2nd Test, Day 1: South Africa Toughen-Up

 

2^nd Test, Day 1: South Africa Toughen-Up

July 14^th 2017

The best possible news for England was that the South Africa of Faf du Plessis is a much tougher nut to crack than that of Dean Elgar. Joe Root had to think through how to break partnerships and how to take wickets when little was happening. He was fortunate to have some help because not all his answers to the questions posed by South Africa have pleased watchers. Basically, the mistakes that he got away with at Lord’s, he has not been allowed to get away with twice: at least, not so freely. This has been a learning experience.

However, you should never judge a game until both sides have batted – and sometimes not even then – and South Africa’s innings still has some time to run, despite what looked initially like being a post-Tea meltdown. With South Africa at 179-2 and cruising, despite losing an early wicket, Joe Root started to get a taste of life at the top when things are going wrong. With batting conditions expected to be best on Days 2 and 3 and their two best batsmen playing without concern, the shadow of a South African total of 500+ was writ large.

It would also have been deserved. In general England did not use the pitch or the conditions well. Trying to avoid over-pitching and giving free hits, they dropped a little too short and failed to threaten the stumps enough. When something happened it was either because (a) Stuart Broad had the ball and his understanding with the Nottingham turf gives him the right to take cheap wickets or, (b) a South African batsman threw it away.

Apart from England burning both their reviews early with bad reviews (a thick inside edge on a ball pitching outside off does not make for a great LBW candidate), the worst review of the day was still possibly South African, which took some doing today. With du Plessis and Bavuma seemingly consolidating after de Kock and Amla fell quickly after Tea, du Plessis gloved the ball down the leg side, Jonny Bairstow took a magnificent catch (not too many people moaning about his ‘keeping now, are there?) and du Plessis reviewed immediately. He may have thought that he had got away with it as the replays showed a big impact on the thigh-pad and the commentators gave the on-field decision as an error and started chatting about other things, until the TV umpire feed reported that Ultra Edge showed a clear noise and the close-up showed that the ball had hit the glove. You heard the TV Umpire tell the on-field umpire that there was glove, the commentators back-peddling furiously and then a certain satisfaction as the umpire was told that he was on camera and could stick with his decision. Discussion then turned to whether or not the captain’s gloves were so padded that he did not even notice when the ball hit him!

With six bowlers, someone was always going to going short on overs. Joe Root’s handling of his bowlers – and particularly of Moeen – needs some work. It did not go unnoticed that Liam Dawson got first use of the ball again, but that Moeen looked far more threatening and was more economical. The comment was made, and not for the first time, that Liam Dawson seemed to be being bowled to justify his being in the side. Mark Wood looked better and more threatening than in the 1^st Test, but there still seems to be a plan to bowl him back into form, even if it gives away cheap runs and Ben Stokes is Ben Stokes: two valuable wickets to leave South Africa 235-6 and struggling, but far too many cheap runs too. The seventh wicket stand is now 74 and growing alarmingly serenely. Thoughts of rolling South Africa for under 300 have gone and the batsmen must be thinking that if they can see off the first half hour, they could post a total of 450+ and present some real problems to England. If you are Joe Root that may be an uncomfortable thought to wake up to.

2nd Test Preview: 4-0? A bit premature!

 

2^nd Test Preview: 4-0? A bit premature!

July 13^th 2017

Some pundits have already come out and, predictably, gone for a 4-0 England win. However awful South Africa have been so far in England – and they have been pretty poor so far in all formats and in all competitions – they have not lost a series in England since the Mike Atherton heist in 1998. Since then, both England series wins have been in South Africa. South Africa have won twice in England and once at home and one series in each country has been shared. Since re-admission, South Africa have won 14 Tests and England 13, with 17 draws. Only in 2012 has the margin been more than one Test. In other words, even when, on paper, one side appeared to have a huge advantage, the series have ended up being very close. After two Tests of the 2003 series you would have backed South Africa to win 3-0 at least: somehow it ended up being 2-2.

While England are unchanged and look to have few, if any real issues, South Africa will have a different captain, the leader of their attack suspended and one of their key middle-order batsmen dropped. In fact, they are still not sure of the exact configuration of their XI.

