da poker： John Buchanan’s quotes at the end of the second day at Adelaide
Peter English at Adelaide02-Dec-2006
Shane Warne earned praise from John Buchanan © Getty Images
It was actually a pretty decent day for Australia. According to the coach John Buchanan the bowlers did well as a group, especially Brett Lee and Shane Warne,and Australia will just have to score 700 and dismissEngland for 150 on the last day to win.England were actually the ones who made the major mistake by batting Kevin Pietersen at five instead of higher up the list. “Rather than have other playersblunt the new ball for him, I can’t understand why he’s not up the order,” Buchanan said. Pietersen got 158 and Paul Collingwood, who holds the No. 4 spot, claimed a maiden double-century.Taking a look at the old-fashioned Adelaide Oval scoreboard, Australia are definitely suffering after England declared at 6 for 551 before Andrew Flintoffremoved Justin Langer to maintain the impressive drive. Glenn McGrath and Warne both earned records they would be wishing to forget, McGrath giving up more runs without a wicket than in any time in his career and Warne collecting his most expensive figures against England.Despite the one-sided nature of the opening two days Buchanan was upbeat. “When I look at all the bowlers I’m very happy with what they did,” he said, “the strategies that they chose, the execution of them.”McGrath spent time off the field fixing his boot inthe opening session to ease a heel problem. Althoughhe has not been complaining about the injury, hiseffectiveness was limited and his speed has droppedsignificantly on the flat surface. “He pounded down20-plus overs,” Buchanan said, “so, so far so good.”He returned 0 for 103.Warne gave up 167 runs for the wicket of Geraint Joneswhile Brett Lee also won praise from Buchanan for his1 for 139. “I think Brett’s bowled exceptionallywell,” he said. “He’s held his pace and bowled goodlines. It’s encouraging for the second innings and therest of the series.”The measure of Shane’s bowling is how many bad ballsthere were. He bowled a couple late yesterday when hegot tired and maybe a few today. His control has beenexcellent, he hasn’t got the rub of the green, a bitlike Brett.”Stuart Clark was the only bowler not to wincompliments from Buchanan and he was the man whoperformed the best. Throughout the first two days hetroubled England with short and full deliveries andadded three victims to continue his strong series.When Australia resume at 1 for 28 on day three theywill have heard Buchanan’s plan for success.”Hopefully we get a foundation partnership going,minimise risks and therefore your error rate issmall,” he said. Buchanan was realistic enough to noteit will not be his team dictating the terms.