Ricky Ponting's captaincy

After a cricket match, the focus is always on who was the best batsman and who was the best bowler. People often overlook the importance of fielding.

We all know that dropped catches can cost games, but it's more than that. A large part of Australia's long-term dominance has revolved around making the opposition batsmen feel uncomfortable and pressured. They do this through the fields they set and the way those fielders act (and what they say).

We've previously gone on record as saying that bowler's win matches and overall, we still stand by that. However, we reckon that if it weren't for Glenn McGrath's missed catch, or a later missed run-out, Australia would have won today's match.

We also believe that Australia would have won if Ricky Ponting had set a more challenging field while Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood were rebuilding England's innings. He gave them singles and prevented boundaries when he should have prevented them rotating the strike, challenging them to find the fence.

Another of our beliefs is that you can't make statements about what might have happened, because you can never know. Feel free to unread this update in your own time. We'll leave you with a single line that can stand:

What the fielding side does is important.