The Most Influential Innings of the Decade

In 132 years of test cricket a side has followed on and won on just three occasions. Despite this, enforcing the follow-on has become almost as unfashionable in the modern game as stationing a fielder at third man. It is as though modern skippers have concluded that the accumulated weight of cricketing evidence, built up over more than a century, has lost its persuasive power in the contemporary game. So it wasn’t terribly surprising that Andrew Strauss declined to put Australia in again at Lord’s this morning.

One man, above all, is responsible for the follow-on falling out of favour. Ever since VVS Laxman scored 281 against Australia at Eden Gardens in 2001, the Australians have been wary of putting the opposition in again. And as the best side in the world, where Australia have led other countries have followed even if, naturally, they’ve not had as many opportunities to enforce the follow-on as have Steve Waugh and, subsequently, Ricky Ponting.