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one-day-cricket
Probably the best backup in the world…
By Rich Abbott last year, mid-November, 1 Comment »
Australia’s victorious ODI series against India ended in washout yesterday, but you have to admire their post-Ashes salvage job. In the space of a few months they’ve proved they have both the best one-day side in the world, and – crucially in today’s game – an unmatchable squad strength.
Their results in 19 post-Ashes ODIs have been impressive enough – 15 wins, 3 losses – but more so when you consider they’ve used 22 players, including 17 in September’s 6-1 demolition of England alone.
A stream of players, such as the could-only-be-Aussie Clint McKay, have been thrust into the international limelight in India, and carried on exactly where they left off in State cricket. Do England have a similar strength stream?
They’ll need one. International cricket’s packed calendar is starting to stretch squads more and more. Injury to key players is less a valid excuse for failure, more a common occurrence.
Typical Australia. Just when my days of envying them seem to be on the wane - with England finally cobbling together a first team of comparable quality – Ponting and co unveil a cast of backups capable of resurrecting my green tinge.
1 Comment »Cricket in a new light
By Will last year, at the end of October, No Comments; be the first!
I won’t deny that leaving Cricinfo’s brilliant editorial team was a difficult decision, nor that it has been an odd experience to now be a user rather than someone actively involved in the writing. My role now, among others, is to help all ESPN’s sites become even better from a production side of things – such as their ranking and prominence in Google and co. (SEO, for those in the know, is one of my main tasks), as well as using social media to market the sites and engage with our mostly very loyal readers.
So, my personal relationship with Cricinfo has changed, and it’s only since leaving that I’ve really realised just how much cricket there is. That’s not entirely true, though: it was obvious that the quantity played was increasing year on year as we had more and more matches to cover live. But now, when I look at the site as a fan, it’s abundantly clear that there is too much being played, and I honestly don’t know how it – cricket the business; cricket the enterprise, if not cricket the sport – can be sustained.
I’ve quite enjoyed the Champions League from what little I’ve seen. Domestic teams from all over the world taking on eachother is great entertainment, but feels like the last dregs of water being wrung from a twisted flannel. There seem to be no gaps between series, each of them spilling over one another, blending seamlessly into one, sometimes hellish, melee. The distinction between seasons no longer seems to matter. Teams touring England arrive earlier and leave later, exposing the authorities and players to the haphazard early and late summer weather which often curtails play and keeps spectators at bay. Television rules the roost. Day-night Tests will happen soon, and solely to drive up yet more revenue because the authorities believe more people will come through the turnstiles after work. They may be right, too.
Even Kevin Pietersen, the thoroughbred sportsman and athlete, has admitted that his time out through injury has been a blessing in disguise.
He, in fact, is an interesting case in point. It was only four years ago that he made his debut, and with it came the skunk haircut, the bombastic interviews, the unquenchable thirst to prove people wrong; the outrageous talent and desperation to succeed (and to be loved by his adopted country). Before his injury, however, there was a jadedness to his personality, a tired and sullen look from a player who’d leap like an idiot whenever he reached three figures. Is that maturity? Perhaps. The injury certainly quelled his enthusiasm. But he’d lost something – that zip, and sparkle. The comparisons with Viv Richards, which seemed increasingly apt two seasons ago, now sounded as foolish and reckless as some of his strokeplay had become.
It wasn’t long ago that the big series – India v Australia, for example – were anticipated months in advance. We’d mark it on our calendars, check the TV listings and, on the day itself, remain glued to Cricinfo to see how it panned out. Now, though, there is no time for a build-up: series jostle against one another like sardines in a tin. And the players themselves, well, some of them burn out, most pick up an injury or two (a blessed relief in some cases), and the fans too are left exhausted and disinterested.
