Straight-talking Ian Bell insists there can be "no excuses" for England after they were blown away yet again by Mitchell Johnson in the second Test at Adelaide.
Johnson was twice on a hat-trick, and finished with figures of seven for 40 as England collapsed from 111 for three to 135 for nine, and eventually 172 all out.
Bell alone withstood Johnson’s 90mph spells, with an unbeaten 72.
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Bell has yet to succumb to him on this tour, but warns it is no use one or two frontline batsmen passing 50 if there is no support.
“You can’t afford in Test matches, certainly in your first innings, to get bowled out under 200 — you’re not going to win anything,” he said. “The guys in that dressing room have played a lot of cricket, and there’s no excuses.”
It may be hard to envisage England somehow batting for almost two days — depending when Australia’s declaration comes — to salvage a stalemate. But Bell, for one, is not about to give up yet. “There’ll be some guys hurting at the minute,” he said.
“We’ll have an opportunity in the second innings to at least try to show people we’re going to show some fight. We need to fix it pretty quickly if we want to get back in the series.
Someone’s got to play an incredible innings — if you want to bat a day, this is the day to do it,” he added.