They seem to defeat themselves more than anything

Somehow they convinced themselves when in the field that the pitch was utterly lifeless, yet when they were batting seemed convinced that it was a minefield of the sort seldom seen outside a far-east war zone.

Perhaps epitomised by Harmison: Harmison, with all the mental resilience of a wet Rizla, sent the first few down and didn't see much happening, so switched off and just went through the motions. Martin and Mills, and Sidebottom for England, on the other hand, bent their backs and put some work in and found they could still get rewards out of it.

Posted By: Iwan Husarmi, Mar 10, 21:08:31