SA to stick with two specialist spinners

South Africa sunk to their second-heaviest defeat ever, in terms of runs, on Saturday, but AB de Villiers said he would seek to employ a similar strategy against Sri Lanka in the second ODI. South Africa's bowlers were largely to blame for the loss, conceding 320 for 5, and 137 in the last 12 overs, but de Villiers was particularly enamoured of the prospect of fielding two frontline spinners.

Robin Peterson and Aaron Phangiso bowled only 14 overs collectively in the first match, taking 1 for 80 between them, but had done enough to persuade de Villiers they were both worth sticking with. Both frontline spinners are left-armers and Sri Lanka are likely to field five left-hand batsmen in the top eight. The part-time offspin of JP Duminy is also available to South Africa, though he did travel for 51 in his seven overs in the first match.

With the R Premadasa pitch expected to play slower on Tuesday, having already sustained 82 overs of wear in the first match, de Villiers felt all his slow bowlers were capable of making an impact.

"I'd like to have both of the spinners in there," de Villiers said. "I enjoyed the fact that we played a lot of frontline spinners, even though they didn't take a lot of wickets. It's a nice style of attack for us. There are a few right-handers as well in the team. I think they both bowl well to left-handers. Aaron especially showed that against Kumar Sangakkara right at the death. Under a lot of pressure he bowled a really good over. I truly believe they have the experience and the skill - Robin, Aaron and JP, to adapt to certain batters whether they are right or left-handers, and I'll try to bowl them at the right times.

"JP is just a part-time bowler still, but he is handy, especially to left-handers. He'll pretty much bowl in every game and he's definitely part of our plans. We wouldn't like to experiment too much with our side. I believe the best XI played two days ago. We'd like to stay as close as possible to that XI with the odd change here and there."

De Villiers also called for improvement from his side in the field, after a shabby showing in the first game. South Africa have built a reputation for being one of the best fielding sides in the world, but allowed the heat and humidity to affect their performance, de Villiers said, though the only dropped catch came as early as the first over.

"We're not the best fielding team in the world yet. We've got the potential, so it's a bit frustrating to see us field like that. I think the boys have learnt from their mistakes. It was a long 50 overs in the field and the afternoon was quite hot, which is not an excuse, but something new to the guys, something they couldn't adapt to. In this game they'll hopefully know what to expect and take a few matchwinning catches and a couple of run-outs. The bowlers certainly need them."

Hashim Amla has not been declared fit after suffering from muscle spasms in his neck last Friday, but de Villiers said he had recovered smoothly since then, and hoped Amla would bring some much-needed experience into the top order. South Africa are missing their most seasoned batsmen in Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis, who have not come on tour.

"Hash is still not 100% and we'll have to reassess that at training, when he'll have a light net and then final reassessments tonight and tomorrow morning. It's important to start well, but also to stabilise the innings if we don't start well, which we also didn't do in that match. We got it wrong in both departments. I'd like to focus on the basics tomorrow and get that in place, even if we have a bad start."

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BCCI relationship Lorgat's top priority

Understanding the BCCI's concerns and improving his relationship with the Indian board is one of Haroon Lorgat's top priorities as he begins his tenure as chief executive of CSA. Lorgat was appointed on Saturday and will officially take over the role on August 1 for a term of three years. His unveiling ends a nine-month period of uncertainty for the organisation which has been without a permanent boss since Gerald Majola's sacking in October 2012.

Although Lorgat was considered the frontrunner for the job even before he applied late last year, when CSA's board restructure was completed, a major hurdle to his appointment was the BCCI's objection. The Indian board is believed to harbour dissatisfaction with Lorgat from his time at the ICC, where they clashed with him over issues ranging from the FTP and DRS to the corporate governance review.

They informed CSA of their unhappiness and there was even talk India would cancel its upcoming tour to South Africa. CSA's president Chris Nenzani confirmed officials from South Africa met with the BCCI in February to discuss, among other things, Lorgat. The board is satisfied they have not put either the India tour or their relationship with the BCCI at risk despite giving Lorgat the top job.

