Day two

18/05/12

The day went almost exactly to plan for England.  Broad only needed one ball to get rid of Gabriel and finished with 7-72.  Now all we need is for the captain to bat all day, which he did, finishing not out on 121.  Form is temporary, class is permanent.  All the other batsmen chipped in with a few leaving England 16 ahead with seven wickets left.  A ton from Bell would go down nicely now and England will hope to make a massive total and only bat once in the game.  I have a feeling they will.

Summer!

Where the hell did the last month go?  It’s 17^th May, the official start of summer and  although the weather feels more like November it’s definitely summer as the First Test started today at Lords.  England won the toss and put the West Indies in with bowling conditions overhead.  Jimmy swung the ball around first up and nicked a couple of wickets.  Then for most of the day the WI batsmen dug in and survived whilst accumulating runs, when many would have expected England’s bowlers to rip the batting apart.  Youngsters Bravo & Barath scored runs in a useful partnership as did the older Samuels and the veteran Chanderpaul who batted as he always does.  Then Broad came up and ripped the middle & lower order to shreds, taking 6 in the process.  England finished the day taking nine wickets, Shiv contributed 87 not out to WI’s 243-9.

I think today will be typical for this series.  Probably the best West Indian team for a decade will battle hard and perform better than most people expect but ultimately England will prove just too good.  I’m looking forward to watching Bravo bat this series and the other young players will be interesting too.  Roach and Edwards are probably their best pair of bowlers since Curtley & Courtney retired.  Should be a good series but only the weather will prevent England winning 3-0.

It was hard to follow the match today as it’s impossible to get a radio signal where I’m working and I can only tune in at break times.  This inspired me to have a fiddle with my phone and managed to find a free download thingy giving ball by ball updates.  It’s called Cricket companion & might prove useful to somebody somewhere?

Where was I?

16/04/12

Time keeps flying by. The last time I managed to tap the buttons we were midway through a test match. Happily as you all know England won, thanks to KP’s brilliant knock and Swanny taking six for to bowl Sri lanka out. The series finished a 1-1 draw, had there been a third and deciding match my money would have been on another England win, well it would wouldn’t it?

That win doesn’t alter the fact that England’s winter in the sub-continent has been a disaster. For some reason our middle order forgot how to bat. Strauss, Cook and Trott all performed Ok but Bell and KP had shockers in the UAE and Morgan proved that he isn’t test class. However I firmly believe these performances were just a blip and our top five batsmen will come back stronger. Note I say “batsmen” and definitely NOT “batters”, horribly terminology! England are still officially No.1 in the world but only just and we hardly seem to deserve that tag.

Next up is a home series against the West Indies (I’ll be at the Trent Bridge match) which on paper should be a comfortable England win. WI are an inconsistent team at the best of times but they do seem to be unearthing some talented young players and Darren Sammy seems to be doing a good job as captain. Hopefully these can gel into a decent team over the next few years but it’s hard to imagine another great West Indian team like that of the eighties. As I write the Windies are playing a slow scoring test match against Australia in a series they trail 1-0. Neither side has looked top class in the series so far. All the Aussie runs are coming from Clarke and Hussey again. Aus should be good enough to beat Australia but they haven’t impressed so far.

Following that is the main event of the summer, England vs South Africa for (only) a three match series. Since SA resumed international cricket, test series between the two sides have always been tight and I expect this one to be no different. If one or the other can win the series clearly then they will be justly crowned No. 1 in the world. I’m confident there will be a result and England will be the winners!

The latest book I’ve finished was “Twisting my melon”, the autobiography of the one and only Shaun Ryder; vocalist and lyricist for Happy Mondays (one of my favourite bands ever..) and Black Grape and more recently a reality TV star. The words on the page are all Ryder, you can almost hear his voice as you read it. Obviously all autobiographies are biased towards the writer but there is a real honesty to this one. I’ve been a fan of Shaun for over 20 years and followed the ups and downs of his life and career closely but even I was shocked by the extent of his drug habit(s). It was really interesting reading Shaun’s take on the rise and fall of the bands as was the insights into how the songs came about. An enjoyable read for long-time fans but it did fizzle out a bit towards the end.

It’s just occurred to me that I’ve met both Shaun & Aggers and shaken their hands over the last couple of years. Both were nice gents too, Shaun outside a gig in Norwich, a little shy and Aggers signing books at Trent Bridge, confident in his environment.

KP is god

The day after I wrote that KP needs to step up, he plays a quite unbelievable innings and having just watched the highlights on Sky sports, all I can say is wow! That was spectacular, brilliant!! Could anyone else in world cricket play an innings like that? Maybe Dilshan of SL, maybe Sehwag? However credit to Strauss, Trott and cook who all passed fifty too, giving England a platform and allowing Pietersen to play like that. If only the batsmen had played like that all winter…England finished the day with a lead of 180 + and should be able to force the win from here…surely?

On & Off

04/04/12

Cricket…

It’s been a while since I’ve found time to put anything down on paper….

Since the disastrous series against Pakistan, England managed to lose the first test against Sri Lanka. Once again our bowlers managed to put us in a strong position only to see a woeful first innings batting display. For most of the match England matched Sri Lanka but one session of batting madness ultimately cost England the match, similar to last summer’s test match at Cardiff??

Jayawardene scored a fantastic 160+ and Herath took 12 wickets in the match. With performances like that Sri Lanka should expect to win. For England Jimmy bowled his heart out once again and Trott scored a century.

