First test

Day four was all England.  First came the accumulation of runs, Gary Ballance hit a century and shared a century stand with Joe Root who hit his second fifty of the match.  Ben Stokes selflessly hit quick runs then Joss Buttler came in with a great platform to do what he does best finishing on 59*. 

England declared with a lead of over 430.  West Indies second innings got off to a shocker with Brathwaite bounced out by Broad but the second wicket partnership showed this game would not be a formality.  At close WI were 98-2, England would require 8 wickets to win while West Indies needed to survive for three sessions.

Day five saw a great rear-guard action by WI.  The young Jason Holder showed what a talent he is by saving the game with a maiden first class century.  Smith and Ramdin also passed fifty and Kemar Roach done really well for a number nine to survive 55 balls.  There were times during the day when an England win looked likely but WI hung in there.

The big headline was made by the great James Anderson who overhauled Botham’s long held record for test wickets by an Englishman.  It was a pleasure to watch that moment on TV and Jimmy is a truly great player, although arguably passed his best?  Whatever, he’s been an ever present throughout a pretty good decade of English cricket.

There will be some who will criticise England for not winning this match and perhaps if we had someone with express pace or a world class spinner the wickets would have fallen.  But credit must be given to the West Indies who were outplayed in this match but never folded.  It was always going to be hard to force a result on such a lifeless pitch.  Despite the pitch it was still a really good test match, much better than all the ODI nonsense we’ve had to put up with for the last six months.

There must be loads for England’s selectors to think about.  Cook still hasn’t made any runs and Trotty didn’t fare well as opener.  I can’t help thinking form is temporary but class is permanent in both cases.  I’m still not convinced by Moeen Ali but he comes back into the squad and the selectors seem keen to get him involved. Presumably Treadwell will be the unlucky one to miss out?  The question is how are England going to fit another all-rounder into this team?  Will Stokes end up batting down at eight?

The next test starts on Tuesday so we’ll soon find out.

England vs West Indies, First test

Day one of the first test started with an uncomfortably familiar morning session for England.  Put into bat they limped to 49-3 at lunch with Trott, Cook and Ballance all recording low scores.  From this position you would expect one of the top teams to tighten the screws on England but West Indies aren’t in this league.  Bell and Root put together a partnership approaching 200 and England recovered.  Root was out for 83 which brought Stokes to the wicket and he scored 71* at nearly a run a ball.  Bell was out just before the close for a brilliant 143 and England finished the day on 341-5.

Day two started with another poor morning.  With a good platform to build from England should have pushed on to 450+ but were bowled out before lunch for 399.  This was a decent score but at this stage it didn’t look like a match winning one.  In reply West Indies never really got going and England chipped away with wickets at regular intervals.  Throughout the day England bowled very well and kept things tight.  The day ended with WI 155-4 but they still had the youngster Blackwood and the veteran Chanderpaul at the crease.

Day three continued in the same vein, West Indies occupied the crease and England picked up the odd wicket here and there.  Blackwood went on to make his maiden test century and finished unbeaten on 112 but no one else passed 50 and the innings ended in a hurry, all out for 295. 

England had a healthy lead of 104 but West Indies started well with a brilliant opening spell from Taylor who removed both openers, failures for Trott and Cook again.  After that they steadily built the lead, Bell was run out cheaply but Ballance and Root put a decent unbeaten partnership of 64 to push England’s lead to 220.

After three days this has been a good test match.  England are well on top and a couple of decent partnerships should put us in a winning position.  However West Indies have proved hard to dislodge with the bat and have bowled very well in spells.

Six month wait is nearly over...

A few days ago I was surrounded by Chinese food and beer as well as a group of my oldest, dearest friends.  We had a great night chatting about all the things we love and find interesting.  Despite being just a month away from a general election, not a single word was spoken about politics.  I expect this would be unusual in a gathering of ten people in their forties but I’m proud that my friends don’t buy into the charade.  