"We went to India and talked to the president of the BCCI and they raised their concerns about Haroon [Lorgat]," Nenzani said at a press conference at the Wanderers. "We told them, 'We will not undermine your concerns but we will have to take decision based on the interests of CSA.' We have a long history of friendship and a good relationship with the BCCI and we value that relationship. We have no reason to believe this appointment will jeopardise the relationship in any way."

	Haroon Lorgat: ""We have to respect India and it's up to me to fix up anything that needs patching"

Nenzani said he had received "no information the tour will not go ahead", while Lorgat confirmed the two boards are still in talks about the itinerary. CSA released a schedule for two T20s, seven ODIs and three Tests to be played between November 21 and January 19 but the BCCI want some adjustments that could see the Tests played first.

By the time India arrive in South Africa, Lorgat would have completed three months in office and hopes to have gleaned thorough knowledge of the BCCI's reservations about him, reassured them and gained their trust. Lorgat admitted he is "not too sure" exactly what the BCCI's point of contention is but conceded they bumped heads at the ICC and the ethics officer was called in to mediate. All complaints against Lorgat were dismissed thereafter and Lorgat thought the matter had been put to bed.

"I am saddened by these inferences and I did not expect such a poor relationship to have formed. I don't like to be out of favour with someone I thought was a friend. I will do my best to understand the concerns," he said.

	If I need to sit across a table, to go to India, whatever it takes to smooth things over, I have to put CSA first. When the issues come out, if it means I have offended someone and I need to apologise, I will. Haroon Lorgat

But it does not end there. Not only does Lorgat want to comprehend, he also wants to reconcile and he is willing to go the extra mile to ensue that happens. "If I need to sit across a table, to go to India, whatever it takes to smooth things over, I have to put CSA first. When the issues come out, if it means I have offended someone and I need to apologise, I will."

Lorgat's deference to India may seem at odds with CSA's bold decision to choose him despite India's unhappiness, but Lorgat explained he is not seeking to further ruffle feathers. "We have to respect India and it's up to me to fix up anything that needs patching," he said.

Asked if he thought India was too powerful and used that might to exert their will, Lorgat was diplomatic. "I think in anything too much dominance of one person is not good. But I also think we should not begrudge strong people. We should aspire to be as strong as they are."

Over the last two years, while South Africa's Test team has gained the highest stature in world cricket, its administration has lagged far behind. The bonus scandal and revolving door of acting presidents and acting CEOs led to what ESPNCricinfo understands was a loss of respect at higher levels.

Lorgat's other aim is to restore the standing CSA once had, both in the eyes of other boards and its own public, whose trust was dented in the aftermath of the Majola affair. "What's happened in the past was not what anybody wanted to see," Lorgat said. "I am confident the reputation will improve. I am impressed by the new board and I think we have good people who will ensure corporate governance."

He also thanked his predecessor Majola, despite the manner in which he was dismissed, for "leading the organisation for almost a decade." Under Majola, South Africa hosted ICC events such as the inaugural World T20 and 2009 Champions Trophy and even stood in to put on the IPL in season 2.

Ironically, staging the Indian event led to Majola's downfall. Bonus payments from that event which did not pass through the board were the main reason for him being fired. But that South Africa were willing to bail India out in their hour of need was indication of the closeness of their relationship and Lorgat hopes to begin restoring that as soon as he can.

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T20 'chipping away' at Test skills - Gooch

Graham Gooch has spelled out something that no one at Cricket Australia is prepared to publicly say - Twenty20 is "chipping away" at the skills required of Test batsmen, and Gooch, England's batting coach, works every day to ensure his men are not eroded as Australia's have been.

In the aftermath of the Lord's Test, the England captain, Alastair Cook, spoke warmly of Gooch, a figure often derided in Australia for his travails during the 1989 Ashes series but an exemplar of diligence, patience and commitment to the art of run-making. Joe Root's pivotal 180 after Australia's batsmen had surrendered their first innings for a paltry 128 was a 21st century facsimile of many a Gooch innings, and the mentor said multiple formats had made it ever more difficult to foster such patience among young batsmen.

