England v Pakistan: 1^st Test, Day 2

After Miserable Thursday, Awful Friday

May 25^th 2018

If you were an optimist, you would look at the close of play situation on Day 1 and see England still well ahead, with a chance to get right back into the game on the second morning. If luck and biorhythms were right, England could even squeeze out a small first innings lead. The alternative point of view is that the match and the series could be sailing away over the horizon by Tea.

It did not quite happen that way. At Tea it was 227-5 and England were, just about hanging on. There was a chance that the lead could be kept to reasonable proportions. Pakistan’s tail was, we were told, fragile. At 246-5 Babar Azam received a sickening blow and retired hurt, exposing the tail – it turns out that the ball from Ben Stokes has broken his wrist; his tour is over and one can only send him sympathy and best wishes for a speedy recovery – and even then England could not exploit their opening, fortunate and undeserved as it was.

At the Close, it was 350-8. Effectively 350-9. The lead is 166. And England will need a score northwards of 400 to make a game of this.

There were three factors:

1.     Some very determined Pakistan batting. Their side has risen to the challenge in the way that no one anticipated.

2.     Some sloppy England bowling. Too often too short and misdirected.

3.     Some poor fielding. Five chances went down, three of them would normally be taken at this level. In contrast, Pakistan themselves missed almost nothing.

In Australia, Joe Root won praise for being prepared to try new things and to adapt to situations. Here, the plan was less clear. Fielding positions shuffled. Players found themselves changing from one specialist position to another. There was an air of lack of thought, improvising, disorganisation, poor use of resources. His captaincy seems to be getting less certain and less imaginative with time, not more.

There is also an air of frustration among the fans. There is a feeling of opprobrium, a suggestion that too many of this side have had too many chances, while others have reached the end of their useful career at this level. Right now, if you asked the average angry, opinionated fan, he or she would probably give only 3 or 4 names as certainties for the 2^nd Test (Root, Stokes, Bairstow and, possibly, Cook).

The problem with such a massive clear-out is that there is no quick fix. If you decide to drop your entire attack, you cannot guarantee that what will replace them will not struggle even more at this level. What makes things even less clear is that fact that most of the pitches so far have been seam-friendly. The top wicket-takers of the season so far in Division 1 are: Jake Ball, Ben Coad, Joe Leach and Tom Bailey. There have been calls for Jake Ball to be called-up, but he has played four Tests already and has just three wickets to his name at a strike rate over 200. Ben Coad is an interesting one. His record is superb. He looks like a likely England bowler of the near future, but he is a very typical English bowler of low-80s pace. You can talk all you like about Glenn McGrath and Terry Alderman, who were both high-70s/low-80s, but they were inhumanly accurate and consistent: for every McGrath, you have one hundred Graeme Gooches – similar pace, useful as a partnership breaker, but not the bowler who you would want necessarily to take the new ball at the Gabba. Joe Leach is an honest county pro – he will take wickets and run through a brick wall for you, but he is no Dennis Lillee. And Tom Bailey is in his seventh First Class season and has played just 37 matches – he has not even been a 1^st XI regular until recently.

Of the top four wicket-takers in the averages, I suspect that Ben Coad may well get a game sometime this summer: if you do not give him a chance, you will never know and Jake Ball will be mentioned in despatches, but neither looks, at the moment, like the man to replace Jimmy Anderson or Stuart Broad, long-term.

Similarly, the batting. Keaton Jennings has a Test century to his name and has runs suddenly, like a dog has fleas. Nick Gubbins at Middlesex is running into some form too: one of the many theories around when Haseeb Hameed made his wonderful debut was that maybe he would open, with Jennings at #3: you can think of a scenario where you might want to put Gubbins in for Stoneman and have Jennings at #3, with Joe Root back at #4. However, there are not many batsmen screaming out for inclusion, although Ollie Pope seems to be testing his vocal chords.

The most curious situation is with spin bowling. There have been plenty of comments about England’s chopping and changing and, apparently, picking a name at random for these Tests. It is depressing. These are the fans who only follow the game occasionally, normally when England are at home and doing badly, but their opinions on social media make good headlines in an atmosphere of “sack the lot!!!”

