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Bowlers’ revenge
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
As I boarded a British Airways flight to Cape Town three weeks ago, my excitement about gauging exactly how good this South African side is, was largely batsman-fuelled. But, as I prepare to leave the country, my thirst for excellence has mainly been quenched by bowlers.
An attack which begun the first Test featuring an arguably past-it veteran of 100 caps, a relative unknown, a young quick in indifferent form, a non-spinning spinner and no Dale Steyn, ended it with a young quick in inspired form, two handy debutants, a genuine allrounder-in-the-making and Dale Steyn. Not bad going for one month’s work.
The bowling of Steyn and Morkel in the Cape Town and Jo’burg Tests was thrilling to witness, and has an air of longevity about it. Morkel had played 20 Tests before this match, and with some success, but since the new year, his performance has matched his promise.
Skiddy pace and aggression at one end, bouncy pace and aggression at the other – South Africa now boast opening bowlers to match the quality of their strong batting line-up.
No Comments »Jo’burg, day four: SA level the series
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 2 Comments »
South Africa brought an excellent series to a close today, and in doing so added a touch more reality to the series scoreline.
Paul Collingwood was the sole reason to be cheerful for England fans, as the home side wrapped up proceedings before lunch. The Durham man was England’s life raft, but no one else was able to cling on with him. The South African supporters have a lot of respect for Collingwood – indeed, the ones I was sitting next to were unable to relax until he was out, and he fell for the ninth wicket. They admire his fighting mentality, and, with Smith, Kallis and Boucher in their team, can be considered experts on the subject. On a highlights programme for the day one action, a home commentator even described Collingwood as “the dangerman of the England side” – testament to both his form this series, and an outsider’s view of his importance to the team.
Pietersen’s forty minutes at the crease were in keeping with his form since Centurion, and his dismissal brought Ian Bell into the action. It says much for his form this series that he brought with him genuine hope, but the examination of character and reflexes that he received from Morkel proved too rigorous – as it would have done for most batsmen.
Ironically, at the end of a long tour, it is England’s two South Africans whose minds seemed to be focussed on home. Both Pietersen and Trott have demonstrated a strange metal detachment from proceedings at the Wanderers.
It’s hard to believe that this was only the third time South Africa have taken 20 wickets in a match in their last seven Tests, and only their second win in that time. But the past year has been something of a transition period for their attack. By successfully blooding De Wet, McLaren and Parnell in this series, they have found cover for the experience and wickets lost in the departure of Makhaya Ntini. The holy grail as far as their bowling attack goes, would be to turn JP Duminy into a genuine allrounder, thus being able to dispense with Paul Harris and finding an off-spinner to utilise the pitch marks left by Parnell’s narrow bowling run-up.
That may or may not happen, but to an extent, it doesn’t matter – the recent form of Morne Morkel, who was quiet last year against Australia, suggests that South Africa have found a worthy partner for Dale Steyn. Aptly, the twin pace threat shared the man of the match award, but at the end of a series, the feeling with those two, especially the less-established Morkel, is that this is just the beginning.
2 Comments »Tour diary: Jo’burg, day three
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
The England batsmen’s chance to atone for day one has begun badly. Pietersen and Collingwood will resume tomorrow, with their side still 195 runs behind.
This morning, England did at least manage the sort of first hour they so craved yesterday – claiming three wickets, the first two involving excellent catches from Prior and Anderson. The third came courtesy of yet another first ball wicket for Swann. It should have come as no surprise – not only was it the 15th time he’s taken a wicket in the first over of a spell in Tests, it was also that of JP Duminy, who, like the West Indian Devon Smith before him, must have nightmares revolving around the off-spinner’s grinning face.
Later in the South African innings, Mark Boucher became Swann’s 16th wicket-in-the-first-over-of-a-spell, but not before his 95 had reaffirmed his team’s ascendancy. When he joined AB de Villiers at the crease, England were one or two more breakthroughs away from honing in on a sub-150 deficit, but instead, the sell-out crowd were treated to observing Mark Boucher in his natural environment. If he were a lager, and he looks like he enjoys the odd can, the South African keeper’s tagline would read: ‘Mark Boucher, frustrating teams since 1997′.
And frustration was the theme of the first 13.2 overs of England’s second innings. However, contrasting with the first innings, none of the three final session dismissals could be labelled ’soft’. If Strauss’s looked the most innocuous, it could have been due in part to a brutal delivery bowled by Morkel in the previous over, which the England captain did well to fend off at neck height, but may have left a taste in his throat.
