da dobrowin： Giles: valiant 31 not out © Getty Images It was not an auspicious day for England’s batsmen, but there was onenotable exception
Andrew Miller04-Jan-2005
Giles: valiant 31 not out© Getty Images
It was not an auspicious day for England’s batsmen, but there was onenotable exception. In the course of his valiant 31 not out, Ashley Gilesemulated the likes of Ian Botham, Tony Greig and Trevor Bailey by becomingonly the ninth England cricketer to reach the double of 1000 Test runs and100 wickets.And he even beat Andrew Flintoff to the mark as well, for Freddie broughtup his own double with the wicket of Herschelle Gibbs in the afternoonsession. “It’s good company to keep,” said Giles. “He’s an exceptionalcricketer, and he’s got about twice the runs that I have, while I seemyself as a hard-working sort of cricketer. But it was nice to remind himthat he’s No. 10!””I’ve been looking at it for the last six months,” added Giles, “but Ididn’t realise I was close until it was brought up in the press. I’vecertainly batted better of late, because I’ve gone from averaging 12 to20 in 18 months, but there’s scope for more. I’d like to think there’s aTest century in me but, seeing as my top score is only 52, there’s a longway to go.”England certainly needed every one of his runs, as they crashed to 163 allout, a first-innings deficit of 278, and Giles admitted that theirsituation was worse than it had been at Durban last week. “We showed therethat we can turn situations around,” he admitted, “but it’s not going tobe easy. As a team we believe we can do something special, whether it’swinning the match or batting for a day and three-quarters to save thegame.”We’re disappointed. We toiled hard in the field and let ourselves down,and it’s draining to be back out there again. But that our jobs, we haveto make the best of a bad situation.” But, Giles added, the fact thatSouth Africa declined to enforce the follow-on was a sign of theirrespect. “I know there’s two days left and they want to bowl in lastinnings, but they’re aware of what we did in Durban, and they think we cando it again.”The pitch didn’t look too tricky while Jacques Kallis and Boeta Dippenaarwere grinding out a huge advantage but, as Giles admitted, the pressurewill be on when England are chasing 500. Besides, with Kallis inresidence, the game always looks rather easy.”He’s not a bad player, is he?!” said Giles. “You get a bit of a chancewith the likes of Lara, Hayden, Ponting, even Tendulkar. They’ll alwaysplay a shot to keep you interested. But Jacques can grind you down, andtechnically he has to be the best player in the world. Unfortunatelythat’s what we come up against in our jobs.”But he’s a great player, and it’s difficult to think that anyone else inthe world is better. I’m not sure how much his girlfriend sees of him,though.”