Faf du Plessis returns, hopefully reassured of his wife’s wellbeing and faces the job of restoring some discipline and pride to a side that seemed to be thinking more of catching the next plane home  than of catching England cold. Their pre-Test fielding drills have been sloppy, their energy in the field, inexistent and they got just about everything wrong at Lord’s. It might yet be that the Lord’s match gave a false impression: one wonders if the roles would have been reversed had South Africa won the Toss and batted, but their surrender on the last afternoon was abject and the South African slump since losing the #1 ranking in Tests has been going on for two years now with no obvious signs of reversing.

England have the luxury of going into the Trent Bridge Test with four seamers and two spinners, knowing that they have an attack suited for all conditions. They know too that Chris Woakes and Jake Ball are nearing fitness and that Mark Wood can feel them breathing down his neck, which is an incentive for him to perform at his favourite ground.

If South Africa win the Toss and Faf du Plessis instils some discipline and fight in the side, England may yet have an unpleasant surprise.

Yet England have not lost at Trent Bridge for ten years: in fact, since India won in 2007. Since then they have won six of the seven Tests played in Nottingham, five of them by huge margins and then that amazing match in 2013 when Australia’s last pair almost saw them home. However, the problem with sequences like that is that they end sometime although, at the moment, England feel like supermen each time they turn up at Trent Bridge: they have won there both after winning the Toss and losing it, batting first and batting second. Right now they need to keep the initiative and keep South Africa down. Win and the best South Africa can do is share the series. Right now you would have to back England to go 2-0 up unless the weather intervenes.
 

England v South Africa: 1st Test, Day 4

 

Awful, Awful South Africa, Embarrassing Fans

July 9^th 2017

There was only one thing more painful than the performance of South Africa today and that was the opinion of many of the fans posting on social media. Brought up on the junk food of T20 cricket, the howls of protest at the solid start by Jennings and Cook turned into pure derision when, as wickets tumbled as soon as batsmen tried to force the pace, it was suggested, as the lead approached 250, that England might already be more than enough. “Get this clown off commentary and bring in a cricket expert” was one witty, but by no means unique, sally. What that particular poster would have thought a couple of hours later is not on record.

It was already clear on the evening of the third day that batting was becoming increasingly difficult and that scoring was hard work. There was variable bounce and some big turn. Anyone who thought that South Africa were going to chase 400 was ignoring reality. Quite apart from the fact that 300+ targets are rarely chased down in the fourth innings of a Test, the last time that a completed fourth innings at Lord’s passed 235 was in 2012 and, even then, it did not reach 300. Since then, the totals have been: 68, 235, 201-9, 223, 220, 103, 207 and, now, 119. Lord’s may serve up dead surfaces in the County Championship but, in Tests, successful fourth innings chases are becoming as rare as feathered unicorns.

England were approaching an unassailable position at 139-1 and then, finally, South Africa started to bowl better. When they did so the magnitude of their task when they had to bat themselves became evident. England started to try to force the pace and batting suddenly became a lottery. When England’s batting order melted away, you knew that unless de Kock or Amla played the innings of his life and made the majority of the runs, the chase, whenever it happened, would hopeless. Still the condemnation of England’s tactics and the celebration that Cook and Jennings were out to allow some proper batting to start rolled on. Later, Joe Root hailed Cook’s 69 as “probably worth double” and may still have sold him short. The top-order runs from Cook, Jennings and Ballance won the game for England: they put the game out of reach and broke South Africa.

When you are already facing the largest total to chase at Lord’s since the 1984 West Indians broke all records, the last thing that you need is the tail to wag: the 45 runs that Wood and Bairstow added were just adding insult to injury. England only needed to keep calm and to bowl well, which they did in spades.

One of the focal points for many was Moeen Ali. Often, despite his excellent fourth innings figures, fans claim that he fails to deliver when he needs to. Early breakthrough from Jimmy Anderson. Moeen is brought on with a still new ball and starts with a wicket maiden. 12-2 and South Africa were already fading fast.