The England cause appears lost, and will test their much-called-upon survival instinct to breaking point. But, Pietersen is still there, and a nagging thought remains that there’s no room for a subdued series of such importance in the narrative of his career. He’s written his own final-innings-of-a-series scripts before, but a similar effort here would surely be his masterpiece.
3 Comments »Tour diary: Jo’burg, day two
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
Graeme Smith is one of those batsman who, if given a reprieve, you can bet your last rand on making a big score. He is also one of those batsmen who scores big hundreds – especially against England – so Strauss’s men can at least be thankful that his triple figure score today was only the second time, out of six centuries against them, that he’s failed to make in excess of 150.
If that sounds like a small mercy, then that’s all England have at this stage in the match. That, and the wildly fluctuating Johannesburg weather. The weather could yet play a part, but the match situation – South Africa 35 runs ahead, with eight wickets in hand – has developed quickly for an end of day two score. Despite Smith eventually making 105, to complain about the second chance he received when on 15 – an edge behind which was denied by the third umpire despite overwhelming audible evidence – would be to ignore the hopelessness of England’s situation regardless.
Miscarriages of sporting justice occur, and are galling, but complaining about them rarely does the offended party any favours. England have lodged an official complaint, but in the context of this match, the damage has been done. That damage was exaggerated by a few uncharacteristic fielding errors, and as the morning session wore on, the slip cordon began to amble down the wicket in between overs, abandoning the near-sprint they began the day exhibiting. Even Matt Prior’s hyperactive legs seemed drained of energy.
It says much about this match from an Englishman’s point of view, that the most impressive factor of the day’s play was the ground’s drainage system. Not long after the heavens opened, in the afternoon session, about 75 per cent of the the outfield was submerged in water. To an untrained eye, the likelihood of play for the next week seemed remote, but after a lengthy delay, another four wicketless overs were possible, with the outfield holding up well.
Weather-watch will be central to the next three days play. I grabbed a word with Matt Prior during the break. Some South Africans I’ve encountered still like to claim Prior as their own, but I can dispel that once and for all. On the subject of the weather, expecting him to pedal some line about wanting to win the series outright, I was surprised to hear that he’s holding out for three days of solid rain. You can’t get more English than that.
3 Comments »Batsmen must sign off strongly
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
Paul Collingwood does not strike me as an unreasonable man, but, as a No 5 batsman, were he to feel aggrieved about coming in with his side’s score in the 30s, twice in his last three innings, he’d be vindicated.
Today’s innings was especially disappointing, because it means that England still haven’t posted a total in the 300s or above, since the second Test – or in the whole of 2010, to put an unnecessarily stark spin on it.
Frustratingly, the return to form this series of the men under pressure – Cook, Collingwood and Bell – has coincided with a slump for the Ashes heroes – Strauss and Trott. They have one innings left to put that right.
No Comments »Tour diary: Jo’burg, day one
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 1 Comment »
It was a moment too perfect. The sun had just come out, the openers waded purposefully to the crease and the Barmy Army managed to time the climax of an unusually tuneful rendition of Jerusalem with expert precision. I love that moment in a Test match – the fielders getting into position, the confident rehearsal of strokes – whatever the state of the pitch – by the batsmen, the brief unity they enjoy as teammates, before splitting off and undergoing one of the greatest individual tests of character in sport. Then Dale Steyn shattered everything with the first ball of the match.
To say it wasn’t as bad a start as the same fixture in 1999, is like telling someone that their house has burned down but their toaster survived unscathed. 7-2 was still bad, and it heralded the early arrival of Kevin Pietersen. I feel like a father watching his son when I see Pietersen bat at the moment. Rarely have I wanted someone to score runs more, and after a jittery start, he looked to be hitting something resembling his straps when he picked out debutant Parnell at mid-wicket.
Two overs later, and the heroes of Cape Town, Collingwood and Bell, found themselves at the crease. This being the tenth over, their brief was pretty similar – to bat out most of the day. Bell seems to have replaced Pietersen as Collingwood’s comfort blanket, and the pair duly put on 76, before Collingwood – batting fluently and the possessor of two sixes – became McLaren’s first Test victim.
Several disappointments later, and Swann and Anderson found themselves striving to add an air of semi-respectability to the scoreline. However, the 23 runs that they mustered in partnership failed to match the nuisance value of recent last wicket stands. 180 all out.