Right now, England are seeing the prospect of entering a golden age of spin bowling. There is a generation that includes Mason Crane, Jack Leach, Dom Bess and Amar Virdi who look as promising as anyone since Monty Panesar burst unexpectedly on the scene in 2005. All are young. They are inexperienced, but with plenty of bowling on helpful pitches, they will develop. England have been unfortunate that first Crane, then Leach have had serious injuries and needed to be replaced. Dom Bess is not even a Somerset regular at the moment due to the nature of early-season pitches! He has taken just one wicket so far this county season and has been asked to make a debut on a pretty blameless Lord’s pitch in conditions in which even legends such as Abdul Qadir, Muttiah Muralitharan or Shane Warne might struggle to make inroads. Bess has shown energy, he has bowled with variation and flight and has seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly. And Joe Root had one of his better moments last night when he brought Bess on against the tail to see if he could get a debut wicket.

Spin bowling, for years the Achilles Heel of the England side, is the one area where the future looks bright. England will undoubtedly take young three spinners to Sri Lanka and this moment they look likely to be Leach, Bess and, possibly Virdi, with Crane, Moeen Ali and Liam Dawson missing out.

However, that it the future and the problem is today. England look dispirited, out of ideas and resigned to defeat.

Today will be the day when two of three players may seal their fate, as England try to save the series, when it is only on its third day of a possible ten.

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, Day 4 - England Waiting on the Weather and Jack Leach

 

New Zealand v England: 2^nd Test, Day 4

England Waiting on the Weather and Jack Leach

April 2^nd 2018

Given that England lost two almost full days to the weather in the 1^st Test (and still could not save it) it seems churlish to begrudge New Zealand a few overs lost to bad light. However, it is, of course different when it is you own team that is being unlucky. The major difference was that even with the equivalent of five sessions lost, England’s chances of saving the Test were small while, in the current Test, bad light could ruin a fabulous finish, with all four results possible at the start of the day.

First thing to say is that Joe Root has set an eminently fair declaration that gives both sides a chance. The nightmare scenario is that New Zealand finish 8 or 9 wickets down and just short of the target when the light closes in (remember The Oval 2013, when a ridiculously ambitious Australian declaration almost let England in for a shock win as the light failed). It is a big chase, but England’s best chance of forcing a win might just be for New Zealand to go for the target. Nominally, the required run-rate is only about 3.5, although forcing batting has not been easy for either side. New Zealand have made a decent start and may just be thinking that if they can get to Lunch without too much damage, they can re-assess and think about making a push for victory.

The key to an England win is undoubtedly going to be Jack Leach. If Joe Root is brave enough to give him properly attacking fields, there is turn available and, if the batsmen play a few shots, he could get among the wickets. The other factor is time. With bad light looking certain to curtail play well before the 98 overs are done, England will need Leach to bowl his overs swiftly enough to get enough in to take ten wickets. Ideally, Leach will attack at one end, with Anderson, Broad and Wood rotating at the other. The other thing that Root can try is to pair Leach with Malan or with himself for a couple of spells and try to buy a wicket or two. This will be a major test of Root's tactical acumen and willingness to learn.

England would have liked to declare earlier and with a bigger lead but, despite runs all down the order, no one could force the pace for long – the fastest scoring was in the brief cameos of Broad and Wood – and no one could get close to Vince’s 76, which may just have saved his Test career. The New Zealand attack closed the match down, bowled no more overs than they absolutely had to and their support bowlers spoilt the party by taking the six wickets to fall in the day, stopping the possibility if the opening bowlers on either side beating the mark of taking the first twenty-three wickets of the match, set in 1902 and 1912.

Whichever way the series ends today, it has been played in the right spirit: had, but fair and with both sides respecting the other. Hopefully cricket and not the weather, will be the winner on the final day of the series and of the tour. Back in England (and the Caribbean), the First Class season has started. For several of the side, early season runs on their return may be critical to their hopes of lining-up against Pakistan at the end of May.

New Zealand v England: 2nd Test, Day 3 - This is not an April Fool: England may win!

 

New Zealand v England: 2^nd Test, Day 3

This is not an April Fool: England may win!

