That'll teach us for crowing. A few weeks ago we took great pleasure in Australia's misery when highlighting their increasingly frequent propensity for batting collapses (see 'Australia and the all too common batting collapse') - and that was two days before they were bowled out for 88 at Headingley!
But like a particularly virulent form of ebola, the dreaded collapsitis has proved contagious for the England side during the current series with Pakistan. Five times in six innings, England have suffered an embarrassing case of the batting wobbles. These have manifested themselves in two clear strains. Late order collapsitis afflicted England at Trent Bridge where they lost their last six wickets for 17, at Edgbaston when the last seven wickets fell for 46 and most damaging of all at The Oval, where the last seven second innings wicket fell for only 28 to virtually hand the match to Salman Butt's team.
Top order collapsitis has also proved virulent with the first six second innings wickets falling for 98 at Trent Bridge and the first seven for 94 on the first day at The Oval. On both occasions it was left to Matt Prior to provide a much needed remedy.
Yes, Pakistan have a formidable batting line-up and granted conditions have generally favoured the bowlers during the series to date, but this is an increasingly worrying epidemic for Messrs Flower and Strauss. Up to The Oval, the strength of the malaise had been hidden by Pakistan's even worse batting woes, but the reappearance of Mohammad Yousuf seems to have provided a cure for their ills.
Whilst England have not quite plunged to the depths of the accident-waiting-to-happen pandemic batting of the 1990s, the side clearly has a tendency to collapsitis that is close to the equal of Australia's current fragility.
Indeed, an alarming propensity to be struck down with collapsitis at any time is the only stain on what has been an extremely successful first 18 months at the helm for Flower. He can perhaps be forgiven for the 51 all out in his first match in Jamaica. But England also slumped to 101 all out against the Aussies at Headingley. And who can forget the late batting collapses at Centurion and Cape Town where five wickets fell for 13 and four for 18 respectively where comfortable draws looked certain before Graham Onions twice played out the last over of the match. Then there was the disappointment of Johannesburg when England fell for under 200 in both innings to give South Africa a share of the spoils in the series.
At this rate, don't put your money on the forthcoming Ashes series being a high scoring contest. No wonder both sides are intent on picking a specialist batsman at number six and a high-class batter to keep wicket. If recent history is anything to go by, this could prove to be an unpredictable and exciting encounter between the two oldest foes in cricket.
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