ADELAIDE, Australia, Nov 7 (AFP) - England's batting failed against an understrength South Australian bowling attack and copped a serve from their coach David Lloyd after the opening day of their four-day cricket tour match here Saturday. England were dismissed for 187 on a traditional easy-paced Adelaide Oval pitch after collapsing to 97 for six at one stage on an eventful first day's play. Lloyd ripped into his batsmen's lack of application and shot selection while hoping the dire performance was a 'once a tour' aberration.
Injury-plagued local tearaway Mark Harrity claimed three wickets to overshadow his high profile teammate Jason Gillespie as England's batsmen capitulated on a pitch which was by no means a greentop. SA openers, former Test man Greg Blewett and Martin Faull proved the pitch held no terrors by cruising to 26 without loss by the close. England crashed to 22 for four at one stage and only four batsmen reached double figures in a worrying performance, less than a fortnight to the opening
Ashes Test against Mark Taylor's Australians in Brisbane. Stylish vice-captain Nasser Hussain top scored with 57, allrounder Dominic Cork made 51 from 71 balls and tailender Alex Tudor (33) and Mark Ramprakash (31) contributed. The top order collapsed with openers Mark Butcher (2), Michael Atherton (4), captain Alec Stewart (0) and Graham Thorpe (3) all failing. ``The shot selection from everyone was pretty poor and I hope it's out of the way because clearly that is not good enough,'' Lloyd said. ``There's not great terrors in that pitch ... it's certainly not a 180-odd all out pitch. ``We haven't covered ourselves in glory and there is only one way to go, up. ``We just have to do much better than that.'' Lloyd was confident his charges would regain form for the first Test starting on November 20 but said it would take hard work to find improvement.
The Adelaide tour match was billed as Gillespie's chance to remind Australian selectors he had regained form and fitness in time to play a leading role in the Ashes series. The tearaway quick, who took 16 wickets in the last Ashes series in England last year including 7-37 at Leeds, impressed with a controlled display of pace bowling. Gillespie, who has modified his bowling action after stress back trouble, beat the bat numerous times and dismissed former England captain Atherton in claiming 1-23 from 14 overs. But leftarmer Harrity stole the show with 3-27 from 15.3 overs.
Harrity, 24, was touted a future Australian player after his first-class debut in 1993-94 and toured England with a Young Australia side in 1995 before injuries plagued his development. He troubled all the top order English batsmen before Cork and newcomer Alex Tudor added some spine to the innings. The lower order duo added 59 runs in brisk fashion for the seventh wicket. SA medium pacers Blewett and Ben Johnson each claimed two victims and rookie spinners Evan Arnold and Andrew Crook snared a wicket each in their debut for their state.
Blewett flails England's bowlers as tourists struggle
England batsmen took a tumble Saturday, and on Sunday the tourists' bowlers took a pasting on another dismal dayfor Alec Stewart's men on the second day of their tour cricket match against South Australia here.
Greg Blewett caned the English bowlers for 143 to further emphasise the depth of Australian cricket in the leadup to this month's Ashes Test series. Blewett's century highlighted a day of toil for England as South Australia reached 262 for five at the close, 75 runs in advance of the tourists' measly 187 on Saturday.
Blewett mastered England's bowlers after resuming on 10, registering his second century of the season after his 175 against New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield.
The former No.3 was dumped from the Australian side after a mediocre tour of India last March when he made 48 Test runs at 8.00 in the 2-1 series loss.
Blewett was bowled by Middlesex offspinner Mark Ramprakash after a 312-minute, 251-delivery stay that included 11 fours and one six.
A composed Blewett had earlier treated the innocuous offspin of Ramprakash and Peter Such with contempt, dancing down the pitch in a display revealing no spinning scars.
Blewett said he wanted to remind Australian selectors of his talents with the first Ashes Test starting in Brisbane on November 20 but downplayed the significance of Sunday's sparkling century.
``I'm not relying on playing the first Test, that's for sure,'' he said. ``Every time you pick up the paper someone else has made a hundred, Matty Elliott has made three hundreds so far this year.''
Derbyshire paceman Dominic Cork led the way with 2-28 from 20 overs to follow his valuable 51 from 71 deliveries on Saturday.
Middlesex seamer Angus Fraser snared his first wicket of the Ashes tour while Kent paceman Dean Headley and Ramprakash were the other successful bowlers.
Day 3: Stewart gets a 'pair' as Atherton curses his wretched luck
Skipper Alec Stewart was dismissed for a pair of ducks as England struggled to avoid defeat against South Australia in their cricket tour match at the Adelaide Oval here Monday.
The tourists continued on the backfoot and finished the third day's play just 11 runs ahead of South Australia with six second innings wickets in hand and a day to play.
England were 149 for four at stumps after trailing by 138 runs on the first innings and were pinning their hopes of avoiding defeat on Graham Thorpe (30 not out) and Mark Ramprakash (33 not out).
