England v Sri Lanka, 1st and 2nd ODI: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

 

England v Sri Lanka

1^st and 2^nd ODI

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

 June 25^th  2016

In my last entry I suggested that Liam Plunkett should be on the radar for the Pakistan Test series, as should Adil Rashid. The pair of them have given England a taste of what they are missing.

Adil Rashid has contributed 10-0-36-0 in the first ODI – 20 runs fewer than any other England bowler – and 10-0-34-2 in the second, bowling with skill and threat (Moeen Ali contributed 19-0-110-1 between the two matches). Adil Rashid will always have the odd bad match, but he will have many more good ones. While his selection for India is taken for granted, fewer people seem to think that he would add something to the attack that the decline of Moeen’s threat has taken away. Maybe it is time to think seriously about giving him a game.

Liam Plunkett took some punishment with the ball in the 1^st ODI, but came in with the match slipping away from England. At 235-8, with 52 wanted from 26 balls, the situation was critical. Plunkett helped Chris Woakes to get England close but, with 10 wanted from the last 2 balls and 7 from the last, Sri Lanka should have wrapped-up the win. Plunkett reminded people that he has First Class centuries (plural) and Test and ODI 50s by hammering a ball only slightly off Yorker length into the stands for a tie. 22 from 11 balls in a crisis, with the Sri Lankans bowling tightly and well was a demonstration of his talent. In the 2^nd ODI he bowled with fire and venom to fire out two quick wickets when Sri Lanka had made a fast start, giving England a control that they never relinquished.

In the two matches England have swung from diabolically bad to supreme brilliance. Having kept Sri Lanka to a probably sub-par 286, there was no excuse for crashing to 82-6. It was awful. The top order batting suffers these collapses too often for it to be put down to occasional accidents. However, there is also a steel in the side that allows bad positions to be rescued. Jos Buttler is back and, together with Chris Woakes, who seems to grow in stature with every game, Between then they brought England back into the match and looked to be winning it before the departure of Buttler and Willey in quick succession should have killed off the recovery. Just as well that Chris Woakes is showing a confidence that he has never shown before and, in Liam Plunkett, found a solid ally in a crisis.

The second match was completely the opposite. Having made a quick start, Sri Lanka never really got out of first gear. There were two fifties, there was a forty, there were a series of partnerships but, whenever Sri Lanka were in a position to start to accelerate, they lost a wicket and often two. The match then turned into a race between Hales and Roy to the century. Lest we forget that Hales can give the ball some tap, from 93* he went to 120* in eight balls:

6 . 1 4 4 6 6 6

Hales’s sequence in ODIs and Tests since the end of the South African Test series is a stunning:

57, 99, 65, 50, 112, 86, 83, 11, 18, 94, 4 & 133*

There are still England fans who think that Hales is not good enough and should not start against Pakistan. One wonders what run of scores would satisfy them.

A ten wicket win was, to put it mildly, a restorant. The flip side of the week was the news that Nick Compton is adding his name to the list of cricketers taking an indefinite break from cricket. A fine cricketer, hampered by the family name and the situation that a section of the public will never forgive him for the fact that his grandfather emigrated to South Africa after retiring from the game. He has two Test centuries and can feel that he won the 1^st Test in South Africa with his batting, but the pressure on him to be more adventurous led to a collapse in form and confidence. Nick Compton should have three more seasons of prolific county run-getting in him but the odds seem to be that he will abandon the game, possibly for the media. Social media are putting new pressures on players that they never had to face in the past and Nick Compton is just the latest player to find that the pressures on him have got too much.

It seems to be taken as given that Scott Borthwick will line up against Pakistan, although two failures in the Championship this week has taken some wind out of his sails. Fortunately he will have another opportunity before he takes on the Pakistan attack.

England v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test: Day 5 and Aftermath - Rain Has The Last Word

 

England v Sri Lanka

3^rd Test: Day 5 and Aftermath

Rain Has The Last Word

 

June 17^th  2016

The rain that set up a potentially wonderful finish, finally condemned the match. Taunting and teasing, it seemed as if play could start at any moment only for drizzle and rain to return. Even though Jimmy Anderson added his twenty-first wicket of the series soon after the start and England played five slips, Sri Lanka batted competently and sensibly to avoid any hint of a scare.

On one level it was disappointing. On another it was just reward for a Sri Lankan side that had improved out of all recognition over the tour. In seven innings over five matches on the tour, Sri Lanka had taken just 46 wickets, bowling the opposition out just twice in seven attempts (once to set up an innings defeat, the other, for over 400). However, from Day 3 of the 2^nd Test, the series ceased to be a procession and became a real contest. With more luck and better ground-fielding Sri Lanka could have pushed England much harder. Their young team will have learnt a lot from the experience, although there are already suggestions that England may not enjoy their next tour to Sri Lanka much as they might, because the scheduling may not be as friendly as it has been on past tours.

England can be satisfied with several aspects of the series, apart from the result [Sri Lanka deservedly won the series in 2013]. Highlights are:

·        Jimmy Anderson’s return to form and fitness.

·        Alex Hales tying-down the opener spot for the rest of the summer (despite not quite getting over the line for that first century in Tests).

·        Jonny Bairstow’s wonderful batting.

·        Alistair Cook getting the 10 000 run monkey off his back and finishing the series with two good scores.

