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« Previous EntriesSri Lankans rattled
By Will 1 month ago, 4 Comments »
I’ve had my eye off the proverbial the last 24 hours, so am surprised and excited to see West Indies’ bowlers have rattled Sri Lanka’s top-order. As I write, they’re 109 for 6 and lead by a slender 94. Poor old Windies haven’t won at home since 2005 and since 2000 the locals have only celebrated seven victories.
Update: Samaraweera makes 125 and West Indies need 253 to win. Nuff bloody said.
4 Comments »The lure of money
By Will 2 months ago, 3 Comments »
We return to England after six weeks of toil, and not much has changed. We have reversed a decline in Test cricket, but realise that sterner ones wait in the form of the touring South Africans later in the season. Also, all the talk is now returning to the IPL, and its influence on the game’s future. I can’t believe for one moment that there aren’t going to be changes to the game. Money talks too loudly, but exactly what they are and when they will come is for others to decide. For the England players, we have just had a timely reminder of what money can’t buy, playing and winning for your country.
Dean Headley on the ECB’s attitude towards the IPL:
3 Comments »“If the ECB ignore these opportunities for players, it could have catastrophic results in terms of losing a star player or several star players,” Headley told The Sunday Telegraph.
“Even if we don’t see an exodus we might have a lot of disgruntled England players and that’s not healthy. Where would that leave our game? It might only take a few brave players to start the ball rolling. We need all parties concerned to come together and reach an agreement that keeps everyone happy.”
New Zealand v England, 3rd Test, Napier
By Will 2 months ago, 2 Comments »
The third and final Test of this series is intriguingly poised. Out go Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills for New Zealand, in come Tim Southee - a promising nineteen-year-old swing bowler - and Grant Elliott, a South African-born allrounder. On paper, England are favourites, but the pitch at McLean Park is as flat as an ironing board (so say the experts) and, although five days is a long time (cliché alert), all indications point to a run-feast of a draw.
There is plenty to play for - not only for this series, but the return series in May. As one of New Zealand’s lot said, they’re treating this match as the third of six, which is an interesting way of looking at it. Here’s the scorecard for when play gets underway in a couple of hours.
It’s Stephen Fleming’s 111th and final Test, and he still needs another 113 runs to achieve his ambition of averaging 40 in Test cricket. He couldn’t have a better pitch on which to give it a fair crack. It’s also Christopher Martin-Jenkins’ last Test as The Times’ cricket correspondent. He’ll still be commentating, and occasionally writing the odd feature (for Cricinfo, hopefully), but it brings to an end a fine and distinguished reporting career by one of the most respected writers in the industry. Cheers to CMJ.
2 Comments »New Zealand v England, 1st Test, Hamilton
By Will 2 months ago, 9 Comments »
Ah, Test cricket. We welcome it back with open arms, albeit wiping the sleep from our eyes as we prepare to reverse our body clocks in the pursuit of sport and entertainment. Still - it could be worse (it could be 12 months ago when we were weeping our way through the depression of the Ashes) and England have an excellent chance of gaining an upper hand over New Zealand.
Of course, New Zealand can never be written off or dismissed entirely. Like a particularly hardy breed of mosquito, they’re rather hard to swat; what they lack in quality they more than make up for in grit and a never-say-die attitude. However, with the absence of Shane Bond - who’s deserted them for the wallet-swelling lure of the Indian Cricket League - New Zealand’s attack looks flimsy at best; only Daniel Vettori and Chris Martin can boast 50 Test wickets to their name. That is a worryingly weak statistic.
So do chat away. We’ll be doing all we can at Cricinfo to a) stay awake during the inevitable rain delays and b) keep you amused on commentary, so keep an eye on us. I’ll leave this open for the Test for you night owls to dissect the teams’ performances.
9 Comments »Australia v India, 3rd Test, Perth, 4th day
By Will 4 months ago, 15 Comments »
So the fourth day of the third Test and India are superbly placed to cause an upset. Australia need another 348 runs to win; India, another eight wickets. If Australia chase the runs down, it’ll be the second-highest run chase in the history of the game…while also handing them their 17th win in a row. It’s all rather massive.
