AK's view from the boundary.

In all the years I’ve followed, and played, cricket I can say beyond all reasonable doubt that this was the worse England performance I’ve ever witnessed. All teams have an off day when they get skittled out for a low score but this went beyond that. To bat badly in both innings and also bowl badly is astonishing.

Bopara isn’t a number 3 and after this match what confidence he had left will now be shot. An average of 15 from 7 innings says it all. We need a solid and dogged player at 3, Robert Key? Trot deserves a chance but he doesn’t always bat at 3 when playing for his county and 3 is the major problem position.

Calls for Rampers to be picked will go unheeded. It would be a fairy tale ending to his career though wouldn’t it? Especially is he hit the winning runs.

We only have Strauss averaging over 40 while the Aussies have 1 over 40 and 5 averaging over 50. MJ Clarke alone is averaging 89 with the bat!

So here is the problem. Our bowlers have trouble in taking 20 wickets cheaply enough. When they do we can’t score enough runs. I’m stating the obvious aren’t I?

As for the persistence of our bowlers to bowl short, I’ll say it again. Why isn’t the Captain (Strauss) doing something about it? He’s the man in charge out in the field and he did bugger all about it as far as us spectators could see. I also find it odd that he’s never the one doing the interviews at the end of a days play. Someone picked at random talks to the BBC radio, news and channel 5 for the highlights. He may well be a jolly nice bloke but I don’t think he’s Captain material. Having said that who is when looking at the rest?

The final, and deciding, match is at the Oval. 4 bowlers and 7 batsmen? 5 and 6? Glad I don’t have to make the decision.

Mate of mine has come up with a good one. “Bring Claire Taylor in from the women’s team as no 3, she can’t do any worse than this lot.” I know he was joking but he does have a point.