This has been a mismatch in almost every respect Durham managing to compete no more

This has been a mismatch in almost every respect, Durham managing to compete no more effectively with the ball than they had with the bat on Thursday. Slaughter in the sun Men against boys. You could take your pick of apposite phrases to describe the cricket here yesterday, the upshot of which is that Northamptonshire are poised to take maximum advantage of Warwickshire’s absence from this round of Championship fixtures and put daylight between themselves and the chasing pack. Having all grown goatie beards (some kind of bonding ritual, presumably) the Australians showed a marked reluctance to hang around and graze.. Jo Angel, Mike Kasprowicz, and Shane George have all failed to convert their youthful promise, and the only spinner of note on this tour is the distinctly ordinary 29-year-old leggie Peter McIntyre.Yesterday, having conceded a first-innings lead of 103, Young Australia were bowled out for 146 by Leicestershire’s two left-arm seamers, Alamgir Sheriyar, Birmingham-born of Afghanistani parents, and Alan Mullally, a Southend-born Australian whose ambitions to play for England predictably led to some interesting dialogue between opponents with similar accents.Sheriyar’s career-best 6 for 30 (match figures 10 for 85) were well deserved, but he will have harder afternoons against less obliging opposition than he did yesterday. Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer and Stuart Law are all class performers, and only the awesome strength of the current Australian batting side has conspired to keep them waiting – Ponting especially – for a regular place.Hearteningly, however, they are even more bare in the bowling cupboard than England.

Such as when your middle stump has been plucked out, merely take guard for the next ball, and give the umpire a withering look if for some strange reason he happens to give you out.Leicestershire’s players confirmed that this part of the Australians’ game has been working well over the past couple of days, and they may well be reported for a clear outbreak of dissent when claiming a catch when the home team were 40 for 6.Their cricket was not very disciplined either, especially the batting and fielding, but there is no doubt that they have plenty of ability. One suspects that a large part of the Academy agenda involves honing key phrases such as: “pavilion’s that way yer Pommy bastard”, and body language is clearly important too. However, Leicestershire are no strangers either to schoolgirl cricket, and having been left with only 44 to win in their second innings, they slumped to 36 for 6 on a slightly uneven pitch before squeaking past the winning post.
The nadir of England’s last Ashes tour was two horribly one-sided defeats in a single weekend by the Academy boys, followed by elimination from the one-day tournament at the hands of an Australian A side containing several of the players currently touring this country under a Young Australia banner.The tourists arrived at Grace Road with a record of three wins and two draws from their five matches, but if the last two days are a vision of the Ashes future, then England can put away the dark glasses.To arrange any kind of four-day match for Grace Road nowadays is a triumph of optimism over experience, and having already had to postpone their old players’ day once this season (when Warwickshire won in two days) Leicestershire would have had to do so again had the Australians not agreed to a 40-over beer match today.Australian sides are usually highly disciplined in all areas of their cricket, including being objectionable. Every time England receive their ritual stuffing at the hands of Australia, people shake their heads and say: “ah, if only we had something like their Cricket Academy.” However, after two days at Leicester watching the flower of Australian youth, you would be hard pressed to suggest that the fabled Adelaide finishing school offers any greater educational input than the Lower Fifth at St Trinian’s. I had high hopes for this season which didn’t work out and the aim now is to be fit to make a fresh start next April.”.

How well have they stood up?”It doesn’t matter what people say, if I perform on the field. But it would make interesting reading to examine the record of other England bowlers, such as Angus Fraser, Dominic Cork and Darren Gough, in the same negative light. “I do get injuries,” he said, “and I’ve had one or two more than I would have liked. The people who do would say something different.”If assessments of his character are based on questionable evidence, his fitness record is a matter of fact But even there, Lewis feels he has not been judged fairly. People have expressed opinions about me from afar, about my character and my temperament, much of it negative, without knowing me at all.”But those people don’t know Chris Lewis.

His two-year relationship with Jina, a fashion designer, reportedly endured a difficult patch a year ago, after his first request that he be released from his contract at Nottingham was turned down.The criticisms levelled at him have bordered on the cruel at times, to such an extent that one could assume that, far from being psychologically frail, as some would have it, Lewis must possess a certain mental fortitude to have survived them.”Initially it was very hurtful,” he said, “but I can say that now it does not bother me what people say I have become immune. I have not been desperately unhappy here, but for some time I have had a need to move back to London, to be on hand to help my mother and my three younger brothers and to be closer to my girlfriend.”Since his father left to live in America, Lewis’s mother has been raising three boys, aged three, seven, and 16, alone. “And I hope I will have forced my way back into the England side on merit.”At one time I would have hoped it would have been at Trent Bridge but people change, circumstances change. So why is he doing it and where does he think it will lead?”I hope that a year from now I will be settled at whatever club I play for and will be looking back on a season in which I have performed as consistently well as I did towards the end of last season,” he said. His record of injuries includes a stress fracture of the back and a circulatory problem that caused his finger ends to blister and scab, both of which were undeniably serious, but there have been a host of other niggles and strains, not always readily identified.Now, after a season in which because of the troublesome hip his total senior appearances have been limited to four one-day games, and with his 25-Test England career already written off in some quarters as an entry future Wisden’s will not need to revise, Lewis is effectively risking obscurity. Although there is speculation that he will re-emerge as a Surrey player, this is by no means a certainty.