I’m going to attempt to get up for the final session of the day, if the Test is still alive. In the meantime, check the scorecard and leave your comments below.
15 Comments »The fading of the Australian aura
By Will 4 months ago, 12 Comments »
If Australia are to win their 17th game on the trot, treading into territory no team has ever tiptoed, they will have to score 413 runs to beat India. It will be the second-highest run chase in the history of the game. Consequently, every Indian and anti-Australia fan is salivating at the prospect of Ricky Ponting’s remarkable winning run being cut short. Is this the end of a dynasty?
Robert Craddock, who my colleague (hello Gnasher) refers to as Crash Craddock, thinks there is enough evidence to suggest the Australian aura is diminishing:
Since the start of the Sydney Test, India has stood toe-to-toe and eyeball-to-eyeball with Australia, highlighting some deficiencies and cutting down some lofty reputations.
Australia is still outstanding, but it is not what it was and nor could it expect to be after the retirement of a handful of long-serving champions.
The champs are not chumps but India has proved one thing — they are gettable.
The rest of the world will feed off the brazen Indian uprising in a series in which the great Ricky Ponting has averaged just 16, Michael Clarke just 23 and, shock of all shocks, a four-pronged Australian pace battery in this Test has been completely outbowled by three unsung Indian rivals.
The thought that Australia’s world dominance is coming to an end is always an enticing prospect, but champion teams tend to bounce back off the ropes quicker than most. After the 2005 Ashes, Ponting set out to really put his mark on the team and has done so brilliantly, if not so appealingly for the rest of the world. Or, indeed, for cricket itself. “Win at all costs” is a mantra most teams would like to obey, but only Australia have had the tools and balls to execute it in the past 20 years. In doing so, it hasn’t endeared them to the rest of the world; their cricket is pure, their method is not. As Mike Atherton said last week, “being nice will always be associated with losing in Ponting’s mind”.
I’m not convinced this is the end of Australia’s dynasty or aura - call it what you will. India have upset them in many ways, and although the rumpus of the past few weeks scarred cricket irrevocably, it does at least show Australia’s softer underbelly. Not that I’m advocating racism or severe sledging as the solution to beating them…
They hate teams fighting tooth and nail, eyeball to eyeball, and yet it is what they apparently crave from touring teams. England did it in 2005, winding up Ponting and co so much that they lost all composure and focus. The same has happened with India, albeit in far more contensious circumstances. It’s almost as though they’ve forgotten what it is like to be challenged, on or off the pitch, much in the same way England have forgotten how to win.
The thought of India winning is less than appealing on a personal level - I hope and pray they are gracious, for their (and the media’s) sake - but the prospect of Australia’s winning run coming to an end is far sweeter.
12 Comments »Christmas cricket
By Will last year, at the end of December, 8 Comments »
Now that England’s misery has been put on hold until the New Zealand series in 2008, attention turns to the southern hemisphere. It’s probably the first Christmas for 10 years that I’ve not had Sky to watch Boxing Day Tests, so I was a bit peeved when I woke up this morning to see what a good day India had enjoyed against Australia at Melbourne. Peter English:
Groups of Australians spent the afternoon wondering whether they were being unpatriotic for smiling when India started running through the home team. For the first session those local supporters who demand nothing but dominance by Ricky Ponting’s men were satisfied with the direction of the game. Their disgruntlement when it changed in the second session was offset by the joy felt - and heard - at the ground by cricket supporters who are desperate to see Australia challenged. After the first day there is hope this series might be the fair fight fans have been craving since the 2005 Ashes.
It promises to be a cracking series between the best two sides in the world. Whether it will match or better the 2005 Ashes is impossible to predict (and unlikely, I’d imagine) but any team who can challenge Australia gets my vote of confidence. Even if it is India…
Several thousand miles away in Port Elizabeth, West Indies have raced to 190 for 3 on the first day against South Africa, with Chris Gayle launching a terrific 66 from just 49 balls. Have a read of his innings - he took Makhaya Ntini and Dale Steyn apart. Brilliant stuff and I can’t wait to see the video.