Sometimes nice guys do do well and few will begrudge the fact that Moeen celebrated the Test in which he became the second fastest Englishman to 100 wickets and 2000 runs by destroying the South African top order and getting his name on the honours board. Few others will begrudge Liam Dawson, who had had a chastening Test so far (dismissed twice in four balls and, at times, roughly treated when bowling), the boost to morale that dismissing Hashim Amla will have given him. Yet still you feel that it will only take one Test in which he has a modest performance for the armchair experts to argue that Moeen “has demonstrated time and again that he is not good enough”. If he is not, what of others before him with similar, or poorer figures like Tony Greig and Trevor Bailey?

By 28-4 it was obvious that only a miracle could save South Africa and that the four-day result was coming into play. Watching Moeen scythe through the South African middle order like an angry Ninja was the best possible answer to those who have constantly questioned his right to a place in the side, derided his performances and stated smugly that England went into the Test without a front-line spinner. 6-53 in the innings, plus a catch. 10-112, 87 & 7 in the match. Only Joe Root scored more runs for either side in the match. Moeen took exactly half the South African wickets to fall. His was as complete a performance as you can hope to see. Back in his debut year Moeen was affectionately called “The Beard that is Feared”. Amla would have expected to take back that title but, in the end, Moeen gave the sort of whiskered performance  that even W.G. Grace might have struggled to emulate.

Vague, half serious speculation about a four-day finish became open thoughts of the extra half hour being requested and then, puzzled suggestions that it might not even be necessary. In the end, it was not even close to being required. 36.4 overs and South Africa’s suffering was over. In terms if balls bowled, it was the 39^th shortest completed fourth innings in the history of Test cricket and the 14^th shortest ever against England.

An indication of just how completely South Africa were outplayed is to look at the five highest scores in each of the two innings.

·       1^st innings: Root, 190; Moeen, 87; Bavuma, 59; Broad, 57; Stokes, 56.

·       2^nd innings: Cook, 69; Bairstow, 51; Ballance, 34; Jennings, 33; Wood, 28.

With the honourable exception of Bavuma, the best performers in both innings were all England batsmen. Eight South African batsmen passed 20; not one of them reached 60. For England the respective figures were nine and three. Too many South African batsmen got in, but did not make it count.

The 2^nd Test starts at Trent Bridge on Friday. South Africa have no more cricket between the Tests: not even a game in the nine days between the 2^nd and 3^rd Tests in which to re-group, score some runs and to regain confidence. It is assumed that England will now field an unchanged XI at Trent Bridge. South Africa must make room for Du Plessis and a replacement for the suspended Rabada. They will have to think about the balance of their attack: even before Philander’s injury he looked to be struggling to bowl as many overs as his team needed, putting more pressure on the rest of the attack. More than anything though, they need to find some answers. Losing the Toss at Lord’s did not help their cause – the rapidly declining successive innings totals of 458, 361, 233 and 119 make that clear – but South Africa did not help themselves with poor decisions and slovenly fielding. England could and probably should have been limited to under 300 in their first innings – had either of the chances that Root offered before reaching 15 been taken and the Broad LBW been reviewed, England might not have reached even 250. Quite possibly England would still have won if they had been bowled out for 280 in the first innings, but at least the margin of defeat for South Africa would have been smaller.

1st Test, Days 2 and 3: England Set to Win Despite Their Limitations

 

England Set to Win Despite Their Limitations

July 8^th 2017

Barring a miraculous revival from South Africa, Joe Root will start his captaincy career with a win. It is not completely impossible that the win will come on the fourth day. However, more than a reflection of how good England have been, what looks like being a thumping win looks more a reflection of how poor some of South Africa’s decisions and executions have been.

The 1^st Test is turning more into the battle of DRS than a cricket match. South Africa have come off second best almost every time that DRS has come into the picture (Keaton Jennings will wonder why he had to be the exception) and, when they have not been second best, they have been third best behind England and the umpires.

On Day 1, DRS revealed that two dismissals had come from No Balls. On Day 2 they would have dismissed Stuart Broad cheaply and probably ended the England innings quickly if they had used DRS. Instead, he blasted away for a fifty that took the game away from South Africa. On Day 3, while England made a clever and successful review despite Liam Dawson – who has looked somewhat unready for Test cricket – failing even to appeal for an LBW that was found to be plumb, South Africa blew both their reviews within 10 overs when England batted again.

