England paid for their slip-ups: Ian Chappell

Updated on: 12 August,2009 07:58 AM IST |
A correspondent |

Former Australia captain-turned commentator Ian Chappell feels that England lost the fourth Test match and allowed the visitors to comeback in this five-Test Ashes rubber because they keep repeating their mistakes.

Chappell noted that England never learn from their wrongs. He felt that opener Alastair Cook still has a weakness dealing with deliveries outside the off-stump. And Ian Bell keeps getting his pad in the way of in-swingers. And the biggest mistake according to Chappell was despite his repeated failures, England have persisted with Ravi Bopara at number three.

Chappell also came down heavily on England skipper Andrew Strauss.
u00a0
He wrote in The Telegraph: "Andrew was anything but inspirational during the productive Michael Clarke and Marcus North liaison on the second morning; in fact, he was culpable. The general consensus was that England had bowled too short and wide on the first day. So what did Strauss do? He gave the ball to Steve Harmison, placed a field for short-pitched bowling and then had a ring-side view of the resultant carnage.

"As if encouraging this self-destructive ploy wasn't a big enough sin,he then compounded the problem by delaying the introduction of (Graham Onions, the English bowler most likely to succeed at Headingley, until every other avenue had been exhausted."