The World T20: Indian Confidence. Irish Dreams Shattered. Englishmen Watching from Behind the Sofa

 

The World T20

Indian Confidence. Irish Dreams Shattered. Englishmen Watching from Behind the Sofa.

 

March 15^th  2016

 

If you read the previews and the views of the fans, there is really no point in holding the World T20: it is all decided. India, playing at home, are overwhelming favourites, despite the fact that no home team has ever won it and the favourites have rarely ended up as the winners. Group 2 looks by far the stronger of the two and the supposition is that the top two in Group 1 will dispute the Final, with India coming out as winners.

The CricInfo poll leaves no doubts. 47.4% of respondents picked India as the team to beat, followed by Pakistan on 19.5%. The teams in Group 2 fill the top three places and five of the top six in the fan poll on the likely winner. In contrast, fewer than 1% of respondents backed England to win – while, to put it in perspective, 2.5% back Afghanistan.

Of course, cricket is not played on paper, nor are results decided by fan polls. The opening group game has seen India humiliated by New Zealand and by an spinner, born in India, who averages 53 in Tests, another who is trying to establish himself in the side and by a veteran who averages 46.9 in ODIs. While the best T20 bowler in the tournament – Ravi Ashwin – took 1-32, Sodhi, McCullum and Santer produced combined figures of 12-0-44-9. While New Zealand scored relatively freely against the Indian spinners, New Zealand’s unheralded trio proved almost unplayable, despite the pre-match prediction that the dew would make picking them suicidal.

The World T20 format though is such that even in this expanded version with more group games, four wins from six matches could see a team lift the trophy. When England won in 2010, how many people remember that they qualified for the second phase despite not winning either group game and could easily have lost to Ireland before rain saved them from potential defeat?

With the World T20 main tournament just starting, without Ireland, who have now slipped to 16^th of the 17 teams with an official T20 ranking, just a fraction ahead of Oman, CricInfo’s Tm Wigmore has produced a very interesting article on the Irish debacle in qualifying (http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-world-twenty20-2016/content/story/982797.html). Aside from the fact that their entire tournament was decided by just two erratic overs in a match that seemed won, with a wash-out in their second game ending their interest, this articles echoes several conversations that I had last week with fans after their elimination: the other Associates and Affiliates are catching up, the Irish attack is beginning to look somewhat long in the tooth (T20 is a young man's game) and there may well have been some relaxing of standards. Overall though, the feeling is that the time of the golden generation is ending. Seven of the Irish squad are 25 & under and the performances of George Dockrell, in particular, were excellent when he got a chance, but the seam attack is all 30+ and was showing it. Tim Murtagh has been poached from England to lead the attack on the tenuous grounds of an Irish grandparent, but will be past 35 at the end of this season. While Tim Murtagh could have played Tests (he was on the fringes) & Boyd Rankin has played one, both are near the end of their careers now: neither should be around for the next World T20: they'll do fine in the Intercontinental Cup due to their experience, but should not play T20 if Ireland are to move forward.

Despite the understandable skepticism of fans who see their current team as simply not good enough, the Irish would, at their peak, have competed well with the lower-ranked Test sides, particularly at home. Their player base is not far short of Zimbabwe's and may well be larger and the facilities are improving. I can well imagine that Zimbabwe and Bangladesh would not have enjoyed an easy time at Stormont or Clontaff and that the West Indies would have found the Irish tough opponents on their home turf. However, the point that many of the Irish do not play regular FC cricket is a good one. Most are cast as limited-overs specialists. Dockrell, once tipped as England's next spinner, languishes in Somerset 2nd XI. The Middlesex Irish are most 2nd XI or limited-overs options and even Tim Murtagh himself knows that given the strength of the Middlesex seam attack he is not guaranteed 1st XI cricket unless there are England calls. Able to call on Tim Murtagh, Toby Roland-Jones, Steve Finn and James Harris, with Tom Helm coming through and Neil Dexter as a very good fourth seamer, it is only the fact that the batting has tended to have the stability of a blancmange that has stopped Middlesex from making a sustained challenge in the Championship. If Tim Murtagh struggles to get regular cricket, as he may, Ireland will have to ask themselves if a 35 year old seamer who was never really express pace is what they need to lead their attack. All the Irish seamers in the World T20 were the wrong side of 30 and started to creak at times. Indeed, one of the unkinder – but not inaccurate – comments was that Murtagh’s new ball partner has shown England, with some erratic overs, just what they were missing when he joined Murtagh in switching allegiance.

