Andrew Flintoff admitted that England’s lapses in the field had madethe difference, as Sri Lanka batted out the last two-and-a-half daysto secure a remarkable draw in the first Test at Lord’s
Andrew Miller at Lord's15-May-2006
Butterfingers: England’s catching left much to be desired © Getty Images
Andrew Flintoff admitted that England’s lapses in the field had madethe difference, as Sri Lanka batted out the last two-and-a-half daysto secure a remarkable draw in the first Test at Lord’s. But he wasnot allowing the disappointment to dent his enthusiasm after ahard-fought match, and insisted that England were all set to win theseries.”It’s quite bizarre, but I’m not going to make an issue of it,” hesaid, after England had shelled at least nine clear-cut chances in thecourse of Sri Lanka’s two innings. “You see the lads in practice andyou know how hard we work. We’re a good catching unit, and we’ve takena lot of chances over the last two or three years.”It’s just one of those things,” he added. “I dropped one at slip andI’m not the worst standing there. I saw it all the way, but it hit thewrong part of my hand and just fell out. I’m not making excuses, butit’ll be put down to experience. If it happens every week then we’lltake a look and identify it.”Flintoff himself got through an alarming number of overs in the match- 68.8, including 51 in the second innings alone. “I’ve got a fewmiles in my legs,” he conceded. “But it’s the first game of the summerand the first time I’ve bowled. It’s the exception rather than thenorm, and I don’t envisage doing that next week, but it was somethingdictated by the state of the game.”It was a bit of a comedown for England’s new captain after the headyscenes at Mumbai in March, but he refused to be despondent. “It wastough, but not so much from a captaincy point of view,” he insisted.”As captain I did what I thought was best and went with instincts. Youplace your fielders, and you bowl where you think will take wickets orstop runs. It’s tough, but I’m enjoying doing it.”Flintoff preferred to reflect on the positives of the match, inparticular the performance of the new guys in the side. “Alastair[Cook, who made 89] was fantastic, Sajid [Mahmood] turned the game onits head, and Liam Plunkett bowled really nicely once he settled downand got into the rhythm.”One man who was underused in England’s attack was the spinner, MontyPanesar, but Flintoff defended his decision to stick with the seamers.”We saw Murali bowl a lot of overs without any success because therewasn’t much spin. Monty bowled really well but I thought the best wayto take wickets was with the seamers, they looked threatening.””The mood in the dressing-room is great,” he added. “They are a goodbunch of lads, and though we’d have liked to come out with a win thereare a lot of positives. Some young bowlers have come in and performedwell on the big stage, and the batters are firing.”We know Sri Lanka can fight, we’ve seen it before. They came out andapplied themselves in the second innings, but if we’d held our catcheswe’d have won the game. There’s no need for doom and gloom, we’redoing alright.”
