Month: Nov 2016

India vs England: 2nd Test, day three

thelegglance58 Comments

At some point over the next two days England are very likely to be bowled out and go 1-0 down in this series. India’s level of command in this match is now absolute, finishing day three 298 ahead with just three wickets down. They may well already have enough runs on the board on a pitch that looks to be deteriorating rapidly.

To some extent England are unlucky. Quite clearly the toss has proved vital to the outcome, day one was by far the best day on which to bat, but it doesn’t change how England missed chances to keep that first innings score under control, nor does it excuse being 80-5 in reply. From there and through today, England fought hard enough. Stokes and Bairstow almost got through the morning session, and the final total of 255 was a pretty decent effort from the wreckage late on day two.

But England were so far behind, in so much trouble, that it would have taken a monumental effort to get vaguely close. Those two have rescued England on several occasions, often in tandem, but they can’t do it all the time and can’t be expected to. They did pretty well as it was. Stokes is developing nicely as a Test batsman, for someone expected in some quarters to be a rabbit in the headlights against spin he once again showed patience and technique, with the odd flashing blade when a loose ball went down.

But with his dismissal the end came swiftly with only Adil Rashid offering much resistance. Rashid has been making people eat their words with both bat and ball this series, some who should know better have allowed their cricketing prejudices and favouritism to override objective analysis. He’s now getting praise for performances that he’s always been able to produce, given support and a captain that trusts him. His bowling spell in the last session was controlled, dangerous and caused Kohli some difficulty – a novelty in this match.

It shouldn’t need saying but apparently it does. Leg spinners can go for runs, leg spinners can drag down long hops. Leg spinners can take wickets. It isn’t a question of character, and attempts to portray him as weak shamed those who did so. It won’t prevent them repeating the dose whenever the opportunity arises.

It was no surprise at all India didn’t enforce the follow on, with so much time left and a wicket that is only going to get worse. And while England got off to a good start with the ball, courtesy of the hampered Broad and Anderson, even bowling India out for 100 would leave an almost impossible task. Indeed, the challenge now for the hosts will be deciding when to declare. Batting appears easier in the morning session and gets progressively harder across the day. From a purely runs/time perspective half a day’s batting would be about right, leaving England something like 130 overs to survive. It’s hard to see that happening.

Nevertheless, even in likely defeat England need to show some spine. They lost the first Test on the last tour, but Cook’s second innings 176 that never quite seemed to offer up any chance of salvation did demonstrate that scoring runs was possible. Repeating the feat would give something to cling on to for the remaining three matches.

While that is the optimistic view, there is also the nagging feeling that they may instead fall in a heap and go down to a hammering. Momentum simply doesn’t exist in a long Test series, but it would be hard to avoid fearing for the rest of the tour if they lose this one badly.

Of course, managing the expectations and justifying disaster has been the stock in trade for some for a while, the line that anything better than a 5-0 defeat would be a good effort is as idiotic as it always was, which won’t prevent the usual suspects from excusing everything. England are not that inferior to India to make a heavy series defeat in any way acceptable. They are competitive, and in this match they are at least fighting hard. That needs to continue.

The news that Broad has a tendon injury creates a problem for the rest of the series. He was limping at the close of play but is supposed to be fit to bowl tomorrow. Given the match situation it’s hard to see what the benefit of making him do so is. England are not short of bowling options having six front line ones. Even without him there are two seamers and three spinners. Giving him the day off might be the wiser course.

Day Four Comments below

India v England – 2nd Test, 2nd Day

LordCanisLupus58 Comments

This England team really are a mine of material, keeping me motivated to continue. Whenever you think that this blog might die down, go through a period of stability and calm, so that we don’t have to keep stating what appears to be the obvious (to us), they come up trumps with a display full of talking points. I think what gets to me, and looking at the comments, us, is that we are so often right. Sure, a stopped clock and all that, and I don’t have an editor or a line to take to tell me what to do, but some of the stuff I read, or hear on the radio, baffles me. In the words of the late Fred Trueman “I have no idea what’s going on out there” half the time. Are they watching what we are? Are we so off the beaten track of cricket opinion? Is our evaluation of a days play so anathema to the others who report on it?

