Keeping things in perspective

James Kirtley: his advantage on the Nottingham pitch stemmed from his accuracy

The English media, while delighted at the series-levelling win over South Africa at Trent Bridge (not least because the appeal of the fourth Test means that cricket has some chance of holding its own on the sports pages now that the all-pervading football season has begun), managed to retain a sense of perspective.

In The Independent, Angus Fraser cautioned against getting too carried away. "Although England's supporters, who again turned up in their thousands to cheer their side on, should celebrate their team's performance, this abrupt change in fortunes has to be put in perspective. On a pitch where the call at the toss was the most crucial decision either captain made, the most encouraging thing for England was that this victory highlighted the quality of cricket they are capable of playing. While uplifting, this result gives little indication as to what may happen at Headingley during the next week because lesser teams than South Africa would have capitulated to a heavy defeat by Sunday in this unfair encounter."

While also aware that one win doesn't paper over the flaws clearly highlighted during the first two Tests, David Hopps was still looking on the bright side in The Guardian. "A week ago English cricket was a land of treachery and recriminations. After England had been outplayed in the first two Tests defeat at Nottingham would have left the new captain, Michael Vaughan, blinking at another damaging period of instability and the coach, Duncan Fletcher, sweating on surviving beyond the summer. Fifteen minutes before lunch yesterday the land of discontent offered up milk and honey."

In The Times, Christopher Martin-Jenkins highlighted one area of concern - Mark Butcher's record in the slips. Butcher dropped a fairly routine chance offered by Paul Adams yesterday, and Martin-Jenkins argued that it was one miss too many. "He [Butcher] is not so safe and England should put Nasser Hussain in his place from now on. Butcher has taken 50 catches in 55 Tests, but the chances that he has missed, invariably at second slip, must be close to half that number."

Unsurprisingly, many papers concentrated on James Kirtley's six-wicket performance on his long-awaited debut. In the Daily Telegraph, Derek Pringle explained that Kirtley's apprenticeship with Sussex stood him in good stead. "Kirtley's advantage on this pitch stemmed from his accuracy, though he probably has his Sussex background to thank for that. Year in year out, Hove is among the best batting tracks in the country and keeps bowlers honest by insisting that line and length is a minimum requirement. When applied to the cracked mosaic at Trent Bridge, those same basics - so blithely ignored by England's attack on the pancake pitches of the first two Tests - proved too much for opponents, most of whom were beaten long before the first shooter brought a sadistic 'wooh' from the near-capacity crowd."

John Etheridge in The Sun dwelt a little longer on Kirtley's chequered past and the question-marks over his bowling action, but concluded that it was Kirtley's day. "He is a skidder, a wholehearted toiler who will obviously struggle to make as much impact on flatter pitches. His accuracy was plenty good enough for the pitch to do the rest." Etheridge ended by drawing attention to one slight blemish on Kirtley's performance. "Nobody really cared that a couple of Kirtley's wickets were obtained with deliveries that should have been called no-ball. For overstepping, that is, not chucking."