Cricket: England's attack given harsh lesson

Western Australia 334-8 dec & 170-1 England 321

ENGLAND'S BOWLERS will be put through extra work in the nets before the first Test against Australia later this month after being given a lesson by a novice paceman playing in only his fourth first class match.

Resuming against Western Australia on 191 for 2, England had hoped to spend time at the crease yesterday in the hope of familiarising themselves with the WACA's bouncy and pacy pitch. Instead they collapsed as Matt Nicholson claimed 7 for 77 and the tourists' innings closed on 321 for 9, with Mark Butcher unable to bat.

If that was a minor setback to their preparation, the fielding lapses which enabled the Western Australia opener, Ryan Campbell, to escape twice and all but destroy their expected first Test attack will be of particular concern to England's management. There are only two more matches before England assemble in Brisbane for the start of the Ashes series.

Those errors, which followed five similar mistakes during Western Australia's first innings, helped Campbell to blaze his way to an unbeaten 117 off 121 balls and guide WA into a 183-run lead as they reached 170 for 1 at the close.

Campbell was dropped at slip on nine by Michael Atherton, who was fielding as a substitute for Mark Butcher after the opener's severe blow to the head from Nicholson while batting, and then Dominic Cork spilled a difficult return catch when he had progressed to 98.

However, the bowlers' struggle to find the right line and length will have been of equal concern to the specialist bowling coach, Bob Cottam. Their collective problems enabled Campbell to pull and drive almost at will during a 90-run opening partnership with Mike Hussey in 17 overs.

"The players are disappointed with their performances but they are professional cricketers and they know what they have to do," Cottam said. "All you can do is put in the work in the nets and they have got their lines pretty good in there. But out in the middle, anything off line is put away.

"It's hard to bowl on a wicket like this because a good length ball which batsmen would normally have to play is left here because it flies over the stumps. It makes you bowl a bit fuller and then they whack it away.

"Athers was saying that some of the guys that play for the other States who are in the Australia side would play at those balls because they are not used to playing here on a regular basis. That is no excuse - [our bowlers] are professionals, they know what they have to do and they don't mind working at it.

"We are working hard at all aspects of the game and trying to get it all together very quickly. It does take a bit more time but that's why we have these preparation games before the Test matches."

Yet if England's attack, with the exception of Darren Gough and Alan Mullally, were wayward in line and length it was not a problem which affected the far less experienced Nicholson, whose pace and hostility disturbed everyone but Nasser Hussain and Mark Ramprakash.

Hussain, who was the acting captain in the absence of the injured Alec Stewart, resumed on 93, claimed England's first century of the tour and looked comfortable until WA took the second new ball and recalled Nicholson to the attack.

Five overs later, Nicholson found the edge and Hussain was superbly caught by Michael Dighton at second slip for 118. With Butcher unable to bat because he was nursing stitches in the injury next top his eye, Nicholson tore through England's tail with consummate ease.

Cork fell in identical circumstances to Hussain four overs later and both Warren Hegg and Ramprakash, who battled for four hours for his 81, were caught in the deep as they adopted an aggressive policy in a vain attempt to unsettle Nicholson.

Mullally provided some enterprising stroke play in an unbeaten 25, but rather ominously for the forthcoming series, England's tail was swept away to give Nicholson career best figures in one of his first matches back since being sidelined for a year with chronic fatigue syndrome.

"Our coach told us we should learn from the English bowlers because they dropped it a little short in the first innings and said we should not do that ourselves," Nicholson said. "At the WACA you have got to be full. You have either got to be short and straight or you have to be up there looking for the edge because no one comes forward at the WACA."

Western Australia won toss.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA - First innings 334-8 dec (S M Katich 106, J L Langer 85, M Nicholson 58 no; D Gough 4-74)

ENGLAND - First Innings

(Overnight: 191-2)

M A Butcher ret hurt 0

*N Hussain c Dighton b Nicholson 118

M R Ramprakash c Campbell

b Nicholson 81

D G Cork c Dighton b Nicholson 5

W K Hegg c Jurgensen b Nicholson 10

R D B Croft b Nicholson 4

D Gough b Nicholson 11

A D Mullally not out 25

A R C Fraser c Langer b Oldroyd 0

Extras (b3 lb6 w1 nb8) 18

Total (117.3 overs) 321

Fall: 1-16 2-92 3-230 4-240 5-276 6-282 7-283 8-310 9-321

Bowling: Nicholson 36-15-77-7; Cary 26-6-55-1; Jurgensen 21-3-62-0; Harvey 10-1-37-0; Oldroyd 22.3-4-70-1; Katich 2-0-11-0.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA - Second innings

R J Campbell not out 117

M E Hussey b Mullally 27

*J L Langer not out 23

Extras (lb2 nb1) 3

Total (for 1, 39 overs) 170

Fall: 1-90.

To Bat: S M Katich, S R Cary, M G Dighton, K M Harvey, S Jurgensen, M Nicholson, B J Oldroyd, C Rogers.

Bowling: Gough 8-1-42-0; Cork 6-1-27-0; Croft 12-3-38-0; Mullally 8-1- 29-0; Fraser 3-0-22-0; Ramprakash 2-0-10-0.

Umpires: D Harper and T Prue.