It’s tough to make it clear how I’m thinking, and it’s nothing to do with a convivial lunch. But there’s a frustration watching this England team. It has ability. It just doesn’t seem to believe in itself enough. I find it hard to define. But if I’m frustrated with the team, it pales into insignificance when I read about the game. There the matters on the field seem, for some, to mean less than how they should be reported against some message that needs to be conveyed.

The last test match did not follow the script. This script appears to be an exercise in managing expectations. England were supposed to lose 5-0, because (a) we can’t spin and (b) we can’t bowl spin. Add to that scraping a draw in a series against Bangladesh, and the fear of God was put in us all. Then, one very positive, encouraging performance, and the managing of expectations is going to be a bit more tough to put out when England played so well. Where do we stand after Rajkot? The players have to be positive, we know that. We would be worried if they weren’t, but the watchers and writers have to display more scepticism. “Now we are ready to take it to India toe-to-toe” they imply, remarking that Ashwin has a block against England…. Kohli still hasn’t really made hay. Then the last two days happened and it is almost a volte face. The expectation management, or as I know it “excuse” is that we lost the toss and then we lose the match. So this is to be expected, or as Newman said this is “the performance we all feared”. Funny, this wasn’t really what I was reading last week. Clearly the toss is important, but as you’ll note from a remark in my “On This Day” below, it doesn’t have to be fatal.

Yesterday four wickets fell, today eleven. The game has moved forward quite rapidly and India hold all the cards. They got first use of the wicket, capitalising on their chance to use the pace and bounces, such as it was, to its fullest, while our bowling wasn’t quite up to it (and I’m not mentioning the captain). Two of India’s top four made centuries. England fought back well this morning, but still 455 looks a good score on this wicket. In fact, there aren’t many test wickets where 455 isn’t a good score.

England’s demise wasn’t so much as predicted as bloody well certain. Now a lot of this is predicated on me not seeing the action (job etc.) but following on Twitter and the comments here, but once Cook was toppled early there was an air of inevitability about this. I saw his dismissal, and a very good ball, make no bones about it, got him, but heavens above they didn’t half go on about how great a delivery it took to get the opener. As you know, I’m not setting up an Alastair Cook Appreciation Society on here, and as you may also conclude, I may go out of my way to find reasons to get angry about it, but the media he gets is preposterous. It’s as if any word of criticism is going to be met by the most awful of repercussions, and any dismissal has to be explained away with reverence reserved for royalty. Honestly, I’ve known nothing like it. Nothing like the Hughes puff piece interview in the Cricketer (which is really getting better if you could just shove #39’s bloody ego out of the way) which might as well have had a soft focus border and ended up with the question “Alastair, sir, do you have any words for your subjects to explain how they could be great like you?”.

This is what gets our ire – Cook is venerated, and even his mistakes are given a veneer. Contrast that with how the Joe Root dismissal has been treated. More of that later.

I’ve not seen the run-out. By the time this goes to press on the blog I would have. Most people indicate that Root was the guilty party, HH the victim. These things happen sometimes. They just do. You can’t legislate for them. Quite often, when they happen, the TV and news pundits will say it is evidence of “a scrambled brain” but that was obviously not going to be put forward for the manchild or for the putative World #1 batsman they’ve all very reasonably buffed up this week. So remember that the next time someone of a fragile mind might get run out, or play an injudicious shot, that scrambled brains don’t happen to the star players or the prodigies. (I’ve seen it now, it’s the sort of thing that happens, but let me make a point. Hameed made 13 in 50 balls and an hour and 20 minutes. He got run out with a dozy piece of cricket. Replace Hameed’s name with Compton. Not Compton now, but the Compton of 2013. Think he’d be getting that same lovely press for an innings every bit as slow as his. It would be unfair to have a go at Hameed, but that never stopped our media laying into Compton).