"There's three formats of the game now … the basis of Test cricket is that it's a hell of a long game, five times 90 overs is a long, long game," Gooch said. "So it's about skills in batting, about run-making, about the whole package of not only having the technical skills but having the attitude, the mental toughness, the discipline, and the concentration. Anyone can concentrate for 15-20 minutes, but to score Test hundreds you have to concentrate for a long period of time. Those skills I think worldwide are being chipped away at the edges by the amount of one-day cricket and T20 cricket.

"If you're a traditionalist and like Test cricket and think that's the pinnacle and the benchmark, you know you can see with the number of competitions that are popping up and the rewards that are available in terms of finance … the possibility of it chipping away at the edges of the traditional game, and that's the same for every country. You've got to work hard to try to keep your players on track and obviously try to educate them as well as you can on the skills and the mental skills that are necessary to bat long. It's a different type of skill."

While it is clear that at the present moment England are successfully developing batsmen of the requisite obstinacy and technical purity to survive for long periods, Gooch spoke of the need for eternal vigilance to ensure that the balance was not lost. He also mentioned the ability of the best players to differentiate between conditions, using the right "tools" for the variety of surfaces offered in England, Australia and the subcontinent.

	Graham Gooch's press conference

"Way after I finish this issue will still be alive and kicking," Gooch, who will turn 60 on Tuesday, said. "I'd hate to think that traditional skills get eroded and diluted because the specialist spinner, the specialist fast bowler, the skills of the batsmen are, for me, what make the game so great. Playing on a surface like here [Lord's], or the SCG or Brisbane or Perth where it bounces. A batsman to score runs needs different skills for different wickets, and as a batsman and run-maker you have different tools in the bag, but you don't take all the tools out every time you play."

As for the magnitude of England's victory, earning the hosts a 2-0 series lead that has only ever been overhauled once in the history of all Ashes contests, Gooch said some of his pupils would not fully appreciate it until later years. On the topic of Australia he was taciturn, but left ample room for the results to speak for themselves.

"I think we suffered quite a lot [in the past], I did manage to win the Ashes three times actually but I did suffer quite a lot," Gooch said. "I don't know how some of them would know the historical significance, some probably wouldn't. I think mainly they're interested in winning each match they come up against. Australia are giving it their best, it's not for me to comment on their performance, that's down to their management and their system. We try to get our players in the best possible condition to win."

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Pattinson ruled out of Ashes series

James Pattinson has been ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes series in England after being diagnosed with a stress fracture of the lower back.

Pattinson reported "hip and back soreness" after the final day of the second Investec Test at Lord's and subsequent scans, which he underwent in London on Monday, showed the early signs of a stress fracture.

He will travel with the squad to Sussex and then on to Manchester before returning home to Australia. His place was likely to have come under scrutiny ahead of the Old Trafford Test after two disappointing performances at Trent Bridge and Lord's, where he has taken seven wickets at 43.85.

This is the latest injury setback in Pattinson's career following a rib injury he picked up against South Africa last year and a foot problem he sustained against India the during the 2011-12 season.

Cricket Australia team doctor Peter Brukner said: "We had some scans done today in London that have identified an early stage low back stress fracture. Unfortunately he will not take any further part in this Test series and will commence a rehabilitation program with the aim to have him back for the Australian summer."

Pat Howard, the Cricket Australia team performance manager, added: "While we are obviously disappointed for James, the selectors have five bowlers fit and ready perform in England, providing them with many options.

"It is also important to note that several players have been performing for Australia A and are available to be called up at any stage if the NSP required them. We've been well planned to have as many bowlers fit and available in the lead-up to this important series and while this set-back for James is disappointing, we are confident we have good fast bowling depth."

