Cricket: Fletcher Unrepentant After Adelaide Shambles

An unrepentant Duncan Fletcher has defended his team selection despite a shambolic fifth-day performance which saw England slump crash to defeat in the second Test.

Fletcher has come under pressure for not selecting Monty Panesar after a series of toothless displays from England's bowling attack, but once again he insisted England had been right not to play two spinners at the Adelaide Oval. He also maintained that Giles was the natural choice over Panesar due to his superior batting, despite seeing the spinner register just 20 runs in the first innings and only one in the second.

"As we have said on numerous occasions, we want to bat to eight," he said. "Look at Australia where (Shane) Warne had that 100 partnership with (Michael) Clarke (in the first innings). Those runs put the pressure back on to us. We think Ashley (Giles) can do that better. That's the reason."

However, he revealed there had been a "huge discussion" about playing another spinner, and pointed out how hard Warne had had to work to claim four for 49 in England's second innings and effectively set the stage for Australia to snatch victory.

"We were close to it," continued Fletcher. "We wanted to play two spinners here, we had a huge discussion about playing two spinners. Having played in that (practice) game against South Australia, the skiddy bowlers were more effective - seamers took most of the wickets. Warne is a very good wrist spinner, he took 86 overs to get five wickets - that summed it up. It was not easy for the spinners if they played on the main square."

Fletcher felt the loss of Andrew Strauss and Ian Bell in quick succession this morning had undermined England's efforts to claim a draw.

"We felt competitive right the way through the game - it was just this morning," he said. "Those two wickets were really unfortunate, those first two were unnecessary. We would have definitely saved the game. It might have been difficult to set a target but we didn't rule that out of the equation."

But now the coach will demand much bigger scores at the top of the order if England are to put up a challenge in the rest of the series.

"The key to it is that we can't just keep relying on Collingwood and Pietersen getting the runs," he added. "Crucially they have scored the bulk of the runs... the other batters have got to put their hands up and get big hundreds. They have set a base for us in the past."