England sadly didn’t have a scooby doo in the 4th Test.

Some dismal reading  Top 10 England Collapses. Congratulations to the Australians – a fine performance and a side that seems to be gelling at the right time. Johnson and Siddle, who took pelters from all corners, both got five-fors. Would our players when criticised ram it down journalists throats? The idiots booing Ponting should be booing the England top 5.

Hayden talks some sense here. England shouldn’t panic and restructure the entire side for the Final Test that would be madness. We will go into The Oval Test 1-1 and we should remember that in two of the four Tests England have dominated even though the likes of Bopara haven’t been firing. We should also remember that this is a good Australian bowling attack but it is not a great one.

That said, I think Bopara has to be dropped in my opinion. He has been unlucky twice but at the same time he doesn’t look like a Test Cricketer. One minute he’ll be smashing a cover drive so beautiful that you think Michael Vaughan is back at the crease and then, for an over or two, he is scratching around slowly looking like a club batsman who has been dropped into the England team by mistake. I think the Australian bowlers have him in their sights and they would be delighted to see him on the teamsheet for The Oval.

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Last week, I wrote a defence of Kevin Pietersen agreeing with Ed Smith’s verdict that he is a genius of self-belief. One thing that Ian Bell is not is a genius of self-belief. I agree with much of what Massie writes here. If I was a selector I’d have found it very hard to pick between Bell and Key but would probably have plumped for Bell for three reasons a) Warwickshire is his home ground b) despite his trouble in his last county match, he is in superb nick c) the treatment of batsmen like Bell is often appalling and dropping him after having him in the squad for the last two games would have probably been a psychological defeat too far.

Bell, arguably, is the most gifted batsmen playing the game in England today. Now Vaughan has retired I can’t think of any other batsmen, bar possibly the divine Ramprakash, who makes the game look so easy. Bell has just every about every shot going. When he plays fluently, he is beautiful to watch. He is fluid and fluent and can cream fours to all corners of the ground. He doesn’t bash and bludgeon like a Napier or Trego, he makes it look like he is caressing the ball and looks as if he has all the time in the world. This gargantuan ability perversely brings about a very British response to real class and real talent.

Across our sporting life, whenever we see someone who makes the game look easy we immediately become suspicious. Bell, Ramprakash, Vaughan or Gower at cricket, Hodgson at rugby or Le Tissier or Joe Cole in football. When these players do badly our media jump on their backs for concentrating on style over substance. When these players do well our media jump on their backs saying things like ”Why don’t they do that all the time? He can do it but doesn’t do it often enough”.

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Flintoff, I’m afraid, wonderful as he was in 2005 cannot be considered one of the all time greats of cricket. The five great all-rounders of the post-war era are routinely considered to be:

- Sir Garfield Sobers (West Indies)
- Sir Ian Botham (England)
- Sir Richard Hadlee (New Zealand)
- Imran Kahn (Pakistan)
- Kapil Dev (India)

Comparing Sobers and Flintoff, of course, is a little like comparing a Rolex Watch and a Finders Crispy Pancake. They are so different comparisons are pointless. The others, however, are probably closer to Freddie but still some way ahead of him.

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Well, there we are. Somehow England have managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of Australian victory. England should be mighty pleased with that result, thanking their tail and thanking Ricky Ponting. This morning, when KP was bowled, I was thinking that we wouldn’t reach tea.

1) Maynard was telling the truth. This wasn’t a ‘Bunsen’ at all. Hauritz (no monkey he) managed to get some turn but despite the dust, grass and everything else shown by the Sky Satellite Camera close-ups of the pitch it was pretty benign. The two spinners policy backfired. There was never any danger of us taking 10 wickets in this game let alone 20.

2) Despite his late heroics with the bat and for all his popularity, Monty Panesar at this stage is not a Test cricketer. He is generally woeful with the bat, poor in the field and, in this game, didn’t get very much at all in terms of turn. He doesn’t have enough variation in his bowling, he doesn’t take enough wickets, he doesn’t scare or threaten batsmen. I like him, I wish him well, but I’d rather have had Rashid or, indeed, either Harmison or Onions.

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