If the World T20 had been held immediately after the tour of the UAE, England fans would have felt supremely confident. Having competed hard in the Test series, but lost, England lost the first ODI and the fans predicted a bloodbath; England then won the remaining ODIs and T20s. A young side – and the team in the UAE was little more than a strong Lions team – looked as if their feared no one and could take on and be a match for anyone. A mauling by South Africa changed everything. However, there are reasons to feel that England could do well: in Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali England have two spinners who have shown how well they can tie sides down when there is some help in the pitch. Hales and Roy are giving express starts and the middle order, with Morgan, Buttler and Stokes can turn a match in a few overs and Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Chris Jordan are all capable of producing devastating blitzes at the death. However, the collapse in South Africa in which the last five matches on tour and six of the last eight were all lost illustrates the fragility of the side and why it is just a likely that they come away red-faced as it is that they make the Final. A good New Zealand side was beaten in the warm-up match, with Moeen and Adil Rashid wresting control, but only a few weeks earlier they were well-beaten by the same South African team that will be England’s second opponents here. To be sure of qualifying, England must beat Afghanistan, plus two of West Indies, South Africa and Sri Lanka.

With just 10 points in the ICC T20 table separating New Zealand in 2^nd and Sri Lanka in 8^th, in theory the field is wide open. With the matches being played in India, even Bangladesh, the lowest ranked of the participating teams, should not be discounted. One brilliant innings or an inspired over may be the difference between a side reaching the semi-Finals and being eliminated: once in the semi-Finals, you only need to win two games and so anything can happen. One thing is certain, whoever wins, perfect 20-20 hindsight will make their victory have been inevitable to all.

Starting With Zero Expectation

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Starting With Zero Expectation II

 

March 22^nd 2014

 

England are lucky at the World T20 that they have got what is indisputably the weaker group. India, Pakistan, Australia and the home team, Bangladesh, all go into the other group. In contrast, England face teams that are not well-adapted to Bangladesh: South Africa, weak on spin and, like England, struggling with an uncertain future; Sri Lanka, not the force that they were a few years ago; New Zealand who have been whitewashed in their last two series in Bangladesh (although seemingly on the up) and the surprise package, The Netherlands. England’s luck has held even here: not a few pundits expected Ireland to beat an England team low on confidence and struggling to adapt, probably out of the competition and reeling after more defeats, while Ireland would be playing their ninth game of the tournament. Instead, England will have what should be a much easier opponent.

What happened was pure theatre of the unexpected. The CricInfo text commentator refused even to acknowledge the possibility that qualification from the group was not between Ireland and Zimbabwe. It was a mere anecdote that a big win for The Netherlands could see them leapfrog both. In such circumstances, the best way to increase NRR is to bat first, put up a huge score, and then bowl out your opponent cheaply. The Netherlands decided to bowl, saw Ireland put up a big score – the biggest of the competition by some distance – it looked all over: barely worth mentioning that if The Netherlands chased down the target in 14 overs, they would top the group.  As the batsmen started hammering the ball to all parts, the impossible started to look as if it could happen – the highest number of runs ever in the powerplay; the second fastest 50 ever – as records tumbled but, everyone thought that if one wicket fell, the chase would turn into first a collapse and then a rout.

It did not.

The Netherlands reached their target with several balls to spare, setting more records in their wake – highest run rate in a chase, most sixes, etc. – as well as shell-shocked bowlers. Zimbabwe supporters who started cheering for The Netherlands suddenly realised, to their horror, that the unconsidered enemy had defeated them. The Dutch, dreadful in the warm-ups, have qualified on merit and were superb, beating Ireland and losing to Zimbabwe only to the last ball of the match.

