AUSSIE "BHANGRA"...McGrath

LORDS, June 21: Australia are not letting the English rain ruin their parade. Despite the fact that there has only been the equivalent of one day's play in three, Australia are racing headlong towards victory.

Glenn McGrath continued his fine form at Lord's on the third morning to total figures of eight for 38, bowl out England for a ridiculously low 77 and give Australia an excellent chance of levelling the series. At close the Australians were 131 for two, and firmly in command.

McGrath surpassed the performance of Bob Massie who took eight for 53 in the second innings of a 1972 Test debut sixteen-wicket haul and in doing so claimed the best figures for an Australian at Lord's. This was a great reward for bowling a good line from the pavilion end and confusing the batsmen by making the odd ball move away from the right-handers against the slope of the pitch.

It was a totally different McGrath from the cranky bowler who lost his cool at Edgbaston and proceeded to bowl poorly. At Lord's, he remained calm, bowled with patience and skill to completely bamboozle the English batsmen. This was exactly what Australia needed after the loss in the first Test. In just a few short hours, McGrath undid the psychological advantage that England had built up in winning the opening encounter. All the old wounds from previous poundings were prised open by McGrath's bowling and England were brought back to reality with a thud.

Apart from Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe, the English batsmen were tentative. Mark Butcher, in particular, looks to be out of depth at Test level and in the field he showed his confused state by not going for a simple catch that ballooned off the glove of Greg Blewett. If Butcher had taken the catch, instead of waiting for Hussain to grab the ball, Australia would have been 25 for two. More importantly, the in-form Blewett would have been back in the pavilion instead of out in the middle thrashing the bowling to all parts.

In this situation, fast runs were the order for another wet day for Australia with so much time lost. Once Mark Taylor had gone, beaten again by Darren Gough, Blewett had Australia racing towards a decent total.

With McGrath having dominated England's batsmen and Blewett doing the same to the bowlers it had only taken a short while for Australia to reclaim lost ground of the first Test. Australia's resounding fightback will have raised some questions that the England selectors would have hoped had been well and truly settled after Edgbaston. John Crawley is struggling for form and he's a plodder in the field and England could well be better served by the youthful enthusiasm and aggression of Adam Hollioake. In addition, Andrew Caddick appears to be a temperamental bowler who unsettles the balance of England's attack.

SCOREBOARD

England (1st innings) (overnight 38-3): M Butcher c Blewett c McGrath 5, M Atherton c Taylor b McGrath 1, A Stewart b McGrath 1, N Hussain lbw McGrath 19, G Thorpe c Blewett b Reiffel 21, J Crawley c Healy b McGrath 1, M Ealham c Elliott b Reiffel 7, R Croft c Healy b McGrath 2, D Gough c Healy b McGrath 10, A Caddick lbw McGrath 1, D Malcolm not out 0. Extras (b 4, nb 5): 9. Total (all out in 42.3 overs): 77

Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-12, 3-13, 4-47, 5-56, 6-62, 7-66, 8-76, 9-77.

Bowling: McGrath 20.3-8-38-8, Reiffel 15-9-17-2 (nb 3), Kasprowicz 5-1-9-0 (nb 2), Warne 2-0-9-0.

Australia (1st innings): M Taylor b Gough 1, M Elliott batting 55, G Blewett c Hussain b Croft 45, M Waugh batting 26; Extras: (b1, lb3) 4.

Total: ( for two wkts in 43.2 overs) 131

MCGRATH (8-38) LORDS ABOVE 'EM ALL

* His personal best in Test and first class cricket (previous best being 6-47 vs West Indies at Port of Spain 1994-95)

* The best individual bowling by an Australian in an innings at Lord's (previously 8-53 by Bob Massie, 1972)

* The best individual bowling for either side in an Ashes Test at Lord's (previously 8-43 by Hedley Verity, 1934)

* The second best bowling display in an innings of a Lord's Test (best 8-34 by Ian Botham vs Pakistan, 1978)

* The best innings performance by an Australian in a Test anywhere since Arthur Mailey took 9-121 vs England at Melbourne, 1920-21.

* The only Australian bowler, other than Mailey to have better figures than McGrath was Frank Laver, who had figures of 8-31 at Manchester in 1909.

ENGLAND AT ITS WORST

The England first innings score of 77 is:

* their third lowest at Lord's since 1888 (53 & 62)

* second lowest against Australia since 1948 (52)

* their lowest in any Test innings since 1993-94 (46)

* the lowest since India's 66 against South Africa at Durban last season.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.