is making things happen here for England? Who is giving them a lead?

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Certainly not Vaughan, for all his calm leadership. He cannot buy a run at the moment and even Duncan Fletcher, the England coach and Vaughan's right-hand man, says his captain is putting too much pressure on himself to kick-start the innings with a big score.

Vaughan is nine innings into a major lay-off through injury and has yet to pass fifty; he must be now questioning whether he can still do it at the top level. On the eve of this game, he had spoken to journalists about his determination to carry on playing one-day and Test cricket after the World Cup. Yet without some scores of substance, his place in both arenas may soon be called into serious question.

At the moment, Vaughan's reactions simply don't seem good enough. When he batted, his defensive stroke was undone by Shaun Tait's pace. This was more forgivable than his bad miss in the field when the match was very much in the balance: Ponting pushed a ball from James Anderson to midwicket and charged for a high-risk single; Vaughan had time to gather, take aim and throw with Ponting well short of his ground. Yet he missed.

This was Vaughan's third game against Australia since the 2005 Ashes and he has yet to win one of them or make a score of note. Although England won the one-day tournament in Australia earlier this year, Vaughan missed the majority of matches with hamstring trouble.

Nor has Pietersen tasted victory over Australia since 2005, even though he played against them in five different events - the Champions Trophy, the Ashes, a Twenty20 match, the CB Series and the World Cup.

This was his ninth defeat in nine and although he played with his usual brilliance before tiring towards the end of his innings of 104, he has still not got over some shameless gamesmanship by the Australian camp.

The Australians have deliberately tried to undermine him with crude allegations of selfishness and downright abuse when he came to the wicket on Sunday. He rose above it well until he reached a cherished hundred - and then retaliated by pointing his bat at the Australian dressing-room, as though saying, 'Thanks for making me concentrate.'

As for Flintoff, he is simply mired in a profound loss of confidence in his batting. Flintoff scored 400 runs in the 2005 Ashes series but now has so little faith in his ability that he skipped down the pitch to attempt a forward defensive stroke at Brad Hogg - and failed to make contact. He was stumped by a yard. Where has his boldness, his aggression, gone?

England don't know whether to drop him down the order, or promote him with instructions to hit out. He has actually batted best this winter when he was captain, but that is no longer an option, not just because Vaughan is back, but because Flintoff has been ruled out as Vaughan's stand-in following his indisipline in St Lucia.

England are between a rock and a hard place, and their problems go way beyond this World Cup.