·        Chris Woakes’s development as a genuine all-rounder. He was the fastest bowler on either side, took 8 wickets at 18.8 and a strike rate of 40, was more economical than any bowler on either side save Jimmy Anderson and the lightly-bowled Angelo Matthews and had two valuable innings in his limited opportunities, including a maiden Test 50.

·        Moeen Ali’s spectacular innings at Chester-le-Street.

·        Stuart Broad’s generally good form with the new ball.

However, not all was rosy. Some things definitely did not go as hoped. In no particular order:

·        Nick Compton’s downward spiral of form.

·        Jonny Bairstow’s errors with the gloves.

·        James Vince failing to make a real case that he is the answer at #5.

·        Moeen Ali struggling to make an impact with the ball.

·        Steve Finn’s lack of form (although there were signs that he was on the mend by the end of the series).

·        Joe Root’s struggles (80 of his 87 runs came in a single innings).

·        A top order prone to collapsing like a pack of cards.

·        A sameness to the attack when there is nothing in the pitch or the atmosphere for the bowlers.

While Alex Hales’s star has most definitely shone – there were some frankly ludicrous calls from fans at the end of the series that he should be dropped because his inability to convert 80s and 90s into centuries showed “that he was just not good enough at this level”, but a more rational view is that England would have been in a lot of bother without his runs: exactly 100 more than Compton, Root and Vince combined. 86, 83, 11, 18 & 94 was a pretty powerful statement. He has played five First Class matches this season and has passed 50 in four of his eight innings, with no single-figure scores – Nick Compton’s 51 runs at 12.8 looked like the struggles of a man batting with Geoff Boycott’s stick of rhubarb.

Nick Compton has amazing ability, but last reached 40 eleven innings ago, in the first match of the new season. Since his match-winning contribution in the 1^st Test in South Africa, he has produced 45, 15, 26, 0, 19, 6, 0, 44, 38, 1, 14*, 3, 0, 9, 22*, 1, & 19 and his Test average has declined to 28.7 after 16 Tests. His last 10 Test innings have produced a top score of just 26 and 117 runs.

Sometimes a player has a bad trot and battles through it. Alistair Cook could not buy a run for over a year before suddenly coming good again, albeit initially with ugly runs when it was getting to the stage where almost no one believed that he could get it back. Nick Compton though was always a marginal call for this series and has little credit in the bank. He does have, potentially, two games for Middlesex before the Pakistan series, but it is doubtful that even two good matches can save him. At 34, England are more likely to go for a younger player than give Nick Compton a long, slow death. With Scott Borthwick a specialist #3, the third highest runs-scorer in Division 1 this season and a leg-spinner to boot in his spare time (10 wickets at 37 so far this season apart from 598 runs at 74.8), it is hard to avoid the conclusion that it is Borthwick who will line up against Pakistan.

More worrying for England is Moeen Ali’s struggle with the ball. He did not get many opportunities but, when he did, Sri Lanka attacked him without mercy. After boasting figure of 5-4-1-1 after his first two spells of the series, he ended with 2-180 at the worst economy rate of any of England’s front-line bowlers. Sides no longer fear him and that is unbalancing the side. Would Adil Rashid (321 runs at 40.1 and 18 wickets at 34.6 for Yorkshire) do so much worse? It is already taken as read that Adil Rashid will go to India. Simon Kerrigan is being mentioned again, but what about Somerset’s Jack Leach, who is having a fine season so far and taking his wickets at 24.1, far superior to any of his rivals?

For as long as I can remember people have been moaning about the choice of England wicket-keeper. Superior ‘keeper, or better batsman? Downton, French, Richards, Stewart, Read, Jones, Ambrose, Kieswetter, Buttler, Bairstow (Sr and Jr) among others, have all felt the opprobrium of the fans at different moments. Right now people agree that Jonny Bairstow is not the best ‘keeper and misses important chances, but cannot agree who should replace him. Bairstow is competent standing back but, in India, will be ‘keeping to at least two and possibly even three spinners, standing up a lot: will his runs compensate the chances that he misses? If not, who should take the gloves? The answer might just be “John Simpson” (John Who???) of Middlesex: an excellent gloveman and much improved bat (356 runs at 59.3, with a century and more sixes than any of Middlesex’s renowned hitters, although only 13 dismissals off the somewhat miss-firing Middlesex attack).

James Vince should expect to get the full summer to consolidate, but his position is being exposed by being time and again a wicket in a top-order collapse. He may need runs in the first two Tests to ensure that he sees out the series.

Steve Finn is short on pace and rhythm. His 90mph+ days seem to be a distant memory. Better form as the series wore on, helped, but Chris Woakes was faster and more threatening. If only one can play with the return of Ben Stokes, Steve Finn should check the Middlesex fixture list because he may be chasing the Middlesex squad after being released by England on match day. Finn’s ups and downs are surprising for such a talented bowler. His mind seems a little fragile and can be played around with too easily (remember how the South Africans managed to neutralise him completely with the fuss about knocking off the bails? It was pure gamesmanship and Steve Finn shrank to nothing instead of taking it as a provocation and an incentive to bowl even better.

