Australia plan, execute and adapt. What about England?

At the theatre, encores are demanded, but in the tenseness of this unfolding Ashes series they are to be lamented if your allegiance is to England. Repeat offenders at Lord's have been batsmen edgy under pressure and bowlers unable to exert pressure.

Pressure is a buzz sporting word easily uttered, but often in circumstances where there might only be a little bit of gentle heat around. Such as a batsman facing a roly-poly finger spinner on a shirtfront pitch with a few crouching fielders within whispering distance.

Real pressure is being a batsman when Glenn McGrath is feeling unfriendly. It's possible a coach in an academy somewhere is dreaming of cloning McGrath, to whom five-wicket encores seem to come as easily as majors do to Tiger Woods.

One observer likened McGrath to the great Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee. Why? Lillee unshaven and in a headband invited the ugly Australian tag, but his rhythm had a sleek physical presence that McGrath's does not.

McGrath's rhythm comes via a beanpole body and rather ungainly arm and leg movement. His only concession to showmanship is a wry smile or a snarl with hands on hips, a mere sideshow to the main event – maintaining line and length, aka pressure, come what may.

If we must liken McGrath to another great fast bowler we would do better to opt for the West Indian Curtly Ambrose. The former Australian opening batsman David Boon once said this of Ambrose and, in the same breath, he reminds us of just what England's batsmen are up against when they are facing McGrath: "Against the new ball you always knew you were in a real good contest with Curtly because you would play at nine out of 10. His control and his ability to move the ball off the seam meant he was always at you, always giving himself the best opportunity to get you out. I was always conscious that if I got a loose ball to try to get it away, because I wasn't going to get too many."

Hitting the loose ball is an old – and correct – tactic, but how loose is loose? McGrath giving Michael Atherton a couple to hook early cannot be defined as loose. Rather it is McGrath exercising the element of surprise. And gleaning some information for the memory bank – both those hook shots went in the air.

Loose is England going out to defend a moderate total and then bowling no-balls galore, way too short too often, and consistently bowling into Mark Waugh's pads, his absolute strength. No pressure there, and little joy.

Bowling pressure was the catalyst for Marcus Trescothick's poor shot, and for Atherton's fatal non-shot, in the first innings, unless we believe that the veteran of so many campaigns against seam bowling merely failed to pick the off-cutter, a collapse in concentration.

Trescothick's dismissal is worth reviewing. His conservative footwork is a signal to any bowling tactician that, provided the pressure is on, the "sucker ball" is a chance to get him. The plan was simple enough: McGrath and Jason Gillespie teamed up to cramp his style with a tight around-the-wicket, short-of- a-length line just outside off.

Two points – get him thinking back foot, and try to dry up the run opportunities so his keenness to score heightens and risk comes into play. Trescothick's replies, two cut shots, were no more than dangerous slices through the slips – and more pressure built.

Gillespie had only to wait for the right moment to bowl the question ball, the widish half-volley that challenged Trescothick's desire to get out of his back-foot rut. The young opener only lunged late with his upper body, leaving his front foot rooted to the crease. It was a thimble-and-pea dismissal that surely reinforced the England selectors' opinion that he is not yet captaincy material.

Pressure turns Test matches. It is built up through planning, patience, flexible captaincy and fielding and catching support, yet rarely have all been on show for England. Defending a small total like 187 demands discipline, but it wasn't until the 16th over of the Australian innings that a maiden was bowled. And relatively straightforward catches went down, as they had done in the First Test at Edgbaston.

The Australian run-rate was up near four per over, and when the Waugh twins were going it was more than that. A fielder at third man to cut off the thick-edged four seems no longer to be an option. When he is in place, that scorned fielder dries up the run rate, creates pressure.

The plan to attack Mark Waugh with short-pitched bowling was overcooked. Waugh himself summed up England's one-track mind: "They probably bowled a bit short – there's uneven bounce at each end. If you hit the right length and keep the pressure on the batsman, it's always harder." That sounds suspiciously like an Australian game-plan.