da bet7： Alastair Cook was able to offer a more clear-headed appraisal of his views on the captaincy, after indicating last week that he could give up the one-day job
da wazamba： ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2014Alastair Cook was finally able to smile in a post-match press conference after England secured a first win over Australia, at the ninth attempt, on a demoralising tour. England’s previous victory in international competition came in the Cardiff ODI back in September and Cook was relieved to avert a record-equalling tenth successive defeat in all formats since then.He was also able to offer a more clear-headed appraisal of his views on the captaincy, after indicating last week that he could give up the one-day job. Speaking in the aftermath of another comprehensive defeat at the SCG, Cook suggested that “English cricket needs a little bit of a change”, but he confirmed in Perth his desire to retain the position, with the World Cup just over a year away.”It’s been a long time coming,” he said, after finally beating Australia, albeit a side missing four key players, including Cook’s counterpart, Michael Clarke. “We know the series has gone but the thought of losing 10-0 – the prospect was there starting today but we played a pretty good game.”Describing last week as “a tough three days”, during which James Faulkner wrenched the second ODI away from England in Brisbane before Australia took a 3-0 lead and clinched the series, Cook said he wanted to move on from his comments about the captaincy, when he appeared at his most despondent since succeeding Andrew Strauss in 2011.”I spoke what I was feeling, sometimes you probably shouldn’t do,” he said. “I think, what I’ve learned over three years as one-day captain, it would be wrong so close to the World Cup to change. We’re getting some very valuable experience here, in the conditions which we’re going to play in the World Cup. So obviously if I’m still given the opportunity, then…”England’s one-day planning in recent years has been methodical and, if Cook’s desire remains, a change in tack would seem unlikely, despite the temptation to further test the captaincy acumen of Eoin Morgan. Cook and Ashley Giles, England’s limited-overs coach, took the team to the final of the Champions Trophy last year and the current series against Australia, despite being already lost, will inform their thinking for the 2015 World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand.’Worst we’ve bowled’ – Bailey
George Bailey, Australia’s stand-in captain, conceded that a poor opening with the ball, when England put on 87 for the first wicket in 12.2 overs after being asked to bat, was one of the main factors in defeat at the WACA. England also managed to shake 93 runs out of the last ten overs, as Australia lost their unbeaten record against the tourists and Bailey, who was deputising for the rested Michael Clarke, said that ‘death bowling’ was one of the key areas the team were working on.
“They got more than I hoped but I thought it was a score we could chase down,” he said. “From the start they got, I thought at one stage it was probably going to be more like 350, so we were probably happy that it was only 316, but it was more a 290-wicket. Having said that, we might have been one wicket too many down, but I thought with 16-17 overs to go we were in a good position.
“[The decision to bowl] was more the tackiness of the wicket, it certainly felt like for our bowlers it swung around a lot, I don’t think we utilised that well at all. I thought that was probably the worst we’ve bowled, certainly at the start of the game, perhaps it was the swing that made it difficult, the bowlers found it a little hard to control. We always talk about coming to the WACA from elsewhere that you’ve got to adjust your lengths really quickly and it took us a little while to do that.
“One of the areas we highlighted at the start of the series is nailing our death bowling. I generally think our one-day cricket’s in really good order; [but] I think it’s really hard to be good at the death at the moment, particularly when you’re playing against a side who have batters in. I think we’ve got some bowlers who are going to be really skilled at it, in James Faulkner and Nathan Coulter-Nile. But it’s just a matter of mapping out their plans really clearly to each batter and also working out how they best bowl at the death.”
The coming 12 months will also see a much heavier focus on ODI cricket, with a triangular series in Australia this time next year providing England with a final rehearsal ahead of the World Cup. Cook has taken plenty of criticism for his captaincy but he said that speaking to team-mates over the last few days had helped to restore his confidence and vowed put the lessons of the last two weeks to good use.”You do learn all the time, three years is quite a long time, in terms of how much you learn,” Cook said. “I think the tough thing is when you come to new conditions with the five men in the circle, you have to learn very quickly. Certain fields which you can do here you can’t really do, say, in the subcontinent. That’s the stuff we have to learn and learn very quickly.”We need to make sure we remember some of this stuff so we hit the World Cup running; I know we’ve got five warm-up games against Australia before that but it’s important that we end the tour well and then when we come back here for one-day cricket, we’re back at that level.”The guys can take a lot of confidence. We batted very positively, we always took the positive option, which in these conditions I think you have to do. There’s always a bit of risk with that but you have to be good enough as a top-order batsman to make those shots. If we’re being quite harsh we could have done with a guy getting a big hundred and we could have got 340 and put the game to bed. But I think we’re still pretty close to really putting a big score on.”With 300-plus totals increasingly the norm, the fluent opening stand between Cook and Ian Bell at the WACA provided a tonic for England. Cook remains without an ODI fifty since the Champions Trophy in June but his 43-ball 44 hinted at the possibility of greater returns to come.”My game is improving in terms of the way I’m striking the ball, the last three weeks I really felt as though I’ve turned a bit of a corner in that way,” he said. “Thirties and forties aren’t what you bat for but, when you go through tough times with the bat, you know there are big scores round the corner and when you get them you’ll be even more hungry.”
