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Early summer dupes the batsmen
By Will 2 days ago, in the late afternoon, 2 Comments »
It’s a glorious summer’s day in SW London here but, judging by the county scorecards, the batsmen aren’t yet enjoying it. Wickets have clattered and shattered all over the place. Kent, for example, bowled out Nottinghamshire for 202 but are now 16 for 4. Sidebottom has 3 for 2 from 4.
Lancashire slipped to 143 with Mark Davies storming through them with 7 for 33. In reply, Durham are 97 for 8. But the pick of the destroyers is Hampshire’s James Tomlinson who took 8 for 46 on the normally concrete Taunton pitch. Kevin Pietersen then made good Hampshire’s bowling performance with an even hundred.
I don’t really know why I’m telling you all this - you can look for yourselves.
2 Comments »The 19th best all-rounder in the world
By Jonathan Liew 2 months ago, 7 Comments »
The latest ICC Test rankings have Huddersfield’s own Ryan Sidebottom in the top 10 for the first time. That’s a mighty fine effort, seeing as he’s only played 13 tests and doesn’t yet qualify for a full rating.
Even more impressive, however, is that LG deem him to be the 19th best all rounder in world cricket. Suck on that, Stuart Broad…
The list goes:
1) Kallis 2) Vettori 3) Flintoff 4) Vaas 5) Bravo 6) Pathan 7) Oram 8. Gayle 9) Kumble 10) Lee 11) Symonds 12) Franklin 13) Sehwag 14) Collingwood 15) Harbhajan 16) Muralitharan 17) Clark 18) Rafique 19) Sidebottom 20) Zaheer
I still maintain that if Anthony McGrath had got a fair crack of the whip he could have been the new Ian Botham. The man averages 40 with the bat and 14 with the ball in Test cricket. Botham averaged 33 and 28 respectively. Reckon we missed out on a potential legend of the game there.
7 Comments »Highlights of Sidebottom’s 7 for 47
By Will 2 months ago, No Comments; be the first!
Some highlights of Ryan Sidebottom’s 7 for 47.
No Comments »Average batting or brilliant bowling?
By Will 2 months ago, 7 Comments »
What on earth is going on? I spent last night in a public house and got a text message at 21.35 saying “Broad out first ball of the day”. Any lingering temptations I had of finding another pub with Sky went straight out the window…so I’m finding it hard to believe the scorecard this morning. Sidebottom seven-for, and England have a lead?
Having not watched any of it, I’m trying to work out if this Test has been crap batting or brilliant bowling. It seems to be a mixture of the two, though heavily swayed in favour of the former. Amazing, isn’t it? Give two teams a cracking surface and they all collapse like a pack of cards, though no one predicted this pitch would offer so much movement.
Sidebottom’s 7 for 47 was England’s best since Steve Harmison’s 7 for 12 at Sabina Park four years ago. He’s not only passed 50 wickets in quick time, but has taken 23 wickets in this series. 23! England now lead by 176 but there’s absolutely no point in me sticking my neck out and making a prediction. So it’s up to you lot.
7 Comments »Is Sidebottom the best left-arm seamer in the world?
By Jonathan Liew 2 months ago, 15 Comments »
England have won a Test match, so let’s get carried away…
Here’s a list of the best left-arm seamers in Test cricket since 2000, with a qualification of 2000 balls.
1) Franklin (NZ) 76 wkts @ 28.2
2) Sidebottom (Eng) 45 wkts @ 28.4
3) Vaas (SL) 223 wkts @ 29.5
4) Wasim Akram (Pak) 31 wkts @ 30.0
5) Pathan (Ind) 100 wkts @ 31.4
Franklin tops the list, but take away two series against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and he slips to fourth. Do the same to Pathan and his average soars to 44.
Sidey’s got a long way to go, but he’s definitely got more to his bowling than someone like Vaas, who tends to bore batsmen out these days.
