England v Pakistan: 1st Test, Day 1 - Here We Go Again

 

England v Pakistan: 1^st Test, Day 1

Here We Go Again

May 24^th 2018

It is as if the last four years had never happened. Return from a disastrous Australasian winter. Asian opponents in May. Easy wins. The health of the England team is rosy.

So much for the theory.

As in 2014, when the guests in May were Sri Lanka, a very inexperienced Pakistan was expected to provide a gentle re-introduction to Test cricket for the England side and restore some battered confidence. Of course, the practice was that, despite the efforts of Moeen Ali and Jimmy Anderson with the bat, England were defeated for the first time on home soil by Sri Lanka and the crisis simply got worse. Had India not suddenly and mysteriously imploded later that summer, the situation might have reached quite catastrophic levels.

The 2013/14 Ashes series ended several careers. In particular, Jonathon Trott, Graeme Swann and Kevin Pietersen. The 2017/18 tour of Australia and New Zealand may well be the last time that we see Moeen Ali in England colours, while a host of fringe players have decided to restrict themselves to white-ball cricket. The 1^st Test saw just one debutant for England – and that injury-enforced – but the impression is that James Vince has played his last Test and that a couple of others may join him on the sidelines after this series. In particular, the development of Jack Leach and Dom Bess makes one wonder about the chances of Liam Dawson and Mason Crane as spinners and Mark Stoneman may have just said good-bye to his place too.

Grey day. Pitch with a little green, but fundamentally, a good surface. The pundits thought that it was a day to win the Toss, see off a difficult first hour or so and then make hay as the conditions eased and early moisture left the surface. Having seen the Pakistan struggles against a skilful, but far from lethal Irish attack on a seaming surface, many people expected Joe Root to insert if he won the Toss, hoping to bowl out Pakistan quickly with his rejuvenated new ball attack. The opposing school of thought was to bat on the first day and take advantage of the pitch at its best, put up 400+ and use scoreboard pressure. Either way, it might not be a bad Toss to lose.

Of course, these theories rely on the players themselves to perform. If they do not, you look a proper Charlie.

The torrent of opprobrium for Joe Root has been awful. Hello Charlie Root! He saw his batting order fail miserably and then the new ball bowlers were totally incapable of bowling the right line and length in reply. And, to make things worse, the captain himself was convicted of dangerous driving and fell cheaply.

If you are Mark Stoneman and have yet to make 30 yet this season, the last thing that you need is to receive a fine delivery. However, just as James Vince has made his signature move the prod outside off, guiding the ball to the slips or gulley, Mark Stoneman’s has been to leave his feet rooted to the crease until he finally gets the right ball. Credit to Mohammad Abbas for a wonderful, inswinging delivery. Not so much to Mark Stoneman for not making a better effort to deal with it. Eight innings of the season gone and Mark Stoneman has 119 runs, with a top score of 29. Contrast that with Keaton Jennings who, despite a very dodgy start himself to his season (lest we forget) has 636 runs in all competitions in England this spring, with 3x100 and 2x50.

Unless Mark Stoneman can make a big score in the second innings, one wonders if he will even get the 2^nd Test of this series.

Of course, the skipper was far from blameless. He came in at #3, willing to make a big statement. Hasan Ali offered him a ball outside off and he aimed an uncontrolled drive. 33-2 was not the sort of start that England wanted and it got worse when Dawid Malan got another fine ball that he could not control. It was 43-3 and all those predictions that the first hour would be difficult were coming true. However, at the other end, another of the patients who has been in intensive care was doing okay, thank you. Alistair Cook has been written off so many times and, like Lazarus, he keeps coming back to life, although you know that he is going to try the Lazarus trick once too often in the end. In partnership with Jonny Bairstow he set about re-building the innings. Together, they brought up the hundred and seemed to have things set in their proper context. Faheem Ashraf bowled one from wide of the crease, the ball evaded the inside edge and crashed into Jonny Bairstow’s stumps.

Even then things seemed to be settling down again. Cook got his fifty, Ben Stokes played himself in sensibly before unleashing a massive six. There seemed every chance of a score around 350 that looked likely to be a winning total. Instead, England provided the sort of pusillanimous collapse that was embarrassing in its scope. 149-4 became 184ao and the Pakistan team could not believe their luck. The lower order were awful. Pakistan were inspired. They bowled like demons, caught everything and England had no answers.

England needed a devastating response but, instead, the bowling has been dreadfully off-colour. Stuart Broad has looked a new man in the early season, quicker, more accurate, more consistent and Jimmy Anderson was bowled into the ground in Australia because he often was the only one who had the batsmen under control. To back them up, we had Ben Stokes, back to full fitness and a full run-up and Mark Wood, with his extra pace. Unfortunately, when the bowlers got their line right, the length was too short and vice-versa. Mark Wook averaged high 80s, which was what England wanted and sent down one ball at over 90mph, but one feed-backer talked about his “probing thirteenth stump line”, which more or less summed it up: it is not just about pace, it is quality pace. Broad did get an early wicket but, after it, there never seemed any danger of a Pakistan collapse. England needed Pakistan 40-4 at the Close and no worse than 50-3 but, instead, it is 50-1 and, unless England have a really good first session, the match may be almost over by Tea on the second day. It seems all too familiar from the 1^st Test in New Zealand: in a 2-match series, a poor start means that the series may be lost before it has even properly started.