Throughout the series there were moments when the ball did little and England’s attack looked all too similar: different faces, same bowling. Although Liam Plunkett’s bowling has been a little disappointing this season, his extra pace can shake-up batsmen at Test level. England need someone capable of firing the ball down consistently at 90+mph and have no one in that role right now. A burst of wickets might well see Liam Plunkett in the XIII for the 1^st Test v Pakistan.

However, all in all, it was a satisfying series after the win in South Africa and shows that the England side are progressing nicely. The second summer series will though be tougher and the winter series in India, tougher still. Win both and England will be closing in on the #1 position in the ICC Test table.

Another Near-Miss In Antigua

 

 

Ashes 2015

 

England’s Antigua Blank

 

April 18^th 2015

 

When you have a side 189-6 chasing a world record score, with the new ball due next over and 50 overs of play to go, you would normally bank on winning, especially when the side in front has a reputation for being fragile. However, Antigua is a bogey island for England. It has seen three of the greatest Test innings of all time and all for the West Indies. Nine Tests played by England in Antigua have a balance of six draws and three heavy defeats. They have also provided some wonderful games and this one was no exception, with another tense finish.

Both Tests at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium have been drawn now – most notoriously the 2009 match that was abandoned after just ten balls due to a dangerous pitch and now this match, in which three of the four innings passed 300 and the odd one out finished only just short.

England have also played 7 Tests at the Antigua Recreation Ground where, famously, the prisoners from the local jail used to prepare the pitch. Of those, three have been lost – all by huge margins… two innings defeats in 1990 and 1998 and a defeat by 240 runs in 1986 (Viv Richards 110* in 58 balls) – and four drawn. The last four matches between West Indies and England in Antigua have all been drawn. 

·         England went close in 2009 when Powell and Edwards held out for 10 overs at the end for a draw chasing an absurd 503 to win.

·         In 2004 England won the first three Tests before Brian Charles Lara ended the England career of Gareth Batty, who had eye-watering figures of 52-4-185-2 as Lara scored his 400.

·         In 1994 England had the West Indies 12-2 before Brian Lara scored 375. Big hundreds in reply by Mike Atherton and Robin Smith saw England bowled out for 593 at Tea on Day 5 (!!) to gain parity.

·         And, in 1981, a fighting century from Geoff Boycott saved England from an innings defeat. Boycott later recounted how one of the prisoner-groundsmen came up to him before the match and, to his astonishment said “Mr Boycott, I’m a big fan of yours. I’ll roll you a good, good pitch and next time you come back I’ll roll you a good one again. I’m in for life.” With typical aplomb Sir Geoffrey replied that he obviously was not in prison for an unpaid parking ticket!

In 2009 England were blamed for a delayed declaration and for dalliance before lunch on the 4^th day. Only 104 runs were scored in a fairly relaxed manner in the first session when almost everyone expected a slog and a declaration perhaps as much half an hour before lunch. What the media, centred on the arrest of Sir Allen Stanford the previous day, were unaware was the parlous state of the England attack. Andrew Flintoff was more seriously injured than people thought and would bowl just a small number of overs at reduced pace. Steve Harmison was too ill to take the new ball, but even then bowled more overs than  Stuart Broad and Andrew Strauss was left just three fit bowlers for four and a half sessions of bowling, so his reluctance to declare earlier was somewhat understandable. When Andrew Strauss needed fresh and fit bowlers to break the last wicket partnership, the attack was on its knees.

Here too you could doubt the wisdom of setting such a huge target as 438. Successful fourth innings chases of 380+ are so rare as to be collectors’ items and no one in their right mind could see the young West Indies side setting a new Test record chase, twenty more than they had chased in 128.5 overs in 2003, against Australia. Alistair Cook will remember Antigua 2009 as it was his cautious 50 at the top of the innings that helped set up the declaration. Yet so low are expectations that some (presumably) England supporters even predicted that the West Indies would waltz to the target with plenty to spare.

The fickleness of fans is illustrated by the fact that two Tests after setting the West Indies 503 to win and seeing them bat out almost 130 overs, Andrew Strauss was condemned for not setting them 180 to win in almost a full day in the final Test. That fickleness is just as present now. The England side has been widely condemned and half the players are in the firing line.

First, the good news. Having been played out of form and close to a slump by the selectors, Gary Ballance is back to his red ball form of last summer. With Joe Root and Ian Bell showing fine form, two decent innings from Ben Stokes in the match and a good second innings fifty from Jos Buttler, from #3 to #7 England look solid.

However, the bad news is that Jonathon Trott has added 0 and 4 to his 2 and 0 in the warm-ups with St. Kitts, looking totally out of place as an opener. Trott came into this tour in sublime form, having finished last season with 104 v Durham, followed by 6, 79*, 211*, 0 & 53 for the Lions in January, but the Caribbean has been less kind to him. A pre-season tour with Warwickshire and the England tour, against frequently friendly bowling, have brought scores of 12, 1, 72, 2, 0, 0 & 4.  With the New Zealand Tests and the Ashes looming and having seen England make two awful starts in this Test (34-3 and 52-3), the pressure to play Adam Lyth in the 2^nd Test is intense.

Lyth has been a victim of the pre-set plan to play Trott out of position as an opener, with a single innings of 23 on this tour. However, he scored 113 and 46* for Yorkshire v the MCC just three weeks ago, as well as a 54* against Middlesex in the warm-up for that game. Lyth is in the form of his life.