India and Australia are about to play another of those ridiculously extended seven-match series. It ought to be wonderful entertainment, but it comes mere days after the Champions League Twenty20, a series which hasn’t attracted the crowds the organisers expected. Here’s what Siddarth Monga has to say:
Three Australian players, representing New South Wales in the Champions League, will reach Vadodara on Saturday afternoon, having finished their final late Friday night and travelled about 1100 km north-west, and start a match at 9.00 am on Sunday. That could have been the fate of three more Australians, had Victoria won their semi-final, or of a couple of Indians had one of the IPL teams made it that far.
All this cricket is great for us, of course. Cricinfo’s traffic continues to soar as more and more people rely on the internet as a natural source of entertainment, not just a luxury for office workers. And while this series will doubtless have plenty of intrigue and entertainment, it seems implausible that come the seventh match we won’t be exhausted or bored by the whole thing, beginning yet another inquest into the future of 50-over cricket and the quantity being played.
No Comments »Ruddy idiots
By Will last year, at the end of September, 5 Comments »
Granted, I watched and commentated on most balls of the 2009 Ashes, but the real treat, alas, I was to miss. Holiday forced me away from the internet, from the 21st century’s umbilical chord of insanity, as it did from the TV. So I was distraught to hear England have lost the one-day series, but am rendered frankly speechless that they stumbled haplessly upon one victory. The last in a seven-match series.
If England were a schoolboy, he’d be a prefect for winning the Ashes and immediately subject to widespread bullying at his success, then victimised for losing the one-day series, and have cabbage thrown at him by smiling underlings when he won the final match in a show of yawning, consolatory success.
“Fuck off, England. You’re a loser.”
Cricket’s so August 09, and I’m still on holiday, so don’t expect much here. Pip, pip.
5 Comments »Flintoff proves his bowling worth
By Mark Tilley last year, mid-April, 1 Comment »
Just how good is Andrew Flintoff ? At 140-6, needing 33 runs to win off just 16 balls, the West Indies were knocking down the door at England. Denesh Ramdin was thick edging for four, there were singles everywhere and the game looked to be headed right down to the thinnest of wires. Step forward, Freddie. Probably one of the best death bowlers in the world right now, Flintoff fired out Ramdin with a fast leg stump yorker. That alone may have ended the host’s pursuit but it wasn’t enough for Flintoff. He then trapped LBW new man Ravi Rampaul with a quick, full delivery before achieving both his hat-trick and a five-wicket haul with another yorker to Sulieman Benn.
Flintoff, tired, battle hardened and at the end of a long, long tour, had won the game and, more importantly, the series for England in the space of three balls. His nonchalant celebration upon bowling Benn did a fine job of hiding the jubilation he was likely feeling inside. Injuries and defeat had ravaged Flintoff’s tour to the point where Kevin Pietersen was probably not alone in wanting to head home as soon as possible. His batting has come in for more criticism after, one innings aside, a painfully lean period. But his bowling is an impossibly vital component in England’s one day planning. He is frighteningly accurate, has the ability to mix up his pace to confuse the batsman and take crucial wickets when needed. The man really is worth his weight in gold.
He becomes the third Englishman to take a hat trick in one day cricket. The other two? You’d hardly believe it. James Anderson and Steve Harmison. The next time England are getting carted to all corners of the ground in a one day match, will you honestly believe that three of the bowlers on display have one day hat tricks to their names?
1 Comment »Strauss drags England back
By Mark Tilley last year, at the end of March, 1 Comment »
For all the criticism they have received, it was refreshing in the extreme to see Andrew Strauss and co. show us that there’s still an England cricket team out there. Yesterday’s win was something of a jolt to the system – it came out of the blue, especially when in the game’s infancy Chris Gayle was happily dispatching England’s best and brightest way back into the Bajan public in the stands. Once he was nipped out by the progressively angry Stuart Broad, it was as if the tide of the match had reversed completely.