For world cricket it is a fantastic result. For some years Ireland have shown that they can compete with the weakest Full Members, but have been alone. In the World T20, they have been joined by the Dutch, while Nepal, Hong Kong and Afghanistan have all shown flashes of closing the gap to the weaker Full Members right down. And cricket outside the Test world can only be better for knowing that they can hold their own against and, sometimes even overcome, far better funded opponents who have decades of tradition at the top level. For Ireland, actually having lost a game to a fellow Associate may just spur them to even greater things, if a spur were needed still, now that they have a route to Test cricket, with a Full Member play-off and promotion on offer to the best of the rest.

England have lost another player from their squad. However, as it is one whose form was so awful that he could not have played, one wonders if it is actually a very convenient side strain. Luke Wright has been replaced by hard-hitting Craig Kieswetter, now freed of the gloves. Kieswetter is young still (26), has a couple of Big Bash 50s this winter and made his only ODI century in Bangladesh, so his may well be a very good selection to add some beef to the England middle order. Crazy as it may seem, I begin to like the look of the England side and it may only need one win for the team to start to show that they are not there as a supporting act.

The way that the group has panned out, England have a good shot at the semi-Finals and, when you get there, anything can happen. Beat New Zealand and either South Africa or Sri Lanka and the side will qualify. If England lose today, they may struggle to win any match in their group: such is the element of momentum in T20.

In the short formats, form can change fast. I recall how, in 2004/05 England played a 7-match ODI series v South Africa. England won the first and tied the second (GO Jones stumped Hall off Kabir on the last ball of the match). South Africa were on a run of 13 defeats, broken by that tie. They then won the next four to take the series (the 6^th match was washed out).

Last night Pakistan were at their worst against India in a match that, for once, was played on the field rather than being hyped off it, with the actual game merely a side-show. India looked a decent unit, no more. Pakistan cannot play this badly again… can they?

A Cricketing Celebration Of Cultural Diversity

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

A day to celebrate cultural diversity

 

September 4^th

 
 

[09:00 CEST] This was a day to celebrate cultural diversity. A player dubbed “The Lambeth Lara” by Middlesex fans, born in that district of south London, but with Irish grandparents, who opened the bowling with another player who hails from Wollongong, was trumped by a Londoner of Indian descent and a lad from Dublin playing on his home ground against his former team. They were joined by an exciting young player from Zimbabwe who has made his home in Yorkshire, a British citizen by birth who has chosen to defect from Ireland to England, a player with Caribbean roots and a South African with a Danish name who plays for Ireland and a fair number of English and Irish natives representing the country that they love.

If was definitely a bad day to the modern day racists who want to ban international mobility, who think that you cannot be a citizen of a country if you were not born there, even if you come from one of the most famous English cricketing families of all and who cannot stand the thought of non-white players choosing to play for England instead of following their racial heritage (this last is a modern variant on a detestable policy that we thought had disappeared from sport and from life in general in 1991). The fact that Ireland’s most successful bowler had already represented England at U19 level will be ignored in the criticism of England giving a cap to someone who has represented Zimbabwe at U19 level. The game was a living demonstration of the ethnic and cultural diversity that the British Isles offer, something that we are, apparently, to be ashamed of when reflected in our sport.

After 15 overs England were 48-4, chasing 270. Carberry, Wright and Balance had all fallen cheaply. With 4 overs to go in their innings, Ireland had been 229-7 and struggling to reach 250. Trent Johnson and Max Sorenson added 40 in 25 balls and then left things to the Lambeth Lara to show what he could do with the ball. This period of 19 overs in the middle of the match was one of total Irish domination that promised a huge humiliation for England.

Overlooked by England because he has to strain to reach 80mph (there is a joke that, when he bowls a bouncer, the umpires call for drinks while the batsman waits for the ball to arrive), Tim Murtagh showed that guile has its place in cricket. Seeing Murtagh create such problems, Irish captain Will Porterfield made the strategic error of bowling him straight out, hoping to de-rail the England challenge early. It would have worked had one more wicket fallen but, with Murtagh out of the attack for good after 19 overs of the England innings, Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan took a liking to the second and third string bowlers. George Dockrell went for 73 in 10 overs, Kevin O’Brien for 41 off 4, John Mooney for 27 off 3, Paul Stirling for 36 off 5 and, suddenly, the chase looked ridiculously easy. Normally you say “double the total after 30 overs” to get an idea of what the final score will be: 129-4 suggested that England would fall short; in fact, they won with 7 overs to spare,  as 145 runs came from the next 13 overs. With no one to come back and exert control, the game just raced away from Ireland.