Jonathon Trott is a class act and there is a temptation to stick with him in the belief that he will come good. Unfortunately, his opening partner is also an issue. Alistair Cook is not in bad form as such – he has reached double figures in 9 of his last 12 innings – the problem is that in just one of them, against the friendliest possible bowling in St Kitts, has he passed 34. Scores of 3 & 5 v Yorkshire (while Lyth scored 113 & 46*) and then 11 & 13 in the Test have ratcheted up the pressure another notch. Cook feels that there is a section of the cricket establishment who wants him out and sees the loss of the ODI captaincy as part of the campaign. Unfortunately, his best course to quieten the whispering is to score runs and the runs are not coming.

Cook last scored a century against New Zealand at Leeds on May 26^th 2013, when Nick Compton (remember him?) was his opening partner and England last won an away Test on December 17^th 2012.

Since that Leeds century, Cook has reached 50 no less than nine times (more times than he has made single-figure scores – 8), passing the 70s just once. He is scoring runs consistently, but something is inhibiting him from going on to make big scores. It is hard to believe that it is not the captaincy.

At North Sound, Cook looked good, got into double figures in both innings… and got out: bowled by Roach off an inside edge in the first innings and edged to gulley from a wide delivery by Taylor in the second.

With the captain struggling, do you play a debutant in the 2^nd Test, however much you worry about Jonathon Trott? The answer will say much about how determined the management are to turn things around. Geoff Boycott thinks that they will take a conservative approach and play Jonathon Trott again. The risk is that another failure for Trott would give Lyth just one Test maximum to bed in before the summer Tests, if he has to take over. The suspicion is that the selectors have decided that Trott will open in the Ashes almost irrespective of what happens and are hoping against hope that he will come good. It is the sort of policy that will be lauded to the skies if it comes good, but will look incredibly stupid if it fails.

The other big decision that faces the selectors is the make-up of the bowling attack. There is no shortage of opprobrium from the fans. Moeen Ali is on his way to join the squad, but bowled just 11 wicketless overs in his County Championship try-out against Yorkshire: not enough surely to show that he is match fit to bowl 40+ overs in a Test.

If Moeen goes straight into the side, one option is a straight swap with James Tredwell. This could lead to Jos Buttler batting as low as 8. No one sees Tredwell as a match-winner in Tests: he played just 4 matches for Kent last season, taking a handful of expensive wickets after an even worse season in 2013. Such was his situation that he was loaned-out for one-day cricket last year.

After his first innings 4-47, a decision to drop him would have looked incredibly harsh but, with England pressing in the second innings and turn available, 40-14-93-1 showed plenty of economy, but insufficient threat. Only the lack of a viable alternative seems likely to ensure his place in the 2^nd Test.

Opinion is sharply divided. Some fans would play Adil Rashid despite the fact that he will deliver a four-ball most overs. Incredibly, this is his fourth England tour after South Africa in 2009/10, India in 2010 (when it was explicitly stated that he would not be considered), the 2011 World Cup and now the Caribbean, plus two Lions tours. Adil Rashid spins the ball the other way and is a more natural complement to an off-spinner and is a decent bat. Word though is, once again, that he has not impressed on this tour and many expected him to be released when Moeen was called-up. Just why he is not released to play for Yorkshire if he is not to play in the Tests is anyone’s guess.

Stuart Broad has come in for intense criticism. He averaged low-80s in both innings, with his speed dropping to high 70s for a significant part of the first innings. Despite a Test 150, he is now batting at 10 and there is an argument that Jimmy Anderson too should come in ahead of him now. At Test level Stuart Broad had a good 2014: of fast bowlers, only Mitch Johnson, Jimmy Anderson, Dale Steyn and, marginally, Tim Southee and Morne Morkel took as many wickets at a better average. However, poor limited-overs form has put him under severe pressure from unforgiving fans who have forgotten rapidly that he managed a match-winning 6-25 v India last summer. Again, the suspicion is that his body, ravaged with injury, is telling him that enough is enough: he can put in good spells, as he did in this Test, but he finds it hard to sustain the effort over five hard days.

Likewise, despite his amazing catch and first innings runs, Chris Jordan is being condemned by many fans as simply not good enough. In his favour he did bowl consecutive deliveries at over 90mph as England strove for a breakthrough after lunch and, in both innings, only James Tredwell was more economical of the front line bowlers, although there is a suspicion that he bowls within himself to attain control when, at times, you would like him to make the extra effort and bowl flat out.

Similarly, 0-64 and 0-50 has done nothing to convince that Ben Stokes can be considered a front-line bowler at this level. This is his fourth consecutive match for England without taking a wicket, a combined 0-199: his last international wicket was against India on September 5^th. He too is caught between the two stools of bowling flat out for wickets and keeping things tight, ultimately achieving neither.

The result was an England attack where Alistair Cook could change the bowlers, could change their ends, could change the fields, but could not change the bowling on a pitch where something different was needed.

An idea of what England were up against from the pitch is given by the last over from Jimmy Anderson. Two balls on a good length got up to half stump height. Two, back of a length, reached two-thirds of stump height. It is not that he was not making an effort, three of the balls were between 84 and 85mph and the other delivered at 89mph. The situation cried out for something different, but England’s fastest bowler was in the pavilion and looks unlikely to play any part in the Test series.