The other pace options currently in England, who weren't selected at Lord's, are Mitchell Starc, Jackson Bird and James Faulkner. The fast bowlers currently on duty for Australia A in Zimbabwe and South Africa are Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Chadd Sayers, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Gurinder Sandhu.

Cummins, regularly billed as one of the brighest talents in Australian cricket, has played one Test and is being handled very carefully by Cricket Australia after he, too, suffered a number of injuries. Hazlewood, who has appeared in one ODI and one Twenty20, is another who has had fitness issues.

Sayers has played just 14 first-class matches but put his name in contention with an impressive 2012-13 season and showed eye-catching form when Australia A were in the UK ahead of the Ashes series. Coulter-Nile was part of Australia's squad for the recent Champions Trophy in England.

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Desolate Clarke points finger at batsmen

If there was optimism in Michael Clarke's voice after Trent Bridge, it had turned to utter desolation at Lord's. On the receiving end of Australia's sixth consecutive Test defeat, a sequence last experienced in the grim days of 1984, Clarke was clearly upset by a hiding that has all but ended the team's hopes of regaining the Ashes in England.

Speaking frankly of the team's myriad batting problems and the pressure that has placed on the bowlers, Clarke also conceded the defeats were taking a heavy toll on him, and said his own vision of what the Australian team should be had been shaken by a succession of losses that is now the equal of the run that ended Kim Hughes' captaincy when repeatedly humbled by the West Indies.

"Every team I've been a part of that's lost - it's obviously been extremely tough and you probably take it more personally when you're captain of the team as well," Clarke said. "Our performance with the bat in the first innings was unacceptable. The wicket was very good for batting, we had a great opportunity and we let ourselves down.

"The reason you play any sport is to try and win - that's the way I have been brought up. But half of my problem I guess is that I walked into such a great Australian team that won as a habit and that was something I became accustomed to and used to. I don't want that to change. At the moment we are not performing as well as I would like. We are letting everyone down at the moment with the way we are batting. Our bowlers are fighting hard, we are making them bowl every single day because we are not putting enough runs on the board."

Clarke tackled the matter of Australia's batting and the terminal lack of application and patience that has repeatedly hindered the team's efforts to build match-shaping scores. In seven Test matches since January only two hundreds have been made by Australian batsmen - Matthew Wade against Sri Lanka in Sydney and Clarke himself in Chennai.

"We've got plenty of experience in our top seven, we've seen already in this series that guys can score runs against this attack," Clarke said. "Our shot selection was poor and we just didn't have the discipline that England had. England were willing to bat for long periods and graft through the tough times - and we certainly weren't in that first innings."

"I don't want anybody in our team to not play their natural game and not back their natural instinct. You have to do that 100 per cent. But like it or not, when you're playing against good opposition there are going to be tough times in your innings as a batsman and you've got to find a way to get through that. In my career, the way I've tried to get through those periods is with my defence."

	Michael Clarke's post-match press conference

Causes for Australia's lack of consistent run-scoring have been debated for some time and Clarke has commented strongly by his own choice of career path, shelving international Twenty20 duty to better prepare for Test matches and ODIs, while also skipping several domestic T20 tournaments in order to preserve his fragile back.

"I think you learn that defence at the age of 10," Clarke said. "Obviously there are three different formats we now play and there's times through your career in T20 cricket, or one-day cricket where you make a 50 off 25 balls or a hundred off 50 balls, that's a great innings. But I know in Test cricket, some of the best innings I've ever seen in my career are guys making a hundred off 350 balls. So there's a time and a place.

"I love all three forms. My reason to retire from T20 was to focus on ODI and Test cricket. I felt my game had to improve in certain areas to stay in the team. I try to use the time that I'm not playing T20 to improve my game. Everyone is in a different boat and different age and stage of life. I can't make decisions for other people. There is room for all three formats in the game but you must be a very good player to perform at all three formats."

The player who has best met the demands of all three formats of the game is the now retired Michael Hussey. It cannot be a coincidence that over the past 12 months Australia are yet to win an international match overseas without him.