Elly Griffiths’  “The House at Sea’s end” is another in the Ruth Galloway series with all the familiar characters pooping up in another murder mystery set in north Norfolk.  I’m beginning to think this rural idyll is actually a dangerous place to live!  The stories are well told and the cast is easy to warm to.  This one isn’t the best of the bunch but its still a good read.

Here we are on the eve of a Test match series at long last.  It starts tomorrow in Antigua and England have to start as favourites but West Indies are always unpredictable these days.  Sitting here tonight eight England players look sure to play if fit but there are question marks on a few others.Of the eleven that lined up against India last August, Robson has been dropped and his replacement looks likely to be good old Trotty.  Moeen and Woakes are both injured so will England replace them with two all-rounders in Stokes and Rashid?  Will Tredwell play as spinner?  Will Jordan hang on to his place?  Back here in England Paul Downton has been sacked from whatever his job was and the path for the KPego’s return is getting clearer.

As for WI I haven’t a clue.  Like many English fans I grew to love the great players of the Lloyd/Richards era and admired the cricket they played.  I’d love to see a competitive West Indies side and with a new coach in Phil Simmons they have something to prove.  Gayle is injured and there will probably be a few new faces amongst the experienced Samuels, Ramdin and Chanderpaul.  

I reckon the pitches for this series will be prepared to last five days so the local economy can milk as much revenue from the test matches as possible.  I think England should be good enough to bowl WI out twice and win 2-0.  England  must hit the ground running ahead of two tough home series this summer.

Test cricket coming soon!

Time passes quickly and since I last wrote anything on here the World cup has gone to form.  The final four teams that contested the semi-finals were South Africa, India, New Zealand and Australia with the co-hosts making it through to the final.

England as expected lost to Bangladesh and crashed out at the group stage.  The ODI game has changed dramatically in recent years and England haven’t changed with it.  Where England push singles the top teams are smashing boundaries, with our approach to the game we can only hope to be anything like competitive on home soil.

The final was an anti-climax.  NZ started shakily with the bat but progressed to 150-3 then collapsed 183 all out.  Aus won at a canter by seven wickets with 101 balls remaining.  As a passionate England supporter it’s tough watching Australia being presented with the world cup.  It was made 1000 times worse by the grovelling Englishman holding the microphone.  Mark Nicholas was nothing more than an honest county pro but has always been a sickening, plum gobbed wanker in the commentary box.

At least now we have some real cricket to look forward to.  England play a test series against the West Indies with the tests beginning in Antigua on 13^th April.  This series is crucial and England must win well to gain some momentum going into the summer.  England will have their eyes on the Ashes series later in the year but before then we face New Zealand who are not to be over looked and are definitely capable of winning.

Thought for the week, Lewis Hamilton must surely be a multi-millionaire so why can’t he get himself a hat that actually fits?

News this week was dominated by the pilot that deliberately crashed a plane full of people.  Shocking, tragic & senseless.  Strikes me as an adult version of taking a gun to school.  Oh apparently there’s some political bollocks beginning soon.

I found an Ian Rankin title that I hadn’t read so bought it assuming it would be a Rebus novel.  It wasn’t, I was disappointed for a second but remembered reading other ‘non Rebus’ books that were bloody good.  “Bleeding Hearts” tells of an assassin who you can’t help liking.  After a hit Michael Weston (or is it?) feels he’s been set up and back tracks to find out what happened.  With enemies closing in on all sides he doesn’t realise just how set up he has been!  It’s a pretty good thriller and I enjoyed it but not as gripping as you know who.

Just not good enough

Saturday evening saw England take on Sri Lanka in the latest world cup match and for once I was able to sit down and watch part of the game.  Had I known how frustrating this experience would be I wouldn't have bothered.  Mathews captained his side well and his bowlers kept to plan. England posted a reasonable total of 309-6 built around Joe Root's 121 but I went to bed in the certain knowledge that this would not be enough runs. And so it proved, Sri Lanka cantered to a 9 wicket win with Thirimanne and the brilliant Sangakkara both making centuries.