If Liam Plunkett is not to play, either Ben Stokes or Chris Jordan has to be told to slip the leash and step up their pace, even if it is at the cost of conceding more runs.

With the 2^nd Test being played at Grenada, there is a strong argument to bring in Lyth, Moeen and Plunkett. Seam is likely to dominate spin, so Moeen Ali’s load will most likely not be so great, while the extra pace of Plunkett would at least give an extra option.

With Alistair Cook a naturally conservative captain, having a conservative coach is not ideal. One of the few pieces of real imagination that Peter Moores has shown was to call up Ryan Sidebottom back in 2007. The feeling is that the side is unlikely to change for the 2^nd Test unless Moeen Ali comes in for James Tredwell, taking a calculated risk on his fitness to bowl long spells if necessary. If Moeen Ali shows up well in the nets expect him to play, otherwise the XI is likely to be unchanged.

Final England World Cup Thoughts And An Eye To The Future

 

 

Cricket World Cup 2015

 

Anatomy of Another Embarrassment II

And looking Forward

 

March 22^nd 2015

 

The sad part of England’s World Cup campaign is that so many of the criticisms are ultimately unfair. England took a good side, packed with talent to the World Cup. Moeen Ali, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan, James Taylor, Alex Hales and Jos Buttler are all batsmen who can dismantle an attack. They are not poor players, or defensive batsmen who are locked in the 1960s: they are world class players and have shown it. However, after a dreadful pounding in their first two games, the team went into its shell and could not find the way out. The campaign stumbled from bad to worse with players losing confidence even when faced with inferior opposition. The fact that the captain could not even buy a run did not help. In Sri Lanka in November England had been competitive, even though they lost. In the Tri-series, England had beaten India twice and ran Australia close in one of their three encounters: in the World Cup Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka annihilated England – the games were as one-sided as any in the tournament and players with shattered confidence just could not pull themselves together for the Bangladesh game.

The sense of crisis in the side has returned after briefly disappearing last summer. The selectors have three Tests in the West Indies to find a combination that works before first New Zealand and then Australia come baying for blood. A 7-0 overall result would not be unexpected unless rain saves England in one or more of the Tests.

The side for the Caribbean reflects the uncertainty. Sam Robson has joined Nick Compton, Joe Root and Michael Carberry as openers who England have tried and rejected. Root has the satisfaction of at least still being in the side, albeit in the middle order. For Robson, whose late summer nightmare continued on the Lions tour, the chances are that his opportunity has been and gone. Nick Compton has gone back to Lords in the hope of getting back in the frame and is evidently still somewhere in the thoughts because he is in the MCC side in Abu Dhabi, opening alongside Alistair Cook and as captain to boot (Nick Compton will be relieved that the headlines will be of Cook’s 6-ball 3, rather than his own first ball duck). The latest winner of the poisoned ticket of opening with Alistair Cook is Adam Lyth of Yorshire, although the selectors have recalled Jonathon Trott who could, potentially, open alongside Cook or even conceivably, instead of him if Cook’s travails continue.

Previously a tour of the Caribbean was where you experimented desperately, hoping to find someone capable of stopping the oncoming tide more effectively than King Canute had one thousand years previously. Now, it is where you play a few up-and-coming players to ease them gently into Test cricket.

The Caribbean Test squad is interesting for those who stay from the World Cup team and those who come back.

·         New: Adam Lyth, Adil Rashid and Mark Wood.

The inclusion of Lyth was widely predicted. Many pundits expected a straight shootout with Sam Robson for the opening spot – it is obvious that Robson’s struggles on the Lions tour have altered those plans.

The inclusion of Adil Rashid was not expected. Rashid has toured several times with England without ever being seriously in contention. Once appearing to be the brightest talent in English cricket, he appeared to have lost his way completely before a good all-round season in 2014.

Mark Wood is possibly an even bigger surprise: he is yet another of the seemingly inexhaustible Durham factory of fast-medium seamers. Ominously though, Martin Emerson, the resident BBC commentator for Durham, says that he will do well “if he can keep himself fit”.

 

·         Recalled: Jonathon Trott, Ben Stokes, Jonathon Bairstow, Liam Plunkett and Alistair Cook

The recall of Trott is a risk. There is no doubt that the Australians will not be gentle with him. Will his health stand up to the rigours of an Ashes series? If he is up to it there is no doubt that his return will strengthen the England team and add some steel.

Ben Stokes will be thinking how things change. After a dreadful run in 2014 with scores of 0, 0, 0, 23, 2, 33*, 16, DNB, 6 and 11 wickets @40.8 there really were no grounds to select him, but runs and wickets in the Big Bash and with the Lions and the failures of others have made him look, once again, like a great all-rounder of mythical powers. Was his relative success in the 2012/13 Ashes just a flash in the pan, or is he the real deal? He needs to deliver more regularly.

Jonathon Bairstow is almost the forgotten man. No longer a regular, he remains in the side as the reserve ‘keeper and batsman. He has not played since the Sydney Test, getting in and getting out time and again against New Zealand and Australia in 2013 and 2014 and never quite breaking through.

Liam Plunkett only played four Tests last summer, but 18 wickets, a maiden Test 50 and some high pace suggest that, after a decent tour with the Lions, he probably should have gone to the World Cup because he would have added something different to the attack. His fans will hope that, like Steve Harmison in 2005, he will break through in the Caribbean after a similar roller-coaster career.

