0Ukwehluleka Kwe-First Innings - Isikhathi Sokucabanga, England

Lokhu missive yakamuva imibango efika kini ivela embhedeni wami ogulayo. Yebo, mfundi othandekayo, Njengamanje ngilele embhedeni ngoLwesihlanu ebusuku kanti abanye bathokozela ipenti lasemsebenzini noma abahlanu kubungcwebe bendawo bendawo. Ngokuzimisela, yini engaba yimbi kunokuzwa sengathi ukufa kufudumele ngoLwesihlanu ebusuku?

Well okungenani, Ngizwa kuthiwa ukhala, kunginikeza ithuba lokuthi ngibhale lo msindo omfishane ngemuva kosuku lwesibili lwempi yomlotha wokuvula.

Futhi nginovalo lokuthi isihloko sanamuhla sibuyela emuva endleleni ethile enyathelwe kahle - isb. Abagadli baseNgilandi bevumela uhlangothi phansi futhi. Geof­frey Boy­cott summed up the side’s per­form­ance in his own par­tic­u­lar style by simply refer­ring to the per­form­ance as “pathet­ic.” And he was spot on. 136 kuyinto, kahle, a pathet­ic score by Eng­land. Simply Akwenele. After bowl­ing with beau­ti­ful con­trol and rhythm on Thursday, Broad helped to fin­ish the job off this morn­ing and must have felt like a well-earned rest was in order. Instead he again tried in vain to bring a modic­um of respect­ab­il­ity to the score by hit­ting a quick-fire 32 ugijimela - scorer phezulu wesibili ohlangothini luka by ngandlela-thile.

Now I’ve been check­ing back through the stats – Eng­land have star­ted the last few series badly when it comes to the busi­ness of mak­ing runs.

The test wokuqala ngokumelene Pakistan ekuqaleni we 2012 - Innings of 192 and then 160

Ovivinyweni lokuqala v Sri Lanka - Mashi 2012 - Izikolo 193 and 264

Ovivinyweni lokuqala v West Indies - Meyi 2012 - Kulungile inqotshwe ukuthi nge isiyonke Innings ehloniphekile kuqala

Ovivinyweni lokuqala v South Africa - Julayi 2012 - Amaphuzu nje mayelana par of 385 (kodwa ke washaywa cishe single-handedly ton Amla sika kathathu) fol­lowed by a meek 240

First test v India – Novem­ber 2012 - Score kuqala Innings of 191 (bet­ter go of it in the second innings – but the dam­age was already done)

First test v New Zea­l­and – March 2013 - Score kuqala Innings of 167 (improve­ment second innings to save the match)

First test v New Zea­l­and – May 2013 – dis­tinct­ively aver­age scores of 232 futhi 213 (bowl­ers pulled a rab­bit out of the hat to force victory)

Open­ing test of this year’s Ashes – July – first innings score of 215

And finally this Ashes cam­paign – first innings total of 136 – a total com­fort­ably beaten by just two of the oppos­i­tion – a jour­ney man keep­er-bats­man in Had­din (per­haps a little harsh) and a bowl­er – John­son. Now here’s hop­ing of course that we can pull off a minor mir­acle in the rest of the match and sal­vage a draw but if we do it will be des­pite this first innings calamity.

Of course this doesn’t make Eng­land a bad side – far from it. In most cases we have recovered our com­pos­ure and demon­strated our class and ground the oppos­i­tion down and won the series – although usu­ally because of the bowl­ers it must be said.

But the Eng­land man­age­ment – who plan every last little finite detail down to the last atom must be a little con­cerned at a seem­ingly con­sist­ent fail­ing in the open­ing test. If Eng­land are going to keep on win­ning series they need to on top of their game from the off.

If I had the answers then I would be out in in Aus­tralia at present help­ing the team out and not lan­guish­ing in my sick bed on a freez­ing-cold Novem­ber night.

But it’s an on-going issue that needs address­ing – there are only so many times the bowl­ing attack can keep on res­cuing their bat­ting counter-parts.