England bowled cannily, with the possible exception of one Steve Harmison, and picked up key wickets when it mattered. Dimitri Mascarenhas bowled the medium pacer role to absolute perfection, wobbling the ball around at a deceptive speed, not so much keeping the lid on West Indian scoring but almost stopping it in it’s tracks. He picked up three wickets into the bargain, including the one everyone cherishes so when bowling at the West Indies, Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Only the brilliant Dwayne Bravo really annoyed the tourists. At 173-7, England might have entertained thoughts of an easy win but Bravo played a whole host of textbook and more unorthodox shots on his way to a commanding 69 off 72 balls. Without him, West Indies would have had significantly less hope than they did after compiling an achievable but respectable 239 all out.
Andrew Strauss then demanded the centre stage. I mentioned previously that Strauss would have to lead his team from the front and inspire them in ways only a captain should. Well, he certainly achieved that goal and answered a hell of a lot of critics simultaneously. Chasing a revised 135 off 20 overs due to persistent rain, Strauss’ 79 off 61 balls was exactly the kind of innings you would want in the match situation. Bold, authoritative and assured, Strauss, with the understated and excellent support from Ravi Bopara, guided England to their target with time to spare and proverbially stuck two fingers up to those who had lambasted his one day credentials.
As hard as it is to believe, England have levelled the series at 2-2. Both sides head to St Lucia for the final game and it’s sure to be a nail biter (or an England collapse). Yesterday’s win will have surprised a fair few and shows that England, albeit an unconvincing side in all formats of the game at present, shouldn’t be written off. Even though at times watching them makes you want to question your love for the game. It’s an endless struggle, England fans, get used to it soon.
1 Comment »It’s not getting any better
By Mark Tilley last year, at the end of March, 5 Comments »
My goodness me, England truly are appalling at one day cricket.
Check today’s current scorecard for further evidence. Kevin Pietersen’s ‘mental fatigue’ comments this morning can only add to the wretchedness of what has so far been a miserable tour. I don’t think we’re reaching the cavernous lows of Australia in 2006 but Andrew Strauss and his men are not a really happy bunch at present.
This is where Strauss’ captaincy will be really pushed to the limit; that Guyana century aside, Strauss doesn’t look like he suits the one day side. He’s currently leading a weary bunch of unhappy and beleaguered cricketers and it’s up to him to lift them, somehow.
Pietersen’s admission that he “really and truly, can’t wait to get home” only serves to exacerbate the dark mood surrounding the England camp. It’s going to require a big, big performance to arrest this slide and I honestly don’t know where that performance is going to come from at present. How’s that for a defeatist attidude?
I’d rather watch Daniel Vettori perform minor miracles for New Zealand in their struggle with India.
5 Comments »Dyson’s blunder
By Will last year, mid-March, 4 Comments »
So John Dyson has handed England their first win, even before becoming their coach. Honk, honk, etc etc. I don’t think England will be rushing to place his name at the top of the pile. Or will they? God only knows.
Dyson – or “Die Soon” as some in the Caribbean are calling him – enlivened a match which, for once in ODIs, didn’t actually need enlivening. It was going down right to the wire, as my spluttering colleague can attest to as he attempted (and failed) to prepare his end-of-match report. “Which way is this fucking game going?” he screamed. “I hate cricket.” Well, only John really knew where it was going.
The look on the faces of the West Indies players in the dressing room was initially hilarious, but it soon dawned on them and us just how ridiculous cricket can be at times. We had a match that could’ve gone one way or t’other. It was perfectly set-up. The crowd had swelled, the atmosphere vibrant. And yet the gloom of the Guyana clouds set in and light was offered to the batsmen. Was it really so dark and dangerous to prevent a match from going ahead? Why, for example, wasn’t the interval cut short by five minutes (as had been suggested before the match, owing to the reliably forecast of rubbish weather approaching)? Why aren’t floodlights used more often? Why is cricket becoming so protected of itself these days, and yet in the same breath is shooting itself in the foot?
I couldn’t even begin to explain yesterday’s match to a non-cricket person. Where would you start? Dyson’s blunder aside, it was both a wonderful advertisement for the sport and shockingly awful advertisement.