That is not to say that Joe Root has always out-thought Dean Elgar. He has tended not to show sufficient faith in Moeen Ali, who has ended up being his most potent weapon, bowling Liam Dawson ahead of him on both Day 2 and Day 3. At times the attack looked far too toothless and the situation was allowed to drift. As the last two South African wickets edged them ever-closer to parity, Moeen was kept mostly out of the attack. He got just two overs as South Africa went from a decidedly wobbly 248-7 to a much healthier 361-9. During this period, the bowlers leaked runs to the tune of 113 in 24 overs and Mark Wood looked innocuous, before Moeen finally came back and ended the fun with a wicket-maiden in his first over back from exile in the outfield.

The England lead should have been around 150. As it was, it dropped under 100 and Graeme Smith, in the commentary box, was purring that if South Africa got to around 50 or 60 behind they would be right back in the game. The danger was that England would set out to attack with a lead of only 50, lose quick wickets and end up 30-4. Instead, England chose the more sadistic, more pragmatic approach. Knowing that South Africa were a bowler short and, with only three front-line bowlers, short on options and also that the bowlers had had a heavy first innings load – the lightest-used of the South African attack, Philander, bowled as many overs as the most heavily-used of the England attack – the South Africans were slowly ground down. In a compressed series, grinding-down and exhausting the opposition bowlers is part and parcel of the business. England are also wearing the pitch. The odd ball is already misbehaving: by Day 5 batting could well become really tricky.

216 ahead, with a lot of forcing batting to some, England can expect to declare around 400 ahead, after around 50 overs tomorrow, challenging South Africa to survive 130 overs to draw.

South Africa have only ever chased 300 to win twice, both times against Australia: in 2002 in Durban and in 2008 in Perth. They have batted out 130 overs to draw a match just 4 times. The chances are that unless someone can make a big hundred South Africa will lose.

A telling fact is that four South African batsmen passed 50, but not one reached 60. Four England batsmen passed 50 and, of them, Moeen made 87 and Root, 190. Five of the six highest scores in the match so far have been by England batsmen and that is killing the South African challenge.

Ps: South Africa’s record batting more than 100 overs (or its equivalent) in the fourth innings of a Test match has brought:

14 defeats, 8 draws & just 4 wins.

 

England v South Africa: 1st Test, 1st Day - Not bad for a first day at the office

 

Not Bad For a First Day at the Office

July 6^th 2017

The phony war of ODIs and T20s is over. Some players have even played some games for their counties – although the round of day-night pink-ball cricket inserted just before the 1^st Test has been declared a failure by just about everyone and was not great preparation, even for those who scored some runs, or took some wickets. The latest start to a Test summer in over 30 years, has begun.

For the record, England won the ODIs and the T20 series, although not without showing how infuriatingly inconsistent they can be, had one bad day in the Champions Trophy, which was saved for the Semi-Final and South Africa have had something close to the tour from hell. South Africa were so bad in the Champions Trophy that their eventual exit must have come as a relief. Their A side struggled on its parallel tour and, although South Africa won the 3^rd ODI and 2^nd T20 (both due to massive England implosions), they were generally completely outplayed overall.

The 1^st Test though has turned into more “Tales of the Unexpected” than “Great Expectations”, although the South Africans may have feared, not without reason that, rather than “Gods and Kings” their role would turn more into “Bleak House”.

Over the last few tours the visit of the South Africans has tended to produce more earthquakes in English cricket than the San Andres fault has produced in California. Their visit finished Nasser Hussain’s captaincy in 2003, Michael Vaughan’s in 2008 and Andrew Strauss’ in 2012 and went a long way to ending Kevin Pietersen’s spell in England colours. On this occasion, England have tried to buck the trend by appointing a new captain before the South Africa series rather than during or after it, although it was never the plan to elevate Joe Root so early and there must be some trepidation about making your best bat and key man in all three formats, captain of the Test side as well. There was always the fear that the load might be too much and that, with a tour of Australia approaching, that it could end in tears.

