Cook plans to combat the hostilities with runs

Alastair Cook plans to combat another hostile reception for his England team in the second Ashes Test by taking the Australian crowd out of the equation.
"You let your cricket do the talking," Cook said today, on the eve of the match at a new-look Adelaide Oval. "Last time we had the same hostile environment when we got here, but toward the end of the series we played some really good cricket and that hostility changed because everyone was very respectful of the way we played."
England are on a three-series roll in the Ashes, having won at home in 2009, in Australia in 2010-11 and finishing off a 3-0 win at home in August.

The impatience of Australian fans for a victory was evident during the first test in Brisbane, with the level of vitriol directed toward the touring team even higher than the normal Ashes intensity.
The 381-run thumping Cook's team got from Australia in the series opener was accompanied by some angry exchanges between batsmen and fielders and "sledging" has been among the most frequently uttered words in the 10 days of Ashes discussion since.
Regardless of where and when the term was derived, be it in Australia in 1960s or '70s or somewhere else, sledging -- or the art of verbally intimidating an opponent -- has long been a part of cricket. Australian cricket crowds tend to join in and get very chirpy during the Ashes, offering plenty of loud advice to the England players.

"In that last game we didn't do ourselves justice and they got on top and that's what home supporters do when you get on top," Cooke said. "We knew that coming into this series and a few of us have played a lot of cricket over here. We know how important it is to let the skills out in the middle do the talking and everything else will take care of itself."
Players and officials were criticized for letting the banter go too far in Brisbane. Australia captain Michael Clarke was fined in the wake of the match, but only really because he used an expletive that was heard on the TV broadcast.