I’m not sure how much we can read into yesterday’s stats.
It obviously wasn’t a good day for the baggy greens, but besides the flat pitch, there was no Warne and no McGrath. The bad news for Australia is that MacGill didn’t make much of a case for his inclusion, and Lee seems to need some help from the pitch.
England’s likely and hopeful players didn’t seem to fare much better in the C & G final, though. Tremlett’s numbers look decent (though bowling out Loudon and Ntini is not necessarily an indicator that he’d trouble Langer and Ponting), and while Bell’s 54 looks good, he suffered from cramps, which does not bode well.
Here’s the line on the Aussies who might bowl at the Oval:
B Lee 69 - 0
J N Gillespie 80 - 0
S W Tait 72 - 2
S C G MacGill 128 - 0
M S Kasprowicz 85 - 2
And the England test players/hopefuls who played in the C & G:
C T Tremlett 48 - 2
A F Giles 50 - 0
K P Pietersen caught for 5
I R Bell caught for 54