The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for the penultimate over of the day. On came Dom Bess to a huge ovation, which must have made him feel pretty good. Five really nice deliveries, with flight, drift and air. The last was a little short and went to the boundary, but enough there to suggest that if he gets into some rhythm he may make the batsmen think a bit. One would like to think that he will have his maiden Test wicket before Lunch on Day 2.

Which Pakistan were going to turn up at Lord’s? It was the tiger.

England though, do not look like tiger hunters.

England v Pakistan: 1st Test Preview - And the Winner is… Dom Bess!

 

England v Pakistan: 1^st Test Preview

And the Winner is… Dom Bess!

May 23^rd 2018

First: an apology… I never did wrap up the New Zealand series. Disappointment at the outcome – when you take wickets with the first two balls of the day and it is all downhill from there, it takes some effort to dredge up the effort to write. New Zealand held out comfortably for the draw and took the series. England were not good enough. New Zealand were good value for their win and deserved it thoroughly.

Then, a heavy schedule at work was followed by being signed-up by the View from the Outfield website to report on County cricket – if you don’t know View from the Outfield, you can find it at viewfromtheoutfield.com: it is well worth a read – which is taking two or three hours out of many of my evenings.

Another season, another series. Pakistan are the warm-up act for the summer’s main series against India, with an ODI series against Australia sandwiched in between. For England, this summer bears a depressing similarity to 2014, when England played after a 5-0 defeat in Australia, then lost for the first time at home to Sri Lanka and were being thoroughly outplayed by India before Moeen Ali went from being “Moeen Who??” to being “the beard that is feared”.

There is an irony in the fact that, having been a fixture in the England side for four years since his Lord’s debut against Sri Lanka in 2014, Moeen was almost certainly not even mentioned by the selectors for this Test. In India and Australia over the last two winters, England have given debuts to Liam Dawson, Zafir Ansari, Mason Crane and Jack Leach. Ansari has retired. Liam Dawson’s star has faded to the extent that he is unlikely to play another Test. Crane is just coming back from serious injury and now it is the turn of Jack Leach, who took Mason Crane’s place in New Zealand when Crane was injured, to have a serious injury himself.

While short-sighted curmudgeons have been moaning about playing on “the beach at Taunton”, England are seeing it pay dividends. Jack Leach was one of the few successes on the Lion’s tour to the Caribbean and his spin-twin, Dom Bess, also came out of that tour with great credit with a maiden century (in the post-Lions, Champion county match) and wickets. He may have played only sixteen First Class matches and he may not be a regular in the Somerset side but, when he plays, he has often been lethal. Twenty years old and averaging four wickets per match in his short career, astute followers of the county game have known for a year that his Test match debut was just a matter of time: most people expected to be against Sri Lanka in the Autumn but, the attrition rate of spinners means that he will get an early chance to impress. Lest we forget, Alf Valentine had only played TWO First Class matches before he set about destroying the England batting in 1950.

It could all end in tears – England have tried spinner after spinner since the decline and fall of Swann and Monty – but remember that Nathan Lyon was the thirteenth spinner to be tried by Australia in a short space of time and he seems to have done okay.  There are plenty of cricketing reasons to believe that, come this Autumn, in Leach and Bess, England will take to Sri Lanka their most potent spin combination since 2011.

Do not expect miracles from Dom Bess. He has taken just one wicket so far this season on the seam-friendly pitches, as Somerset have relied so far on pace, but this game will be about his temperament and readiness. Bess will play, as England have already stated that he will provide the variety in a seam-heavy attack.

For England there are many questions:

·       Has Alistair Cook still got the hunger to score big runs? In 2017 he was scoring runs for fun for Essex before the Tests. In 2018, he has managed 84, 0, 26, 37 and 66. After a pretty dreadful winter, there is enough there to show that he is getting some form back but, will it last into the Pakistan Tests?

·       Mark Stoneman is lucky to hold his place. He scored 4x50 during the winter and bettered his best Test score three times, falling in single-figures just twice in seven Tests, but still has not passed 60. Can he make a definitive contribution and seal his place? He has reached 20 four times in seven innings this season for Surrey, but has yet to reach 30. In contrast, Keaton Jennings is on a run of 109, 126, 136, 73 and 69 for Lancashire. If Jennings can maintain this prolific form, it will be hard to ignore him.

·       What about Joe Root at #3? He prefers to bat at 4. It is well-chronicled that it is a long time since Root has converted a 50 into a century: he has been scoring 50s a-plenty, but the difference between the two sides in Australia was often the relative contributions of the captains. Can Root score big runs at #3 and improve his conversion statistics?

·       Is Ben Stokes ready for Tests again? We already know that he will miss one of the Tests against India as his charge for affray will come up in Bristol Crown Court, where he faces a possible sentence of three years in prison. How distracted is he by what is coming up and by the media circus that will follow him?

·       What about Jos Buttler? He will bat at 7 with a licence to play with freedom. However, he played just one red-ball game in 2017 and has struggled to adapt to Tests. Can he harness his incredible talents in Tests? His form, opening, in the IPL has been extraordinary, but that is a very different problem to batting in a Test.

·       Which way will England jump with the fourth seamer: Chris Woakes or Mark Wood? Woakes was bitterly disappointing in Australia and Mark Wood can hardly say that he seized his opportunity in New Zealand with both hands. Can either cut it long-term at Test level?