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England's youngest at Lord's

The DRS is not the solution, it's part of the problem (233)

Not only does the review system rob the game of spontaneity and drama, it does not get rid of the mistakes it was created to eradicate

How about demanding honesty from the players? (174)

As a system, the DRS is less than ideally set up. It's time cricketers policed themselves to some extent

The worst dismissal in history? (53)

Plays of the day from the second day of the second Ashes Test at Lord's

Afridi's many comebacks (41)

A look back at some of Shahid Afridi's notable (and forgettable) comebacks in ODIs

Tension? We sat around eating Cornettos (37)

I was delighted to play such a key role in a memorable victory and although the Trent Bridge Test became very tight, we were all very calm during the lunch break

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Steely Cook has eyes on bigger prize

It was the lack of euphoria that should worry Australia most. While Alastair Cook admitted to some satisfaction and a few celebratory drinks in the dressing room following England's emphatic victory at Lord's, there was a steely resolve about him that spelled out a clear message: the job is not completed.

Cook's first Ashes experience as a player was a humbling experience. He was part of the team whitewashed in Australia in 2006-07 and has experienced enough lows in his career to know that moments like this are to be neither taken for granted or squandered. The Ashes have not yet been retained.

But it would be a brave man who bet against England at this stage. While they have won their last four Tests and are unbeaten in 10, Australia have lost their last six. It spoke volumes for how far Australia's reputation has fallen that, at a venue where they used to dominate, when Michael Clarke, interviewed on the outfield at the end of the match, said his side could still win the series, the crowd laughed. Not mocking laughter but genuine amusement. The idea seemed that ridiculous.

But Cook does not share that complacency. While he knows he is within touching distance of completing a series win in India and an Ashes victory within his first year as captain - England need only a draw from one of the final three Tests - he also acknowledged that his side had been pushed harder in this match than the end result indicated.

"It's certainly too early to talk about that," Cook said when asked about the possibility of a whitewashed series. "You only have to look at our dressing room to see how hard we've had to work to win these two games. You can think all you want about that, but we know how hard it is going to be the next few games.

"We won't be taking anything for granted or taking our foot off the gas. We won't be looking past the first hour at Old Trafford. That's not the way Andy Flower works and that's not the way this England side works.

"At certain moments in this game we were right under the cosh. It's huge credit to the lads that we've managed to pull through. Certainly being 30 for 3 on the first morning was not ideal and then losing wickets late on day one meant it was probably even-stevens. But we really upped our level with both ball and bat and wore them down."

That tactic of wearing down Australia was a theme of this match. Cook admitted his aim in declining to enforce the follow-on and keeping Australia out in the field for another 114 overs was not just to build a match-winning lead but to grind them down. He also paid credit to the batting coach, Graham Gooch, for instilling the discipline and desire to score big, match-defining centuries into the batting unit.

"That was the aim, without a doubt," Cook said. "We know how hard it is if you are in the field for such a long time. The half-hour we batted this morning was worth it.

"Graham Gooch, our teacher, has tried to breed into us that you have to bat for long periods of time and that if you do you get big scores. He bangs on about it all the time. It was his bread and butter and, over the last few years, we have managed to get bigger hundreds."

It was Joe Root's turn to score the big hundred in this match. Cook said he was not in the least surprised by Root's success and credited him as "an outstanding player".

"He's taken to international cricket extremely well," Cook said. "He's got the right character. It's a lot about technique, but he has the right character to succeed at Test cricket. He adapts his game to whatever is required. Here he scored a big hundred in a high pressure situation, so huge credit to him. He can be mighty proud of his performance."

Cook admitted the fitness of Kevin Pietersen, who suffered a calf strain during this game, was "a concern" ahead of the third Test, which begins on August 1. While there is no word from the England camp at present, there is a possibility that one of the potential replacements for Pietersen will be drafted into the Sussex side for the tour game against Australia that starts on Friday.

With the English domestic season currently dominated by T20 cricket, some of the candidates may feel in need of an extra first-class outing. Certainly Eoin Morgan, who has trained with the England squad this week having just received the all-clear to resume playing after a broken finger, would fit in that category though James Taylor, a more likely candidate, has been in first-class action recently.