15 Comments »Catching into contention
By Will 2 months ago, 5 Comments »
What a genuinely extraordinary day of Test cricket. My boss and I meandered through proceedings much as England did, as Stephen Fleming and Jamie How looked increasingly confident, before an hour of brilliance took over. New Zealand’s bravado cost them dear. (scorecard)
So flat did England look that New Zealand confidently mucked around with their lineup in an attempt to chivvy their run-rate. But in doing so, they let England through the backdoor and allied with some astonishing catching - the like of which I haven’t seen an England side take for years - we’re in for a corker of a final day.
Matthew Hoggard’s catch to dismiss Jamie How was a wonderfully athletic salmon-leap at deep midwicket. A Youtube classic for sure. But the real sensation - and that is what his catching has been in this Test - was Alastair Cook who added two more snaffles to his three in the first innings, one of which was an outstanding two-handed leap to his left. When an average fielder pulls off a fine catch, we all dismiss it as a) marvellous / wonderful / slightly hilarious and b) a fluke to be savoured, not expected. But when has one fielder, who was previously considered nothing short of a liability, taken so many corking catches in a Test? Remarkable.
However, isn’t it odd that a flurry of catches can make an average team look really rather good? England, as Andrew Miller points out in his verdict, probably don’t deserve to be in this situation; they bowled like drains in the first innings and their batsmen have showed all the urgency of an asthmatic mole.
Some of you will no doubt tick me off for not praising England - and yes, Ryan Sidebottom richly deserved his hat-trick - and you’re quite welcome to call me a cynical old bugger. But for now, let’s just savour the fact that a dead Test match has fizzed into life with one day to go. Who needs one-dayers?
5 Comments »England’s number eight crisis
By Jonathan Liew last year, at the end of November, 4 Comments »
I like Ryan Sidebottom. He’s a smart bowler, a hard worker and a thoroughly nice man. He is not, however, a Test match number eight. There’s a very real prospect that England could find themselves this time next week 150-6, with Sidebottom, Hoggard, Panesar and Anderson to come. With Muralitharan wheeling away at one end and Malinga at the other. It’s frightening to contemplate.
Slagging off Duncan Fletcher is all the rage at the moment, but his emphasis on batting all the way down the order was one of the more commendable things he did for the England team. He understood that losing your last five wickets for peanuts hands the momentum to the opposing team, as well as undoing all the good work of the batsmen. It’s a lesson Peter Moores is in danger of ignoring by leaving both Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann out of the XI for the final warm-up game.
Your number eight has to bat. And while England don’t have a Pollock, Lee, Vettori or Vaas, the least they can do is shore things up a bit by playing Broad or Swann (both of whom, by the way, have earned a chance with the ball). In the long term, Flintoff might drop to seven. But for the moment, playing four number elevens in a place like Sri Lanka isn’t just unwise, it’s suicidal.
My choice would probably be Swann, with Anderson to miss out.
4 Comments »England name squad for Sri Lanka tour
By Jonathan Liew last year, mid-October, 1 Comment »
England have named their squad for the tour of Sri Lanka, and it’s pretty much as predicted:
Vaughan, Cook, Bell, Pietersen, Collingwood, Shah, Bopara, Mustard, Prior, Broad, Hoggard, Anderson, Sidebottom, Swann, Panesar.
Some initial thoughts:
1) It’s pretty harsh on Chris Tremlett, who hasn’t really put a foot wrong yet for England. Unless – gasp! – they’re punishing him unfairly for his indifferent one-day form.
2) If the selectors were going to drop Strauss they should have replaced him with another opener, rather than naming three number sixes and promoting Vaughan, who doesn’t even want to open.
3) If both of Harmison’s practice games get rained off, where does that leave him?
4) Either Broad or Swann has to bat at number eight. Which means that, cruelly, one of Anderson or Sidebottom has to sit out. Or both, if Harmison waltzes back into the team. In other words, all three pacemen from the India series could be left out in favour of someone who wasn’t even good enough to make the side at the time. Hmmm.
5) The fact that Mustard has been named in the full squad, rather than placed on standby in Chennai, is hardly a resounding vote of confidence in Prior. Is Mustard, in fact, the reserve opening batsman?