·       And, the $64000 question: how long have Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson got left? Anderson was masterful in Australia and Stuart Broad looks to be back to his best, but England know that Anderson is on borrowed time and Broad may have only two years left in him at this level, even if his form continues to justify his place.

Last time Pakistan toured England, they shared the series, celebrated wins with press-ups. They also became #1 in the ICC Test rankings to boot. Now they are #7 having barely won a match since. They beat Ireland, but not after Tim Murtagh and Kevin O’Brien gave them an almighty scare (in the end they were relieved to scramble over the line) and have been depressingly badly treated with the warm-ups, by having games against the hapless Northants and a weak Leicestershire: as preparation goes for a Test series the ECB should be embarrassed and ashamed by their lack of generosity as hosts.

It is quite likely that just four of the eleven players who faced England at Lord’s less than two years ago will be in the Pakistan XI. Like England, they desperately need a strong showing for their own credibility. Pakistan are mercurial: perhaps the most naturally talented cricketers in the world, they get too easily distracted by what they see as on and off-the-field conspiracies and, as a result, disintegrate far too easily. Just as England have to learn to cope with pitches taking big turn in India and the UAE, India and Pakistan have to learn to cope with a tinge of green in the pitch in England without screaming “foul!!” Cricket is intended to be played on grass and, in a wet and humid country, grass tends to grow green.

The bad news for England is that even a 2-0 series win – which seems to be totally implausible – will barely gain any ranking points: England need to win 1-0 even to stand still. Pakistan will remember what Sri Lanka did in 2014 and know that England are vulnerable and that there are questions against the name of almost every player in the XI; the Pakistanis will be only too happy to deepen the England crisis and are quite capable of doing it if they can retain their focus.

New Zealand v England: 2nd Test, Days 1 & 2 - Dr Jekyll and Mr England

 

New Zealand v England: 2^nd Test, Days 1 & 2

Dr Jekyll and Mr England

March 31^st 2018

In the classic story, Dr Jekyll takes his potion and changes from his mild-mannered persona into the raging Mr Hyde. England swallowed a dose of Vince, Wood and Leach (it sounds like something that Macbeth’s witches would brew up) and, suddenly, if not the raging Mr Hyde, at least they transformed into something that looked like a proper cricket team. Mind you, there was a moment when Mark Wood was hammering the ball to all parts, when there was a bit of Mr Hyde and even more when Stuart Broad was hurtling in with the new ball, bowling with a pace and menace that he has not shown for a couple of years.

Having announced that Ben Stokes would not be fit to bowl and dropped Moeen and Woakes, everything indicated that England would play Overton instead of Vince. Bemusement would a mild way of expressing the reaction to the news that Overton had been replaced by Vince in what appeared to be a four-man attack. The fact that neither Woakes nor Overton have looked like taking wickets meant that both were luxuries who would only play a holding role to rest Broad and Anderson. In that sense it was a sensible decision to try to add some bite to the attack. Woakes’s fall from grace since his triumphant summer has been complete.

When you are put in on what seems to be an excellent batting pitch, it can only be because the opposition fancies its chances of imposing another embarrassment on a batting line-up that seems to lack all confidence. . The decision seemed to be justified and everything following the script, when Alistair Cook fell cheaply… again and James Vince got a start and gave it away… again. 6-1, 38-2 and a strong sense of “here we go again”. Why Vince was preferred to Livingstone is a mystery to all but the team management – surely England would have learnt more by trying-out a second debutant? At the same time, what does one make of Alistair Cook’s sequence? His last 18 Test innings have been 10, 243, 11, 23, 10, 17, 2, 7, 37, 16, 7, 14, 244*, 39, 10, 5, 2 & 2. When he gets a start, he is a run machine, but there is no score between 39 and 243! Are Cook’s powers waning? Or are two big double centuries worth a number of failures? Over the last 12 months he averages only a fraction under 40, which is a much better number than many of his colleagues, but more than half his runs have been in just two of his twenty-five innings, meaning that the opposition frequently starts with the huge boost of his wicket falling quickly.

Further traditions were honoured. After a dodgy start, Mark Stoneman seemed to be on the point of the breakthrough innings that he needed. And Joe Root, back at 4, owed England a big score. Fifty partnership with increasing comfort – could this be Stoneman’s big day? Could Root turn a fifty into a century? Not a bit of it! In the space of nine balls England slipped from a relatively comfortable 93-2 to a punch-drunk 94-5, with the wolves baying for blood. Two more batsmen had made a start and given it away.

On this occasion, England did not disintegrate. Freed of the malign influence of Todd Astle’s long-hops, Jonny Bairstow was able to remember that he is a very fine batsman. A fifty partnership with Stokes, another mini-collapse and then Wood and Leach suggested that, in the second innings, both will bat ahead of Stuart Broad. Wood showed the benefit of having a crazy horse keen to catch the eye in the side, by flogging tiring bowling to all parts. Even when Wood fell to the last delivery before the new ball, Leach showed that he is a much better bat than he was when he came into the Somerset side. In the end, 307ao was disappointing only because one thought that Bairstow, Wood and Leach were batting so well that 350 was within reach.

307 looks like 500 when the opposition is 17-4 and Stuart Broad is bowling like a demon with pace and fire. Tradition though was respected and England allowed the New Zealand middle-order to recover in the same way that their own had. However, with a wicket just before the Close, an end open and the new ball due, New Zealand's tail will need to weather Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson a lot better than their top order did. And, surprise! It was not a four-man attack: Ben Stokes has had a short spell and had a couple of good shouts and, always assuming that he has no reaction, will be lying in wait in case Broad and Anderson cannot do the job on their own (so far the four opening bowlers have all sixteen wickets in this Test).