But such concerns could wait a day or two for Cook and co. After another draining four days, England have earned most of the week off and will meet up again in Manchester on Sunday.

"It's a good dressing room to be in," Cook said. "We'll enjoy tonight, we'll recover well and we'll come back at Old Trafford and see how we can go about winning that game. We'll have a bit of time off and them come back ready to work extremely hard to win more games.

"It's special to win a Lord's Test against any side, but to beat Australia, well, these are times you cherish as a player. We have a winning habit now. We've played four Tests this summer and we've won all four. That's a good place to be."

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The rotting of Australian cricket

The marginalising of grade and Shield competitions has left a painful legacy for the Test team

Amid the usual sea of opinions leading into this series, Andrew Strauss cut to the core of Australian cricket's troubles with an observation he made about the last Ashes tour down under. While the Test matches of 2010-11 and their margins were clear, Strauss noticed something a little more far-reaching and disturbing on his travels. The standard of the players and teams his side faced in their tour matches was nowhere near the level that England tourists had come to expect. Where once the visitors expected a serious fight no matter where they played, now they were surprised to feel unthreatened.

Three years on, and a very public execution at Lord's has confirmed the decline Strauss witnessed. First evident among the grassroots, it has now enveloped the shop front of the Australian game. The bewilderment experienced by a succession of batsmen as they trudged off with inadequate scores for the fourth consecutive Ashes innings was mirrored on the faces of the Sunday spectators, Australian television viewers and Cricket Australia staff on both sides of the world. How had it come to this?

Shane Watson, Chris Rogers, Phillip Hughes, Michael Clarke, Usman Khawaja and Steve Smith fell in manners familiar and unfamiliar, technical or mental, to pace or spin. There was no underlying pattern. But the death dive of the national team's recent performances, including a sixth Test match defeat in succession, is the ugliest and most visible symptom of a collective malaise that has been creeping ever wider for some time, hurried along by band-aid solutions and rampant market thinking that has helped to rot the teeth of the domestic game.

Among the most troubling elements of Australia's current state of poverty is that there is no single person in the team nor around it who has the capacity to provide a remedy. Not the captain Clarke, nor the coach Darren Lehmann, the selectors Rod Marsh and John Inverarity, nor even the high-powered general manager of team performance, Pat Howard. Had he still been employed, the estranged former coach Mickey Arthur would have been equally powerless.

They all have had influential roles within Australian cricket over the past three years, and all have a genuine desire to see the team winning matches. All are doing their best to prepare players for tasks such as England. But none have complete control over the areas of Cricket Australia to where the game's decline can be traced. Perhaps not surprisingly, all are often heard to say the words "not ideal". All should be speaking earnestly to their chief executive, James Sutherland, who despite much financial prosperity has presided over the aforementioned rot.

Several issues stand out as causes of the problems on display at Lord's. The first is the marginalisation of the grade and Sheffield Shield competitions, for so long regarded as the best proving grounds of their kind in the world. In 2013 they sit at the fringes of CA's thinking. Grade cricket has fallen behind the much vaunted "pathway" of under-age competitions and Centre of Excellence training as the primary providers of players bound for international duty. The Shield, meanwhile, is now played disjointedly and unhappily around the edges of the Australian season, having ceded the prime months of December and January to the Twenty20 Big Bash League.

This scheduling stands in marked contrast to the fixtures now produced in England and India, Australia's two most recent tormentors. For all the buzz and hype around the IPL and the Champions League, neither competition cuts across the first-class Ranji Trophy, which remains a tournament fought in an environment of continuity and cohesion. Similarly, the English county season offers domestic players a greater chance for building up form and confidence in the format most representative of Test matches. Plenty of battles have been fought within England to keep it so, and next summer its primacy will be further embossed by the spreading of T20 fixtures more evenly through the season.

