South Africa v England, 4th Test, Day 4: Moeen’s Finest Series, England’s Puzzle

 

South Africa v England, 4^th Test, Day 4: Moeen’s Finest Series, England’s Puzzle

August 7^th 2017

England now have just three Tests against a second-string West Indies before the Ashes. And, despite a convincing 3-1 series win, some significant issues.

The Test series was won thanks mainly to the runs of Root, Bairstow and Stokes (and, to a lesser degree, those of Cook and Moeen) and to the wickets of Ali and Anderson.

·       Between them, Ali and Anderson managed 45 wickets; Broad, Stokes, Dawson and Wood together, just 28.

·       England had three of the top four run-scorers of the series in Root, Bairstow and Stokes. Bairstow managed 330 runs on his own (more than 130 fewer than Root); Jennings, Ballance, Westley and Malan just 369 between them.

Although this was very much a team effort, some team members supplied much more to the win than others.

All in all though, with 25 wickets and 252 runs in a 4-Test series, this was a series win built around Moeen Ali’s gigantic contributions. Statistically, Moeen’s feat has been one of the greatest ever series by an all-rounder and he has produced numbers that even Sir Garfield Sobers would have envied.

While Jennings, Westley and Malan was struggling to convert starts, Alex Hales was crashing a brutal 218 and Haseeb Hameed made his first 50 of the season. Hameed will not come into contention against the West Indies because he needs more runs and more confidence first, but surely Hales will, with Malan’s #5 spot looking very vulnerable. Malan’s run of 1, 10, 18 & 6 has been bitterly disappointing to the fans who have seen him bat so well for Middlesex in a stuttering batting order.

Westley’s good start has been undermined slightly since, but he has had only 2 Tests and while 25, 59, 29 & 9 is not a rip-roaring success, it is hardly total failure either. The frustration is that with Ballance’s 20, 34, 27 & 4, the England #3 has reached 20 in 6 of the 8 innings of the series, yet just one of those starts has become a 50 and even that one did not get much further.

Reports are that Ballance and Woakes are unlikely to be  ready to play the 1^st Test v the West Indies and the Dawson theory of spin success has been shown to be up the creek, so there are not such a wide range of options available. Alex Hales must come under consideration for Malan’s #5 spot, although Division 2 runs against Derbyshire are not a guarantee of Test success, as Ben Duckett showed. Similarly, Mark Stoneman must think that it is now or never, but his career average of under 35 does count against him. Apologists who say that he made those runs at Chester-le-Street and that they should thus count as many more, forget that Keaton Jennings also made his runs at Chester-le-Street – and made more of them at a better average! Jennings has batted far better in the last two Tests and may just hang on: he has been unfortunate that an amazing 12 months of form ended in the run-up to the South Africa series.

With just one round of CC matches before the 1^st Test squad is picked, there is not a whole lot of time for contenders to make a case. It was also Malan and Westley’s misfortune to go straight from T20 into a Test and one place where South Africa made consistently a searching examination was with the new ball.

What of South Africa? Their tour has been a pretty awful one: lost the ODIs 2-1, with only a consolation win in the third match; went out of the Champions Trophy with only a win v Sri Lanka; lost the T20 series 2-1, their only win coming thanks to an unexplainable England meltdown; lost the Tests 3-1.

There have been some odd selections – playing a sick Philander in the 3^rd Test was a dreadful mistake. Players missing: AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn were particularly missed. And players in patchy form: Morkel, Rabada, Maharaj & Philander all did well, but they missed a magical standout performance with the ball; while, for all his 329 runs, Amla did not make a century in the series and was not the imposing figure of old. Dean Elgar made South Africa’s only century, in a losing cause and only Philander, Amla and Elgar averaged over 33 through the series.

Statistically, wherever you look, England dominated:

·       Two of the three centuries in the series

·       Four of the top five scores

·       Three of the top four runs aggregates

·       The top two wicket-takers in the series

While the number of 50s on either side was evenly split – England shaded it 16-14 – the South African batsmen just failed too often to push on to make a match-changing score.