The Wanderers is rightly proud of playing host to the ‘greatest one-day match of all time’, and reminders of that day lurk around most corners. Unfortunately, too many England players seemed to be trying to recreate the spirit of that match with the shots they got out to today.
Out came England as a fielding unit, shortly followed by the rain. Some spectators left, those that stayed did so in the knowledge that if a reappearance was to materialise, it would signal a key passage of play in the context of the series.
On their return, Anderson and Sidebottom huffed, puffed and swung the ball, but bar a few near misses, failed to create sufficient problems for Smith and Prince. I sometimes feel that Anderson’s body language after a near miss detracts from the uncertainty he has just caused – instead of playing on it, he almost kills it. On beating the bat a few times today, he reacted like a man whose football accumulator had just been ruined by a last minute goal, when surely an ‘I’ve got your number, mate’ stare would have been more effective.
England will have to be more effective tomorrow, or else their series lead will be in grave danger.
1 Comment »Wanderers ‘99 remembered
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 2 Comments »
It’s a bit overcast this morning in Jo’burg. As I write, at 08:00 local time, a dense layering of cloud is preventing the sun from making an appearance. Conditions are not, however, anywhere near comparable to those faced by England on the first morning of the Wanderers Test in 1999 – the 2-4 game, Gavin Hamilton’s sole Test appearance and the subject of my dream, make that nightmare, last night (though in that, England slipped to 0-4).
They say the night is darkest just before the dawn, and that match did mark the Test debut of Michael Vaughan, but it was a harrowing morning for England and their fans. Vaughan, who faced his first ball of international cricket with his side at 2-4, recalled that day’s events before this series started.
I’m certainly not expecting a repeat today, but even so, if England bat first, I won’t find myself able to relax until Strauss and Cook have safely guided the total into double figures.
2 Comments »‘That’ last three overs
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 5 Comments »
When Ian Bell’s crucial rearguard went the way of Ricky Ponting’s at Old Trafford in ‘05 and Paul Collingwood’s at Cardiff in ‘09 by falling just short within touching distance of the finish line, the tension was the same for all of us. Whether watching from the grass bank at Newlands, listening to TMS in the car or frantically refreshing the Guardian’s OBO page, the sight of Graham Onions trotting down the steps and into the action forced English hearts to skip beats the world over.
I was on the grass bank, locked in arms with a group of bullish South African friends, but perched uncomfortably on the end and engaged in conversation with Tim Abraham of Sky Sports – the only person around me, along with Onions, who managed to keep his head. The atmosphere was the best I’ve experienced at live sport.
Where were you? And how did you cope with the tension?
5 Comments »Parnell set for debut in search for 20 wickets
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
The most exciting moments of the third Test, came when England were batting, and two South Africans in particular, were bowling. So much for Dale Steyn’s indifferent record against England, and Morne Morkel going off the boil. At Newlands, these two didn’t just come to the party, they crashed it and headed straight for the drinks cabinet.
Collingwood could have done with a stiff drink after Steyn’s stint with the second new ball on the afternoon of the fifth day. Somehow, of course, he survived it, but as Andy Bull concluded, while the compelling 36-ball spell may not have improved Steyn’s stats, it did enhance his reputation as the world’s leading fast bowler.
As a pair, Steyn and Morkel cover all bases and complement each other well. The impressive variety they offer the South Africa team, looks set to be further enhanced by the left-arm accuracy of Wayne Parnell, who seems certain to make his Test debut tomorrow.
If this happens, witnessing it will be a bonus of the trip. No one over here doubts Parnell’s ability, or his destiny as a future mainstay of the Test side, but there is a collective wariness about rushing him into the team. This seemed to be shared by the South African selectors, until the fitness and form of others dictated his elevation.
Some fans favour protecting Parnell like a precious diamond – referring to him only in hushed tones, and preferring to see Makhaya Ntini pick up his 102nd cap tomorrow, rather than Parnell his first, at this early stage in his development. Others argue there’s no point in prolonging the inevitable anymore.
I see the logic of protecting Parnell from the harsh Test match arena, and would ordinarily argue this viewpoint strongly. But on rare occasions, rare players can defy logic. From what I have seen and heard, Parnell may just be one such player.
Either way, he’s likely to be the sort of bowler whose debut you want to be able to say you witnessed. Morkel and Steyn have deserved better than they’ve got so far, and maybe this 20-year old can help them achieve the 20 wickets in a match that their efforts have so narrowly fallen short of so far.