It was a miserable day for captain Stewart who was trapped leg before by his South Australian counterpart Greg Blewett for a duck following on from failing to score in the first innings.
After being dismissed for 187 in the first innings, England's desire for a change of batting fortune second time around evaporated midway through Monday's final session.
The tourists lost three wickets for eight runs, all in bizarre circumstances. In form strokeplayer and vice-captain Nasser Hussain (17) was trapped lbw by a Mark Harrity short pitched delivery that shot along the pitch to strike the righthander barely shin height. Three runs later Stewart stood stunned when adjudged lbw for his first 'pair' for England and just his second 'pair' in 358 first-class matches. The England captain failed to play a Blewett offcutter that moved appreciably before cannoning into his pad with some doubt as to whether the ball was too high to hit the stumps.
The disbelief of England's captain and his deputy at their dismissals paled with former captain Michael Atherton's when being run out after batting solidly and with purpose for two and a half hours in making a composed 53.
Atherton was standing at the non-striker's end when paceman Harrity got a fingertip to a crashing Graham Thorpe drive that deflected on to the stumps with the 30-year-old short of his crease.
He trudged from the ground denied of valuable batting time with the first Brisbane Test just 11 days away.
The former captain made four in the first innings, dismissed when a full blooded leg side flick from the middle of the bat struck the short leg fielder in the chest and rolled into his hands.
England team manager Graham Gooch was hoping Atherton's fortunes would change, realising the key role the opener will play in the five Test series starting in Brisbane on November 20.
``He's hit one in the middle of the bat in the first innings and got caught at bat-pad and run out backing up in the second, it's not exactly going for him is it?'' Gooch said of the man, who holds the record for the most Tests, 52, as England captain.
Atherton's unfortunate demise matched the luckless performance of his side against a South Australian state outfit that finished bottom in the Sheffield Shield last season and is currently missing five of its topliners.
Captain Darren Lehmann, former skipper Jamie Siddons, Australian one-day bowlers Brad Young and Paul Wilson and former Test legspinner Peter McIntyre are all missing from the South Australian side in this match.
Day 4: Thorpe and Ramprakash bat out a record partnership
Graham Thorpe thrashed a double century to kill off England's cricket tour match with South Australia here Tuesday and revive his team's Ashes series hopes against Australia.
Thorpe, troubled by a virus which prevented him from a full night's sleep, hit a majestic unbeaten innings of 223, his highest first-class score.
His imperious innings flattened any winning hope South Australia had going into the final day of their four-day game as England finished on 447 for four when bad light stopped play.
Thorpe's swashbuckling innings, supported by an unbeaten 140 from middle order batsmen Mark Ramprakash, lifted the tourists after being outplayed by an under-strength South Australia over the first three days.
Thorpe and Ramprakash registered an unbroken 377-run partnership, the highest ever by a touring team in Australia, surpassing the 368 by MCC batsmen Wilfred Rhodes and C.A.G. 'Jack' Russell against South Australia here in 1920-21.
The 29-year-old Thorpe bettered his previous highest first-class score of 222 after resuming with Ramprakash early Tuesday. England was just 11 runs ahead of SA and defeat was a distinct possibility. The duo batted through to lunch, taking the shine off the second new ball, and then launched an astonishing attack that reaped 194 runs between lunch and tea.
Thorpe plundered 125 runs in the middle session with a mix of powerful pulls and drives, racing from 100 to 200 in just 70 deliveries including 12 fours and four sixes.
Ramprakash added a cautious 28 runs in the morning session but the Middlesex righthander grew in confidence and followed Thorpe's aggressive lead to register a century from 228 balls, including 14 boundaries.
The pair launched into rookie legspinner Evan Arnold plundering 87 runs from his eight overs before tea.
Thorpe and Ramprakash batted out the day, adding 298 runs to the overnight score.
Thorpe, who has topped England's batting averages in the past two Ashes series, said he considered not batting today because of 'flu-like symptoms. ``I had a bit of sickness overnight and was a bit under the weather this morning,'' the Surrey strokeplayer said. ``I wasn't so great when I got up this morning ... but obviously it was a good situation for us to try and get ourselves out of. ``We had to get through the (second) new ball and we were only about 50 runs ahead of them when it came out so that was the crucial time for us.''
Ramprakash said the duo were unaware of the partnership assuming record proportions.
``We weren't aware until about 10 runs out when (12th man) Ben Hollioake came out with some gloves and the message to keep going and that we only needed 10 more to get,'' the 29-year-old said.
``The first session was hard work, they came at us quite hard and we had to knuckle down and concentrate very hard especially with the second new ball.
``After lunch we relaxed a bit more, particularly Graham who kept putting it into the stands. It was very enjoyable to watch from the other end.''
England travels to Cairns in far north tropical Queensland Wednesday for a four-day fixture against Queensland starting on Friday. The first Test against Mark Taylor's Australians starts in Brisbane on November 20.