With Jack Leach bowling nicely and the occasional ball turning big, a first innings lead of 70-80 will look like a mountain to New Zealand. If England can set 300, Jack Leach may well be the key to winning, with attacking fields and pressure on the batsmen. One can dream…

Meanwhile, in the Champion County match, Jack Leach’s partner in crime at Taunton, Dom Bess, was taking eight wickets and scoring a century. Moeen Ali may have watched this development with some concern because next Winter’s tour is to Sri Lanka and there is every chance that Leach and Bess will team up there as if it were just another day in Taunton. With England looking at the possibility of almost any combination of Cook, Stoneman, Gubbins, Robson and Hameed opening against Pakistan in May, it is quite possible that the England side could have a very different look to it come October. There is also the option that the top three in Sri Lanka *could* be Gubbins, Hameed and Jennings, with Jennings dropping to #3 where some think that he may be more successful. There is talent there. There are options. At present Gubbins is injured and Hameed and Jennings are short of runs, but a good start to the season for them could see the current top three following the first squad announcement of the summer very nervously.

New Zealand v England: 1st Test, Day 4 - The Clock Ticking for Cook and England, While a Bomb Explodes Under Australia

 

New Zealand v England: 1^st Test, Day 4

The Clock Ticking for Cook and England, While a Bomb Explodes Under Australia

March 25^th 2018

Despite the fact that only thirteen balls were possible on Day 3, the match situation had not really changed: Day 4 was simply a matter of how long New Zealand would bat before declaring and how many they would set England to avoid an innings defeat.

When you have only scored 58 in your first innings, to bat again needing 369 to avoid an innings defeat or, what is the same, to survive 145 overs, is the toughest of assignments. Assuming that they score at 3-an-over on the 5^th Day, England will not knock off the deficit until just 19 overs remain to play. That would mean effectively leaving New Zealand no more than 4 or 5 overs maximum to chase, if they are to avoid defeat.

However, after the events across in Cape Town, to see a match in which the only issue has been the battle between bat and ball, has been a refreshing change. And when Trent Boult produced a brilliant last over, just as England’s hopes were rising of mounting an astonishing 5^th Day escape, no one in the press conference afterwards asked him about what grade of sandpaper he recommends using to rough-up the ball.

Many things can be said of England, but the total lack of any threat posed by the England bowling in this Test shows that ball-tampering is not one of them. The biggest disappointment of the Test is to see how England’s much-vaunted seamers, who look so good in England, have been made to look so second-rate by the New Zealand seamers, who have been so superior.

Unfortunately, even if England do somehow escape, their questions about the side have scarcely been answered. Alistair Cook fell cheaply again. Scores of 5 & 2 are not going to answer the doubts that he has the appetite to continue to score big Test runs on a regular basis. Since the start of the winter tour he has only reached 50 twice, one of them in the Townsville knockabout, the other, his monumental 244* in Melbourne. In 11 of 17 innings he has reached double figures, yet he has rarely made it count. Runs last summer and runs at Melbourne have left him with plenty of credit in the bank, but the suspicion is growing that his international career may not have much longer to run.

Similarly, his opening partner, Mark Stoneman has also left the big question unanswered. This is his 9^th Test. After being one of only two batsmen to get into double figures in England’s sad first innings, he scored a gritty 50 here – his fourth in Tests – only to give it away immediately. Nothing can hide the fact that, despite 4x50 in Tests, his highest score is only 56, his Test average, 27 and his First Class average is only 35. One suspects that only a century in the 2^nd Test will save his career and that if either Nick Gubbins or Sam Robson starts the season well, one or other of them will open with Alistair Cook against Pakistan at Lord’s on May 24^th. With several rounds of Championship matches before that 1^st Test, there will be opportunities for a batsman to put down a marker.

With Stoneman and Root batting comfortably, England seemed to be starting to wriggle free. This looked like the opportunity that Stoneman had been waiting for to make a century and to settle arguments about his place. He was confident enough to reach his 50 with a big six, before giving it away in the most Vince-like fashion. Come May, he may live to rue that shot.

With James Vince apparently defenestrated, the second burning question was about Joe Root at 3. Could he make a success of it? A double-failure for Root in this Test, combined with a fit Ben Stokes, could just have seen James Vince make a comeback in the 2^nd Test. Root also reached his fifty just before the Close and looked increasingly comfortable until Trent Boult ratcheted-up his pace and hostility in his last two overs before the Close. It did not take Mensa-like intelligence to work out that if England reached the Close two-down with Root and Malan batting well, their chances of survival start to grow considerably.

Root fell for a two-card trick and, possibly, his own need to show that he would not retreat under any circumstances. When Boult hit his bottom hand a wicked blow with the fourth ball of the last over of the day, Root decided to bat on after treatment when a more pragmatic approach would have been to retire hurt. Had he done that, the umpires would have signalled the Close. Root though is tough enough to check out of hospital and come out to bat even when evidently in no fit state to do so. Glove back on. Take guard again. Wicked bouncer. Gloved to the ‘keeper. 94-1 and beginning to get out of the mire had become 132-3 and a renewed struggle to take the game even as far as Tea tomorrow.