April 1^st 2018

When England were 94-5 on the first afternoon, you would not have got very good odds on a New Zealand win. The dark forecasts of some fans that England would be whitewashed 2-0 looked all too likely to be fulfilled. It is Joe Root though who, today, will be shouting “April Fool”, having fooled most of the cricketing world into believing that his side would struggle to beat anyone right now. Suddenly and unexpectedly, England are right on top and, with two days to play – albeit two days that will be curtailed due to bad light – will hope to set New Zealand around 400 to win in four and a half sessions.

If you had added that this position would be set up by Stoneman and Vince, you would have been condemned for trying an obvious April Fool. Let us not be fooled though. Stoneman and Vince respect tradition and have not suddenly become Compton and Edrich: Stoneman pushes his highest Test score ever upwards – 52, 53, 56 and now, 60! At this rate he should score his maiden Test century in around his 40^th Test. If you look at Stoneman’s scores in this series – 11, 55, 35 & 60 – you would feel forced to say that he has been a success, averaging 40, but he continues to suffer from vertigo when in. If you consider reaching 15 as getting a start, he has done it in 13 of his 18 Test innings, but still averages only 30.2. Vince is just as bad. He has now played 13 Tests and averages under 25. He has reached 15 in his last eight innings, but passed 25 just twice. And his dismissals are almost identical ever time, prodding outside off. Partnership of 123, grinding England into a position of near impregnability and then both getting out within a few runs of each other.

It is fortunate that two other players who are short of runs in recent Tests took up the baton. There is a lot of chatter about Joe Root’s inability it covert 50s into 100s in Tests – a century here would set up a declaration and make a point. And, after a superb run, Dawid Malan’s run fountain has started to dry up. Since the start of the winter Tests, Joe Root has fallen in single figures just twice and made 6x50, but never got close to a century and has just one century in his last 13 Tests, as against 11x50. It is hard to criticise someone who has passed 50 twelve times in thirteen Tests, but such are the standards that Root has set, that people do wonder if the captaincy has just taken a little edge off his game. Dawid Malan was one of the great successes of the Ashes with 1x100 and 3x50 but, his last 5 innings have been 5, 2, 23, 0 & (now) 19*: another low score and the shine will be coming right off that Ashes success. Malan’s average is under 31 after twelve Tests and he knows that it has to increase, and rapidly, to cement his place.

That England are in this position is down to some excellent bowling from Stuart Broad. Bowling a fuller length and making batsmen play has made him look exponentially more threatening and a 6-for and his best figures for almost two years have been the reward. The opening bowlers on either side now have the first 23 wickets of the match. Never have the two pairs of opening bowlers bettered this number and, should Boult or Southee manage the next wicket to fall, the match will set a new record in Tests, beating the mark last set in 1912.

What England would like is to press on in the first session and stretch the lead from its current 231 to around 350. An hour in the afternoon at most, then, to a declaration. Ideally, they would like Root and Malan to set a foundation for Stokes and Bairstow to come in with a licence to enjoy themselves. Of course, in this topsy-turvy series of collapses and tail-end heroics, who knows what the reality will be like?

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.

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.

West Indies v England, 2nd Test, Day 5: An Extraordinary 24 Hours for Test Cricket

 

West Indies v England, 2^nd Test, Day 5: An Extraordinary 24 Hours for Test Cricket

August 29^th 2017

Over the last twelve hours the cricket world has been turned on its head. First, the West Indies pulled-off an astonishing chase against England: the twentieth highest ever successful chase in Tests. Then, Bangladesh completed a win against Australia when, at 158-2 chasing 266, only an Australian win seemed possible.

Both results were earth-shaking: the West Indies had not won in England since the epic tour of 2000 when Walsh and Ambrose had their swansong and England finally lost their fear of the West Indians. Bangladesh had never beaten Australia in a Test. Australia have played Bangladesh 29 times in all formats and previously lost just once – in an ODI in Cardiff in 2005 after Andrew Symonds had been dropped on the morning of the match for partying the night before and a certain suspicion exists that Australian minds were not exactly focused on the game. It is a measure of how little Australia rate Bangladesh that in 14 years there have been just two previous series between the two sides and, in one of those, Australia famously tried to win a Test in a single day.