Time is running out for Alistair Cook. Having resuscitated last summer, playing on in the ODIs has tightened the noose again and a failure on his return in Abu Dhabi will not ease the pressure. A poor series in the Caribbean and the pressure to change captain for the summer will become overwhelming.

·         Retained: Gary Ballance, Joe Root, Ian Bell, Stuart Broad, James Anderson, Chris Jordan & James Tredwell.

When your only specialist spinner played just 4 matches for his Division 2 county, taking 11 wickets @ 38.7 and finishing 9^th in his county bowling averages, you know that you have problems. He will not win you a Test, but he might tie up an end… you hope. Many fans will wonder why Simon Kerrigan was not given another chance.

After the World Cup almost all of the retained players have question marks against them. There are serious doubts about Broad and Anderson as a strike force. Ian Bell’s annus mirablis of 2012 looks far behind – his 3x50 in the World Cup have been heavily criticised as being runs when they did not matter while his returns against the big sides were poor. Gary Ballance burst on the scene last summer in the Tests, but struggled during the winter. Chris Jordan ranges from brilliant to mediocre according to the day and Joe Root was remarkably anonymous most of the time.

·         Miss out: Steve Finn, Sam Robson, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, …

Moeen and Chris Woakes were injured during the World Cup, although Moeen may yet play some part in the Test series.

It is hard to see Steve Finn playing for England again in the near future. The World Cup has shown that he was brought back far too soon and his confidence has taken another massive jolt. He needs possibly two seasons in county cricket to re-invent himself and decide whether he wants pace, or accuracy – in the World Cup he gave neither.

Similarly, Sam Robson knows that his chances of a return are slim at best. A strong Lions tour could have saved him. A century in a non-First Class match to start the tour was followed by 1, 41, 5 & 0. Thanks very much. Don’t call us, we’ll call you (but probably not).

England know that they have to win the series in the West Indies big. Anything less than 2-0 will leave England in crisis going into the toughest Test year that the side has had for many, many years. In contrast, convincing wins against the West Indies and New Zealand would put the side in much better heart to face Australia. For several of the side it may be a question of winning or seeing their England career end.

First Part Of The England Task Accomplished

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

First Part of the Task Accomplished

 

June 21^st 2014

 

England could say that it was mission accomplished at the end of the day, although the route to get there was an odd one. Sangakkara was given four lives as he held the Sri Lanka innings together. At one point it looked as if England’s decision to insert could be a disaster. However, 257ao and 36-0 in reply looks pretty good and, if you had not followed the action, you might think that it was one-way traffic.

Had England taken their chances, Sri Lanka would not have reached 150. Some were tough, but of the kind that often does come off. One was a Pythonesque sequence: catch ball, try to throw up ball to celebrate, fumble and drop ball, look like an idiot. Memorably it happened to Mike Gatting against Australia. On this occasion the fielder did not have the excuse of a cheese and pickle sandwich belly to impede him and, protected by the gloves, left the bewildered commentators trying to work out just how the ball had slipped out and fallen to the floor.

Once again, the killer for Sri Lanka was the “6 out, all out” formula that they applied twice at Lords. At 228-5, with Sangakkara and Chandimal well set, 330+ looked a distinct possibility and Geoff Boycott was warning darkly that the bigger the total, the more likely that England’s inexperienced line-up would struggle to match it. Four wickets for one run in nine balls from Broad and Plunkett left the innings in ruins. As at Lords, the last pair were expected to come to the rescue and duly showed some of their colleagues how to bat.

Stuart Broad comes in for a great deal of criticism. Some of it is his own fault: he has got himself a bad name for petulant displays and immaturity on the field. Some of it is simply his nationality – racism has come back into the game and is high-profile has made him an easy target. But part of it is his success. Many England fans do not regard him as one of the five best seam bowlers in the country and chafe at his selection as soon as he has a couple of poor games. The reality is though that he came off for England time and again in difficult situations: at Trent Bridge and Chester-le-Street, in Australia and, yesterday, with Sri Lanka threatening to post a winning score. He removed Sangakkara with the last ball of the 63^rd over. Fourth ball of the next over, Plunkett, bowling frighteningly fast, removed Prasad. First ball of the 65^th over, Broad added Chandimal, with the Sri Lankan dressing room in full panic. Second ball of the 65^th over, Eranga edged to Prior. The field was set for the hat-trick ball and Pradeep straight-batted it away. Disappointment for Broad until, at the end of the over, the ground announcer just happened to mention that Stuart Broad had become one of just a handful of bowlers to take two hat-tricks in Test cricket.

Stuart Broad with his dander up and bowling straight and full, can be a frightening proposition.

The best news for England though was that Liam Plunkett was not asked to pepper the middle of the pitch. Fast, straight and full was more than most of the Sri Lankans could handle. I said it in the 4^th innings at Lords and wonder if, had he been asked to bowl that way, England might not have won.

What is evident is that Sri Lanka have a serious issue with their batting. The middle order contains some brilliant players, but cannot score enough to compensate for the weakness of the opening pair and the total lack of fight of the bottom five when faced by fast bowling. To progress they either have to play on slow tracks that favour their spinners and hide their problem, in which case they will always struggle in England, Australia, New Zealand and, probably Pakistan, or they can try to spice-up their wickets and get used to facing pace. The seam attack is one of the better ones that they have brought to England with Pradeep around 90mph, so they would not suffer from giving their bowlers something to work with at home.