South Africa have found a spinner in Maharaj who will serve them for years to come and the fast bowling stocks look good – at 22, Rabada should lead the attack for the next decade – but the batting will need renewal. Amla is reaching the end of his career. Faf du Plessis is no longer the rock on which monumental acts of defiance were built, is 33 and has a very disappointing series and du Kock hardly got a run when it mattered. De Kock showed immense skill with the gloves, taking some blinding catches, but seemed to be batting far too high.

All in all though there seemed to be a failure on the South African side to face the facts. Listening to Graeme Smith on commentary, he had so much to say about the failures of the opposition, but very little about the failures of the side that he had led until recently and that was losing the series badly. South Africa have had two years of shocking lack of success and really need to arrest the decline before it gets any worse. England, sad to say, only beat a very moderate South Africa and are nowhere near as good as tis win looks on paper.

South Africa v England, 4th Test, Day 3: Moeen sets-up the series win

 

South Africa v England, 4^th Test, Day 3: Moeen sets-up the series win

August 6^th 2017

Quite apart from how odd it feels to be listening to the cricket in bed at almost midnight, while fighting sleep, listening to England set up a big win in the final Test of a series is also a fairly bizarre experience. Since beating India in the final Test in 2013 England have almost never failed to lose a Final Test: a sequence too long and too well-established to be put down simply to chance. In those four years, series wins have been thrown away. Series that were level have been lost and narrow losses have become heavy defeats.

England lead by 360 and only rain can save South Africa from a heavy defeat. The South Africans were claiming last night that they can chase 380 or 390, but that was the mantra in the 1^st and 3^rd Tests and both times they folded as feebly as did England in similar circumstances in the 2^nd. The wicket is increasingly difficult to bat on. There is plenty of turn and, right now, Moeen Ali must think that he can walk on water.

It is hard to recognise Moeen as the man who came back from India with many fans saying that England needed to search elsewhere for a spinner. The reasoning continued that his batting alone would not keep him in the side. So far, Moeen has 20 wickets – more than anyone else in the series and only Jimmy Anderson can deny him the honour of being leading series wicket-taker now. He also has 244 runs and counting. The double of 200 runs and 20 wickets in a series is a rare one; 250 runs and 25 wickets has only been managed by such as Ian Botham, in 1985, in a 6-Test series, yet must be on.

Assuming that Moeen and the tail eke-out two more runs in the morning, South Africa will be left to score the largest score in the match on a surface where batting is becoming steadily more hazardous. England’s second innings has been poor (Jennings, Westley and Malan all failed, again, which puts a big dampener on celebrations), but any lingering thoughts that South Africa may have of competing were snuffed-out by Moeen taking the long-handle to the bowling.  67* from 58 balls has been the "et tu brute?" for South Africa. South African heads have dropped and they know in their interior that the game is up.

If rain had not come, England might well have declared before the Close. With Day 4 and most of Day 5 seemingly set fair, Joe Root may now want to let Moeen have a dart at scoring a century before declaring. Having them chasing leather for 40 minutes or so more will do no harm to England’s prospects of rolling over South Africa cheaply once more, particularly in the knowledge that Moeen was dropped early in his innings. A century for Moeen and a lead of over 400 with nearly two days to go would set things up nicely for the captain.

South Africa v England, 4th Test, Days 1 & 2: England set to both win and lose

 

South Africa v England, 4^th Test, Days 1 & 2: England set to both win and lose

August 5^th 2017

After a very long flight the news on re-connecting to the Internet has been good and bad: one is delighted to discover that England are set for another thumping win and that, for the first time since 1998, England will win a home series against South Africa; one is less pleased to hear that Usain Bolt has been beaten into third in the stadium where I will watch his last race in a week’s time and by someone who has been banned twice for doping.

Unfortunately, the good news comes with a very large and unsatisfactory, “but…”: the three players under pressure have all failed. Jennings, Westley and Malan all got into double figures, but none of them reached 30.

Of the three, Westley has done best with his 2^nd Test 50, but you cannot avoid that he has a touch of the Ballance’s: he gets a start every time, but does not quite make it count.

Jennings is following the trend of so many others: an early 100 and a 50 and you think that all our opening problems have been resolved (Lyth, Robson, Compton, Root, …) all have had big early runs before falling into a sequence of low scores. It now seems almost inconceivable, for all the fact that he has started to look in much better form, that it will not be someone else who will open against the West Indies.

