A win with spin

Chester-le-Street. Seventh one-day international

Preview

So it has come to this: in the north of Durham an England side takes on the Aussies with the determination "we must not allow the scoreline to read 7-0" in front of a few thousand spectators while 15,000 runners compete, just a few miles away, in the Great North Run.

Someone should hang their heads in shame; the Ashes winners are a better side than this. But, the declaration by the selectors that they will only change the squad within certain norrow limits, the tiredness of the players, the thought of the ICC tournament in South Africa lookng next week and the effort required to win the Ashes have all taken their toll.

You might ask why the Aussies are not in the same state at the end of a long tour which began with the T20 four months ago. If we knew the answer to that question we would know how to put right the wrongs that afflict the whole of English cricket.

Australian innings

When Graeme Swann found a place in the England side a man who has watched him develop told me that "he is now the complete bowler, sure of himself and able to vary his method according to the conditions.

Swann proved all those words of praise at the Riverside by collecting five wickets for his best one-day figures and being mainly instrumental in their failure to complete their 50 overs.

This extrovert off-spinner even contrived to celebrate Brett Lee's wicket with a couple of heel clicks in the Lee manner.

I suspect that Ricky Ponting saw what was coming and he was Swann's outstanding victim for yet another one-day fifty. Ponting, Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey were the only batsmen to make worthwhile contributions to the 176.

When England bat we will see if Australia's bowlers can reproduce the movement off the pitch in cool north Durham that brought about England's chance to achieve the glory that goes with a 6-1 defeat.

England innings

Well, they achieved their victory but only after they had stumbled, stuttered, limped and hobbled through ten overs as they lost six wickets after Andrew Strauss and Joe Denly's century stand.

The outcome was victory by four wickets with ten overs to spare but it was a success which mocked the claim by the great Tiger Wood that "a win is a win." This win was a credit only to Swann but he needs a captain with more imagination and a greater conviction that spin can bring results.

Frankly, it would have been better if they had lost. Now there will always be a suspicion that Australia took their foot off the gas.