If, for a few hours, Australian fans could laugh at England, the manner of the Australian surrender, highlighting one of the topics common to both sides – their vulnerability on turning wickets and the paucity of their spin-bowling resources to respond – was every bit as poor. Australia’s response has been to give themselves the option of going into the must-win 2^nd Test with just one seamer. Now this was a tactic used with success by India in the 1970s and by Pakistan in the ‘80s, but they could count on extraordinary spinners of the quality of Bishan Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, Venkat, Abdul Qadir and Iqbal Qasim; Australia simply do not have the same quality in depth. It is the same as if England had played Moeen, Batty, Dawson & Ansari together in India: four spinners, yes, but not four of any quality or threat. Last winter England learnt the hard way that it is not how many spinners you play, but how much quality that they have that counts. It is true that for a must-win match on a turning pitch in Port-of-Spain in 1974, England did play four spinners and won, but the spinners were Greig, Underwood, Pocock and Birkenshaw: all class acts (Geoff Arnold shared the new ball with Greig, who turned to spin as soon as the shine was off the ball).

England’s response to their own humiliation at Headingley has been to name the same XIII for Lord’s, but one suspects that Toby Roland-Jones may play instead of Chris Woakes – more of that later. “Same players, better play” might have rasped Essex’s legendary Tonker Taylor in response to the squad announcement.

England turned up on the fifth morning to conditions that normally would have guaranteed a win not long after Lunch: overcast skies, dim light and perfect seam-bowling conditions. The script seemed perfectly prepared for Jimmy Anderson to take his 500^th Test wicket and, despite not playing T20 since 2009 and ODIs since 2015, get close to his 800^th international wicket (he is now on 784).

In reality, England had lost their way not so much by a poor batting performance on the 1^st day (their total was short of what it should have been, but not so far short), but by a collectively horrible bowling performance on the 2^nd day. Apart from Jimmy Anderson, the rest of the attack was very poor. In fact, it is probably not unfair to say that the decision to replace Toby Roland-Jones with Chris Woakes probably lost England the game. Chris Woakes desperately needed the game, but responded with a terribly rusty performance and the rest of the attack took their cue from him. Stuart Broad was inaccurate. Ben Stokes as ineffective as he has ever been and Moeen Ali just had an awful match with the ball. If he has shown anything, Toby Roland-Jones has demonstrated an ability to provide control and nip in with crucial wickets when they are most needed; it was an ability that England sorely missed here. One hopes that sanity will prevail, that Roland-Jones will be restored for Lord’s and that Chris Woakes will be asked to play every possible game both for Warwickshire and for Warwickshire 2^nd XI from here to the end of the season to get himself properly match-fit and into a good rhythm to be unleashed on the Australians.

Arguably, England should have made 330 in their first innings and the West Indies no more than 300. Had that happened, the course of the game would have been very different. As it was, after the dreadful “wheels off waggon” session on the 4^th evening that led to the England declaration and the sensation that the West Indies had given up on the match, suddenly the steel was back again in the Caribbean performance. Once again, from one session to another the whole momentum of the series changed. The day was tense but, in reality, once the West Indies got through the first hour without losing a wicket, the result had an air of inevitability. The last ball of the fourth over of the morning England had the chance to put the game to bed: short delivery from Broad, Brathwaite could not control the ball - it went at a comfortable height to Cook, through his hands and on to the boundary for four runs. Instead of being 11-1 and England with an early breakthrough, the opening partnership went on to 46 from 16 overs before Broad finally ended it. More critically though, Brathwaite was on 4 at the time and went on to score 95 and to guide the West Indies to 197-3 when he fell finally. From the moment of that drop the force and the momentum was always with the West Indies and the young Padawans always had the measure of their supposed Jedi Masters.

After a poor first innings, yesterday, whenever something happened, which was all too rarely, Broad seemed to be involved. First the missed catch by Cook, then he had Powell caught by Stokes at 4^th slip, then he himself missed what would have been an incredible catch off his own bowling, but deflected the ball onto the stumps to leave Kyle Hope stranded. 46-0 had become 53-2 and the inevitable West Indian defeat seemed to be just a matter of time. Then again at 285-4, with nerve-ends jangling, Cook dropped Shai Hope off Broad, ending any real chance of a late panic. Broad was not a happy bunny. Even then there was time still for Stokes to drop Blackwood too – a sitter – at 316-4. After seven catches and a run-out were missed by the West Indies, England showed that they were just as fallible in the field. One wonders if there were sighting problems at the ground, because even normally extremely reliable fielders were dropping catches.