	The Huddle - The best batsmen are outside the squad

Even if the Shield were to be granted a place of greater centrality to the Australian summer, the matter of pitches is also a source of problems. Australia's glaring lack of batsmen capable of playing long innings can be related directly to the emergence of a succession of sporting or worse surfaces, as state teams chase the outright results required to reach the Shield final. Queensland and Tasmania have been among the most notable preparers of green surfaces, often for reasons of weather as much as strategy, but their approaches have become increasingly popular across the country. This has resulted in a litany of low-scoring matches and bowlers celebrating far more often than they did during the relatively run-laden 1990s. Batsmen are thus lacking in confidence and technique, while bowlers are similarly less used to striving for wickets on unresponsive surfaces so often prepared in Tests, as administrators eye fifth-day gate receipts.

Money is never far from anyone's motivation, of course, and the financial modelling of Australian player payments must also be examined. This much was pointed out by Arthur himself when the BBL was unveiled in 2011, accompanied by the news that state contracts would be reduced on the presumption that every player would also play T20. Arthur's words should be ringing in the ears of CA's decision makers almost as much as his anguished complaints now about the loss of his job.

"Your biggest salary cap should be your state contracts with the smaller salary cap being your Big Bash," Arthur had said when coach of Western Australia. "If we're really serious in Australia about getting Australia to the No. 1 Test-playing side in the world, we should be reflecting that in our salary caps and budgets. You can feel the squeeze just through the salary caps that we have to work with. You're getting a bigger salary cap for six weeks' work over the holiday period than you are for trying to make yourself a Test cricketer. I think that's the wrong way round."

The wrong way round and the wrong way to maintain a strong Test team. The pain of Australia's players at Lord's, not least their clearly upset captain Michael Clarke, was patently clear. But having almost conjured miracles at Trent Bridge, St John's Wood has provided a much more realistic picture of where the team has slipped to, and why. There can be few more humiliating places at which to be defined as second rate than the home of cricket, for so long the home away from home for Australia's cricketers. In a moment of hubris after their win at the ground in 2005, Ricky Ponting's team held uproarious court in the home dressing rooms. This time around any visit to the England side of the pavilion will be made far more humbly.

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Dominant Sangakkara gets better with age

At 35, a lifetime of learning is propelling Kumar Sangakkara's cricket far further than his innate ability ever could. He is now churning out match-winning innings that have frustratingly eluded him

Cricketers are sometimes labeled 'great students of the game'. Often these students are men who distinguish themselves from the peloton of cricket's sporty jocks by a yearning to learn more about the history and the nuances of the pursuit that consumes their lives.

When he first began playing for Lancashire, Muttiah Muralitharan was said to have had a more thorough knowledge of the team's previous season than many of the cricketers who had played in those matches. Part of why Michael Hussey's 'Mr. Cricket' moniker endured was because he would speak for hours on end about the game, in what seemed like laborious detail to his teammates. In his years as Australia captain, Ricky Ponting was found perusing grade cricket scorecards from around the country. All men, whose livelihoods had happily aligned with their life's most ardent passion.

At 35, a lifetime of learning is propelling Kumar Sangakkara's cricket far further than his innate ability ever could, and into the reaches of greatness. Against South Africa, he hit the highest ODI score ever made in Sri Lanka at a breathless pace that would have done Sanath Jayasuriya or Aravinda de Silva proud. Unlike either of those men, Sangakkara is not a natural strokemaker, nor are ODIs his format of choice. Yet the records continue to tumble over and again to a man who was never the precocious teenage talent that every other great Sri Lankan batsman was, before coming of age. By the end of his career, Sangakkara will probably top more lists than the rest of them combined.

A year ago, when Sangakkara became the ICC's Cricketer, and Test Cricketer of the Year, he refused to put himself in the company of the greats, both from Sri Lanka and worldwide. "They dominated attacks," he said, "and they were great to watch. I'm more of a worker, and I graft for my runs." Yet 13 years into his career, he is tearing international attacks apart for the first time, and playing the match-winning innings that have frustratingly eluded him in the last decade. Having accumulated 66 from his first 91 deliveries, Sangakkara snapped in the batting Powerplay, and unfurled an array of finishing blows even a 30-year old version of himself would never have attempted - 103 came from his next 46 balls.

