Ashes 2013
Yes, a win!
January 14th 2014
The game against the Prime
Minister’s XI was a major landmark in England’s tour: a first win for two
months – in fact, the first time that England have avoided defeat in five games.
The fact that it was against a side that some would say would not have
challenged some of the English county 2nd XIs, puts the match into
perspective, as does the fact that Cook and Root managed just two runs – but,
to look on the bright side, no ducks – between them, puts a bit of a dampener
on things. The calls for Alistair Cook to drop himself from the side are
getting louder.
In fact, five of the Prime
Minister’s XI side have had international experience (two of them though are
long retired) and all but a couple of players have played the First Class game.
The new ball attack and first change was reasonably challenging and compounded
England’s top order crisis. When you are 12-2 after 5 overs there is no way
that you can spin that as anything other than a bad start. When the two wickets
are the Captain and (the former) Boy Wonder, two of the key elements of your
international side, it looks plain awful. It is getting hard to see how Root
can be selected for the 2nd ODI, unless as a bowler and Cook’s
position is getting weaker by the game. Stuart Broad’s return for the 3rd
ODI could well see Alistair Cook being “rested”.
In contrast, Michael Carberry
had another Michael Carberry innings: 47 in quick time and no hanging around
bothering the scorers with logging a fifty. It should be enough to earn him a
place, probably at the expense of Joe Root.
England’s recovery had a lot to
do with the middle order “B” formation of Ballance, Bopara, Buttler and Bresnan,
rudely interrupted by Eoin Morgan, who should bat at four in the next match to
allow four B’s in a row to take their rightful place. Runs from Ballance,
Buttler and Bresnan complemented a brief but violent Bopara innings. It was
Bopara’s day, as he then finished the Prime Minister’s XI innings with four wickets
and a runout in 27 balls. Ravi Bopara comes in for a lot of ridicule from fans,
but has shown in the last year what a vital and valuable player he for England is
in the limited overs game, with power hitting and useful wickets.
Chris Jordan added to his
growing reputation with another mature performance, with an early wicket and
final figures of 5-0-13-1. Tredwell and Bresnan gave solid support and, if Boyd
Rankin was a little expensive, 2-39 from 8 overs was not the disaster that he
might have feared. Chris Jordan knows that a couple of good performances in the
remaining matches and some solid early season form should see him walking out against
Sri Lanka in May, possibly even to take the new ball. It is not impossible that
Jos Buttler could join him in the side, with Matt Prior given a chance to
recover his form and enthusiasm with Sussex before the India series.
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