8 Comments »England fight but falter
By Will last year, at the start of December, 7 Comments »
What a cracking day it was. My mate messaged me shortly after it, having only caught snippets, and was surprised at my post-match adrenaline. Today was Test cricket at its gnarliest, epitomised by Ian Bell and Matt Prior’s stand. They played magnificently and it took a genius, Muttiah Muralitharan, to dismiss them both. With them went England’s hopes of salvaging a draw (if not a win). Had the tail managed to wag, England were about 20 minutes away from the safe confines of a draw owing to the fading light…but it wasn’t to be.
It was fun on comms, too. In the last three hours we had a consistent 40,000 people reading the live scorecard. That’s a heck of a number, and several hundred emailed in to say hello. We had people from Warsaw, librarians in Warwick and a school-teacher with his feet up setting his pupils a long (and quiet…) test.
What made Murali’s day all the more remarkable was that he was wicketless for most of the day. Only on receipt of a juicy, shiny new ball did he strike, and how, with the crushing double blow of Prior and Bell.
Worrying for England, they only have three days in which to recover - and Matthew Hoggard won’t be part of their Colombo gameplans. Come on down, scattergun Steve Harmison.
What did you make of England’s performance? Or, for that matter, Sri Lanka’s?
7 Comments »The wilting New Zealanders
By Will last year, mid-November, 5 Comments »
What a tour New Zealand are having. Hammered in the first Test, after which their changing room resembled a hospital waiting room. And now today, when they plummeted from 84 for 1 to 187 for 8 and, in the process, have almost certainly lost Craig Cumming (right: Dale Steyn broke his cheekbone) for the remainder of the match.
The pitch was a beast, the fast bowling even beastlier. When Daniel Vettori won the toss and chose to bat, it reminded me of Mike Atherton’s tenure when winning the toss mattered so little. Either England were rolled over in a couple of sessions, or their bowlers would concede 350 in a day for a couple of strangled wickets. They were hopeless and hapless, much as New Zealand now are.
But here’s a stat: in the past two years, New Zealand have played eight Tests. Eight. South Africa on the other hand have notched 19. What on earth is going on? Are New Zealand a Test-playing nation or not? The very fact they can field an international side is remarkable enough, given that they such a tiny pool of players to choose from. But if they don’t play Tests, how can they expect to compete? The only man to cope with Steyn’s pace, and the pitch’s vagaries, was Stephen Fleming who has strode out 105 times for his country.
It’s a shame for New Zealand but also for South Africa’s fans. Who wants to see them roll a side over this easily, this meekly? The matches are sparsely attended and who can blame them?
If you have any thoughts on the series, let me know.
5 Comments »Australia are killing the game
By Will last year, mid-November, 27 Comments »
Weather permitting, at some stage on Monday Australia will beat Sri Lanka, probably by a large margin. It’s becoming an annual trend, re-discussing Australia’s dominance and why it is hurting the game so much. But I’m not going to bother mentioning India and Pakistan’s one-day series, which interests me not a lot, so let’s go round in circles and debate why you think (or not) Australia are killing the game.
The sadness of Australia continuing to raise the bar in Test cricket means the foundation of the game is becoming less and less relevant in more countries as the Twenty20 phenomenon multiplies the excitement in shorter forms of the game.
This is even so in Australia, which has the strongest tradition of Test cricket with England. If Australia was playing a one-day or Twenty20 match at the Gabba it would have sold out long ago.
But modest crowds of little more than 15,000 on the first three days, followed by just 7629 yesterday amid showers, left many empty seats among the 40,000 at the recently redeveloped, world-class Gabba.
This is despite one Queenslander, Mitchell Johnson, making his Test debut and another, Andrew Symonds, playing his first Test at the Gabba, not to mention Matthew Hayden, as Ponting and his men try to extend their winning streak to record levels.
Victory here will give Australia 13 in a row since South Africa hung on for a draw in Perth almost two years ago. It is the second-longest winning streak in history, behind the 16 in a row Steve Waugh’s side set from October 1999 to March 2001.
Australians in defence of their juggernaut will point to the all-conquering West Indians of the 70s and 80s, and they’d have a point. But was the void so great as it is now? And were they, as we are now, so flummoxed as to a solution?