AB de Villiers later reflected on Sangakkara's ability to manipulate the field, but the batsman had set such panic upon the South Africa bowlers they seemed incapable of containing him regardless. Even in a Test career that gleams far brighter than his limited-overs returns, he has rarely known such uncompromising dominance. The attack left the field not just emphatically beaten, but roundly humiliated.

His unbeaten 134 at The Oval last month, to lead a difficult chase against a strong England, was another innings that showcased a new dimension to his one-day game. There are 77 half-centuries to the 16 hundreds in Sangakkara's career, and many of those fifties meant little to the team, failing, as they did, to launch Sri Lanka to victory. He has learnt now, what it takes to carry the side over the line, and his ODI average is the best it has been since the honeymoon of his career.

The 46th over of the Sri Lanka innings produced a moment that exposed the core of Sangakkara's success. Going down to one knee, he attempted an over-the-shoulder scoop off a Ryan McLaren full toss, and had his stumps splayed. In an instant he was on his feet, looking from umpire to umpire and pointing at the men on the fence with agitation. De Villiers had stationed too many outside the circle and Sangakkara had counted them mentally before taking guard. He knew the ball would not count, so the risky stroke was no risk at all. The most unique facet of his greatness is that it is foremost a triumph of the mind.

Before the series, Angelo Mathews had said Lahiru Thirimanne was capable of becoming the next Sangakkara, and as the young batsmen floundered while the great frolicked at the other end, plenty remarked on the vast gulf in class. Thirimanne's critics might be surprised to learn that at the same age, and number of ODI innings, Sangakkara averaged six runs less than Thirimanne does now. He may have only made 17 from 33 in a 123-run partnership, but Thirimanne has already hit an ODI ton against a high-class attack. Batting in a similar position to Thirimanne at the start of his career, Sangakkara did not manage that until his 86th game.

"There are a lot of things to learn from Sangakkara," Thirimanne said after the match. "As young batsmen we take a lot out of what he says and the way he plays. He's a special player and we're lucky he's from our country. In matches, I use a lot of what he says."

Thirimanne will do well to adopt Sangakkara's obsession with improvement. Unfortunately for the young man, his beautiful, bent-kneed cover-drive has already drawn parallels with Sangakkara, and his future will likely be measured on the Sangakkara scale. It is a career that is almost impossible to emulate, because his mentor is himself one of cricket's greatest students.

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Pietersen injury doubt for third Test

Kevin Pietersen has been ruled out of the remainder of the second Investec Ashes Test at Lord's with a calf strain and his involvement in the third Test is now in doubt.

Pietersen injured his calf while fielding on the second day at Lord's and did not warm-up with the England team on the third morning. He underwent a scan on Saturday and will not field again in the Lord's Test.

He will now be assessed before a decision is made on his involvement in the third Test at Old Trafford, which begins August 1.

Pietersen has recently returned to cricket following a three month layoff after bruising his knee on England's tour of New Zealand in March. Pietersen left the tour before the final Test in Auckland and did not return to action until June 21.

So far, Pietersen has had a quiet Ashes series with 85 runs in four innings, including two single figure scores at Lord's. But he did make a composed 64 in the second innings at Trent Bridge which helped swing the tide of the match back to England.

But now, for the second home Ashes in succession, Pietersen's availability is in doubt due to injury. He missed the final three Tests of the 2009 series with an Achilles problem.

There was better news of Eoin Morgan, who broke a finger in the Champions Trophy. He has received the all-clear from England's medical staff and is now expected to return to action for Middlesex imminently. It had been feared Morgan would be out for a far longer period.

In a clear sign that he remains of interest to the England selectors in all formats, Morgan, who holds a central contract, trained with the Test squad at Lord's and faced some throw-downs from the coaching team.

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