No Comments »Tour diary: journey to Jo’burg
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
Firstly, apologies for a quiet few days – where I’ve been staying in Cape Town, the internet has proved as elusive as the wicket of Graham Onions.
And so to Jo’burg, the birthplace of Andrew Strauss and home, mercifully, to some very fine wi-fi connections.
Wearing an item of England replica kit – and I’ve realised this week that my suitcase for this trip resembles a bargain bin from the Lord’s shop – around Cape Town over the past few days, has been interesting. Everyone wants to talk about the series – specifically the first, and third Tests.
In doing so, they adopt the sort of look you might give someone who has just unwittingly chatted up your girlfriend, an I’m not going to ask for it, but I expect an apology kind of stare.
I can’t concur with the trail of thought which suggests we should be embarrassed about twice batting out for a draw. For a team to adjust their sights mid-game, abandon active pursuit of a win and concentrate instead on saving a match, is not rare. To achieve it by so fine a margin is, and it just so happens that England have managed it twice in three weeks.
Whilst my stance on the series to the South Africans I’ve encountered may be apology-free, it is certainly sympathy-rich.
After all, we know how they feel. This time last year, England were going through their own get-painfully-close-to-winning-but-fall-just-short routine, in the Caribbean. The West Indies clung on ‘til the death twice in that four match series, though on one of those occasions they ended with two wickets in hand. Such an occurrence is one of the great frustrations of Test cricket, and worse, in a way, than being bamboozled in just over two days as England were at Headingley in last summer’s Ashes.
There’s no getting away from the fact that two mythical balls are all that separates South Africa from a 2-1 lead. But, England made sure of their notch on the series scorecard, with a thumping win – one which left nothing to chance, and eradicated any possibility of time being a factor in the result. Time has been England’s ally on two out of three occasions now, but that is more a source of bad luck for the South Africans, rather than good fortune for Strauss’s men, who, after all, achieved exactly what they set out to do on each of those final days, even if it was left to Onions to finish the job on both occasions.
So I’m unapologetic about events at Newlands. The quality of cricket in this series is high, and most importantly, intense. Survival instinct – be it individually against Steyn, or as a team in the context of the series – is key. England have demonstrated admirable reserves so far – the next five days will stretch them further still.
3 Comments »Nightwatchman: good or bad?
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 12 Comments »
Tomorrow will be a bit like watching the start of Casualty – waiting for something bad to happen. And the first bad thing is likely to be the wicket of England’s nightwatchman, Jimmy Anderson.
How do people feel about England’s continued use of this tactic? My view on it is so fickle it changes depending on the success of its most recent deployment. Today Jimmy ensured I’m in favour of it, for the moment. What doesn’t change are my feelings of admiration for the intrepid souls chosen to protect those above them in the batting order.
12 Comments »Cape Town, day four: the curse of hope
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 5 Comments »
As my Crystal Palace-supporting friend often says, it’s the hope that kills you. Quite where he gets his hope from, I’m not sure, but England were this evening given theirs by their openers – who put on 101 for the first wicket, in pursuit of a would-be world record 466. Then, in the last hour, they lost three wickets – probably one too many.
That last hour produced pulsating, intense cricket. Cook’s mistimed pull, after another good, but too brief, demonstration of the opener’s craft, and Strauss’s edge to Amla at short leg via his pads, brought the two South Africans to the crease. It was meant to be this way. These two seemed destined to play out a situation of such importance at some point, and the series had just entered a key phase. Survive the next 50 minutes, and parity – or something close – would be achieved. Surrender a wicket, and hand the hosts the upper hand.
The on-field tension and adrenaline filtered through to the grass banks. It was as tense as a situation involving a grown man (Barmy Army member) dressed as a whoopie cushion can be. Now the upbringing of Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott mattered like never before. Now they needed to stay at the crease like never before.
For a while, the script seemed set in their favour. They ticked along, long enough for the Barmy Army to air one of their longer chants – an ode to the South Africans to have represented England. From the currents ones, on show in the middle, to the iconic ones (Basil D’Olivera), via the more obscure ones (Chris Smith), the song dissipated tensions a little and restored a jovial tone – one which was rudely shattered by Dale Steyn, who pinned Pietersen plumb lbw.
