England are in disarray and their ragged fielding indicates the team is breaking apart heading into this week’s final Ashes Test, Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin said yesterday.
England are struggling to avoid a 5-0 Ashes series whitewash after heavy defeats in all four Tests, but they passed up the chance of a nets session at the Sydney Cricket Ground two days before the start of the fifth Test.
“I don’t think they’re in a great place, to be perfectly honest,” Australia vice captain Haddin told reporters. “I think you could probably tell a bit of that in their fielding the other day [in the Melbourne Test]. I think that’s the first thing to go when you’re struggling a bit. The batting and bowling, it’s an individual thing, but I think the team stuff looked like it was breaking a bit the other day.”
England, who led by 116 with 10 wickets in hand after lunch on the third day in Melbourne, contributed to their own demise with a second-innings batting collapse followed by two dropped catches by skipper Alastair Cook.
Despite their eight-wicket capitulation, the tourists sprang a surprise by not using their scheduled morning nets session yesterday.
For half their innings in this series England have failed to post a total greater than 200 and they have yet to pass 400 in the past two Ashes series.
Rookie all-rounder Ben Stokes is the only England batsman to have scored a century in the series and their bowling arsenal has been lackluster, with star spinner Graeme Swann retiring mid-series.
Young England leg-spinner Scott Borthwick said the tourists were comfortable with their final preparations.
“No reason whatsoever [for not having a net],” Borthwick told reporters. “We just had a nice run around, a bit of catching ... we’ll do our skills tomorrow.”
Borthwick could replace Monty Panesar in the England bowling attack, while Zimbabwe-born left-hander Gary Ballance appears set to make his Test debut somewhere in the top order — in all likelihood at the expense of opener Michael Carberry.
Haddin said he was confident Australia can create history by fielding the same team for five consecutive Tests.
Should the selectors stick with the same XI, it will be the first time an Australia team has remained unchanged for a five-Test series.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set