A Win At Last

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Yes, a win!

 

January 14^th 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 2^nd 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 2^nd ODI, unless as a bowler and Cook’s position is getting weaker by the game. Stuart Broad’s return for the 3^rd 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.