da fezbet： Coach Duncan Fletcher has set England a target of 350 in the first innings of the Second Ashes Test at Lord’s
da pixbet： CricInfo20-Jul-2001Coach Duncan Fletcher has set England a target of 350 in the first innings of the Second Ashes Test at Lord’s.With the home side on 121-4 after a first day punctuated by weather interruptions, that may seem a tall order but Fletcher believes his batsmen have so far performed well.And, of course, Graham Thorpe is still there on 16 off 38 balls and he looked confident on the first day despite his seven-week lay-off because of a calf injury.Fletcher said: “Mark Ramprakash’s was an important wicket; we’d have been alot more comfortable going into tomorrow only three down.”I thought after they way we looked at Edgbaston they batted well. Out of thefour dismissals, three were to really good deliveries.”Maybe Marcus Trescothick would look at his and say it was a bit of a rashshot. The one that got Ramprakash came back up the hill. Mark Butcher got a goodone. I thought the guys batted well.”Obviously we are looking at 350. That’s the score we should try and get to,but it’s a wicket that’s offered something and hopefully it will continue thatway for the next couple of days.”With Graham, we realised it was a bit of a risk because he hadn’t played forsome time.”The most important thing was that Graham was very confident, he wanted toplay, he wanted to go out there and do battle with the Aussies. The mental sideis very, very important. I think he looked pretty good.”Tomorrow will be very important. Hopefully Stewart and Thorpe can put on agood partnership and we can build towards that 350.”Australian coach John Buchanan said: “It was a day when it was hard for anyside to build any momentum.”I suppose having sent England in, getting four wickets on reasonably benignwicket, we are reasonably pleased.”Overall our bowling performance was better than the First Test. The areas webowled in were much better than at Edgbaston.”Thorpe and Stewart will be our first priorities tomorrow, obviously.Thorpe’s come to the crease handled himself reasonably well. There are areasthere we hope to exploit tomorrow.”Mark Waugh’s catch of Mark Butcher at second slip was his 157th in Tests,equalling the world record of his former captain Mark Taylor, and Buchanan paid tribute to the player’s consistency in the slip cordon.Buchanan added: “I think Mark’s taken some amazing catches in the time thatI’ve been associated with the team.”This one was a nice one to have and I’d say there’s plenty more catchesround the corner for him in this series.”One of the key words for him is anticipation; no matter what position hefields in, he actually watches the ball from the bowler’s hand – not many players do that.”He has a feeling of the way it is going. No matter whether he’s on theground or standing still, the result’s still the same the way he catches theball.”I think that’s one of the secrets, he’s an athlete when the ball’s nearby -good reflexes.”