As it turns out, both Australia and South Africa have their issues. Not everyone is happy about the loads placed on them and South Africa’s most-feared batsman, ABdV, is already an absentee and expected to retire prematurely from Test cricket. Faf du Pleissis, his replacement, has family issues that have sent him home. Several bowlers, such as Dale Steyn are missing and, all in all South Africa look as vulnerable as they have looked for many years (NB: in 2003, they came with what many felt was a B-Team, under an inexperienced young captain, who then proceeded to finish several England careers with two double-centuries and a fifty in the first two Tests of the series). Australia have a players’ strike, have just cancelled the “A” tour and the tour to Bangladesh looks, right now, very uncertain to happen, with some even talking about the Ashes series itself being in danger: things in the Test world are looking very shaken-up right now.

Whatever issues South Africa have, England have their own. A raft of fast bowlers are either injured (Woakes, Ball, …) or just coming back from injury (Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes, …) The captain is wearing L-plates. And the brave idea to have a batting order consisting of Cook, Hameed, Jennings, Root, Bairstow, Stokes, Buttler, Ali… has floundered due to the dismal form of Haseeb Hameed since getting injury in the 3^rd Test in India and the fact that for all that he looks imperious in white-ball cricket, Jos Buttler is, more often than not, found out by the red (or pink) ball: his two innings, promoted up the order in the pink ball round to allow him to build an innings, were almost the briefest possible. Some writers have suggested that Hameed has been found out by English bowlers after a good first season but, in truth, his form through the winter was consistently dreadful over different tours and series and his medical issues not just limited to the broken hand. You feel for him, but something went horribly wrong and a Test series is no place to try to scratch around for some form.

England’s multiple issues led to some debatable, bordering on downright controversial, picks.

Despite the fact that, after an imperious start to the season, Keaton Jennings’ form has dipped alarmingly. He was the man in possession for the last two Tests in the winter, making a debut century and a fifty in the final Test and managed timely scores of 57 & 71 v South Africa A, followed by 39 against South Africa. However, there are many who think that Stoneman was unlucky, having moved from Durham to Surrey in the hope of a Test debut and various others have been suggested based on excellent county form this season.

Gary Ballance has had his second coming and is now onto a third and surely final opportunity. His form this season, in a stuttering Yorkshire side, has been nothing short of brilliant. However, after one of the great Test starts, he has not passed 20 in his last 7 Test innings and, having averaged 49.0 in his first 11 Tests, averages 18.7 in his last 11, with just 2x50 in his last 13 Tests. Yet it is Gary Ballance who has had to take on the hoodoo #3 slot earmarked for Keaton Jennings. Number 3 for England seems to have been a problem as long as I can remember. Back in Mike Brearley’s day, comedian John Cleese (yes, the Python) suggested numbering the position “2A” on the scorecard, but even then it was an old issue, going back at least to the Caribbean tour of 1974.

Further down the order, the expected return of Liam Plunkett has not happened, despite his excellent white-ball form. Adil Rashid has been consigned to the outer darkness again, once more despite some solid and occasionally destructive, performances with the white ball and the winner has been Liam Dawson.

The Dawson selection reminds you of when the wrong name was read out at the Oscars. Or when the Australians allegedly picked Peter Taylor thinking that they had picked Mark Taylor. Dawson is not even the first spinner for Hampshire – their go-to man is Mason Crane – and was sent to India late in the tour presumably to gain some experience before the inadequacies of others led to him receiving a quite unexpected call-up for the final Test. With Dawson announced as being in the XI ahead of the day, the media could trumpet England playing two specialist spinners in the Lord’s Test for the first time in decades. Others, more sceptical, suggested that Moeen Ali and Liam Dawson can in no way be described as a specialist spin attack. Although Liam Dawson did not let anyone down with a good 70 and some containing bowling, his is hardly an attacking selection. However, after the selection of Gareth Batty was shown to be a bizarre error – he hardly took a wicket during the second half of the season – and Zafar Ansari suddenly retired from cricket – having also shown himself to be far from the required level (although, at least with the valid excuse of the harm done by serious injuries in the previous two years) and Jack Leach at Somerset still coming to terms with a re-modelled action, maybe it was the best of a bad set of options.