Next in was last month’s Bright Young Thing, Ben Duckett. Now I really want Ben to do well for a number of reasons, not least that he plays aggressively, seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and it might debunk the myth about Division 2 being too big a gap to bridge to play test cricket. His half-century in Dhaka was greeted with joy unconfined even as England toppled like wet cardboard after he got out to post that ignominious defeat (still not buying Bangladesh being a good side, yet). Today those that were praising are now burying. A number openly calling for him to be removed from the action for his own benefit. Hey, maybe opening with him and letting him get his eye in to quicker bowling might be better for him, instead coming in against spin, cold, is not working out well. There’s a lot being made of his technical flaws (watch out Ramps, they are after you) but two test matches ago we were being feted by tales of a “brilliant half-century”. As I write this Colvile has previewed the next part of The Verdict as “Is Duckett’s career in a spin”. Two tests, two innings, time to go. Now, just as people might be right about Hameed, so they might be wrong about Duckett. Not every top player has a watertight technique. Give the guy a bloody break.

Joe Root’s dismissal is getting the easy, lazy lines out again. Far better for a player to have his technique undressed, albeit in a one-off scenario (Cook) than for you to get out having an attacking shot and getting caught in the deep. I understand Farbrace  said that he did not want to hear anything about “that’s the way I play”, but if he did say that then he’s a dolt. Of course Newman has piled in, comparing this dismissal to his usual bete noire, Ian Bell (and SimonH’s prescience on this in the comments is spooky) playing well and getting out to a soft shot. Really. As usual, we pop at the one who showed most aptitude, rather than those who didn’t. Sure, Root will be mad at himself. He sets himself high standards, but maybe, just maybe, I’m smelling a Cook preservation rat, and Root’s name being discussed recently means a higher bar being set for Joe. Odd, because I think Cook is as secure as he’s ever been. I’m probably looking for my tinfoil hat.

Moeen’s LBW has me chuckling all the way to the end of this piece. For years we have rightly excoriated the BCCI for going their own way in not using DRS. The theory was that Sachin wanted no part of it because he might get out more, and the word of the Little Master was never to be contravened (it kept him playing well past his prime). The other theory is that the other word of the Lord in India, MS Dhoni, was implacably turned against DRS by an LBW decision overturned in the 2011 World Cup against Ian Bell. Whether these two contentions are true or not, let’s recognise that India have taken up the DRS. Now they use it to overturn an LBW decision based on a couple of change of regulations over the years, and suddenly we (well Newman does in the Mail) get all precious about it. “I’m sorry, that’s just not out” isn’t a defence when DRS has given it out. We can’t pick and choose. Sure, Moeen was unlucky. Sure, Moeen wouldn’t have been given out in years gone by, but spare me us moaning about DRS when we wanted it imposed on India.

So what now. The S&B crew need to get us out of trouble again. Stokes has shown much better aptitude against spin this winter, and Bairstow has put out so many fires in the past few months we almost expect him to do so. For the record I think getting to 256 is academic – India are going to bat next in this test match – so it’s a combination of time and runs that are going to matter.

So that’s more than enough for one day – I didn’t see the India innings, but I want to get this out because I have things to do. Which leads me to a topical On This Day…

On this day in 2012, Alastair Cook batted for 90 overs at Ahmedabad adding 94 runs to his overnight score of 74 not out, as he and Matthew Prior undertook a long rearguard to attempt to save the match for England. On a wicket that had seen 8 of England’s first innings wickets fall to spin (Ojha taking 5/45), Cook thwarted all that was thrown at him on the fourth day to take England ten runs ahead with five wickets in hand, and at least give England a chance of saving the match.

I thought I’d put this in because just because a pitch is aiding the spinners, it doesn’t mean you can’t make runs on it.

Sure, on Day 5 we were bowled out for 406 – Cook making 176, Prior 91 – and just five second innings wickets fell to spin, and India completed the win, but their rearguard inspired England that they could play on these wickets, Cook was brilliant all series, and England won on a ragging Mumbai snake-pit having lost the toss.

So for one of his best, most valiant, most stubborn knocks, Alastair Cook is today’s “On This Day”.

Comments on Day 3 below…

India vs. England, 2nd Test, Day 1

Sir Ronald82 Comments

So after the initial wave of unbridled optimism after Rajkot and the need for some of the media to compare a batsman in his first Test to one of the all time greats, a more crushing reality was played out in Vizag today. It was perhaps all unsurprisingly ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ once again from England, just as it was in Dubai after Abu Dhabi last year. That isn’t to say that England were particularly bad, they stuck to their game plans on a Day 1 pitch that wasn’t offering much in terms of assistance to the bowlers, but you do feel that this was a toss that the Captain needed to win in order to give England a fighting chance of winning this Test. The pitch is already starting to wear as the odd delivery in the final session started to misbehave and I don’t think our batsmen will fancy batting on this pitch last even if we have the Bradman and Sangakkara elect in our line up!