Now were two days into the second test and England are on top. SL restricted to 275 by Jimmy (3 wickets) & Swann (4 wickets). England are currently 150+ for 1 and should really push on and build a winning position. I’m told that victory here would maintain England’s position as No.1 in the world but even so, we hardly seem to deserve it. Great to see Strauss get a 50 and go some way to answering the short sighted people who have criticised him recently. I’ve been a big fan of KP over the years but even I am losing patience now. ODI form means nothing to me, he needs to step up in the test matches. Recently it seems he scores 200+ or next to nothing. C’mon KP, you’re better than that!

One thing that has bugged me is the selection. Monty Panesar must be gutted to have been left out having been our best spinner this winter. I’m really pleased that England have played five bowlers but Bresnan (and the injured Broad) are capable of batting at no.7 so why pick Samit Patel who is not test standard at batting, bowling or fielding??? Go on Samit, prove me wrong…

& Stuff…

As usual I’ve been reading plenty and my latest cricket book was “Aggers Ashes” which as the title suggests is a review of last winter’s Ashes tour down under by national treasure Jonathan Agnew. A really nice read which brought back loads of great memories, except the bit about Perth… I met Aggers at Trent Bridge last year and he is a really nice bloke.

So there’s an on/off fuel strike causing panic buying and madness at the petrol stations. Now if this was a repeat of the strike of a decade ago, a protest at the high price of fuel or more accurately, fuel (stealth) tax, then I would have some sympathy. However it turns out it’s disgruntled tanker drivers so my sympathy disappears I’m afraid. But the whole tax thing gets up my snout. We get taxed out of existence and yet we say nothing, do nothing, get on with it. The whole bank “crisis” has left us up to our necks in shit yet the tossers (bankers…rhymes with……..) who caused it still get paid massive salaries and bonuses!!!! And we take it….

Unexpected...

England’s cricketers have returned home, the second part of the UAE tour was far more successful than the first. Firstly the ODI series finished with England winning 4-0. Cook, KP and Finn were star performers, the latter has surely put himself forward for a test berth this summer? Lastly we won the T20 series 2-1. As nice as it was to save a bit of face on this tour, all genuine cricket fans would swap these two limited over series wins for a test series win, that one still hurts!

Next up, after a couple of weeks R&R, England will have another tough tour of Sri Lanka. As expected Eoin Morgan has lost his place, who takes it will depend on what kind of balance England want. Most likely is Ravi Bopara, who has scored hundreds at six in the past and can chip in with a few overs of medium pace. Other options are seam bowling all-rounder Tim Bresnan or spinning all-rounder Samit Patel. After watching England struggle against Pakistan’s spinners I’d expect a couple of turning pitches in SL. However I think England will have learnt a lot from this defeat, since Murali’s retirement, SL don’t have the same quality of bowler as Pakistan has. I think England will win the test series but the ODI’s could go any way!

As usual I have a book or two on the go. A while ago I read & liked “White tiger” by Arvind Adiga so bought the follow up “Between the Assassinations”. As a snap shot of India at a point in history, (the good, the bad and the ugly,) it’s an interesting and entertaining read. However it would have been a lot better with a thread to link it all together in my opinion. A decent read but not as good as his first book.

Now I like Stephen Fry. I like his TV programs, I like his humour and the way he uses language, ‘Moab is my wash pot’ is a really good read. I really dislike Stephen Fry’s football team but I forgive him for this weakness because I know he’s a passionate cricket fan. I received “Mrs Fry’s Diary” for Christmas and high expectations, it just had to be funny…didn’t it?

Well, the answer is no. By the time you’ve read through January, you’ve read the whole book. It’s not funny, it’s actually excruciatingly bad. I read through to the end because I’m stubborn and because surely Stephen Fry is better than this? Surely there has to be some saving grace to this book? There wasn’t. This book is so bad I find it difficult to believe Stephen Fry wrote it. I can’t remember the last book I read that was as disappointing as this one. Avoid at all costs.

Humbled

And so the test series is over, England have been humbled 3-0 by a Pakistan side that lacks flair but more than makes up for it in discipline. A reversal from what we’ve grown to expect from Pakistan teams over the years. What is really frustrating from an England point of view is in two of the matches we’d bowled ourselves into a winning position only to have the batsmen let us down. To be more precise, those batting at numbers four, five and six have not been worth their place in the side on this tour.

KP is becoming an enigma, lately he seems to score 200 or bugger all. We all know what he is capable of but he just doesn’t seem to be the same person he was before the whole captaincy fiasco. I’ve been one of his greatest supporters over the years and I love watching him bat but for the first time I can envisage an England team without him. Maybe not yet but his days may be numbered.

Ian Bell has been pure class for the last year or so but this tour has been a nightmare for him. I’m sure this is just a temporary blip, he’ll go away, work hard and come back a better batsmen for it.

Eoin Morgan has never proven himself a top class test batsmen in my opinion and now I doubt he ever will. There has to be a casualty from this tour and odds on it will be Morgan. Sorry, stick to ODI.

All the other players have held their own in my opinion but one or two deserve a special mention. The bowlers have been superb, particularly Broad and in his test comeback Monty Panesar, always a popular performer and his wickets will have been enjoyed by England fans.

Going forward I doubt there will be many changes and would expect 10 of the 11 players who played in the third test will begin the series in Sri Lanka. Morgan will be the man to miss out but who will take his place? Next man in line is Ravi Bopara but last time he played in Sri Lanka he had a nightmare tour. It would make more sense to pick one of the players who have done well on the recent ‘Lions’ tour of Sri Lanka; Joe Root of Yorkshire scored a timely ODI ton and has been talked up as the next big thing. Will the England management show more of the flexibility that saw them finally pick a second spinner? Time will tell.