Ashes 2013
Dismissing England’s Challenge?
November 10th 2013
A post on a
popular cricket website caught my attention. It pointed out that over the last
two years, England had been “stuffed by Pakistan and South Africa and couldn’t
even beat Sri Lanka and New Zealand away. Let’s move on”. As a put-down, it was
pretty devastating and very dismissive. It reflects the oft-stated Australian “England
are over-rated” school of thought. There is no doubt that England lost the spin
war in the last Ashes. It is a matter of faith among Australian fans that
Australia were robbed during the summer series. Far from being a matter of just
two overs from losing 4-0, it was only rain and one-eyed umpiring that shopped
them from winning the series. A lot of Australian supporters genuinely believe
that they were the better team and the innocent victims of a heist last summer
and that things will be set right at home.
For people
who, like me, have followed England through thick and thin – an awful lot of
thin in the ‘80s and ‘90s – for decades, the tour of the UAE was a horrible
blip. Andy Flower has been as meticulous as Duncan Fletcher was until the
pressures of the job and the loss of key players de-railed him. After years of
getting used to good results, even with sides that, on paper looked inferior,
England went to the UAE with a good side and seemed to under-estimate horribly
the opposition. It set the side into a downward spiral: 3-0 defeat in the UAE;
a comeback 1-1 draw in Sri Lanka; a 2-0 win at home against the West Indies
(with the 3rd Test ruined by rain); followed by the series that
really saw the wheels fall off the waggon where England lost 2-0 to South
Africa. When England also lost the 1st Test in India most people
feared the worst.
What
followed was the small detail that our correspondent forgot. England came back
to beat India 2-1 and not even the most enthusiastic Indian fan can say that
India were not well beaten; Australia, in contrast, have lost their last 6
Tests in India and been whitewashed in both series. After losing 7 Tests from
12 over five series in 2012, England followed that up by winning in India,
drawing in New Zealand, whitewashing New Zealand at home and then beating
Australia 3-0: that is 7 wins in the next 12 Tests, with no defeats. It has
seen England start to climb back up the ICC rankings to their current #2
position, just ahead of the revived Indians.
Australian
fans will retort that England have been lucky. They could have lost the series
in New Zealand. Rain intervened on the only two occasions that Australia passed
300 in the summer Test series, India fell apart when things started to do
against them. England have been lucky but, it was Napoleon Bonapart who said:
“I know he's a good general, but is he lucky?”
No one can
plan for luck to intervene in their favour, but you can certainly give luck a
helping hand with adequate preparation. There is a famous phrase that is
inaccurately attributed to the golfers Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, but which
seems to be claimed by Lee Trevino:
Lee Trevino hit a magical iron
shot, one that appeared to curve around a tree trunk, duck under branches, soar
over a bunker and bite a few feet from the pin. “Signor Trevino,” called a
Roman from the gallery, “are you always that lucky?” “Signor,” replied the U.S.
Open champion, “the more I practice, the luckier I get.”
This though
is an adaptation of a phrase that has been used at least since the 19th
Century. It best summed up in the following quote from another golfer, Jerry
Barber, in 1960, that sums up the Andy Flower philosophy.
The diminutive Los Angeles golfer
sank a 15-foot putt on the second hole for birdie-3 and a 20-footer on the
eight for a birdie-2.
“The harder you work the luckier you get,” said the 134-pound Barber
That, is
Andy Flower!
There are
times though when all the luck and preparation in the world cannot save you,
which was what happened against South Africa. With the United Kingdom
distracted by the magnificently successful London Olympics, Andy Flower had to
deal with a dressing-room breakdown in the Kevin Pietersen affair and
everything going wrong on the pitch. People tend to forget – or not even to
know – that England had a first innings lead in two of the three Tests, so it
was a far more competitive series than legend remembers.
In the 1st
Test England’s very respectable 385 all out, with a century from Cook and
fifties by Trott and Prior were blown away by Hasim Amla’s 311 not out and Dale
Steyn’s 5-56. South Africa were simply in a different league. The 2nd
Test though was a different kettle of fish: a big century and four wickets from
Kevin Pietersen put England in what should have been a winning position on the
last day and, had two vital catches not gone down, England would have had every
chance of winning. When South Africa declared finally, England had been batted
out of the game: 253 to win in 39 overs was just too many. South Africa had
done what England
had done so often in the last few years: ride their luck and make it
count. The 3rd Test was yet another case. South Africa set 346 to
win and, with England 45-4, it looked as if the match would finish quickly.
England fought back and, at 282-7 on the last day, with Swann and Prior leading
a glorious counter-attack, England were just 64 short and the South Africans
were nearing panic. It took a run out to break the partnership and stop England
from squaring the series.
South Africa
showed how important it is to take advantage of your luck and won deservedly:
one lucky General was beaten by one who was even luckier and who made his own
luck!
However,
even though Darren Lehmann is a very fine General, is he going to be a lucky
one? One wonders if he has the troops to overcome an England side that also has
a great General at the helm and that is trying to leave no stone unturned in
the search for success in Australia. To a large degree you make your own luck
and Andy Flower is trying to ensure that things go his way on the battlefield.
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