What about Malan? 1, 10 & 18. He desperately needs second innings runs. Unfairly classed as a T20 specialist, he has been a solid middle-order rock for Middlesex for years. He has fallen to some good balls, but he has fallen.

However, Joe Root is, barring divine intervention, going to walk away with a comfortable 3-1 series win. Win the Toss. Get runs on the board and watch the opposition self-destruct. All four Tests have followed the same pattern. And in all four Tests there has been hot debate after the first day as to who was on top: by the end of the second day, there was no debate… each time that match has been well on the way to being settled.

This has been no exception. At the end of the first day, England 260-6 and South Africa thinking of finishing the tail for well under 300. At the end of the second day, England 362ao (thanks to a bizarre 10^th wicket partnership) and South Africa 220-9 and sinking fast. Even a plethora of half-chances missed could not make a game of it. South Africa came, saw and conked-out: vini, vidi and very weaky.

Everyone bar Elgar and Olivier got into double figures. There were five partnerships of 30+, but only one batsman passed 30 and no one reached 50. It was the same story as the 3^rd Test. At 131-3 you thought that South Africa had a chance of getting close to parity. At 146-6 it was close to “game over”.

The England bowlers have hunted as a pack – yesterday the star bowler was Jimmy Anderson, previously it has been Moeen, or Toby Roland-Jones – but everyone has backed them up. Rarely has there been respite for the South African batsmen, unlike the situation when England bat when, with some honourable exceptions, the change bowling has lacked the menace of the new ball attack.

Sadly, apart from one Test where South Africa won the Toss, batted and put runs on the board, they have not really challenged England. The England batting line-up has several serious weaknesses, but are still scoring enough runs to win the series comfortably. Several of the South African batsmen are struggling for form and, even when a stand starts, you know that three wickets could fall at any moment. In one sense, hearing Graeme Smith talking so much about England’s problems has been a good reality check; in another it has been a desperate attempt at bravado watching the side that he has captained until recently make a mess of, successively, the ODIs, the Champions Trophy, the T20s and the Tests. They have managed token wins, but always in the context of overall defeat.

South Africa are still the ICC #1 side in ODIs and were, until recently, the #1 side in Tests too, but are struggling desperately and seem to have internal problems, with various players such as ABdV making themselves unavailable, or with long-term injury problems (there has been a lot of undisguised criticism that Vernon Philander could recover completely from his stomach problems and then declare him unfit with a muscle strain). How South Africa could have done with Dale Steyn and ABdV in this series!

Unless England have an absolute nightmare Day 3, this series will be entering its last rites by the end of the day. However, England will be no clearer about probably half a dozen of the names to go on the ‘plane to Australia. This will leave the selectors experimenting against the West Indies but, will runs and wickets against an over-matched side be a reliable guide to form down under?

South Africa v England, 3rd Test, Day 5: Moeen Makes His Point

 

South Africa v England, 3^rd Test, Day 5: Moeen Makes His Point

July 31^st 2017

At the start of play the England target was to remove one or both overnight batsmen in the first hour. For South Africa, it was to see out the first hour and then build for Lunch.

For much of the time the atmosphere was one of inevitability such that the chat in the TMS box seemed almost peripheral to the cricket. This got to the point that Jon Agnew was able to pass a good fraction of one sleepy passage of play with an elaborate wind-up of Geoff Boycott. Boycott, bless him, fell for it completely. So clever and plausible was the story concocted and so complete the collaboration from the rest of the team, that hundreds of thousands of fans must genuinely have believed that Boycott’s famous hundredth hundred at Headingley on August 11^th 1977 was going to be struck from the record books. Sir Geoffrey’s reactions were tightly controlled (just as well), but witnesses could see that an explosion was building. Just as Sir Geoffrey launched into a brief denunciation of the plan on the lines of “that’s rooooobish that is!” (still, amazingly, without expletives), Jon Agnew responded calmly and matter-of-factly with “it’s also a complete wind-up”, before explaining how the team had collaborated to concoct a false press release from the ICC. Boycott’s reaction was a heartfelt “You MUPPET!!!” which left everyone helpless with laughter (including, one suspects, many listeners).

Why could the TMS team completely ignore the cricket in the middle? More than an act of God, it was an act of Roland-Jones. As the stand between Elgar and Bavuma prospered and passed a hundred, as the overs ticked by and nothing much seemed to be happening, the pitch not doing much, Joe Root must have started to wonder if he was going to suffer a new humiliation as captain, with South Africa wriggling out of what looked like a lost position. Showers were threatened later in the day. Surely Elgar and Bavuma couldn’t, could they?

The early thrust of Stokes and Broad was seen off and, as the advert goes, Joe Root decided to “make it Toblerone”. Two overs passed with little incident. Two overs of Moeen at the other end too passed with little of note. Not a lot going on. Pitch friendly. Ball soft. Weather kind. And then the unexpected.

The first ball of Tobias Skelton Roland-Jones’s third over was straight. Bavuma defended. Big shout. Turned down by Alem Dar.

And then something happened that, at Trent Bridge, would have needed divine intervention to come to pass: a sensible referral by England. Three reds. Marginally hit pad before bat. OUT!

In comes Vernon Philander. First ball nips back nicely. Philander pads up. Oh dear! It was a repeat of Faf du Plessis’s “Mike Gatting moment”. 150-4 and cruising becomes 150-6 and in deep trouble. It could so easily have been even worse as the hat-trick ball was edged and only just failed to carry to Ben Stokes.

Even then, Elgar and Morris seemed to be carrying South Africa to Lunch. Once again, a partnership started to build. Once again, South Africa could not make it count. What is more, it was the last ball before Lunch when Morris played a loose shot that he almost got away with because it rebounded off Bairstow’s leg, just within range of the diving Stokes.

It was a recurring theme as South Africa tried to save the match. It is why it all seemed so low-key and inevitable. Partnerships of 21, 27, 108, 45 & 47 all got going, but were cut off before they could become too worrying. Three batsmen made 20s or 30s, but could not push on to the 50s that Elgar needed to come at the other end if he were to save the match. Whenever there was a ray of hope for South Africa, you knew that they would be unable to make it stick.

Even then there was a final twist. After Lunch Elgar and Maharaj started one of those annoying partnerships that delays the inevitable. After two quiet overs, runs started to come in a flood: 12 off one Roland-Jones over, 12 off his next, 6 from Moeen who seemed rather innocuous.  Ben Stokes relieved Roland-Jones, presumably to provide three tight overs from one end before the new ball. There were ten dot balls broken by a single and, suddenly, Moeen produced one of those magic balls that he seems capable of when he relaxes.

Tossed-up. Into the footmarks. Grips. Elgar goes at it hard. Outside edge. Straight to Stokes.

Next ball. The only difference is that Elgar’s drive is replaced by Rabada’s push. The delivery, the edge and the catch are identical.

Would Stokes be a gentleman with Moeen hanging on a hat-trick, but six balls from Stokes to come? Maharaj is suddenly shotless, but keeps out the six. No great drama.

Morkel’s first ball is delivered in the middle of a fielders’ convention. Morkel misses. The ball slams into pad. Umpire Wilson waits and waits and finally shakes his head. And, with that shake, eleven fielders are jerked into making the T-sign simultaneously as if the umpire were pulling their strings.

“Going down leg”, say the commentators.

Then: “this might be close”.

Then: “I think that he might be out”.

Then: “it *IS* going to be out!”

It is not a No Ball. No edge. Pitching in line. Impact in line. Hitting full on leg stump. The review process ratchets-up the drama as the TV umpire Kumar Dhamasena goes through the checks one by one, like a Prosecuting Attorney presenting Exhibit A, Exhibit B, … and requesting a conviction. Three reds.

“You can give that out. You are on camera now.”

Cue screams of delight and wild celebrations.

Moeen has the first hat-trick in an Oval Test. It was the first by an England spinner since 1938 and only the third time that victory in a Test was sealed with a hat-trick (the last was in 1902).

Having been discarded by many fans as not worth his place in the side after the Tests in India, Moeen Ali has 18 wickets at 14.7 in three Tests in 2017 at a strike rate of 26.7. Of all bowlers who have taken at least 10 wickets this year, the next best is Jimmy Anderson, with a strike rate of 43.5. Moeen cannot possibly keep up this rate of success but, since the end of the 2016 season, he has 39 wickets at 29.9 in 10 Tests, despite a dry spell in India where he took just 3 wickets in the last 3 Tests of the series.

Why do people keep questioning his place in the side?

So, since the end of the 2016 season, Moeen Ali’s contribution has been:

10 Tests

·       39 wickets at 29.9

·       636 runs at 33.5, with 2x100 & 3x50.

That is quite a contribution for a player regarded by many as a journeyman who is not good enough. Moeen has made his point. Quietly, but he has made it.

Now, we move on to Old Trafford and the 4^th Test. The hint is that the pitch will have a little more life. Trevor Bayliss has hinted that England will not need the extra batsman and suddenly, it seems, England have all manner of healthy problems.

1.     Who misses out?

Of the three debutants, Toby Roland-Jones took 8 wickets and made the vital breakthroughs in both innings. Tom Westley made 25 and 59 and looked calm and unfussed. It would be hard to drop either. Dawid Malan is the most vulnerable, with 1 & 10, getting two very good balls, although it has not passed unnoticed that both were in-swinging Yorkers that he failed to get bat on: there is a vulnerability there. However, Malan has earned his chance and showed in his T20 debut that he has the ability and the steel to make a success of an international career.

If Gary Ballance were fit, the most obvious player to make way would be Malan, with Ballance replacing him at #5, even if you feel that Malan would get another chance as soon as humanly possible. As it is, Ballance is not yet ready but, he has been assured that he is the man in possession when he is ready to come back.

2.     What about the balance of the side?

The pundits, without exception, liked the balance of the side, with 5 specialist bats, followed by 3 genuine all-rounders. With Bairstow at #7 and Moeen at #8 and Roland-Jones at #9, there was a formidable sting in the England tail. 183-5 became 316-8 in the first innings and 202-5 became 313-8 in the second innings.

However, Trevor Bayliss is hinting that he wants to play Liam Dawson at Old Trafford. If he does, Malan looks like being the player to make way, although you could suggest playing Dawson instead of a seamer. A much less plausible option, suggested by some pundits is to drop Jennings (who has been promised the four Tests) and ask Westley to open: this is the sort of fudge that has been universally condemned in the past.

Again, the balance of the side could depend on the weather forecast. The threat of rain and seam bowling conditions sealed Dawson’s fate at The Oval; a hot, dry spell may seal his place at Old Trafford.

3.     What about Woakes and Ball?

Chris Woakes will surely go to Australia. He will also be ready to play again come the 1^st Test v West Indies on August 17^th: who is rested to give him a game? If Jake Ball is going to go to Australia, does he get a Test, or will be played only in the ODIs and T20 that follow the West Indies series? With injured players coming back and looking for games, competition for places is going to be increasingly fierce.

4.     Can Alex Hales be re-commissioned?

Alex Hales is producing the sort of incredibly destructive form that got David Warner his first cap before he had even played a First Class match. Although Hales opens in limited overs and T20, he now bats in the middle order in First Class cricket. There are people who think that his form is now so exceptional that England cannot pass-up on his talent. Can he be fitted into the England middle-order at #5? With Tom Westley looking a good fit at #3 you can make a case for a middle order of Westley, Root, Hales, Stokes, Bairstow & Moeen that would give more than one side pause for thought.

However, right now England’s first problem is to close out the series.  Recently, far too many Test victories have been followed by a defeat in the next game. There has also been a pattern: England have won 14 of their last 17 home Tests batting first, but only 4 of 14 when batting second. The facile suggestion is to win the Toss and bat at Old Trafford, but a far more convincing demonstration would be to lose the Toss and win the match.

The keys to the England win at The Oval were:

·       Winning the Toss

·       Philander’s incomprehensible selection

·       Taking advantage and posting a solid first innings score

·       South Africa returning to the timid and fragile batting of the 1^st Test

And, almost more than anything else

·       Much better use of DRS.

Now, England have to show that it was the 2^nd Test horror show that was the anomaly in this series and South Africa have just 4 days to re-group. Which England and which South Africa will turn up in Manchester? England cannot rely on South Africa easing their way by making another dreadful selection mistake.

South Africa v England, 3rd Test, Days 2-4: A Bizarre Series Swings Again

 

South Africa v England, 3^rd Test, Days 2-4: A Bizarre Series Swings Again

July 30^th 2017

What a weekend to go away to a mountain retreat for two nights!

If a series that shows such violent swings of fortune can be said to show a pattern, one is emerging. The side that bats first edges what appears to be a tight first day before dynamiting the match on the second and third days, setting up a huge chase that, despite declarations of intent, turns horribly one-sided.

Plenty of pundits and fans questioned Joe Root’s sanity in setting the declaration target. A lot thought that 300 would be enough to defend but it seems that Joe Root was only interested in the time equation: he wanted to declare at Tea and did so.

Of the twenty-five successful fourth innings chases at The Oval, only two have been over 250 and the largest of them was 263-9 by England back in 1902. Maybe to set 492 was overkill. It challenged South Africa to survive at least 130 overs to draw (nominally 138, assuming that England actually bowled all their overs both days).

Only twenty-three sides in Test history have ever batted out 130 overs or more to draw a Test. South Africa are specialists, having managed it four times: more than any other side apart from the eight times of England and India, who have also done it four times.

There were a few fantasists who thought that in what seemed easy batting conditions, South Africa might get seriously close to their target: after all, records are made to be broken.

At 47-1, with Elgar and Amla battling, South Africa had a chance. If they could get through this tough spell. If they could get to the Close, anything would be possible.

Three wickets in eight balls. Thanks very much. Talk of the extra half hour and the match ending already on the fourth day. When you are facing a record fourth innings chase the one thing that you do not want is to find yourself 57-4 with close on 120 overs more to survive.

That the extra half hour has not happened thanks to what could yet turn out to be one of the great backs-to-the-wall defensive innings from Dean Elgar. He has looked in terrible trouble, has been hit time and again, but somehow is still there at the Close, 72* and battling. With Temba Bavuma, no stranger to battling innings in this series, the stand has reached 65 and England have a sizeable problem in the morning. Basically, they need to get one of these two in the first hour. If they do not. If they cannot, belief will grow in the South African camp that they can make another amazing escape. With another 375 needed in 98 overs and two set batsmen, they could even entertain enticing thoughts of making a tilt at the target if this pair were to be together at Lunch.

Realistically though, even saving the Test is a very long shot. Only three sides have ever batted through the last day to save a Test when starting it four wickets down, but one of those sides was South Africa v Australia in 2012. On that occasion, South Africa were 45-4 before AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis engineered one of the greatest rear-guard actions of all time.

One or two of the other South African batsmen could do with a share of the gumption that Elgar and Bavuma are showing. Heino Kuhn’s demeanour is increasingly one of “what am I doing here?” when he bats. Faf de Plessis, incredibly, has been out LBW twice in the match playing no shot (connoisseurs of Mike Gatting’s career will remember that he went through a similar phase). With Chris Morris’s awful match and Vernon Philander’s illness, the SS South Africa is carrying far too many passengers and the ship is sinking because of it.

While we are on the case of Faf du Plessis, one wonders how he ever permitted a visibly sick Vernon Philander to be included in the final XI. Apart from having his spearhead struggling when on the field and frequently off it with his head stuck in a toilet pan, which led to him spending a night in hospital on a drip and then being released to bat and then take the new ball when he should have remained in hospital, Philander’s problems have forced Chris Morris to have to continue bowling when it was the one thing that England most wanted. Morris’s 28 overs have gone for 161 runs so far and have allowed England to score freely when free-scoring has been at a premium. It has released pressure when it existed. While it is true that, in the 2^nd Test, Chris Morris bowled superbly, here he has been the weak link in the attack and with limited other options, du Plessis had to bowl both Philander and Morris far more than should have. Most likely this is going to cost South Africa the match and leave them needing to win the final Test to save the series. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Philander’s selection though, he has shown guts that go far beyond anything that anyone could reasonably ask of him and has bowled superbly, albeit at reduced pace. One hopes that his efforts have not done him serious physical harm.
 

England should win before Tea tomorrow but, the longer that the fifth wicket partnership continues, the greater the nerves will be. England know though that one wicket should open the floodgates.

 

South Africa v England, 3rd Test, Day 1: Cook the Difference in the Glo

 

South Africa v England, 3^rd Test, Day 1: Cook the Difference in the Gloom

July 27^th 2017

It is amazing how opinions have shifted. Just three weeks ago a well-known pundit who goes by the pseudonym of The Analyst was confidently predicting a 4-0 win to England in the series. The 3^rd Test has opened with England in some disarray and hoping to avoid somehow going 2-1 down.

What is more, with South Africa able to field their strongest side and wondering who to drop, England have fielded three debutants: two forced and one in a strategy change.

With Gary Ballance out, one change was always going to happen. Tom Westley may wonder if Joe Root did him a favour by electing to bat on a grey day, with a slightly green pitch, in conditions likely to favour the bowlers. A report on his innings would make you wonder what has changed: shaped up competently, got into the 20s nicely, gave it away. It is almost as if Gary Ballance had never gone. Early Lunch due to rain. Did not play himself back in. Nice catch through to the slips straight after the interval.

Westley was not made to wait long. Keaton Jennings is clearly struggling for form recently (innings of 12, 5, 4, 35, 20, 27, 43, 0, 57, 71, 6, 39, 8, 33, 0, 3 & 0 in First Class cricket since mid-May). Vernon Philander, fortunately for England, was off the pitch almost as much as on it, vomiting and sick but, when he had the ball in hand gave England the holy terrors, taking 2-3 in his first six overs. Jennings reads Philander like I read Linear B.

We know that Jennings will get a least one more Test, but the pressure has ratcheted-up further and the air-heads within fandom who have been on his case all series are now positively willing him to fail to get their own man instead. The schedule is very unforgiving for players out of form these days. Back in the 1981 series Mike Brearley complained that Middlesex did not have a game between Tests that would allow him some middle practice: Jennings may not play another innings for Durham all summer.

England’s second debutant, Dawid Malan, came to the wicket after Philander had come back briefly and removed Joe Root. The poor forecast and likely seaming conditions sealed Liam Dawson’s fate. It became increasingly likely that Malan would play and England, duly, made a pragmatic selection. Malan in at #5. Stokes pushed down to #6, Bairstow at #7 and Moeen Ali, a slightly over-qualified #8. It means that South Africa have to work their way through an awful lot of batting to get at the tail, such as it is, with Toby Roland-Jones, a more than capable batsman with a First Class century and averaging 22.6 , likely to bat at #9 and Stuart Broad,  who has 11x50 and 1x100 in Tests, batting at #10.

The upshot is that even if the extra batsman failed, the bowlers would have the scant consolation of seeing the batting go on and on, as unkillable as the Terminator. On difficult batting days you know that a couple of batsmen will get a lethal delivery and you want to make sure that the bowlers know that taking a wicket will not necessarily make their job much easier.

The strike rates of all the England batsmen are within a lick of 50, showing what a battle it was. At 113-2, with Cook and Root dug in, England were slowly, but surely, getting on top. De Kock’s phenomenal catch to a superb Philander delivery put a stop to that. Malan was given a searching examination of technique, finally got off the mark with a single and immediately received an in-swinging Rabada yorker. Slightly off balance, he fell as he tried to jab the bat down, lost his dignity and, worse, his middle stump. The betting is that Rabada will have noticed his difficulty and may try something similar in the second innings.

From the fall of Malan to the rain-sodden Close, Cook – who looks in wonderful form – and Stokes have played proper Test cricket. Even though there has been a little, late acceleration, the run-rate over the day has been well under 3 and, instead of the crash-bang-wallop-OUT of the 2^nd Test, England actually look as if they are trying to construct an innings. With conditions likely to be a little easier on Day 2, followed by an increasingly difficult and miserable Day 3, it is an approach that could pay dividends if the batsmen can keep at it.

Stokes is playing with admirable self-denial so far – always a bad sign for the bowlers – and Cook is mixing crashing boundaries – half of his runs have so far come in 4s – with watchful defence. The 168 deliveries that Cook has not hit to the boundary have produced just 42 runs so far. Without Alistair Cook’s efforts in scoring almost half the day’s runs and more than half the runs off the bat, England would have been in a sorry mess.

England will hope that Cook can maintain his obduracy, going on to his century and beyond and that Stokes can maintain his defiance in the morning. By the same token, South Africa know that if they can remove both in the first hour, they will be well on top in the match. England will know that if both Cook and Stokes survive the first hour, they will be well set. Score 350-380 and make South Africa bat in increasingly difficult conditions on Saturday. Now that is the theory…

Day 2 should see the wonderfully named third debutant in action. Tobias Skelton Roland-Jones will be the first player named Tobias and the first named Skelton to play a Test match. He will be hoping that his debut innings is delayed until well after Lunch. Despite that fact that Mark Wood had been given the all-clear last week after a scan on his sore heel, it was no great surprise that Toby Roland-Jones was told a few days ago that Wood would again fail to play three consecutive Tests and that for the first time in many years England would be able to intimidate the opposition by fielding a player with a doubled-barrelled surname (I believe that there have only be three since the war). Unlike Wood, Toblerone is a seam and swing merchant at a healthy  pace.  He may have been looking enviously at the pitch and thinking that he could have done with bowling on a few like this one at Lord’s over the last couple of seasons.

Womens’ World Cup Final: Another Extraordinary Win for England

 

Womens’ World Cup Final: Another Extraordinary Win for England

July 23^rd 2017

Having held their nerve to beat Australia by 3 runs in the group stages and, again, to sneak past South Africa in the Semi-Final with 2 balls to spare, England produced the heist of the tournament to win the Final against India.

The Indians had already shown that if you let Raut, or Mandhana, or Kaur, or Raj get a start, they would take the game away from you. India did that to England in the first game of the tournament and inflicted a crushing defeat. In that game England were never at the races. The only occasion when the Indian batting failed in the tournament was in their group game against Australia: apart from that they had been a revelation and had made a billion Indians believe that their women could reign supreme, just as their men do. Sweet revenge against Australia in the Semi-Final, in which the Australians suffered a defeat far heavier than the run margin suggests, made one think that maybe this was going to be India’s year: the first time that someone outside the big three won the tournament.

England’s struggles to set a competitive target on a used strip suggested that we were in for one of those low-scoring classics that are so much tenser, so much more thrilling than a 400 plays 400 game with short boundaries and neutered bowlers. And so it proved.

When a side is 191-3, needing just 29 to win from 44 balls, you expect them to win 19 times out of 20. This though was the twentieth time and just as they had in the Semi-Final, when England looked to have lost the game, suddenly calm nerves prevailed… on one side at least. India panicked. No other word for it. There was no reason why the fall of Raut, who seemed to be leading a rout, should lead to the fall of six wickets in thirty-six balls. Anya Shrubsole thundered in like a train with headlights so bright that the Indian rabbits were dazzled and transfixed. Logic went out to lunch. 191-3 became 191-4, then 196-5, then 200-6, then 201-7. Surely India couldn’t lose this? Surely?

Well, they did.

Pandey and Sharma seemed to be inching India to victory until Pandey got over-excited, charging down the pitch after a non-existent run. Had Sarah Taylor failed to capture the bad throw, India might yet have scrambled home. Yet Hurricane Shrubsole was not to be denied.

Penultimate over of the match. England managed to shell a catch and yet Shrubsole still took just four balls to finish it off.

Even if Anya Shrubsore and Nat Scriver and Tammy Beaumont took the headlines, none of them was THE true match-winner on the day. However, the match-winner was not eligible for the Player of the Match award because it was the sell-out crowd of 27000. When Raut fell, 27000 throats – more than half of them women (surely a first for Lord’s) – roared as one. The energy levels were amazing. It was not Anya Shrubsole delivering her thunderbolts: they were propelled by 27000 fans who believed as one, shouted as one and drove their team, as one. Lord’s has never seen or heard anything like it and it was about time that they did.

Cricket is changing. Womens’ cricket is changing even more. For the first time, a Womens’ World Cup was watched by proper crowds, from the first group game to the Final. And they saw some brilliant performance including:

·       14 centuries, three of them 150+,

·       Four five-wicket hauls and Shrubsole’s 6-for,

·       The first completely new shot – the Nat-Meg – since Kevin Pietersen invented the switch hit,

·       And a player who scored an astonishing 208 of her 269 runs (77.3%) as fours and sixes (46 of 260 deliveries faced).

In the end, the best team – just – won the tournament – just!

Well done England! You were brilliant!