Date-stamped : 10 Dec93 - 08:52 The Guardian DATE: 20 May 1993 England fall short in more ways than one MIKE SELVEY AT OLD TRAFFORD Texaco Trophy, first one-day international: England v Australia DESPITE the fall of 19 wickets here the Ashes series is still likely to see inferior bowling left black and blue. It was just that yesterday, on a perfect pitch with conditions to match, the poverty of the bowling was joined by much of the batting. Watched by 21,000 - a handful more than reached the summit of Everest this week - and the Nawab of Pataudi, the match referee, Australia beat England by four runs in the first of the three- match series. Set 259 to win at a rate well under five runs an over, England lost three early wickets before Graeme Hick (85) and Neil Fair- brother (53), with a fourth-wicket stand of 127 in 27 overs, played them into a prime position to cruise the match with wick- ets and time to spare. But it was a sunny evening, so why not hang it out a bit, give the crowd a treat and take it to the wire? It was done to perfec- tion. Hick and Fairbrother perished on the attack and, when the last over arrived, England required seven runs to win with their last-wicket pair Richard Illingworth and Andy Caddick together, the latter on his international debut. To bowl the over Allan Border summoned Merv Hughes who, looking increasingly like a Victorian brewers' drayman, had thus far bowled much like his horse. ''Keep it fast, full and keep your fingers crossed'' was Border's advice. There was no point, he said, in confusing him. Hughes responded perfectly: the first four balls produced only a leg bye. Caddick played the fifth to long leg, took the single and sprinted back for the second, only to find that his partner, unaware maybe that fives are more difficult to hit than fours or opting to try for the tie, had not moved. Illingworth was run out at the bowler's end, although the offi- cial verdict went against Caddick. ''That should bring them in for the next one,'' remarked an excited Test and County Cricket Board official. Give us strength. Apart from the batting of Hick, Fairbrother and later Graham Thorpe, who made 31, the bowling of Derek Pringle and the expect- ed quality outfielding, it was a substandard England performance with all the other bowlers pitching too short and the Australian batsmen profiting. Nor were Australia exempt. Not only Hughes - clearly far from fit, carrying both the residue of a knee operation and too much weight from the inactivity - but Paul Reiffel, Tim May and the Waugh twins were ordinary. All of which served to shine the light on Craig McDermott, the classiest act on the field. After a couple of range-finding overs he bowled with pace and movement unmatched by anyone else, taking three for 38 and with it the Man-of-the-Match award. It was the right decision: the ball from which Graham Gooch was caught at slip and that which almost sliced Robin Smith in half will not be bettered all summer. That Australia failed to utilise a promising launching pad to blast their total to stratospheric areas around the 300 mark was due more to a post-prandial crisis of their own making than any marked improvement in the quality of the English bowling. Australia, having opted to include Matthew Hayden's thumping opening potential at the expense of the vibrant, middle-order Damien Martyn, reached 161 for one from the 36 overs bowled by lunch, with Taylor on a sheet-anchor 72, and Mark Waugh having just reached a half-century. Intervals are dangerous rhythm-breaking hazards, though, partic- ularly in limited- overs matches, and this was a case in point. Instead of acceleration the innings foundered as Waugh was caught off Jarvis and Boon, Taylor and Border followed him back to the pavilion in 19 Richard Illingworth deliveries. It never truly recovered despite Hughes's rustic 20 and Steve Waugh's bristling 27, which was ended by Lewis's brilliant, low, one-handed caught-and-bowled. This was later matched by McDermott's almost identical effort to dismiss Robin Smith. Australia won by four runs. Date-stamped : 10 Dec93 - 08:52 The Guardian 21 May 1993 Texaco Trophy one-day international series McDermott the biggest Test threat to England MIKE SELVEY Mike Selvey finds Australia's main strike bowler in ominously good early-tour form CONSIDERING that both sides believed, with justification, that they should have won the first one-day international by a street, the finish was remarkably close. Four runs is nothing, as Keith Fletcher ruminated at Edgbaston yesterday; and, if the reactions overheard in a Cheshire pub after Wednesday's match were typical - ''great game . . . brilli- ant . . . fantastic'' - then 21,000 people went home more satis- fied than if the contest had been a walkover. Yet one way or another it should have been. Mark Taylor, dupli- cating the adhesive role played for so long by Geoff Marsh, and Mark Waugh, with correct strokeplay, had played Australia into a position of great strength before lunch. With their score standing at 161 for one with 19 overs still to bat, a total of 300 was not impossible. At that point they had the game won. Instead they contrived a collapse that owed less to England's mundane bowling than their own lack of care and attention. It left England a target well within range on a wonderful pitch and against bowling that, with one exception, was as friendly as their own. There was little need for England to press hard and even the loss of early wickets did nothing to alter that. Just as Taylor and Waugh had for Australia, so Graeme Hick and Neil Fairbrother appeared to sew up the game for England. At 171 for three, and after a partnership of 127, a target of 88 from 17 overs with seven wickets in hand should have been a dod- dle. But, well as they played, both batsmen failed to see things through as a younger Allan Lamb might have done. Fairbrother hoicked a long-hop to deep midwicket and Hick, a terrific straight hitter, lost his off stump trying to whip a straight ball to the same area. That was bad cricket. Fletcher recognises that Hick's summer, if not make-or-break, is the one where he either establishes himself in the highest echelons or sinks back into the pack. ''One of the good things to come out of the India tour was his confidence,'' said the England manager. ''He believes in his ability, which is so important for him, but he has got to take it on from there. Now he needs to get Test runs against Australia. ''If he does so, we can say he has arrived and will be around for the next 10 years. But he is still on the road at the moment and there's some way to go.'' One person determined to see Hick hit the M25 in the rush hour is Craig McDermott, the one Australian who elevated himself above the pack at Old Trafford. Considering that only Lillee and Thomson have taken wickets for Australia faster than his rate of one in every 55 deliveries, McDermott is already established as high quality. But two deliveries on Wednesday - one of which Graham Gooch was unfor- tunate enough to edge to slip, the other which jagged back alarm- ingly but, fortuitously for Robin Smith, removed neither his stumps nor masculinity - gave notice that the gulf between him and any England seamer is significant. His fitness could hold the key to the Ashes. The England bowlers should study his modus operandi. Pringle ex- cepted, they bowled too short and got clattered as a result. McDermott, as Fletcher said, put the ball in the right place a bit more regularly. ''He was the difference - a quality bowler. But he's not that good and we have to get on and play him, because in Test matches all sides have one or two like him.'' Except England, that is. If Fletcher believes McDermott is no quicker than Caddick and slower than Jarvis and Lewis, he is sad- ly deluding himself. The Australian had another gear in reserve and England, with Devon Malcolm regressing and Syd Lawrence a goner, will have trouble matching it. Caddick, Cork, Ilott and Jarvis all have much to offer but, if salvation does come, it could carry the heaviest irony, for Fletcher believes Martin McCague to be the only young bowler who can bowl genuinely fast. ''When he gets it right I reckon he's faster than Devon Malcolm, and I've been very interested in him for a while,'' said Fletcher. Fletcher neglected to point out that McCague is an Australian. Kent's burly paceman, who will be 24 next week, was born in Northern Ireland and raised in Western Australia. - William Hill make Australia 8-11 favourites to win the second one-day international, at Edgbaston today. England are evens. Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)