“Yes, that’s right. The match only had about 20 minutes left, but it was getting a little bit dark.”
“Not that dark though. And where’re the floodlights?”
“Well, no. Not that dark, you’re right. Not sure why they can’t use floodlights more often; expensive I suppose. Waste not, want not, eh?”
“Err. So the match was nearly over, yeah? But bad light, and the coach’s dodgy calculations, stopped it in its tracks, yep? Yet England still won?”
“Bad light…Dyson’s calculations. Duckworth Lewis. Erm – yeah. That’s about the gist of it. It had been a great match though. Chanderpaul! Yeah – funny little crabby batsman, the bloke who went mental off Harmison.”
It continues to amaze me that for all the apparent professionalism in cricket; for all the new money, the innovations and the development of lesser nations, staging one simple cricket match is still fraught with difficulty. And danger. Bad light – oooh, it’s a bit murky. Drizzle affecting players’ expensive hair. Just get out there and play. If it’s pitch black, fine – but until they apply some common sense, no amount of innovation or IPL is going to spread this game to the golden markets of America and China.
4 Comments »Village
By Will last year, mid-March, 5 Comments »
I made the mistake of switching over to the cricket after watching England thrash France in the rugby. What a loser I am. Professional interest got the better of me when I saw Stephen Davies surprisingly chosen to open the batting, and although he immediately looked quite an attractive batsman, England quickly reverted to type and approached their innings with all the testosterone and impetus of a fucking flamingo stuck in quicksand.
They lost their last nine wickets for 66. Well played West Indies, and please do the honest and good thing by trouncing us in the one-dayers. I am in the mood for more making disparaging, bombastic statements about a team desperately seeking its own identity.
5 Comments »India v England, 5th ODI, Cuttack
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of November, 2 Comments »
Unless you’re particularly masochistic, or have absolutely no life, most Britons won’t have seen much of this one-day series. However, we have another day-night match tomorrow, which gives the rest of us a chance to witness England’s horrors in all its gruesome, filthy, achingly inexplicable form. That’s right: it’s the fifth of seven hundred ODIs and it gets underway on Wednesday morning, at the really rather reasonable hour of 9am.
So grab your skinny, soya, wet lattes with wings and head over to Cricinfo to experience one of winter’s great joys: one-day cricket in the subcontinent. Watch Ian Bell hit 9 from 20 balls, turning down easy singles in a blind panic. Witness Paul Collingwood fail to hit anything through the off-side. Question Graeme Swann’s mental state and sympathise with Kevin Pietersen. Grit your teeth and hold onto your swivel chairs as Peter Moores attempts to calm us down by insisting: “they’re trying really, really hard” and “the batsmen look a million dollars in the nets”.
Alternatively, do what I’m doing and cheer on the underdogs’ underdog, Bangladesh, to see if they can stave off a two-day whipping.
2 Comments »I can’t be bothered
By Will 2 years ago, at the end of November, 5 Comments »
You can always tell when there’s a one-day series involving England. I stop bothering with anything. I lose the will to live, and certainly lack any inspiration for this wee blog. Even if they win, which they seldom do, the matches come with such mind-numbing regularity that no sense can be made of the madness. Likewise when they lose, writing about them is like trying to explain to your cat the meaning of life, in perfect knowledge that all he can here is “mahh, bleh gnurr fnarr. MOUSE.” Nothing makes any sense.
Least of all, ladies and gentlefolk, Ian Bell. Another mouse. “Just what is the point of Ian Bell?” an incensed text message buzzed yesterday afternoon when he blocked, prodded and bored his way to nowhere. It’s a curious, unanswerable conundrum: just what purpose does he serve, other than to amuse us with his rolled-up sleeves and attempt to feign machoness?
I’m being unfair of course. But one-day cricket turns my mind into a garble of flavourless jelly, and I don’t even want to eat it.