Ben Stokes will have one ball of the over to survive from a fired-up Boult in the morning before he and Malan have to set about blunting the attack.

Escape is unlikely. It will need yet another big innings from Malan, supported by runs from Stokes, Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Woakes to pull it off. But then, hope springs eternal and that is why hundreds of thousands of fans will tune-in after midnight… just in case.

What to make though of events in South Africa?

When the series started it looked brutally one-sided. In the 1^st Test Australia were all over South Africa and looked set to win comfortably, as they had done in previous series in South Africa. The change in the 2^nd Test though was as big as it was unexpected. What set off the change was a series of controversial incidents, including on and off-field confrontations between players and then between players and crowd. As the series heated-up, the crowd became more and more hostile and suddenly the Australian team discovered that getting it back is nothing like as enjoyable as handing it out without fear of reprisal and have increasingly lost focus.

Over the years the Australian team has based much of its success on the idea that visiting teams should be abused as much as possible on and off the field. This has included the request from Darren Lehmann for the public to target Stuart Broad and to make his life hell. While, of course, neither coach nor players can control barracking and abuse from the crowd, nor such tactics as setting off the fire alarm in the visiting team’s hotel during the night, or waking players with early morning telephone calls requesting radio interviews, nor have they done anything to condemn such behaviour. They regard it as part of the hospitality service to be offered to visiting teams, while crude, on-field, personal abuse is regarded as necessary to play the game in the right spirit.

When Darren Lehmann said that the abuse that his players were receiving had “crossed the line” there was a certain irony to his comments given what many players have received from Australian players and crowds without censure. As one broadcaster and writer on the English game pointed out, “the line” seemed to be positioned wherever was most convenient for Australian interests at any given time.

What this series – and others – has shown is that when a side refuses to be intimidated by Australian aggression and starts to give it back, the Australians lose focus and can disintegrate themselves.

However, do we really want world cricket to turn into a contest to see which set of players and its fans can be most yobbish? England can smirk, but they themselves have been involved in some distasteful incidents in the past.

There are many alarming aspects of the latest incident. All sides push the limits when they can. All sides resort, at least occasionally, to tactics that are dubious or are gamesmanship. And all sides do like their home support to give them a hand. And, of course, it is different when they are on the receiving end rather than handing it out. Not all sides though sit down and have an open, tour management discussion on how best to cheat when things are not working on the field. And yes, it was cheating when other sides have done it and it is cheating when Australia do it too.

There are still many aspects of what happened that are unclear. Surely neither Cameron Bancroft nor the captain seriously believed that no camera would pick up their attempts to rough-up the ball.  How believable is the story that it was some dirty sticky tape that had been used on the ball? Plenty of people watching the images saw something that looked much more like sandpaper, which would surely be far more effective anyway than some dirty sticky tape. Have the players actually come clean even now? How much did Darren Lehmann know and have to do with the plan?

As in the case of Watergate, the original crime was not such a bad one – the umpires did not even change the ball, considering that its state had not been altered – but the clumsy and incompetent cover-up made it infinitely worse. Bancroft’s comic attempts to hide the evidence and willingness to lie to the umpires when challenged, made things far worse than if he had come straight out and confessed. The intention was to damage the ball, even if the execution owed more to Monty Python than to Professor James Moriaty. And, of course, video has come to light of Cameron Bancroft apparently doing something underhand in the dressing room during the Ashes series, meaning that he is now marked with previous.

As a Gloucestershire supporter, I am very glad that Mr Bancroft will not be representing my county this summer and I know that other Gloucestershire fans feel the same. The fall-out is only starting. Bancroft has signed with Somerset, who have put out a statement to the effect that the decision on his contract is under review. Certainly, if Bancroft were to come to Somerset, his reputation would precede him and would be a major on and off-field distraction. Bancroft’s position in the Australian side is far from secure (despite runs in this Test, his average is hovering just over 30 after 8 Tests) – hence perhaps his willingness to play along – and it would be easy to drop him on the pretext of not scoring enough runs.

There are loud calls for Steve Smith to be stripped of the captaincy. Probity as captain of your national team is important: Mike Atherton got away with it, probably because he had a reputation as a decent person and captain who had made a bad mistake, but Keith Fletcher, Mike Gatting and Andrew Flintoff, quite rightly, did not and Ian Botham’s off-field antics ensured that he was never given a second chance. However, there are rumours that Cricket Australia are so horrified by the negative publicity generated by the whole affair and the fact that it was so pre-meditated, that they are considering life bans for Smith and Warner. As a legendary South African captain of the end of the 20^th Century found out: you cheat, you get caught, you face the consequences. Not too many Boards are willing to overlook such matters in the face of public opinion.

In the English language the word “cheat”, or an accusation of cheating, has huge emotional consequences and the word has been used a lot to describe what happened. In the infamous Shakoor Rana incident with Mike Gatting, the trigger was the umpire observing Gatting move a fielder behind square, where the batsman could not see the change, stopping play (no “dead ball” call though) and, telling Gatting that he was a cheat (the English version) or, in the umpire’s version, “you are making unfair play”. The word “cheat” inflaming passions to the point that Gatting snapped.

If Smith and Warner do go, it will be a massive blow to the Australian side, but would be a huge PR coup, showing that after all, Australians do want to win by fair means and not foul. It also remains to be seen if Darren Lehmann can ride out this storm: his position would become very difficult.