It will have been of surprise to no-one that Jimmy Anderson started in place of Chris Woakes today, the fact that the ECB’s prime cheerleader had been banging on about it all week suggested that the decision had been made some time ago, though they also nicely added that Woakes had also picked up a niggle, which was highly convenient. That being said, Jimmy by far and away was England’s best bowler of the day by doing what Jimmy does. He got enough shape to trouble both the openers and then came back late in the day to snare both Pujara, who played magnificently again and an oddly out of sorts Rahane. As for England’s other quick bowlers, Broad looked to be suffering with a niggle from the start, which does beg the question why Woakes was binned (sorry rested) for this Test, and despite producing a good ball to get rid of Rahul, he again looked fairly innocuous on a flat sub-continental pitch. Stokes bowled with aggression but again bowled far too short on what is a very slow pitch and whilst he was unlucky with the dropped catch (more on that a little later), he never really looked a threat in these conditions. There is much to admire about Stokes with both bat and ball as he is a naturally aggressive cricketer, but it must also be quite infuriating knowing that if he doesn’t click with the ball, then he’s very unlikely to be able to build pressure from one end as a four ball always seems around the corner. I am probably nitpicking here, but I do think he needs to have a slight change of plan for when he has to bowl on these types of pitches.

As for the spinners, well Rashid aside, it was very much a day to forget. Rashid bowled well and offered control, which is something that he has been criticised for many a time in the past and it was also heartening to see Cook actually have some faith in him by bringing him on before Moeen and then sticking with him, although some of Cook’s fields didn’t exactly smack of total confidence. Whilst Rashid didn’t manage to get any wickets, he was by far the most effective of our spinners though I have no doubt whatsoever that his dropped catch off Stokes, which I thought was a pretty difficult chance, will have the media sharpening their knives. Agenda? What Agenda? As for Moeen and Ansari, the former is cursed with a consistent inconsistency whereby he can look an International class spinner at one moment and then a county trundler the next and the latter looks an average part time spinner being thrown in against one of the best attacks of spin in the world, which without trying to be harsh, he is. Ansari comes across as an intelligent and well-spoken guy in his interviews, but he doesn’t give the appearance that he has the skills and aptitude to play Test Cricket. His action certainly isn’t smooth, in fact I would say it’s as jerky as Simon Kerrigan’s and his batting doesn’t seem like it gives enough to warrant his place as a batting all-rounder. I can understand that England have a desire to get a left hand spinner into the side for variety, even if Kohli averages 161 against them at home, but I feel it would be better to at least have plumped for the Surrey number one spinner, right handed or not.

As for India, Kohli and Pujara once again showed them to be class acts in conditions that they are familiar with. Kohli will get all the headlines and rightly so as it was a quite sumptuous innings, but Pujara seems to be the glue that holds this Indian batting line up together. He isn’t as fluent as Kohli or Rahane, however he has a stout defence, the ability to milk the one’s and two’s and then put the bad balls to the boundary. He slightly reminds me of a wristier Jonathan Trott, and what we would all give to have a Trott type player in this England line up at the moment, despite having the media proclaimed “one of the greatest batsmen to ever play the game” opening the batting…

As for the rest of this Test, much will depend on the new ball and how much damage Anderson can inflict. If we can somehow keep India to under 420, then there may be a sniff of a chance as batting should still be fairly favourable on Day 2; however if we concede 500 or more, then I would certainly start to fear being rolled out cheaply twice as the pitch starts to wear more and Ashwin comes into his own. Let’s hope it’s the former rather than the latter!

On This Day….

As ever, thoughts and comments on Day 2 below:

India v England – The Second Test Intro…

LordCanisLupus71 Comments

Plus, at the end of this piece, another “On This Day”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Jimmy Anderson gets Sachin in 2007 – bowled as the evidence shows!