Still. India look flipping awesome at the moment, so all is definitely lost.
5 Comments »5-0; and Flintoff at three
By Will 2 years ago, at the start of September, 1 Comment »
I try not to get all partisan on this blog. But, bloody hell, come on England – wrap this up 5-0. It’ll be an immense achievement, even though the idea is still utterly bonkers. I mean, it’s just ridiculous, isn’t it? England and one-day cricket have had a relationship as turbulent as Blair and Brown, bless their red socialist socks.
However (there’s always a however on this blog), India is going to be a much tougher challenge, and Lawrence Booth made a very valid point in his Spin column today. Flintoff at No.5 is all very well in England, but not necessarily on the subcontinent.
Flintoff has a miserable record with the bat in India, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka, where his one-day average from 25 innings is 23. The vast
majority of those knocks have been played at Nos5 and 6, where he is
required to play with finesse. Yet the best time for a clean-hitter
to bat in Asia is early on: Flintoff is worth a try at No3 if only
because he doesn’t pull his weight lower down.
Johan Botha is no match for Kumble, Singh…hell, even Sehwag can rip it better than Botch Job. So I’m all for Fred at three; in fact, never lower than No.5 again.
1 Comment »The latest man to reach 100 hundreds…
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-August, 3 Comments »
At Hove on June 30th this year, Stuart Law reached his century against Sussex and became the 34th man to score a hundred hundreds.
Ramps? Oh, he did that ages ago. April 2007, to be precise, against Yorkshire. His current total is 114 centuries: 100 in first-class cricket, and 14 in one-day.
Writers and commentators have been quick to point out that Mark Ramprakash might be the last man to reach 100 hundreds. Usually they’ve done so in a tone of sad, wistful, look-what-that-bad-man-Lalit-Modi-has-done-to-our-game nostalgia. And yet they all ignore the glaring oversight that underpins their analysis: of course nobody’s going to score 100 first-class hundreds any more, everyone plays far too much one-day cricket. So why aren’t we counting one-day centuries?
It smacks of a simple, conservative snobbery – or what one might more accurately term ‘Frindallism’. It’s harder to score a century in one-day cricket, and it always has been; harder, at any rate, than milking sub-standard county attacks well into your fifties as most of the old-timers did. At the very least, one-day achievements should be as exalted in posterity as their first-class counterparts.
The next man to reach 100 centuries? Ricky Ponting, probably – he has 99 – but Justin Langer could still pip him: he has three to go, and up to ten matches to play for Somerset this season. And both, with respect, are greater batsmen than Les Ames.
3 Comments »Needless extravagance or worthy entertainment?
By Will 2 years ago, mid-June, 8 Comments »
That was the most thumping of one-day wins by England. We’ll reserve judgement about this new-look and improving England ODI team until the end of the series, but the signs are disctinctly promising: a nice blend of experience and youth, and the younger members of the side (Stuart Broad in particular) are cementing their places rather than holding onto them. New Zealand, well…they were a shambles.
The big topic of the day was Kevin Pietersen. Not just his brilliant hundred but his two “reverse-switch” shots (video below) which dazzled everyone, in particular Scott Styris, the unlucky bowler. They were remarkable, awesome strokes from a brilliant entertainer – and not simply reverse-sweeps: just before Styris reached his delivery stride, Pietersen changed his grip and stance to that of a left-hander, bashing him over cover. Or midwicket, depending on your view. Pure entertainment – more of that, please!
Michael Holding was not quite so in awe of Pietersen though. In fact he feels it’s unfair on the bowler who isn’t allowed (as far as I know) to change from right-arm-over to left-arm. Nor apparently can they approach the crease as if to bowl over the wicket, then sneak behind the umpire and go around the stumps. Holding wants to allow this, which is a bold idea, but surely the umpire would have to know which side of the wicket a bowler was going to deliver from, especially if he wants to keep an eye on no-balling.