The remainder of the South African tour is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, anyway. How do you recover from an issue of this kind? And let us not forget that Australia tour England this summer for an ODI series and that Smith and Warner (and conceivably, Bancroft) would form part of that touring squad.

New Zealand v England: 1st Test Preview - Rehabilitation, or Further Humiliation?

 

New Zealand v England: 1^st Test Preview

Rehabilitation, or Further Humiliation?

March 21^st 2018

I have left this Blog fallow for two months. To be honest, the constant grind of yet more white-ball matches all got a bit too much. And, England reverted to type, winning the first and last matches of their T20 segment, in both cases, meaningless victories (one, a big win in a warm-up, the other too little, too late), before what was admittedly a cracker of a ODI series, with New Zealand where, against all logic, England, who are supposed to be vulnerable in low-scoring games and invincible in high-scoring ones, lost the two games in which the bat dominated and won the three in which the ball was king (at least, it was king when New Zealand were batting). Nothing to get very excited about there.

The two warm-ups for the Tests have been the McDonalds Happy Meal of cuisine: not even a Quarter Pounder to get your teeth into… two, two day games in which both sides would bat for 90 overs, no matter how many wickets they lost. It resulted in some slightly unusual scorecards – e.g. New Zealand XI, 287-13 – and Glenn Phillips failing both as an opener and as a #13 bat, but little else. Almost everyone got a bat, although James Vince, bless him, might be wishing that he had not, as his two innings have placed his name firmly on the list of endangered species… as a Test player, at least.

England have been left with a couple of fine conundra:

·       First – Can Ben Stokes play as a 4^th seamer? He has not bowled since the ODIs, having finished them with some back stiffness (as I have also had some for the last week, I can vouch for the fact that it is not funny). If he cannot, everything indicates that he will play as a specialist bat at #5, which moves everyone else down one place, but also means that an extra bowler is needed.

·       Second – What to do about #3?

England have many options. Some will make James Vince more nervous than others.

If an extra bowler is needed, Mark Wood and Craig Overton are the likely options. Mark Wood played in the first game, Craig Overton in the second. It is fair to say that Anderson and Wood were pretty devastating with the new ball, but that 30-5 and 103-6, became 357-7 and Mark Wood’s figures, by then, were looking a lot less impressive. In the second game, Craig Overton did what Craig Overton does: had a decent bowl, took a wicket, but did not look like running through the opposition, although he kept things tight. However, if either plays, a batsman will need to be sacrificed and that is most likely to be James Vince, with Dawid Malan likely to be pitched in at #3, as Ben Stokes will have taken his own regular spot.

Even if Ben Stokes can bowl – and the indications are that he will be able to – James Vince still cannot relax, because there is a case for replacing him with the impressive Liam Livingstone, who made the highest score for England in either game. However, a measure of just how bad the things were in the Unofficial Tests that the Lions played in the Caribbean is that his scores of 21, 1, 0 & 48 have marked him as one of the relatively successful batsmen in that train wreck. There was even a further option and that was playing Mason Crane, until he had to be sent home injured. Whatever the concerns about Moeen Ali’s form and confidence, which were to a degree alleviated in the second game, playing Mason Crane’s stand-in stuntman, Jack Leach, is not an option.

Whoever is selected – and careers are on the line, particularly in the case of Stoneman and Vince – New Zealand are going to be a formidable test at home. The gloomier predictions are that the series could be lost 2-0. The New Zealand pace attack is formidable in their own conditions and, in terms of depth, reckoned by many to be the best attack that New Zealand has every fielded. The series will be decided by which batting line-up is best able to resist the devastation that the opposition bowling attack can cause. For England, to have a top three who have struggled for runs, pitted against an attack willing to test them to the limit, is not a happy thought. It will be sink or swim but, if it is “swim”, at least no one will be able to suggest that Wagner, Boult and Southee have not been a real test for the batsmen and that they have scored easy runs against a popgun attack.

Alistair Cook has, apart from one big innings, struggled this winter. Mark Stoneman makes defiant fifties, but not enough of them, and has got out soon after reaching fifty each time. And, poor James Vince, makes pretty fifteens, twenties and, sometimes, thirties and then gets out in identikit fashion almost every time.

The feeling is that Alistair Cook’s double century in the 4^th Test should have re-ignited his appetite both for runs and for Test cricket. However, another poor series would undoubtedly start the speculation again. Cook is one of those players who either looks as if he could score tons of runs batting with a stick of rhubarb… or looks as if he *IS* batting with a stick of rhubarb. For one of the modern greats he has had a lot of dreadful runs of form. You only hope that whatever pep-talk Alice, his in-house guru and psychologist has given him over Christmas and the New Year, it has been brutally effective.

No one, bar a few air-heads, should want a player to fail. England fans – and maybe the management too – would be forgiven though for wanting James Vince to define himself one way of the other. He has two Test fifties – good, fighting ones too – but that is only one per ten Test innings: not enough. His last ten matches over three different formats, have been indicative of the enigma that is the Vince Phenomenon. Eleven innings, just two single-figure scores, but out between 10 and 26 no fewer than six times and no innings higher than 45. He gets in, looks world class and then gets out. Nick Compton knows that even two centuries in a series against New Zealand offers no career security, but one begins to hope that he will either be brilliant, ending the talk about his place for a few Tests at least, or incompetent, so that he can be dropped with no guilty feelings. What no one wants is for him to get, say, three starts and a “small” fifty, which will prove nothing one way or the other. The feeling though is that he is very lucky to be in New Zealand and is unlikely to figure in the summer series.

