Headingley Test, Day 2
Friday, August 17, 2001 I'm in a better mood tonight. It was fun out there, good fun. If you don't enjoy yourself batting against the Aussies then you shouldn't be doing it. I've been away from Test cricket for a while but I've been in pretty good form when I have played this summer, and this is a good wicket. But I've only done about a third of the job - we've only done about a third of the job. We're not out of it by any means. But we have had two good sessions and there's not been many days this summer when we've had two good sessions against Australia.

They were their normal accurate selves with the ball. They put it in the right area a lot, had attacking fields and made life difficult for us.

We didn't bowl particularly well. Though I completely back the likes of Darren Gough and Andy Caddick who've done it for me in the past. They might have bad days but I know they'll come through. I think the Headingley crowd encouraged Goughie a little. He's been a bit below par, I went and had a chat with him at the beginning of his run-up and he said as much. I didn't give him the new ball which fired him up a bit and that, plus the crowd, resulted in five wickets. I think he'd admit that he's bowled better for five wickets, but if you can do that on an off-day you're a class performer.

I had words with the boys this morning before play, and I think that everyone held their hands up and said they hadn't performed particularly well. At lunch we still hadn't performed particularly well and I said we've really got to put it right. And then we had those two good sessions – but that's all we've done.

We've got to aim to bat for as long as possible tomorrow. We're going to be batting last at Headingley on an up-and-down pitch, we can't take anything for granted. There's a lot of cricket still to be played in this match.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd