Finishing In The Pits

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

The Pits

 

March 31^st 2014

 

All logic said that England would end their campaign with a comfortable win of The Netherlands and would return home feeling a little better after an encouraging World T20 in which they could say, quite genuinely, that they were unlucky to be eliminated. No one could have imagined the full horror being on the wrong end of a hammering – their only heavy defeat of the tournament – to a side that is no longer ranked high enough to play official ODIs.

The team was awful. Catches dropped. Misdirected bowling. It took a mean spell from Ravi Bopara and, after a rather dodgy first over, from James Tredwell, to pull back the run rate. Then the batting was abysmal. England lost, inexplicably, to a team who they should have put to the sword, a team who were better on the day and, who should also have beaten South Africa.

In the three games so far the batting, condemned before the tournament as insipid and powder-puff, has been England’s strength. It has not been just Alex Hales’s century. In 30 matches in the tournament – 60 innings – just six times has 190 been reached, two of them by England. In Hales, England have the fifth highest run-scorer of the tournament and the second highest of the players not involved in the preliminary round. Various other batsmen have had useful innings, although the top three of Hales, Lumb and Moeen have not given England the solid starts that one would have liked. Moeen Ali, in particular, has been disappointing with the bat. However, a line-up criticised as unable to clear the boundary has hit 20 sixes and 58 fours in their four games (really in three because, today, the totals were 0 and 4 respectively).

When England have been weak has been in the bowling. No one has more than 4 wickets. Apart from the strangely underused Ravi Bopara, whose six overs over two games went for just 28, no one comes close to Chris Jordan’s figures: 4 wickets at 19, with a strike rate of 15.5 and economy of 7.35. Dernbach’s economy has been 11, Bresnan’s 9.7 (just 1 wicket for 97 in 10 overs), Broad’s 8.5, although with the consolation of 4 wickets at 25.5.

One thing that is singularly odd is that England’s three most economical bowlers bowled just 27.2 out of a possible 48 overs between them: in part that this because England used so many bowling options – 6 or 7 bowlers in each match – but it is still poor use of your resources to leave so many overs of your most reliable bowlers unused.

Bresnan and Dernbach have struggled. It is hard to see Dernbach playing again. Tim Bresnan has also looked more the vulnerable Bresnan of 2006 than the heroic figure of 2010/11. Can England continue to wait on him to rediscover his best form? It is hard to know how badly Stuart Broad’s knee problem has hampered him. After a poor start to the tournament with a couple of Dernbach-like overs, he has finished more strongly, but has never felt up to taking the new ball – not having him running in strongly with the new ball has weakened the attack significantly.

Like the death bowling, the fielding has been shambolic. Catch after catch has gone down. There have been misunderstandings in the field with runouts missed and catches dropping between fielders with neither making a serious effort to take responsibility. Unfortunately it has not been limited to difficult chances and to outfielders: several sitters have gone down and Jos Buttler has missed a couple of important chances too.

However, things are not as bad as they feel. The core of a strong side is there. Probably eight or nine of today’s starters will be in England’s best side in the summer, with the two or three changes more likely to be in the attack and one of those is more due to the nature of English pitches, which will not require two front-line spinners. Joe Root may well usurp Moeen Ali, but there must be some concern about Eoin Morgan who has only reached 20 twice in his last ten innings. The biggest need is to find a reliable death bowler and someone to use the new ball effectively. With Ravi Bopara, Moeen Ali and, presumably, Joe Root able to bowl overs, there will be no shortage of support options.

I stick by what said yesterday... it is not all bad. The side just needs a little luck and to win a couple of games to get some momentum.

England Out, But It Is Not All Bad

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Out, but no need to be so down

March 30^th 2014

 

South Africa duly pulled off yet another narrow win – the largest margin in any of their 4 games so far has been 6 runs yet, to their credit, they have won three of the four – to eliminate England. This time there were no excuses: England won the toss and bowled, taking advantage of the better conditions earlier in the evening but, more dropped catches and ruinous death bowling allowed South Africa to post the sort of huge score that was never going to be easy to chase unless someone made a big score.

Overall, the campaign has turned on the match against New Zealand that was interrupted by the weather. Despite the doomsayers, England have competed in every game and were unfortunate that a defeat on the Duckworth-Lewis lottery has effectively eliminated them.

To England’s credit the side went close. Only South Africa’s own 196-5  has been a bigger score in the tournament than England’s 193-7 in reply. England were ahead in the chase until the end of the 18^th over, one that will be remembered for yet another Jade Dernbach calamity: 26 runs conceded, which were the difference between South Africa having just enough and what could even have been a fairly comfortable England win.

For the legion of fans frustrated that Jade Dernbach gets so many chances, the case for the prosecution is:

• Of all bowlers with at least 50 overs in T20s, he is the most expensive.
• He has had disaster after disaster in ODIs and T20s over the years, mixing beautiful overs with expensive dross but, to the frustration of many, still gets picked.

However, in contrast, the case for the defence that has justified his continued selection is:

• Of those bowlers to bowl 60+ overs, he has one of the best averages and one of the best strike rates.
• He bowls the powerplay and at the death which is when bowlers do get punished.

The truth is though that when a side is looking to accelerate, Jade Dernbach is getting targeted, as he was last night and has no answer. In the past he tried too many pace variations. Now his lengths seem to be all awry when, what you need, is to put the ball in the blockhole and a bunch of allsorts tend to be dispatched to the boundary with alacrity. Jade Dernbach has turned into an expensive luxury and the cynics would say that the best field for him at the death would include two men in the stands.

The issue for Jade Dernbach is that while he is taking wickets, particularly with the new ball, no one is going to worry so much about the runs. However, the wickets have ceased to come:

2014, 9 matches, 6 wickets @ 57.3

2013, 7 matches, 13 wickets @ 15

2012, 13 matches, 13 wickets @ 28.9

2011, 5 matches, 7 wickets @ 15

So far, 2014 has been a tale of lack of penetration with the new ball and lack of control at the death: a lethal combination after a successful 2013. This mirrors his struggles in ODIs last year, by far his worst year in ODIs:

2013, 6 ODIs, 6 wickets @ 65.7

2012, 5 ODIs, 9 wickets @ 28.3

2011, 13 ODIs, 16 wickets @ 41.6

(this year, Jade Dernbach has been surplus to requirements in the ODI team)

Jade Dernbach is going through a crisis of form and confidence. He is just a few days short of his 28^th birthday and thus probably at his peak as a bowler. With the rise of bowlers such as Chris Jordan he is going to struggle to stay in contention, especially if Steve Finn recovers his place. What Jade Dernbach needs is a summer in the Surrey ranks, taking plenty of wickets and reviving his form. Right now though not to many people will fancy his chances of playing for England again.

If England thought that their campaign was disappointing, Australia’s has been plain awful. They are one of only three sides (the others are The Netherlands and Bangladesh) who have not won a game yet – Australia and Bangladesh play off for the wooden spoon in Group A on Tuesday, a game in which Bangladesh must fancy their chances. Australia were well beaten by Pakistan, made to look foolish against the West Indies as the man who antagonised their opponents conceded consecutive sixes to end the match and humiliated by India. The margins of 16 runs, 6 wickets and 73 runs have been wide and the side looks totally unbalanced for the conditions.

The excuse was that the side was demoralised by its exit after Pakistan easily defeated Bangladesh, leaving he Australia-India game irrelevant. This ignores the fact that Australia had already lost their first two games and were playing the stand-out side of the tournament. A side can play for pride and Australia seemed to have very little and looked incapable of winning even if there had been something resting on the game.

Two Crazy Games

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

An Extraordinary Day

 

March 27^th 2014

 

 

After a few too many mundane matches, today has brought two corkers. A Dutch colleague who knows next to nothing about cricket was crouched alongside me in the dining room at lunchtime watching, stunned, as The Netherlands closed on an unblievable win against South Africa. Sadly, it was not to be and South Africa brought off another amazing narrow escape. Having won by 2 runs against New Zealand, they beat The Netherlands by 5 in a game that the Dutch should have won. The contrast with the Sri Lanka game was remarkable: the Dutch bowled with discipline and chased as if it were Ireland in front. So fast was their scoring that it seemed that unless they panicked, victory would come with several overs to spare. The Dutch though, can hold their heads high… they left the South Africans close to panic.

The game that came afterwards was, if anything, even more extraordinary. Few pundits gave England much chance of winning and fewer still thought that, having dropped catch after catch in the outfield, England would be able to chase 190 to win, especially as it would be the seventh highest successful chase ever in a T20. In fact, only seven times before today had a team chased 180 successfully in a T20 international.

When the opposition starts the chase with a double-wicket maiden you normally think that it’s curtains. However, Hales and Morgan batted sensibly and stayed either ahead of Sri Lanka at an equivalent stage or, at least, very close. The biggest difference in the scores was 6 after 8 overs (Sri Lanka 58-1, England 52-2) but, from the end of the 10^th over England were never behind save, momentarily and marginally after 18 overs. If you were watching the scores you could see that unless England did something stupid they would be very close at the end. As the ball got harder to grip, the scoring rate mounted and Sri Lanka’s chances of pulling the match back got slimmer. Two wickets in an over helped but then, as Sri Lanka played their trump card, hoping that Malinga would kill England’s challenge; what it did though was kill Sri Lanka’s as Ravi Bopara hit his first two balls for four and calmed any nerves.

The headlines will be for Alex Hales’s century and a magnificent innings it was, but England had other heroes too. Eoin Morgan, whose recent form has been awful, played a wonderful innings. Ravi Bopara supported calmly at the end when, so often in the past, batsmen have lost their heads. And, with a chase of 200 a real possibility, Chris Jordan’s last over, the penultimate of the innings, went for just 4 runs and included the wicket of Sangakkara – 4-0-28-2 was the most economical spell of the day by any bowler. Even Jade Dernbach had one of his better games of the recent past.

One win does not make England a great side, but neither are they such a bad side as many have claimed. They now face South Africa in a winner-takes all game on Saturday: the winner will almost certainly make it through to the semi-Finals, the loser is out. South Africa have squeaked past New Zealand and The Netherlands and blew a winning position against Sri Lanka – you would worry a lot more if England were facing India.

There are still many permutations in the group. Any of the four Full Members could still qualify. Sri Lanka must beat New Zealand to qualify. South Africa have to beat England. England have to beat South Africa and New Zealand have to beat Sri Lanka. Unless the Dutch play party-poopers, the two winners will go through and the two losers will go out. There is even a freak combination of results that would allow the Dutch to go through (England beat South Africa, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka, the Dutch beat both England and New Zealand, leaving all five sides on four points).

The "Before" Has Been More Exciting Than The Main Event

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

An Excess Of One-Sided Matches And Awful Batting

 

March 25^th 2014

 

 

So far it would be fair to say that the qualification event for the World T20 has far outshone the main event. Tomorrow is a rest day in what has been a disappointing competition so far, marked by one-sided contests and awful batting collapses, sometimes disguised as close finishes. Australia, South Africa and New Zealand have all put in bids for the worst collapse, but the performances by the two qualifiers have, sadly, taken the prize.

Having been so exciting in winning their group in extraordinary style the Dutch came down to earth with a crash against Sri Lanka. Having set all kind of records against Ireland, they set more records, this time of a less desirable kind: having been 1-3 and taking nearly 3 overs for runs scored to surpass wickets lost, 39 all out marked some kind of recovery. It was the lowest ever score in a T20 international. Sri Lanka’s win was the quickest ever in a T20 international. It was awful to watch. The Dutch looked totally overawed and unprepared. There must be a suspicion that, for them, their Final was the win against Ireland and the side, which did not even know which group it would go in and who their opponents would be, has mentally returned home to celebrate.

Today, Bangladesh were little better. The West Indies reached a scratchy 171, despite losing four wickets in the last over. Bangladesh had already beaten them twice in T20s: would this be a third in five encounters? At 16-3 many fans were wondering if the Dutch score would be beaten. At 59-7, the lowest ever score by a Full Member in a T20 (held by Bangladesh) was under severe threat. 98 all out was nothing like as bad as it might have been, but it was hardly a contest.

The matches are following a pattern. Everyone elects to bowl first in the evening matches, expecting the dew to make bowling difficult later. Those sides who have spinners pack their sides with slow bowlers of all types and frequently toss the new ball to one of them. When the power play overs produce plenty of runs against the seamers, a couple of spinners are summoned and the run rate usually nose-dives. A side conserves wickets hoping to get to the sort of “40 wanted from the last four overs” scenario that is usually a cakewalk for the batsmen and then collapses horribly trying to force the pace at the death, hence India’s go-slow against the West Indies to ensure that they did not emulate others in looking proper charlies.

With the occasional exception (Dale Steyn’s last over against New Zealand went right against the pattern of other games), it is the slower bowlers who are proving to be the heroes. One expected the Warners, Finches and Gayles to be the stars, but the big hitters are not the ones getting the headlines in most games. The sides that look best suited to winning are the ones with plenty of slow and medium-pace options, rather than the fast-medium that usually prospers elsewhere. Batsmen with cool heads capable of milking runs are also doing at least as well, so far at least, as the big hitters. It points to sides such as South Africa and Australia not being as well adapted to winning as India, or Sri Lanka. I would be willing to take a small bet that neither will qualify for the semi-Finals. Pakistan and the West Indies will do well, if they can play with their heads (never a given in either case). And England and New Zealand may just be surprise packages.

India and Sri Lanka are almost through to the semi-Finals now – India need only to heap more humiliation on Bangladesh in their next game on Friday to confirm their place, Sri Lanka will qualify if they beat and all but eliminate England on Thursday.

What would be nice though is to have a couple of nice, close contests that are not decided by brainless batting and house of cards collapses at the death.

Australia Lack The Subtlety To Win

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Australia’s “One Size Fits All” Failure

 

March 23^rd 2014

 

 

With other sides in the tournament playing 3, 4 or even 5 spinners in their XI, Australia have just a single 43-year old spinner and a collection of very useful medium-pacers. Without the high pace of Mitch Johnson there is a lack of variety in the attack and it looks quite unsuited to this tournament. There is also a suggestion that Plan A is to bash the ball as hard as possible, starting with Warner and Finch but, when the situation calls for subtlety and for working the ball around, they are short of batsmen who can do it. Why Australia were made favourites for the tournament is a bit of a mystery, but there is rather a lot of hype around this Australian side that sees itself as a bit special, but seems to have been picked with the Ashes in mind and not Bangladesh’s slow strips.

This suspicion that the squad is not the one to win in Bangladesh has been confirmed today against Pakistan who had looked so awful against India. Australia have a very poor T20 record in Asia, something that people have tended to ignore. In fact, of the ten teams in the competition proper, only Bangladesh have a worse record in T20 games played in Asia. Against New Zealand in the warm-ups Australia had struggled to defend 200 and, at one point, looked set to lose that game with something to spare before wickets started to fall. Today, despite a good start with the ball, the lack of anyone to exercise control in the middle overs allowed Pakistan to reach 191. Australia had only once chased over 165 successfully in a T20 and needed a good start: 8-2 at the end of the first over was not what they had in mind.

A brutal counterattack from Glenn Maxwell, including 30 off one over, left Australia needing just 70 off 54 balls and Pakistan in apparent disarray. All they had to do was push the singles and hit the odd bad ball for four. Subtlety though is not part of the Australian plan and wickets started to fall as batsmen committed suicide, when working the ball around was all that was needed. Even a rash of dropped catches could not save Australia.

England fans tend to be hyper-critical of their own side and, in particular, their batting at the death, but Australia lost 7 wickets for 29 in the last 5 overs to lose by 16, in a barely credible defeat. When a bit of calm would have won the game with plenty to spare, they were dreadful. If it had been England the criticism would have been brutal… and thoroughly merited.

On the evidence of this game the Australian attack is in no way suited to the conditions, relying on the Ashes formula of pace, without an enforcer to make it effective (or someone like Ravi Bopara to add subtlety – England fans tend to ridicule him, but just look how effective he has been in the last year or so, rarely failing to make a mark with either bat or ball) and the batting lacks the nous to milk accurate bowling without taking outrageous risks.

The second game was an extraordinary affair. The West Indies were, at one point, without even having lost many wickets, looking to be struggling to get past 100 in their 20 overs and this on the same pitch that had produced so many runs earlier. A late surge took them to 130 at which point India, in turn, made run-scoring look hard, suggesting that it was genuinely becoming difficult to time the ball. Despite winning by 7 wickets, India had just two balls to spare when they finally knocked off the winning run. India’s win was reckoned to be a lot easier than it had looked and, in truth, that was right. However, they did do what Australia had not and, when the target was close enough, rather than risk a collapse with a series of almighty slogs, pushed the ones and twos. With two wins in the bag and a game against Bangladesh to come, India will not be worried about run rate and, even if their pragmatic approach added some emotion at the end, as runs slowed to a crawl, they avoided following Australia’s path to self-inflicted oblivion.

Tomorrow, New Zealand and South Africa square up. A South African defeat will leave them on the verge of elimination. Then, Sri Lanka will come up against the Dutch, who did not even know which group they would be in and which opponents they would face, such was their confidence that they would make the main draw. You would expect Sri Lanka to be less accommodating to them than Zimbabwe or Ireland, but the neutrals will hope that the Dutch can give them a run for their money.

When Your Luck Is Out...

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

When Your Luck Is Out…

 

March 22^nd 2014

 

When a side’s luck is out you expect the Apocalypse. Sadly for England, it arrived two balls too late. Against a permanently underrated New Zealand side, England scored a more than passable 172, after a good powerplay and a small middle-over wobble. Everything look set for a great finish because, even if the critics moaned that it was 20 short of what it should have been, it was a good total – more than Sri Lanka or South Africa had managed in the first match of the day and a lot more than India and Pakistan had managed the previous night. Lumb, Ali, Buttler, Bopara and Bresnan all scored useful runs. In fact, apart from the luckless Hales, who got a first-baller, Morgan was the only batsman who could not manage a run-a-ball.

New Zealand made a decent start, but no better than England’s had been. Twenty-eight balls into the innings, lightning rent the sky and Brendon McCullum, not unnaturally, pulled out of his stance. With two balls needed to make a game and New Zealand behind on Duckworth-Lewis, the umpires chose, not unreasonably, to allow the game to go on to complete the two balls necessary to get the game in. With thunder crashing and rain just moments away, Brendon McCullum dug out a Yorker and then, as Broad reached for another and over-pitched, hammered the ball for what turned out to be the winning six.

Broad was not impressed, but then, with New Zealand comfortably behind on D-L, the 16 runs off his first and only over were the deciding factor in the match. The fact that Broad has made a habit of extremely expensive first overs recently is though distinctly alarming. What was less impressive was that with the South Africa v Sri Lanka match finishing late, the England game started late and New Zealand were slow in bowling their overs, meaning that the cut-off time was absurdly close; once the players came off the chances of getting back on again were minimal. It is no good bitching. T20 is often down to pot luck and, today, the cards fell in New Zealand’s favour. Had the circumstances been reversed, England would have taken the win, however achieved. The fact that, when the rain arrived New Zealand were 52-1 and England had been 51-1 shows how close the two sides were.

That all this followed another match that could have been a script from the 1970s series “Tales of the Unexpected” made it all more disappointing. With South Africa apparently cruising to an easy win, they somehow contrived to collapse horribly and lose by 5 runs. It will add another cipher to the legend of South Africa’s inability to perform under pressure in big tournaments and do nothing for their fragile confidence. Sri Lanka’s performance was good, their bowling solid, but nothing special when the opponent is so willing to commit suicide.

Tomorrow, Pakistan, who were distinctly underwhelming against India, will play the first match of the day against Australia. If Pakistan lose, they will be all but out of the competition after just three of the twenty group matches, needing to beat West Indies and Ireland by good margins and hope that other results go their way to have any chance of progressing. In such a strong group their chances of getting lucky are going to be pretty slim.

England will not play again until Thursday, when their match against Sri Lanka becomes a “must win”. By then South Africa will have played three matches and New Zealand and Sri Lanka two, so England will have the advantage (or not) of knowing how the group is panning-out and what exactly they have to do to qualify.

Starting With Zero Expectation

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Starting With Zero Expectation II

 

March 22^nd 2014

 

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

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

It did not.

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

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

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

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

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

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