Having had a reprieve ten minutes into his innings, when Daryl Harper gave him out despite a clear edge onto his pads, Pietersen fell nine minutes before the end of the day, and took with him most, if not all, of his country’s hope as he trudged back to the dressing room. Some of his best innings have involved an early reprieve, be it a drop or fortunate decision, but today it wasn’t to be.
It’s not that the other six and a bit hours of the day had produced nothing of note – the morning saw the end of a superb innings of 183 by Graeme Smith, a man who owns the trademark for captain’s innings - but that the final hour upped the drama level notches. Those notches will reach breaking point if the final hour of the day is required tomorrow.
That’s a sizeable if. Trott is still there, and he has a massive part to play tomorrow. Before the tour he said he wanted to score two hundreds at Newlands. England could do with them being both in the same innings and coming tomorrow. Weighty support will be required from Bell, Collingwood and Prior. In short, there’s still hope. More’s the pity.
5 Comments »Smith heeds thought for the day
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 1 Comment »
With Graeme Smith on 51, and his work having taken South Africa to a promising position, not yet a dominant one, Graeme Swann pinned him lbw. At least he looked to have done. The ball straightened on middle stump, and looked to have kept low enough – certainly the umpire thought it had. Having been given out, he asked for a referral. From the grass bank, the collective feeling was he’d wasted it.
One of the nice things about the hotel I find myself sharing with the South African team, is the little thought for the day card that appears at each breakfast table in the mornings. Today’s was a Chinese Proverb, which read: “He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.”
Smith must have had breakfast this morning. He did indeed look a fool for five minutes, but that’s all. If he hadn’t asked, he’d have looked a fool for much longer, and England would most likely be in a much better position to the one they currently find themselves in.
1 Comment »Cape Town, day three: revenge of the bravado
By Rich Abbott 2 months ago, 5 Comments »
It was hard work sitting in the Cape Town sun today (no really), let alone running around in it. And England were given the run around by Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla and, latterly, Jacques Kallis.
For the first time in the match, the South African supporters relaxed. Finally, as Smith bedded in for what would become his nineteenth Test hundred, a belief swept through the Newlands crowd. It was a pity, from England’s point of view, that it didn’t bring a breeze with it. In the southern hemisphere, belief soon becomes bravado, and all of a sudden hapless fielders were being goaded and the barmy army had a rival in the noise department. At last! This is how I imagined Test cricket in South Africa to be.
Smith’s was a special innings. Eight of his Test hundreds have exceeded 150, and half of those have come against England. In fact, in the same way that M&S don’t just do food, they do M&S food, against England, Smith doesn’t just do hundreds, he does bloody big hundreds. When he passes three figures against England, he always adds another fifty or two for good measure.
Bar a few nervous moments in the nineties, it was vintage: brutal, inevitable, a captain’s innings. England will need to call upon the spirit of another captain’s innings tomorrow and on Thursday: Mike Atherton’s famous 185 not out in Jo’burg, fifteen years ago. A truly epic rearguard, Atherton batted 643 minutes and faced a staggering 492 balls for his Test high score.
Of course, any of the class of 2010 attempting to emulate this feat, will require dogged assistance from a number of teammates. In 1995, Atherton had Jack Russell, whose often forgotten contribution, 29 not out, lasted 274 minutes and 235 balls – that’s eight balls (and 133 runs) less than Smith today.
Such talk is premature, and no doubt foolish. The sun must have gone to my head.
5 Comments »Cricket geekery epitomised
By Will 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
It’s a wonder Andy Zaltzman is still a married man. Outstanding cricket geekery:
No Comments » « Previous EntriesHappy New Year, Confectionery Stallers, and welcome to a new year, a new decade (or the last year of an old decade, depending on your decade-defining proclivities). I am firmly in the New Decade camp, and so, I assume, is Jacques Kallis, if only so he can claim to be the 29th member of the highly exclusive club of players who have scored Test hundreds in three different decades.
(I have a full list of these 29 cricketing legends, but will not list them here for fear of antagonising my wife, who is anxious for me not to join the equally exclusive club of husbands who have spent excessive parts of two decades working out things on Statsguru. But a special mention for the great Indian batsman Vijay Merchant, who is the only man in the history of humanity to have scored just one Test century in three separate decades. Throw that little fact into your next conversation at work and see how people react. Hang on, I’m not quite finished with this one yet. If Kallis can somehow muster another five-wicket innings from his creaking limbs, he will become only the eighth bowler to take a five-for in three different decades, and join Kapil Dev as the only player to have both scored hundreds and taken five-fors in three decades. I’m done now.)