27 Comments »The only series that still matters
By Jonathan Liew last year, mid-October, 4 Comments »
Here’s a hypothetical question for England fans out there: if England were to lose every Test match and one-day international from now until 2009, but then win the Ashes back, would you take it? Be honest, now.
Much has been talked and written about the indifference of the English to one-day cricket. But meaningless one-day bashes are, if anything, merely the tip of the indifference iceberg. As England fans, there’s a whole host of other things we don’t care about, from Twenty20 internationals, through the regular thrashings of Bangladesh and the West Indies, right up to – sharp intake of breath – the upcoming winter tours of Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
Oh, of course we’ll check the scores from time to time. Perhaps even watch a bit if we have Sky and remember to set the alarm. But I don’t know too many people from outside the game who have very much of an emotional investment in the outcome at all, just as long as it’s not a humiliation. England series these days feel like part of a two year-long hors d’oeuvres to the 2009 main course.
Just as Australia’s sights were fixed on the 2006-7 series from the moment they walked off the field at The Oval, the year 2009 is seared indelibly into our consciousness. It’s everywhere: in the press, on the messageboards, and very possibly in selection meetings (“I mean, Sidebottom’s accurate, but will he trouble the Australian top order?â€). And as for the detritus in between; well, the disappearance of cricket from terrestrial TV has made it a lot easier to ignore. The fact that England barely hit top gear all summer should be a point of grave concern. But to me at least, it doesn’t seem to have been.
There’s a parallel with the rugby here – the English descending on Paris this week care not one jot about the Six Nations humiliations and Antipodean kickings to which England have been subjected over the last four years, but about their performance on the stage that matters. For ‘World Cup’, substitute ‘Ashes’. I suspect most England cricket fans will willingly endure two more years of anguish if there’s a little red urn waiting at the end of it.
4 Comments »Recall for Ramps?
By Jonathan Liew last year, mid-October, 2 Comments »
There’s an interesting claim by Mike Selvey in this morning’s Guardian: apparently Mark Ramprakash is on the verge of an England recall.
There is a strong rumour doing the rounds that when the England squad to contest the Test series against Sri Lanka is announced tomorrow week, the name of Andrew Strauss will be missing and in its place will be that of Mark Ramprakash. It would, were it to happen, be another stunner in a sporting autumn that already has had more turn-ups than a Savile Row clearance sale.
Only last month, with a strict brief to ensure that selections should anticipate playing a full part in England cricket over the next year, Strauss, already jettisoned from the one-day plans, was awarded a central contract by the chairman of selectors, David Graveney, and the England coach, Peter Moores. Given that in the past year three contracted players in particular - Marcus Trescothick, Ashley Giles and Simon Jones - played little or no cricket for England while receiving sizeable salaries, there would be no shortage of flak heading their way if such an exercise in generosity were to be repeated.
It’s a fascinating suggestion, although personally I don’t think the England selectors will pick him. It’s just not worth their while. If he succeeds, there’ll be the inevitable question of why he wasn’t picked earlier (his excellent Ashes record should have been a factor last year). And the very first time he fails, the critics will come creeping out of the woodwork, accusing England of ‘taking a backwards step’ and ‘holding back’ some promising young batsman or other. And though Ramprakash himself seems less mentally fragile than before, a low score in his first knock might see all those bad memories come flooding back.
If he is picked, it would at least provide us with a definitive verdict on county cricket. If the most prolific county cricketer of his generation couldn’t translate that form into Test success, it might be time to start asking the ECB some probing questions.
2 Comments »Ye Gods! A Test match is happening!
By Scott last year, at the start of October, 7 Comments »
We don’t get a lot of South Africans or Pakistanis in these here parts, but there IS a Test match going on as we speak- South Africa, batting first, are 104 for 1, with Gibbs on 50 - Smith out for 42.
Ahh. White clothes and a red ball. God is in his heaven and all is right with the world, et cetera!
Meanwhile, England play Sri Lanka in a Fifty/50 tonight, and Australia play India tomorrow. But who cares? Tests are the best!
7 Comments »England’s forgotten man
By Jonathan Liew last year, at the end of August, 7 Comments »
In times past, England selectors could generally be relied on to make at least one howler a summer. Alan Wells, Aftab Habib and Alan Igglesden are all examples of county makeweights plunged without warning into the limelight and shunted mercilessly and remorselessly back out of it soon after.