Although the last pair added 28 valuable runs, Plunkett finally got one through Pradeep for a well-deserved 5-for. There will be no more premature talk of dropping him.

For England the task now is to take advantage of the work of the bowlers. With no 50 opening partnership since Melbourne and no century opening partnership since Dunedin and both openers in need of runs, the first task was to reach the Close. Alistair Cook was lucky to manage it, with a low catch that may or may not have carried to Sangakkara who, with great honour and dignity, immediately signalled that he was unsure. Once the catch went to the TV umpire there was only one possible decision, but there is more than one expert who is sure that Cook was lucky.

Sam Robson looked unflustered and organised. Twice this season he has failed twice in a match and come back to make a century in the next innings. If he can do that a third time he will close the general flap about his position and, undoubtedly, help Alistair Cook to make a score. At very least, England need two fifties and a century partnership from their openers. A century for at least one of them would be even better.

Today is a day to bat and bat and bat and not throw away a strong position that had looked unlikely at Tea.

1st Test Reflections And England's Opening Partnership Nightmare

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

First Test Reflections

 

June 19^th 2014

 

How you look at the 1^st Test depends on whether you prefer to have your glass half full, or half empty. While the match ended a run of five consecutive defeats, it stretched the sequence without victory to seven matches. While England competed well and made all the running in the match, they could not force victory. While the tactics were more aggressive than in Australia and the captain tried to make things happen, there was a feeling among many that the declaration was rather timid. While the bowling attack performed well in difficult conditions, the lack of a front-line spinner may have been the difference between victory and a draw.

After the paranoia that Australian fans showed about the pitches for the Ashes last summer being doctored to give England an unfair advantage (undoubtedly, Indian fans will claim that the pitches for their Tests this summer will have longer and greener grass than the outfield – one even went so far last year as to suggest that playing cricket on grass is unnatural!) this Test was played on a surface that, if it favoured anyone, favoured the visitors. It was low, slow and lifeless – the sort of pitch where you want a top-class spinner rather than four, 90mph, hit the deck fast bowlers. As such, it was hardly the surface that you wanted for a returning tearaway quick. Liam Plunkett was getting close to 95mph and bowling every bit as fast as Mitch Johnson did last winter but, on a surface that did him few favours. He still fulfilled his task as enforcer, roughing-up and harassing the opposition, buying wickets for whoever was at the other end. He will know that the Headingley surface on Friday will offer him much more encouragement than Lords did.

Plunkett came in for some unfair criticism during the Test and some fans suggested he be dropped for Ben Stokes for the 2^nd Test. With all due respect to Stokes. 10 wickets @ 35.7 and 105 runs @ 26.25 so far this season are hardly a strong case for a recall and do not really compare with Plunkett’s  24 wickets @ 24.8 and 209 runs @ 34.8.

What fans would not have expected was that, after Plunkett, England’s other 90mph bowler was not Stuart Broad or Chris Jordan, but Jimmy Anderson. A lot of people wrote his obituary in Australia but he is bowling with as much skill as ever – his spell around Tea on the 5^th Day changed the match – and with a fair bit of pace. Stuart Broad had only bowled 51 overs in First Class cricket this season and, for many, maybe should not have been an automatic pick. Match figures of 4-110 including an excellent last day spell and 71 runs batting at #9 were certainly a big contribution to England’s cause. No one now talks of Stuart Broad batting at #7 and, indeed, probably in this Test Liam Plunkett should have come in ahead of him, but when he gets it right, he can hit cleanly and well.

A lot was expected of Chris Jordan. Although he had a couple of inaccurate spells, you cannot argue with debut match figures of 5-136 and 54 runs made at a rollicking pace when England needed some momentum. Jordan has the priceless knack of getting wickets with bad balls and of making things happen.

Of the batsmen, Bell, Root, Moeen, Ballance and Prior all had cause to celebrate. Fifties for Bell and Prior. Moeen just missing a debut fifty. A century for Ballance. A double for Root (batting at #5,  away from the new ball and, again, making runs). It all looks so rosy until you remember that the two openers aggregated just 67 between them in four innings and that both had fallen for 22 in the 1^st innings and for 51 in the 2^nd, leaving the middle order with a substantial repair job to do... again.

England have started to paint themselves into a corner with the openers. While Compton, Root, Carberry and now Robson have been used as regular opening partners for Cook, Alistair Cook himself has had a dire run of form. A century against South Africa, three in India, two against New Zealand in the last two years but, since the 2^nd Test v New Zealand at Headingley, despite 6x50, no score better than 72 and seven dismissals in single figures. In the last 12 months he has just 568 runs at 25.8.

In the last 2 years England have used Cook, Strauss, Compton, Root, Carberry, Pietersen and Robson as openers. Forty-five opening partnerships have produced just 10 opening stands of 50+. Fifteen times the openers have been parted with the total in single figures. In that time, four of the best five opening partnerships and all the century opening partnerships have been between Cook and Nick Compton. In fact, of the best ELEVEN opening partnerships in the last two years, just four are not from Compton and Cook (two by Carberry and Cook, one by Root and Cook, one by Strauss and Cook). The best England partnership of 2014 so far has been the 46 of Cook and Robson at Lords!