Dmitri, and I’m starting to talk about myself in the third person so beware, is a curmudgeonly old soul. He’s also been round the cricketing block when supporting England. As have many of you. We’ve seen many a bright starlet hit the ground running, only to struggle to maintain that as world bowlers look at you, think about how you bat, and target accordingly. We’ve seen many a resilient England performance, battling against the odds, only to be followed by a dreadful subsidence in a following fixture, or a comprehensive defeat. We live in post-Strauss captained England, one where it doesn’t really matter if we lose certain test matches, as long as we win the ones that are appointed to matter. We live in an instant gratification world, where a half decent debut is extrapolated out to those with all time great careers, and where one of the blogging cognoscenti can call me out for being unreasonable in pointing out how silly this looks. So just as Dhaka is now in the books, where a result can be ignored because there was a better one after it, and an opener who was praised can be ignored because there was a better show after it, we can consign Rajkot Boulevard to the memory banks and wander down the Vizag Vista for match number two. For those of you not aware of the fact, in amidst the fan boy accolades and the hyperventilating hyperbole from the first test, we didn’t win it. The score is 0-0.

It might be worth a walk down memory lane to see how England have fared in first and second test matches against India in the sub-continent. Back in 2012 we lost in Ahmedabad (and you’ll get nonoxcol going with that one) but did so fighting back in the second innings with a great innings by Cook and a good one by Prior too. We took that momentum into the second test and won. Some bloke played a reasonably good innings, backed up superbly by another Cook ton and some top spin bowling.

Our previous tour was that blight on world cricket, a two test series. We lost the first, in 2008, at Chennai as we walked into a Sehwag whirlwind and a Tendulkar masterclass, but we were, again, extremely competitive. We drew the second in a weather affected bore in Mohali, enlightened by some bloke making a reasonably decent hundred to ward off any threat. Wonder what happened to him?

In 2006 we drew the first test in Nagpur. You might recall a certain Alastair Cook making a half century in his first innings and a century in his second, and still Matthew Hoggard got to ride the post-match motorbike as man of the match. That was arguably a winning draw for England, much like Rajkot was, but we followed it up by losing on a spin-friendly track in Mohali before clawing back the series in the Ring of Fire test in Mumbai.

Back to 2001 and again in Mohali, we lost the 1st test of the series, with Dees Dasgupta, the legend, making a key century. That may have been peak India in terms of bowling spin, as Harby and Kumble put us to the sword, covering for two very inexperienced opening bowlers. England acquitted themselves well in the next two tests, although Bangalore was very badly rain affected.

There’s been a total randomness to how we’ve hit the ground in India, but it’s not unknown for us to over-rate the opposition and then, after we play them in the first test, re-adjust expectations. We usually are 1-0 down – 2006 being an exception (we lost the first tests in 1992 and 1984) and trying to claw back series. So yes, we are better placed. It also better places the doomsayers who had this as a 5-0 whitewash!

I’ve been doing this blogging lark for too long now. I keep feeling that things I’ve said before I have to say again. This England team has far too many unreliable parts. By putting together ONE batting performance in the first innings that wasn’t exclusively relying on Cook or Root, or a Bairstow / AN Other recovery job, England’s top order strung scores together and made a formidable total. A forward step, but with pretty much the same personnel, do you think this is a solid base or an outlier? Let’s put it this way, the evidence points to the latter.

We’ve seen many decent performances followed by annoying lapses. Grenada by Barbados, Cardiff by Lord’s, Edgbaston by The Oval, Abu Dhabi by Dubai. The way the performance at Rajkot has been reported, you’d think all our problems are over, and England now stand a decent chance of doing well. The realist believes that the only time you might see a road like Rajkot is if India hold a one test lead going into the last match…. (at this point I must point out that India produced a truly dreadful dirge of a pitch when we were 2-1 up last time out). England can be good, they can be bad. One swallow does not make a summer.

hirwani
Imagine how our media corps would react after a debut like this man’s.

The main source of debate going into the match, other than where to place Haseeb on the genius steps (above Cook, about level with Sanga, maybe a notch down from Sachin, but compare HH and SRT’s debuts), is will Anderson play or not? I’m past caring. If Jimmy breaks down, leaving us a bowler short, then on his head be it. Newman’s almost messianic pushing of Saint Jimmy of Burnley has been bizarre, but he’s been given pause for thought by a solid bowling display by England in the first match. Now we’d have to leave out someone from the “best all round team performance” that Bayliss had seen from an England team in his time. Such great performances, if precedent is to be believed, have the “no vacancies” sign put up like a B&B in peak summer. But now there’s talk of letting Woakes have a rest, and while I might not quite believe it, I don’t know who is briefing who here.