Since the central contract era, however, we like to think that the more erratic selectorial decisions have rather been purged; there’s been the odd hunch that’s gone wrong (step to the front of the class, Anthony McGrath), but by and large the new slim-line committee has unearthed some cracking talent. Vaughan, Trescothick and Sidebottom certainly wouldn’t have got a look in had they been around a decade earlier. None of this, however, will be much comfort to Ed Joyce.
Joyce’s performances during the CB Series in Australia were solid, excellent in places, and he was by no means the most culpable of England’s World Cup donkeys. But he fell victim to the general call for cull after the Caribbean debacle and hasn’t been mentioned in the same breath as the England team since. Joyce wasn’t even selected for the England Lions teams to face Pakistan and India, a privilege granted to such stellar young talent as Alex Gidman. He appears to have fallen silently but ruthlessly from view, like the myriad Mike Smiths and Warren Heggs before him.
Fair enough, you might say. Ed Joyce is no PowerPlay demon, still less middle-overs innovator. But a man who scored two fifties on the biggest one-day stage really deserved better than to be lumped in with the likes of Andrew Strauss (who really did have a stinker in the West Indies, by the way). And besides, Joyce has always been more of a five-day cricketer. He was selected as Marcus Trescothick’s replacement on the Ashes tour, but didn’t get a chance. Now, incomprehensibly, he has been leapfrogged by Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara and, very possibly, Rob Key. Perhaps Joyce might soon be lugging his kit bag back to Dublin in search of an international game.
Joyce hasn’t exactly helped his case with some ho-hum county performances this summer. But his anonymity speaks of a more worrying trend – the tendency to judge Test potential on the basis of one-day form. It happened to Chris Read, Kabir Ali and even Jonathan Trott, who may never be seen in England colours again. Joyce deserves a better fate than these, for on his day he can be one of the most effective batsmen in the country. A bumper start for Middlesex next season might swing him back into contention; on the other hand, perhaps he’d be better off perfecting his reverse sweep this winter instead.
7 Comments »India commemorate 75 years of Test cricket
By Will last year, at the end of June, 5 Comments »
Today marks the 75th anniversary of India’s inaugural Test match against England at Lord’s in 1932. We’ve put up (or, rather, my boss probably did) an excellent review of the match from The Cricketer International which is well worth a read, if only for the following (at times hilarious) points:
1. The Indians fully deserved the honour of a Test match. Their bowling was definitely good and their fielding admirable, quick and very clean, but not so fine nor so good as England. Their wicketkeeper good, but not so good as he looks.
2. Their batting depends on too few men, but Amar Singh, a very fine all’ round cricketer, is a rare man on his form in this match at No. 10.
3. The experience of this tour will improve their cricket enormously and the English public will welcome them again, for they play the game in the most attractive manner.
4. They were very unlucky in the matter of accidents, Nazir Ali and Palia pulling muscles and, Nayudu, a fine allrounder, hurting his hand.
5. England showed exceptional grit. In the second innings their first four bats, men all failed, comparatively speaking, but Jardine pulled the side round. He is a great batsman and captained the side extremely well, and he made a superb catch in h second innings at short third man.
6. The partner for Sutcliffe is yet to be found, but we should make a lot of runs in Australia.
7. Fielding was splendid. Hammond, Robins, Paynter and Voce are quite exceptionally good. Not a single catch was missed and only one lost chance of stumping.
8. The bowling was remarkably good but it is certainly at present not good enough for Australia and this is a perplexing problem for M.C.C., Larwood’s strained leg making matters all the more difficult, but Voce, Robins and Brown arc most capable allrounders.
9. Paynter’s second innings may mean much to him. He has only to concentrate on watching the stump outside his off stump to be very good. He is a fine fielder.
10. Bowes must “go for” a length and forget, except occasionally, the short humping delivery.
Two points to be made. 1) Will we, in 75 years, be looking back at some of our (and I include myself in this group) questionable reports of Bangladeshi cricket since their inception? And 2), what is a “short humping delivery”? Nothing to do with midwifery I presume
5 Comments » « Previous Entries