In these last two years, the median partnership (i.e. the partnership expected from the openers) has been just 22 – half of all the opening partnerships for England have been 22 or smaller.

One wonders if, just maybe, the selectors regret prematurely discarding Nick Compton which, it can be argued, has precipitated this crisis.

It Is England's Match To Win

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Safety-first Cook May Have Killed the Game

 

June 16^th 2014

 

The facts: Sri Lanka have only once chased 350+ successfully in the 4^th innings of a Test. That was in 2006, at home against South Africa. In fact, only eight sides have ever chased down 350+ to win a Test. Sri Lanka have only ever chased 300+ successfully twice, both times at home: the 352-9 against South Africa and 326-5 against Zimbabwe in 1998.

Sri Lanka’s largest ever successful chase in an away Test was 220-8 against Pakistan in 2000, followed by 163-2 against Bangladesh in 2006.

There is nothing in Sri Lanka’s record to support the affirmation by some of their fans on CricInfo that they would have no problems in chasing down 360 in around 60 overs. Unless a target is clearly an easy one, or the risk of defeat is minimal, the approach is usually safety first; sides rarely make much effort to chase anything over 200 at 5-an-over (a rare exception being England’s near miss at The Oval last summer).

Only once has more than 300 been chased successfully at Lords and that was in 1984 when England went off for bad light in the evening, when on top and then batted on, briefly and disastrously next morning, handing over the initiative to the West Indies. A Greenidge 200 later, the West Indies had rushed to 344-1 and what should have been an impossible victory was achieved with some comfort (it was this result that ensured that the 5-0 Blackwash would happen).

Once England’s lead reached 330, the likelihood of Sri Lanka chasing successfully was minimal, especially as the ideal atmospheric conditions for batting of the first three days have been replaced by something more typically English. The situation was made for a short burst at the Sri Lankan batsmen before the Close, with Liam Plunkett being told to go flat out for 2 or 3 overs and try to unsettle the openers. At one point, with Broad and Ballance were hammering the ball to all parts, the lead was 370 and surely the declaration was coming with the England players crowding the balcony? Not a bit of it!

It may be that Alistair Cook decided that letting Gary Ballance get his century was worth losing the chance of a few overs with the new ball before the Close and that his bowlers would do better to get a rest overnight before making a final effort in the morning. If so, fair does to him. Possibly he had decided that if Ballance fell, he would declare – we may never know. However, it would have been nice to see an aggressive declaration as a statement of intent.

Certainly, batting has got more difficult. After the first 14 wickets in the match garnered 864 runs, the next 14 have put on just 335 and that it was that many, was only thanks to a big England recovery from the depths of 121-6. Sri Lanka’s last 6 wickets added just 68 runs from their high-water point of 385-4. Everything suggested that some aggressive captaincy would be rewarded.

England may yet force a win on the last day, especially as the overhead conditions are now a lot less friendly and the pitch is not as easy as it was. It may prove to have been a good move to give the new ball bowlers night’s rest before they come out and try to take 10 wickets in 90 overs (although, given the prevailing over rate, 85 may be more like it). However, the delayed declaration also means that the new ball will only become available shortly before the Close, when it may well be too late to help England’s cause.

Ballance’s century in only his second Test saved England from a possible defeat that seemed impossible in the morning. To reach it with a six was a pretty big statement on his part. And, after the top order had been blown away, he received solid support from Jordan and Broad, adding 78 with the former and 57 with the latter to set up a position from which only England can win. Tail-end runs often sap the resistance of the opposition: could the dashing of Sri Lanka’s hopes of an amazing turnaround turn out to be a killer blow? It would not be the first time that a side batting last sees itself collapse after watching the tail remove all hope of a victory that, a few hours earlier, was in touching distance.

Logic suggests that Alistair Cook will wait as late as possible before the start of play to declare, just to keep the Sri Lankan openers guessing, hoping that he will be daft enough bat on, before unleashing Broad and Anderson at them. Sri Lanka should save the Test but, knowing that victory is out of the question, there is just a chance that they could lose a few wickets and start to get nervous. Liam Plunkett needs to keep the ball pitched up, unleashing his 95mph thunderbolts and using the short ball sparingly. If he does it successfully, he could be the key man, taking wickets both for himself and for the bowler at the other end.

Whatever happens, we have seen enough from Ballance, Moeen, Jordan and Plunkett to feel optimistic about the future. The one of the new boys to miss out has been Sam Robson. Given the lack of patience that England have shown recently with Compton, Root and Carberry as openers, Sam Robson will have been disappointed to have got in and got out today – one hopes that he will be given the full summer to bed in, but two failures in the 2^nd Test would heap the pressure on him and lead to calls for yet another change. It is one crisis that England would prefer to avoid.

It is not beside the point that none other than Geoff Boycott is already suggesting that Sam Robson’s place is in jeopardy and that the fans are asking why he was selected in the first place. We tend to forget that, less than a year ago, Australia changed its qualification rules in the hope of attracting Sam Robson back to the Australian fold and not a few people suggested that Australia had picked the wrong MIddlesex opener last summer. People are talking about Robson’s vulnerability outside off stump; in fact, exactly the same criticism that was made initially of Chris Rogers, who ended up coming good after a slowish start (16, 52, 15, 6 last summer).