Both batsmen had something to prove. Ravi Bopara regularly falls foul of the fans despite a more than respectable record for England overall in limited overs cricket and a superb recent record. Many fans blamed him unfairly for England’s defeat in the Champions Trophy Final. Eoin Morgan had not scored an international 50 for more than 20 innings and, playing so little domestic cricket to showcase his talents (and with such limited returns recently), he was in very real danger of losing his place. They came out in a major crisis and, first, stabilised the innings, before going on the attack. Bopara’s 101 off 75 balls started slowly, but was brutal as the bowling wilted. His last 5 balls went: 4 4 6 4 1 as England scored 51 from the last 3 overs of the innings. Eoin Morgan batted like the Morgan who had demanded a run in the Test side, rather than the sad imitation who had only reached 40 once and had 5 single-figure scores in his last 11 innings in all cricket.

Whereas Bopara had smashed 42 from the last 18 balls that he had faced, Morgan was more stylish and was content to limit himself to 21 off his last 12 balls, allowing his partner to reach a deserved century.

It was a fine game of cricket. No one will pretend that the English performance was not pretty ordinary for much of the game. The Irish defence of 270 was the classic “crust defence” – break through the hard shell and what is behind it does not resist much – but both sides have reasons to be pleased too.

Although the Irish party had gone flat, in all other senses it was a triumph for them. They premiered their new 10000-seat ground, which was full and they gave England a real test while, just across the Irish Sea, Scotland were crashing to one of the heaviest ODI defeats in the history of the format, showing the huge gulf in class between the two old celtic rivals. Australia were ruthless, running up 362-3 after a very slow start and winning by 200 runs, despite some late defiance by the Scots.

One hopes that the ICC were watching. Ireland have a set-up that is a lot more professional than several of the Test sides that are reluctant to let them join the top table, however much they deserve to.

Ireland Hope To Embarrass Their Neighbours

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

England’s young squad hope to avoid embarrassment

 

September 3^rd

 
 

[09:00 CEST] Before even thinking about Australia, England’s young guns, missing the five players from the Ashes squad who are rested after the tough Ashes summer, have to see off an Ireland team made up, almost exclusively, of their county colleagues.

England’s team is made up of a number of players who are on the fringes of the Test side and in the ODI set-up, most of them still young, and who know that good performances with greatly enhance their chances of lucrative central contracts and tours, plus a sprinkling of emerging players such as Gary Ballance who have been in exceptional form this season. For England this is an opportunity to give a game to some of the players such as Finn, Rankin, Carberry, Taylor and Tredwell who will be needed at some stage and are part of England’s strength in depth, while seeing what players such as Overton, Stokes and Jordan can do. Not everyone is happy that England are resting players, but the same squad will play against Australia in the ODIs that start on Friday. England play their first fixture in Australia on October 31^st and some of the players who have already played 10 Tests in 2013 and face five more by the end of the Christmas season, do need a break.

Make no mistake though, this is a game against a decent side who are more than capable of winning if England have a bad day. Were England to lose it would be seen as a massive embarrassment, rather than being a deserved success for a strong and increasingly professional Irish outfit who can justifiable claim to be as good as, or better than, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh.
 
Even a lot of England fans would like to see Ireland do well in this fixture as they search for some way to get Test cricket in the future. Ireland’s problem is two-fold. First, the ICC is a delicate balance between the Asian and non-Asian nations right now. Not all interests are happy at the thought that another country may come in to alter that balance. Similarly, there is some concern that adding another weak Test side to join Zimbabwe and the too rapidly promoted Bangladesh would dilute the Test programme (and the lucrative TV money) too much, although the people who advocate this line most strenuously are the ones who do not want to affect the political balance in the ICC. Either way, obstacles are put in the way of Ireland who have done far more that Sri Lanka or Bangladesh had done in international cricket before their promotion (Zimbabwe was a slightly different case as it already had an established First Class programme in place for its players, first through the Currie Cup and then through its own inter-provincial tournament).
Right now, Ireland’s biggest single step is to convince the BCCI that it deserves promotion and will not rock the boat if promoted. That is going to be a very tricky task.