What are everyone else’s thoughts?
1 Comment »Slow but steady wins the race
By Emma last year, at the end of May, 5 Comments »
Neither of the last two Tests has provided the kind of intrigue or tension to really kick-start this summer’s cricket. At least, such as it may be called summer when hail stops play. While the crowds may rue the decline of a once great Test nation, however, the England selectors have some cause to smile.
Kevin Pietersen may have sneaked the Man-of-the-Match award with his maiden international double hundred, but Headingley was Ryan Sidebottom’s Test. After the Durham pair of Plunkett and Harmison had comprehensively failed to look threatening at Lord’s, or even manage to find both line and length with any frequency, the prospect of a return for the equally unpredictable Anderson or Mahmood was not one of eager anticipation. Sidebottom’s selection, whilst somewhat left-field and seen by some as a backwards step, certainly served purpose. His experience and discipline was priceless to an attack whose two frontline ‘strike men’ seemed as unsure as the opposition batsmen as to where each of their deliveries was going to pitch. Michael Vaughan possibly summed it up the Aesopian predicament most accurately:
“If you’ve got someone bowling 90mph in the right area, it’s fantastic, but pace bowled on either side of the wicket is something that’s quite nice to face.â€
Sidebottom, like Prior, had not had the most successful start to the cricketing calendar. Handed his second Test cap, he took his best haul in all competitions this season in the first innings, with his second innings figures costing a mere two runs extra. Prior’s two first-innings outings have both been far in excess of any of his scores for Sussex this year. Is Moores simply blessed with good fortune in his early selections, or does he have Fletcher’s Midas touch for the international performer? It is surely too soon to tell; but for the moment it seems likely that Nottinghamshire will have to wait a little longer to regain their curly-haired left-arm seamer.
Not all of the selection decisions have paid off. While Graveney et al cannot take blame for Harmison’s curious lack of consistency, Plunkett’s rather robotic action accounts for much of the troubles that went unhidden by his flattering figures at Headingley. Sidebottom has just highlighted the quality that can be found and developed in the county system that Duncan Fletcher had come to distrust. Unless Donald is able to make a swift and significant impact, a return to Durham for the young man may be the best way to improve his game.
5 Comments »Left arm over
By Emma last year, at the end of May, 7 Comments »
Thanks to England’s decision to delay their squad announcement until 4pm yesterday afternoon, I was stuck on the A45 in rush hour by the time some vaguely pertinent details crackled over the radio. Jammed into a minibus with cricketers with various levels of interest in the national game, needless to say, the news of Ryan Sidebottom’s inclusion received a predominant chorus of ‘Who?’
It is a curious choice. It is certainly not one for the future – while 29 is by no means ancient, and Stuart Clark has shown it possible to found an international bowling career in your thirties, Graham Onions is fit and in form even if Stuart Broad is not. Nor is this a Shah incident, where a consistent county performer has filled an injury hole. In fact, Sidebottom does not presently rank as even Nottinghamshire’s top performer, being out-averaged by Ealham and out-wicketed by Shreck. The same occurred last season, and only last week, teammate Mark Wagh was talking up Shreck’s chances of an England cap. So what brings the potential of a second Test cap to top Sidebottom’s distinctive curly locks?
After Plunkett and Harmison dealt so poorly with an undercooked West Indian batting line-up, it is only natural that England look for variation – and thus, to the left arm seamer. The former Yorkshire stalwart may not be the most in form or reliable of options, but at least he is something different. True, Sidebottom is unlikely to play a part. However, it may just be that while Moores publicly backs his Durham seamers to come good, there is a feeling that something, indeed anything, different might be what is needed to take 11 wickets. Of course, it can’t hurt that a substantial part of the now Nottingham player’s game was developed at Headingley. Interestingly, Sidebottom’s only previous Test cap was due to an injury to Hoggard some 6 years ago. Might he be adding to his headwear in similar circumstances by the weekend?
7 Comments »