Something odd happened to England’s spinners last winter. It may not be coincidence that Adil Rashid’s form slumped at the same time that Moeen Ali’s did.

After 4 Tests of the winter tour, Moeen Ali had 18 wickets at 27.3: healthy figures to say the least against spin specialists. In the last 3 Tests of the series he took just 3 wickets at 136.7.

After 5 Tests of the winter tour, Adil Rashid had 25 wickets at 29.0: again, a very healthy performance. In the last 2 Tests though he managed just 5 wickets at 69, with match figures of an eye-watering 4-192 and 1-153.

Whatever the cause of that slump, Adil Rashid has paid the price and after 10 Tests over 3 series, 49 ODIs and 23 T20s since 2009, is still to play a Test at home.

So, England fans had plenty of reasons to view the first day and the series with some trepidation. More so when, in less than an hour, it was 49-3. Jennings was unlucky, not to mention sold down the river by the non-striker (Gary Ballance). “Don’t bother to review it, Jet. You’re plumb dead!”. What Jennings did not know was that the ball had pitched outside leg AND was missing the stumps for good measure. With a start like that, Gary Balance owed England a few runs: he did manage to get into double figures for the first time in eight innings before a dismissal that brought dejá vu all round, as his went onto the back foot in front of the stumps, forgot that he had brought a bat with him and reviewed hesitantly after giving the umpire trigger-finger practice: his main hope may have been that the ball was burrowing under the stumps…

Fortunately England are made of sterner stuff now, and just as well. Two or three years ago 49-3 might have become 130ao. Despite Bairstow going cheaply too, 76-4 became 357-5 at the Close, with South Africa a dreadful three overs short despite an extra half hour.

The lesson for South Africa is that when you have your foot on the throat you don’t miss the opposition’s gun batsman badly twice. It might also be as well to remind the bowlers that there is no point bowling your best delivery when you have overstepped: two bad drops, two clean-bowled from no balls. Thanks very much!

After three lives, two of them before reaching double figures, Joe Root looks set for a double century. Stokes and Moeen have added 50s. England have scored at 4.1 an over despite being in strife all morning and Philander finishing with 16-2-46-3 (just 19 scoring strokes off him) and South Africa’s efforts in the field have looked slovenly, lacked energy and their heads have dropped.

If early breakthroughs with the still new ball can be avoided, 450 should be passed, 500 beckons and, with it, South Africa playing for a draw at best. From an England point of view, one hopes that the South African feeling that this is the “tour from hell” will continue for a while longer. England will, quite reasonably, hope to bat until Tea, at which point they may well be out of sight.

The King Is Dead! Long Live The King!

 

The King Is Dead! Long Live The King!

February 6^th 2017

When the sages started to think that the lack of a puff of white smoke from the chimney of the family farm in Essex meant that Alistair Cook planned to hold on to the captaincy and with the England Lions about to leave for Sri Lanka, suddenly word came that the king has abdicated.

Cook’s position was not quite as bad as when he was forced out of the ODI captaincy – a decision that, to this day, he feels was unjustified – but it was going in that direction. When England lost 5-0 in Australia, the opprobrium was directed at others. When England slumped against first Sri Lanka and then India, the concern was about his batting form. Enough series wins came to paint over the cracks of some bad defeats – Ashes success against Australia, a win in South Africa, turning around the series at home to India – but far too many series wins were diminished or slipped away by losing the final Test of a series and series that could have been shared became heavy defeats in the same way. Cook’s win percentage has dropped steadily since he took over the captaincy with, now, a record total for an England captain of 22 defeats. This has become one of the riddles of the Cook captaincy: wins in India, in South Africa and two Ashes wins in England – one of them quite unexpected – have to be balanced against a 5-0 defeat in Australia, 4-0 in India, 2-0 in the UAE, a first ever home series defeat to Sri Lanka and a first ever Test defeat to Bangladesh. Cook has presided over some amazing highs and some pretty desperate lows.

The players speak of his decency. He makes new members of the team feel welcome. He has a strong sense of duty. Cook knew though that if he led the side out in the 1^st Test against South Africa at Lord’s on July 6^th, the deal would not conclude until the end of the 5^th Test at Sydney on January 8^th. In between times, twelve Tests, with a tour to New Zealand following close behind. Resignation half way through the summer, even if 3-0 down to South Africa, would not be an option.

