Trent Bridge Test, Day 3, lunch
Thursday, August 3, 2001

Australia have just blown England away this morning. I'm sure Mike Atherton's game plan would have been to set them around 200 and make a match of it. They really needed to add about 50 or 60 to their overnight score. But Jason Gillespie bundled them out quickly and now England's bowlers don't have a lot of runs to play with.

I don't think Atherton could really have done anything differently in the field. It's a tricky balance - he has to attack and try to get wickets, but he also has to stem the runs. We've already seen 20 runs squirted down through where third man would have been. But I think Atherton was right to go for a third slip, rather than put a third man in. He's set pretty attacking fields, and I think that's the only thing he can do.

The only thing I would have done would have been to bring Robert Croft on before lunch. When you're defending a small target you have to get your spinner on early, or there's a chance he won't be able to bowl at all. Australia have got off to a solid start, and I think Croft has to come on straight after lunch, or else it'll be impossible to bowl him.

Mark Taylor was the winning captain in the last three Ashes series. He was talking to Camilla Rossiter

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