Mark Stoneman is in both a slightly better and a slightly worse situation. Better, because over the winter he has so far scored 5x50 and 1x100, although only two of the 50s have come in Tests. There is no question that Mark Stoneman can grit out brave runs. The bad news is that he has got out immediately after reaching 50 each time that he has done it in Tests. Worse, while no one can agree over a convincing replacement for James Vince, there is a queue of players lining-up behind Mark Stoneman. Nick Gubbins is scoring big runs pre-season. Sam Robson had a prolific start to the 2017 season. Keaton Jennings has shown that he can score Test runs and is Lions captain. And Haseeb Hameed is beginning to show some signs that he may finally be getting back a little form.

There are plenty of other sub-plots: how will Stuart Broad respond to the double challenge of being on 399 wickets and not getting the new ball? Will we see the Chris Woakes of last summer, or the Chris Woakes of the Ashes? Will Moeen Ali re-affirm his position after a poor Ashes series? Can Joe Root start turning 50s into centuries? Which set of bowlers will come out on top? And, not, but not least, how will New Zealand react to the pressure of being favourites for the series?

Ashes 2017/18: 4th Test Day 3 - And For My Next Trick…

 

Ashes 2017/18: 4^th Test Day 3

And For My Next Trick…

December 28^th 2017

I suppose that if, at Lunch on Day 1, you had suggested that England would be pushing for an innings victory, would put on 100 for the ninth wicket and that Stuart Broad would make a major all-round contribution in this Test, you would have been locked-up as certifiable.

It makes a nice change to want to sit down and write, rather than find it an unpleasant chore in the face of another hopeless position.

The crazy thing is that it should have been so much better. If Vince was daft not to review his LBW – especially as Cook advised him to – what do you make of Malan getting a BIG edge to a ball well outside off stump and not reviewing? Malan’s LBW would not have hit the stumps even if he had not hit the ball… hard. And Stuart Broad must consider that he was somewhat unfortunate to be given out, as a more benevolent Third Umpire might well have considered that the ball had slipped out of Khawaja’s hands and was on the ground when he rolled on it (Australian fans, remembering Nottingham 2013, might not be so charitable – these things usually even-out in the end). You have to suspect that England left a hundred or so runs out there because of poor decisions and not just those of the umpires.

At 306-6 Australia must have been thinking of getting an unexpected first innings lead. Batsmen were getting in and getting out. And the last four wickets have not exactly inconvenienced Australia through the series. If anyone in the tail were to stand with Cook and add vital runs you would probably have said that it would be Woakes, or maybe at a stretch, Jimmy Anderson with some last-ditch defiance with the great position at the start of the day already wasted. No one would have expected Stuart Broad to recall that, not so long ago, people talked of him batting at #7 as a genuine all-rounder.

It is easy to forget that Stuart Broad has a better Test batting *and* bowling averages against Australia than his career figures: not by much, but enough to disprove those who suggest that he does not perform often enough against them. This has been his fourth fifty against Australia and first since Nottingham 2013. He says that he tried to be more aggressive bowling in this Test and it shows and has infused his batting with more confidence too. Many people thought that maybe he should be stood down from this Test and that Curran or Wood should replace him. Like Alistair Cook though, he has put his hand up big time.

What can you say about Cook? He says that he expected to be dropped from the team for the 5^th Test had he not made a score and there is undoubtedly a suspicion that England would have played Jennings and Stoneman – the former Durham opening pair – as openers in the Final Test if Cook’s struggles had continued. So often in this series Cook has looked totally lost. If Australia can put down their superiority to any factor it has been the runs from Steve Smith, far more than their bowlers. Had Smith managed Alistair Cook’s run of scores in the first three matches England would certainly have won at least one of them so, it is a pleasant change to see the balance tilt the other way: not even Smith's efforts have kept Australia level in this match.

Alistair Cook has this knack of suddenly producing a huge innings when he has no right to. Since his monumental 189 at Sydney in January 2011 he has passed fifty eight times against Australia, but just twice got past 72. His first ten Tests against Australia over two series were saved by just two innings of note, with just one other score past 30, before producing a sequence of 67, 235*, 148, 32, 13, 82 & 189 in 2010/11. He will undoubtedly flay attacks raw in the Championship come April, but one wondered if that ultimate edge was still there. Now we know that it is. Remove one Australian bowler. Have another bowl some overs at reduced pace and, suddenly, the eye is in, the confidence is back and, even with a fully healthy attack on Day 3, Cook was playing like it was Chelmsford in May against an under-strength county attack, rather than much the same bowlers who had been giving him the screaming meamies for three Tests.

The discussion about the places of Cook and Broad for the Sydney Tests is over.

Finally, Australia are learning the pain and frustration of having to bowl over after pitiless over against well-set batsmen in uncomfortable bowling conditions of very high humidity, after a hot day yesterday and are not enjoying it one jot. Five sessions in the field with stretched resources is suggesting that England have not been wrong in asserting that had the Australian pace attack not made it through the first three Tests without issues the result might have been far closer. Or, put another way, if Australia had been missing as many bowlers as England are, they would have struggled themselves. One gets the feeling that Australia like being the bullies, but are not so keen when they are on the receiving end of it, or that conditions are not stacked in their favour.

