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England taking time to acclimatise - Caddick

Andrew Caddick, whose unbeaten 62 rescued England from the perils of 126 for eight against Western Australia, believes their top order has been struggling because they aren't yet used to Australian conditions.

CricInfo
24-Oct-2002
Andrew Caddick, whose unbeaten 62 rescued England from the perils of 126 for eight against Western Australia, believes their top order has been struggling because they aren't yet used to Australian conditions.
"You have to remember we're used to the wickets in England and we've been on tours to the sub-continent for the last 18 months," Caddick said afterwards.
"These wickets bounce a lot more than we're used to the ball doing quite a bit this morning. They know their wickets a lot better than we do and I'm sure we'd have bowled if we'd have won the toss.
"Due to the fact we've not bowled on the wickets before we didn't score the runs we should have done and there's not much juice in the wicket now, so we'll have to work really hard tomorrow.
"In these situations you need to work hard on flatter wickets and I'm looking forward to that. We've come back from these positions before when we've taken criticism early on in the tour."
Caddick also insisted that nothing should be read into England's one-day defeat at Lilac Hill in the opening match of the tour on Tuesday.
"The fact that we lost that game is irrelevant," he said. "The guys had a bit of a bat. Nasser got some runs under his belt. Robert Key got some runs under his belt. You have to take some positives out of that.
"I thought in that game they shouldn't have got 220, but thanks to one player they managed to pile on 300. Such is life. We have come back from these situations at the start of tours before, taken the criticism and bounced back well."
Meanwhile Callum Thorp, who took four wickets for Western Australia, believes the conditions early on played a major part in his bowling success.
"It was a good little wicket," Thorp said. "It was swinging around a bit. There was a beautiful little breeze for an outswing bowler today. The wicket was good, it had a bit of pace and it carried through just nicely.
"It's a pretty proud moment I guess. I didn't expect to be playing in these games at this stage of the season. I'm very proud of what I've done today.
Thorp singled out his captain, Michael Hussey, for the encouragement he provided both during this game and previously.
"Huss was always having a chat with me. Giving me encouragement and telling me where the guys are playing their shots and that sort of thing.
"I've been playing with Huss since I was twelve. We've grown up in the same teams through the years. To see his success has always been an inspiration to me. I am glad to be up here playng with him now."