Most who watched Pietersen destroy New Zealand’s bowlers will have admired his bold brilliance, and as Nasser Hussain pointed out at the end of the day, there will be dozens of kids around the country trying to replicate it in gardens and parks everywhere. That’s what these professionals should be doing: inspiring a new generation. It’s also worth mentioning that Pietersen is an extreme talent: not many batsmen would be technically proficient enough to time the ball “wrong-handed” as well as KP can. There won’t be a flood of LHB/RHBs littering scorecards around the world, I shouldn’t imagine, so let’s just enjoy Pietersen while we can.
8 Comments »Have England started caring?
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-February, 4 Comments »
Here are some of the things Paul Collingwood has said during the current one-day series:
“There are 11 blokes in the dressing-room who are devastated.”
“There are a lot of people in that dressing room that are very, very hurt about tonight’s performance.”
“If I had just hit those stumps, we were a millimetre or so away from winning the game. I will probably be dreaming about it for many years to come.”
Compare this with some of the quotes emanating from the England camp after their last proper one-day humiliation, the 5-0 whitewash against Sri Lanka:
Fletcher: “It would be very interesting if Sri Lanka were missing eight of their players and we had eight of our players back. That is the formula you have to look at. What then would the result have been?”
Trescothick: “Nothing seems to have gone our way this series, nothing’s worked. We’ve talked about a lot of things, but not put them into practice too well.”
Strauss: “Sometimes you’ve just got to hold your hands up and say, ‘Well played.’”
It may be that England finally have some sort of emotional investment in their one-day cricket. In the 2006 quotes there’s hardly any sense of hurt or wounded pride. Rather, the tendency was to see one-day defeat as an annoyance, mitigated by the prospect of finally being able to play some ‘proper’ cricket again. It was the equivalent of being spurned by a lover and then protesting that you didn’t want them anyway.
Under Moores – and I’m sure there’s other factors as well – one-day cricket is a fully-paid up, fully equal partner to the longer stuff. Even though the bowling performance yesterday was insipid, there’s no doubting they really wanted it. Perhaps that hunger told in the end. Compare that with Steve Harmison sleepwalking his way through ten overs of rubbish.
The one-day party has been in full swing for about 20 years. Only now, it seems, have England decided to take their coats off.
4 Comments »Trouble at t’mill
By Jonathan Liew 2 years ago, mid-February, 9 Comments »
It’s hard to pick just one scapegoat out of the wreckage of England’s latest one-day catastrophe, but let’s start with Ravi Bopara.
Clearly Bopara’s poor series in Sri Lanka has knocked the stuffing out of him. His one-day career, one sparkling innings aside, has been mediocre, and his suicidal run-out of Alastair Cook smacked of a crucial deficit of confidence.
Which raises a valuable question – what on earth is he doing batting at seven? Like most of the England batsmen, he bats in the top three for his county. But seven is possibly the hardest position in which to make your mark – you’ve generally either got three overs to hit out, or thirty to save an innings in crisis. In both situations, Bopara tends to freeze.
So here’s an idea: instead of ringing desperate changes, as the selectors will probably be pressured into doing, how’s about swapping Bopara and Mustard around? Mustard may ultimately be England’s pinch-hitter, but at the moment he doesn’t look like hanging around much longer than the first Powerplay. What’s he like in the middle overs? How will he play spin? This is how you find out.
He’s also the kind of guy you want at the death, unlike Bopara, who for all his hustle has never hit a six in an ODI. It’s worth remembering that even Gilchrist started his one-day career down the order before moving up later.
A top three of Cook, Bopara and Bell might seem a bit stodgy, but it’ll provide some much needed platforms for the likes of Pietersen and Shah to have a blaze later. And all three can score at a fair lick when they’re set, whereas Mustard’s inimitable brand of haru-kiri currently means they’re constantly having to rebuild.
Having said all that, listening to England’s capitulation made me pine for one player in particular – Super Ramps. He’d put that upstart Styris into Row V.
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