On a day when Moeen was expected to be the main threat, he cut an unhappy figure: two dropped catches off his bowling and too many bad balls. The suspicion that he dislikes the pressure of being expected to be the match-winner on the last day of a Test seemed to be confirmed. Moeen, like Graeme Swann did before him, likes getting an early wicket; when he does, the bounce is there and he starts to fizz – yesterday, there was no fizz, no zip in his action and, indeed, after a promising first over the previous evening, little real threat however, to be fair, he also saw those two catches go down off his bowling; maybe, if the first of them had been taken, he might have clicked into life. Less forgivable was the lack of threat from the seamers. Stuart Broad bowled with some fire, but little luck and, after a wonderful start, Jimmy Anderson seemed to be missing some spark, while Woakes and Stokes just served to release the pressure on the batsmen.

Against the West Indian side of the 1^st Test England would still have won. This one though played sensibly, failed to panic even when they lost a wicket and hunted down the target like a pack of wolves stalking their prey. When the run rate required started to rise, the ball started to fly to the boundary, easing any run-rate pressure and when chances were missed, they made England pay.

It was the 9^th longest 4^th innings in 51 Tests at Headingley (5 of the 8 longer ones were in losing causes), the 20^th highest successful 4^th innings chase in Tests, the 2^nd highest successful chase ever at Headingley and an object lesson in hunting-down an apparently extremely tough target.

This being cricket, probably England fans are as delighted as the West Indians. It might no longer be true in all parts of the world, but the practice of celebrating the deserved success of the opposition still exists in the English game. After a desperately disappointing South African side were dispatched, England needed proper practice against realistic opposition. Even more so, almost everyone wants West Indian cricket to rise again. However, native caution suggests that we have seen so many good one-off West Indian performances and so many false dawns that, unless this result is followed up in the 3^rd Test it will look like just another frustrating reminder of a bygone age. However, at least in this Test, players such as Brathwaite, Shannon Gabriel, Blackwood and Shai Hope have shown that there is hope for West Indian cricket and that talent continues to be produced. We saw in the 1^st Test that there are Test-quality players even in this severely weakened squad: one hopes that better governance from the WICB will give the young players the chance to develop and thrive, remembering that the West Indies are the current holders of the U19 World Cup, so serious talent is still coming through, despite everything. What the West Indies can ill afford is to lose these players too to the T20 circuses that have led to the WICB banishing all their biggest stars. Think of how much Brathwaite and Hope could learn if they were able to play their Test cricket alongside players such as Chris Gayle and Lendl Simmons for the next two years.

Back in 2004, Brian Lara was finishing his career, but the West Indies could field a pace attack of Jermaine Lawson, Fidel Edwards, Tino Best, Pedro Collins, Corey Collymore and Adam Stanford. It was an attack of frightening potential, that could have been every bit as great as the attacks of the ‘80s and ‘90s but, little by little, they either never developed as they should have, or simply drifted away. The memory of that team should serve as a dreadful warning to the WICB that they either look after their current crop of youngsters or they may not get another set of talented youngsters to lose.

Many England fans have condemned Joe Root’s declaration on the fourth evening. Just why, is a mystery. England were on top. The West Indies looked defeated and 99% of the cricketing world expected the loss of early wickets and a rapid spiral to defeat. Root saw the unexpected chance to win and to seal the series and went after it. Attack, not caution was the right approach. The opprobrium if he had batted on into the final morning would have been terrible to behold from the self-same fans who attacked his supposedly over-generous declaration.

For now, we are back to Square One. The Lord’s Test will be an unexpected decider. Given England’s record of losing the final Test of series over the last four years, they can ill-afford not to bring their A-Game to Lord’s. The West Indies will know that they have a wholly unexpected chance of a series win at a ground where England often underperform (W10 D4 L4 in the last 10 years, but W4 D2 L3 in the last 5 years and 3 defeats and a draw in the last 6 Tests there).

With Tom Westley given a, presumably final, chance to succeed, the only likely doubt is whether to go with Woakes or Roland-Jones as third seamer. One assumes that on his home ground, Roland-Jones has to play. England can scant afford to experiment or to take risks and the tight, mean line and length of Roland-Jones will help to bring a discipline to the attack that was so lacking in Leeds.