Dr Paul Hawkins, inventor of Hawk-Eye
In my own local team's match on Saturday we were put in to bat on a wet wicket and had our top order skittled before it dried out. We sat in the dressing room afterwards trying to find some positives from what had been a dismal 10 wicket defeat.
Since this is something which the England team may well be able to relate to, can Hawk-Eye help find some positives for them?
Firstly the England bowlers have found a plan which has bought them some success. Hawk-Eye shows that they have bowled many more short balls at Lords than they did at Edgbaston.
The graphic (above left) shows the two lengths Dominic Cork bowled. He bowled 26 short-pitched deliveries; from these he took one wicket and only one ball conceded any runs.
In addition Cork's short ball was also, on average, 5mph faster than his good length ball. All of the boundaries scored off Cork's bowling were from balls bowled at less than 80mph.
There was a similar trend from the two England opening bowlers, with all of the Australian top order being dismissed from short-of-a-length deliveries (above right); Darren Gough only pitched the ball up later in the innings to bowl out the tail.
There is no doubt this is an excellent Australian team, but nothing fundamental needs to change for England to have something to cheer about.
Click the Launch Hawk-Eye button at the top of this page to do your own interactive anlysis of Australia's discomfort against the short stuff.
22 Jul, 2001
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