There has been some debate as to whether or not Joe Root should have declared. No, he should not have. The lead is only 164 and Joe Root has bigger fish to fry. Cook and Anderson have so far added 18 – Anderson with 0* from 15 balls – and Root knows that three important landmarks are coming up: the Cook 250, the England 500 and a lead of 180. Tick them off, one by one. Make the Australian attack continue to tire and frustrate itself (the fact that Smith ended the day with the unthreatening Bird and Marsh bowling suggests strongly that he is into “energy conservation mode” for his main bowlers) and look to have enough for Australia to start to worry about the innings defeat. With a lead of 180 that result comes into consideration. England, and particularly Joe Root, who has come in for some pretty nasty criticism from the Australian media, will be keen to add some payback in the form of an innings defeat for Australia to compensate the innings defeat that England suffered in the 3^rd Test.

If Cook continues to farm the strike there is no reason why this partnership cannot continue for a while longer, with the Australians asking themselves when Root is finally going to call a halt.

With two days to come, even if there is some rain around and conditions for once favouring the England bowlers, this is no time to let up or to be merciful.

Ashes 2017/18: 4th Test Days 1 & 2 - What On Earth… Back to 2002?

 

Ashes 2017/18: 4^th Test Days 1 & 2

What On Earth… Back to 2002?

December 27^th 2017

It is Monday December 30^th 2002. England are 3-0 down in the series… again. The series is lost… again. And a tour that began with high hopes of at least putting up a fight, has ended with another awful beating. It started with such an awful insertion by Nassar Hussain in Brisbane that he must still wake up in the night sweating about it. Simon Jones was horribly injured on the first morning of the Test series and young fast bowler Steve Harmison has been unselectable after a 14-ball over in one of the early tour games but, such is the injury crisis facing England that he has had to take the new ball in this Test and racked up figures of 0-103 as Australia finished the first day on 356-3.

Yes, England disasters in Australia are nothing new.

That fifth morning started with Australia needing a token 107 to win, having made England follow-on, 8-0 and looking set to win long before Lunch. I remember tuning-in to Test Match Special. Andy Caddick took a quick wicket, but then Langer and Ponting set about the bowling with gusto and it looked as if the end would be swift. Suddenly Steve Harmison got Rickie Ponting to edge through to James Foster. 58-1 after 11.1 overs became 58-3 in four balls and, amazingly, Caddick and Harmison tore into a terrified Australia. If a catch had not gone down that would have made Australia 94-6 (if memory serves), it is even possible that England might have won.

And, of course, the final Test was won to make the final scoreline 4-1. This was an old tradition in the old years of total Australian dominance, that England would win the final test of a series to add a little respectability to the result. Modern tradition has been that the last two Tests of a series in Australia have been even more excruciating to watch than the live matches.

All through this series there has been a suspicion that the gap between the sides is smaller than has appeared and the Australia’s strength in depth is suspect. For the first time Australia have been unable to repeat their #1 attack of Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins and have had to dip into the reserves. England have lost yet another bowler and are exploring the reserves of County players, with Tom Curran the latest beneficiary.

The first session of the opening day was painfully bad. What do you say when the opposition are 102-0 from 28 overs on what appears to be a perfect batting strip?

Then, England turned-up. The rest of the day saw Australia score 142 runs for the loss of three wickets in 61 overs. It was a different game.

Still, with Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh purring along, the Australians were confident of scoring 500+, as in the corresponding game in 2002 and then letting Cummins, Hazlewood and Bird show that there was plenty in the pitch for their attack.

What happened must have had a lot of fans rubbing their eyes in disbelief. Tom Curran – son of Gloucestershire stalwart, Kevin – may have missed David Warner’s wicket with a no ball, but he made no mistake with Steve Smith who helped the ball onto the stumps with an aggressive shot.  What a debut for the Surrey lad, who has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water and who could well  (and maybe should) have played the 3rd Test too. Then Woakes did for Mitch Marsh the same way. Surely not?

Paine and Shaun Marsh started to build a stand and you instinctively thought that those two early wickets were just sent to build up hope so that it could be crushed by a big stand. 314-5 and 400, 450, maybe even 500 beckoning still. In nine overs, 54 balls, 314-5 became 327 ao. And, more gloriously still, Stuart Broad looked set for a 5-for until Jimmy Anderson nipped out Nathan Lyon for a ten-ball duck.

Australian fans were gloating. The performance of England’s pop-gun attack showed that the pitch, far from being flat, would have plenty of demons for Cummins and Hazlewood and that Jackson Bird’s height would make him unplayable.

Reality was different. England have lost just two wickets and both were unlucky: Stoneman fell to a tremendous catch from Lyon off his own bowling and Vince clearly edged the ball that got him LBW, but did not review. Even better, an over of filth from Steve Smith allowed Cook to race through the 90s to a century from the last over of the day, with Joe Root one short of his own 50. Pat Cummins has a dickie stomach and has been on and off the pitch and Jackson Bird is showing no great resemblance to “Big Bird” Garner, despite averaging 27.5 with the ball from his first eight Tests.

Of course, we have been here before, most notably in the 3^rd Test, when Malan and Bairstow threatened to take the match away from Australia before the most diabolical collapse set in. However, the first big score by Alistair Cook in an Ashes Test since 2010/11 has heartened the side. If Cook and Root can keep batting on the third morning, who knows what is possible? It is Christmas and a fan can dream...

Afterthought: I wonder what Alice Cook said to her husband on Christmas Day to buck him up? Whatever it was, she should get a tour bonus!