Alistair Cook evidently let the wounds of India heal, enjoyed his time on the farm with wife, Alice and then sat down with her and asked if he had the physical strength to handle twelve Tests, including two very difficult series, before he would have a second chance to give up the captaincy without letting his team down, by quitting in the middle of the schedule of almost back-to-back series. Unlike in 2014, when Alice changed his mind about resigning, this time she evidently felt that he had had enough and that the tank was empty.

The timing of the abdication may be significant. It is well known that the selectors are nervous about the prospect of asking Joe Root to play in all three formats and captain the Test side. There is also the not inconsiderable diplomatic issue of the new captain of the Test side playing under a different captain (Eoin Morgan or Jos Buttler) in ODIs and T20s: that happened back in 2003 when Nasser Hussain gave up the ODI captaincy (no T20s in those days) to Michael Vaughan and, within months, had lost the Test captaincy to him too.

With no Tests to play until mid-July, there is, at least in theory, no hurry to appoint a captain, save in the sense of giving him several months to grow into the role. However, the new season is starting and we are told that a new captain will be appointed within two weeks. In other words, by February 20^th.

On February 12^th, the England Lions start a tour to Sri Lanka with two, unofficial Tests, followed by five, unofficial ODIs. Intercalated between the ODIs in Sri Lanka are full ODIs of the England side in the Caribbean. Junior and senior side return and, within two weeks, the official curtain-raiser of the 2017 County season starts in Dubai, with the North v South matches and then the MCC v Champion county and, on March 28^th, a full round of university matches start in England.

Joe Root will go to the Caribbean, very probably as the new England Test captain. However, the next time that Root steps onto a cricket field, half way around the world, Keaton Jennings will already be into his fifth match as England Lions captain, passing Joe Root’s lifetime captaincy experience of just four matches. At the same time, Durham have given him the captaincy for 50-over cricket (not before some arm-twisting from the ECB) and Jennings will also lead out the North against the South in Dubai. If Joe Root’s coronation is a done deal, why so much interest in cramming as much captaincy experience into Keaton Jennings in such a short time?

Knowing that the selectors really wanted to give Joe Root until summer 2018 before increasing his burden still further, there are a few pundits who do wonder if the selectors might come up with a really left-field pick and give the Test captaincy to a player who has had just two Tests and who may have to drop down to #3 – coincidentally, allowing Joe Root to move back to have favoured #4 slot – if he is even to continue in the side. There is a school of thought that the best captain in Australia might be the one who will make Australia least comfortable. Joe Root, apart from being England’s key player (any Australian worth his salt will think “decapitation” if they can make his tour miserable), has previous with Australia in the sense of an incident with David Warner in a Birmingham bar and would be still new to the job. The Australians will undoubtedly have a plan for him to destabilise him. Would a former South African U19 captain who has declared for England and who is not yet established in the side, bother them more and, in passing, deflect Australian attention from Root? It is an interesting question.

England v India: T20s, Not so Much a Reality Check, as an Invitation to be Mugged in the Future

 

England v India: T20s

Not so Much a Reality Check, as an Invitation to be Mugged in the Future

February 2^nd 2017

It has been a recurring theme for at least three decades: England batsmen cannot play spin. It is getting to the stage where if England were to play a game against Addington 2^nd XI – my erstwhile weekend team in Kent, many years ago – the skipper would look at the fixture list, give a knowing wink, pick three spinners, ask the groundsman to shave off the grass and feel confident of winning.

England should have won both the ODI series and the T20s. In every game they could say that they were in a winning position and in four of the six games it came undone. Sometimes you come up against some brilliance that you simply cannot plan for: an Indian seamer bowling a brilliant final over; a pair of batsmen rescuing their side from apparent oblivion with fine, attacking batting. That is just part of the game. Chasing what is no more than a par total on a ground famed for its huge scores in T20 games, including two of the ten highest scores ever in T20 matches anywhere in the world and having the run-rate well under control, with two well-set batsmen at the crease, is not usually a prelude to losing eight wickets for eight runs in nineteen balls.