It's time to face the facts.  The top ODI teams are playing a different game now and England have been left miles behind.  The plain facts are where England are pushing singles the likes of Australia, New Zealand, India & South Africa are clubbing boundaries.  England's innings stuttered along without any momentum and whereas 309 would have been considered a decent score once upon a time, nowadays it is 30 runs short.

The daft thing is England still have a chance of going on to the next stage of the competition with a win of Afghanistan, despite losing three games without even being competitive.  It would take an absolute miracle for England to make any meaningful contribution to this tournament thereafter.  England have gone into this World cup without the first clue of what their best team is, with a strategy that is a decade out of date and with a fear of failure rather than confidence in their abilities.  Moeen Ali and Gary Balance aren't up to the task right now, Bell seems to be feeling the responsibility of his senior position in the side and Morgan is not producing the goods.  Our bowlers look toothless compared to the attacks of the other leading side.  Lurking in the shadows is the KPego.  We don't want him back but we could hardly be worse if he was.

Peter Moores has been in charge of England for around a year now and has had indifferent results, just like he did in his first tenure as coach.  Is Moores unlucky to get the job at difficult times?  Or is he simply not up to it?

Only a month left

A couple of weeks later…  The world cup is still trundling along in the periphery of my life.  England have managed to lose disgustingly to a rampant New Zealand.  Southee & Macullum slaughtered us, the less said the better.  Since then we managed to beat Scotland fairly comfortably but definitely don’t look like a team that will progress far in this tournament.  In fact, at this moment they look clueless.  Elsewhere India thrashed South Africa which was a surprise and all the other matches have gone as expected.  Somewhere along the way Chris Gayle woke up and smashed 215 against Zimbabwe and Scotland managed to lose to Afghanistan.  There's still another month of this to go.

Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have finally signed to fight in what will be the richest boxing match ever made.  In my heart I’d love to see Manny knock ‘money’ out cold but my head says Mayweather will win on points.

I’m not sure what this bird is, I think it might be an immature Buzzard but it’s not the first time I’ve seen a big bird of prey with this colouration in Norfolk.

Pyjama cricket

The ODI world cup started a few days ago with a very poor England performance punished by the co-hosts Australia.  England have to get everything right in order to challenge the top ODI teams but in this match they were nowhere near.  The umpires made a colossal howler at the end giving Anderson run out when the ball was dead and leaving James Taylor on 98*, but the game was decided long before that.  Taylor was probably the one positive from this match but it was nice to see Finn get a strange hat trick and a five wicket haul.  Finn is not yet back to his best but he is progressing.

Next up for England is the other co-host New Zealand who looked a very good side when thumping Sri Lanka and will go into the match as favourites.  England have to improve or we’re looking at an early exit.  Elsewhere South Africa started strongly in beating Zimbabwe and India comfortably defeated Pakistan.  So far first innings scores of over 300 are the norm but West Indies couldn’t defend 304 and managed to lose to Ireland for the first ‘shock’ of the tournament.  Ireland are getting used to scalping test playing teams and West Indies have been terrible in recent times so maybe not so much of a shock.

The World cup is a marathon that finishes on 29^th March but will at least be mildly interesting until England go to the Caribbean to play some proper cricket.

Michael Connelly’s “The Reversal” he teams up two much loved characters; Detective Harry Bosch and lawyer Micky Haller in another story of crime, corruption and chaos in Los Angeles.  This time Haller is acting as a prosecutor tasked at re-convicting a murderer who has had his conviction over turned.  He enlists Bosch to help as investigator for the prosecution and we have all the ingredients needed for another Connelly classic.  The book doesn’t disappoint and as usual is hard to put down but if I have one criticism the ending is maybe a little predictable, for a Connelly fan at least.  That doesn’t spoil it though, ‘The Reversal’ is a bloody good book.

This tune has nothing to do with the above but I like it.