That England left Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, not a name that would have most touring sides breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of facing him, with the extraordinary figures of 4-0-25-6, is an indictment in itself.

Jon Agnew recounts how he was following the game in his car, England just two wickets down, with Root and Morgan going great guns and pushing the score along at around 10-an-over, parked, got out, walked indoors and discovered that the game was already over.

What made it all the more unexpected is that Chahal had figures of 2-0-19-1 when he came back to take the fourteenth over, having shared the new ball.

In reality, the problems started in the previous over, bowled by Mishra. Root and Morgan had just taken an experimental over from Suresh Raina for 1 6 6 w 6 1 1 – 22 runs that left England 114-2, with a quite comfortable equation of 89 required from 48 balls. With the wheels threatening to fall off the Indian wagon, Mishra bowled an superb over that went for just three runs, including a wide and that should have seen Joe Root out, caught. When Root escaped because Yuvraj and Pant collided chasing the ball, a more confident side would have made India pay dearly for the mistake. Instead, it seemed to induce panic.

After 12 overs, India had been 99-2, England were 114-2 and well ahead.

Even after the quiet 13^th over, England were still significantly ahead of India at the same stage. It was all set up to go down to the wire. Without England ever bowling badly, India had scored 70 from their last 5 overs, so the England had every right to expect that they would be capable of something similar.

Chahal’s first two balls were innocuous – a short, wide delivery and a flighted wide delivery – but, critically, they went for just two singles. So, a sequence of ten balls had produced six singles, a wide and a comedy drop. Pressure was mounting and you could almost see the mental calculation: “the next ball has to go, whatever happens”. It did. Googly. Straight up in the air from the edge of Morgan’s bat. Batsmen cross. Next ball. Flipper. Root makes the same calculation, misses and is pinned straight in front.

England have lost both set batsmen and, what is just as bad, the run equation has gone up to 84 required from 36 balls. Loads of batting to come. Buttler and Stokes at the crease. The problem now though was that they would need to swing like crazy  from the off and that every dot ball would be a tragedy that would simply ratchet-up the pressure. With panic growing among the batsmen it was a matter of the bowlers playing on that panic, which Bumrah and Chahal did brilliantly. Chahal alternated short balls and googlies on frazzled batsmen, to devastating effect.

The final killer was Chahal’s third-last delivery. Ben Stokes had just launched one through Long-on. The next ball was short, whacked hard and was almost a six. Ten from two balls would have put England back with an outside chance (albeit an unlikely 70 required from 26 balls, with four wickets left), quite apart from getting Ben Stokes’s adrenalin flowing. Instead, Suresh Raina jumped, plucked the ball out of the air, overbalanced, avoided the rope by millimetres and put the stake right through England’s heart. Instead of a six, England’s last front-line batsman was gone and, with him, the match.

The collapse was epic:

W W . . | . W 1 1 1 1 | W . 4 W . W | W . W

This will be added to the legend of England’s incompetence against spin bowling.

Of course, events last season may change things radically. The new regulation on the Toss in County cricket did see a resurgence of spin bowling and Somerset’s late-season charge saw county batsmen having to fend for themselves against rampant spinners on turning tracks. The fact that the equal-highest wicket-taker of the season was a county stalwart spinner in Jethan Patel, with Somerset’s Jack Leach just one wicket behind, gives hope that batsmen may yet start to come into the England side after a searching spin examination in county cricket. However, going further down the list of leading wicket-takers in county cricket in 2016 reveals just one more spinner – Middlesex’s Ollie Rayner – before thirtieth place in a list dominated by medium and fast-medium right-armers. Of the four spinners in the top thirty wicket-takers, three were veterans and two of England’s winter tourists did not even make it into to top fifty in the list.

The ECB either persist with their attempts to bring spinners into the game in the County Championship – a policy that will take at least five years to bear fruit -  or face the prospect of England batsmen being mugged time and again on spinning tracks all around the world. The response though is not encouraging. With the reduction in the Championship, the early-season, seam-friendly pitches will play an even larger part in Championship cricket, with an even shorter window for spinners to weave their magic on dry, sun-cured tracks. It may turn out to be an incredibly short-sighted policy in the long run.