The other matter is the wicket. Now here we are being given all sorts of doom and gloom, based, it seems on the recent ODI between India and New Zealand, which saw the visitors crushed, and Mishra take five wickets. Here are your Ranji Trophy games this season at Vizag:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ranji-trophy-2016-17/engine/match/1053467.html

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ranji-trophy-2016-17/engine/match/1053497.html

Both quite low scoring.

It doesn’t appear as though the ground hosted any first class cricket last year. Certainly it would appear there were no Ranji Trophy games.

2014/15 there appeared to be one much higher scoring match…

http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-domestic-2014-15/engine/match/775677.html

Who knows what we will get? We are set for an interesting test match. Was Rajkot a blip? Will KL Rahul make a difference? Will England revert to a mean, or was that the benchmark for the series, and perhaps something we might improve upon? And whatever happens, will the print and TV media be able to keep their heads, or will they respond to the match as if they are Taylor Swift fans and she’s about to release another voice amended, pile of old dirge masquerading as music? There used to be Bad Blood indeed.

Enjoy the game.

ON THIS DAY….

croft-and-mullally

Let us wander back 18 years and the Far North Queensland town of Cairns. England were preparing for the upcoming Ashes with a match against Queensland, which started on the 13th. Within a few minutes of the start, Matty Hayden had been put out of action with a broken hand. It was a sporty wicket, a low scoring one, and these were the days when the Aussies put out full strength teams to mentally disintegrate the tourists.

So to Day 4, the 16th of November. England had been set 142 to win, and were doing their usual hard job of it. Starting at 74 for 5,  Ramprakash fell with the score on 89, and the writing appeared on the wall. Mike Atherton was batting at 8, for some reason, and his presence with Dean Headley took the score over 100. With the score on 101 Headley was bowled by Mike Kasprowicz, and shortly after Atherton was stumped off the bowling of Paul Jackson, who, if I haven’t told you before, I’ve played against! When Darren Gough was bowled by Kasper, England were 36 runs short, and Robert Croft was joined by Alan Mullally. The Leicestershire man’s batting would be a standing joke on this tour, but on this day he found his mojo. Run by run they eked England closer and closer. Derek Pringle, then of the Independent, has his report relatively easy to find online:

But if Croft was steadfast, Mullally was a revelation. Like all fast bowlers Mullally fancies himself with the bat. Until Monday morning there had been little evidence that he even knew what a bat was let alone familiar with shots like the hook and the sweep, both of which he played with great verve in his unbeaten 23. Dean Headley, another of the bowling fraternity, also weighed in with a useful 20, which included two of the nine fours struck in England’s second innings.

“I’m determined to have a good tour and do well,” said Mullally, once of Western Australia but now of Leicestershire. “If me and the rest of the tail-enders can make 20 or 30 runs each with the bat, it will help us enormously.”

As pure cricket goes, this match has been generally dull and attritional, though the drama as the last pair inched their way towards the 142 required was undeniable.

The unbelievable scoreline is here…. that Queensland team wasn’t bad.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/442641.html

Back to the second test. Please put any comments you have below.

Housekeeping

thelegglance2 Comments

You’ll have noticed that the beingoutsidecricket.com domain was down for a couple of weeks and it returned to the old collythorpe WordPress one. 

Well, we’ve now sorted the issues out and it’s back to normal. Hopefully permanently. Apologies for messing around with your bookmarks and so on. 

The team 

On This Day – 1986

LordCanisLupus9 Comments

15th November…

We like (well I like) a good anniversary and I thought I’d share this one with you tonight. 30 years ago we saw a brilliant individual performance by Ian Botham. It would be his last test hundred…

England resumed the first test at Brisbane on 198 for 2 against Australia. On the infamous “can’t bat, can’t bowl, can’t field…” tour England were decided second favourites but a very good Day 1 had them believing. However, Day 2 did not get off to an auspicious start. Allan Lamb and Bill Athey, the two overnight batsmen fell, and this brought David Gower and Ian Botham to the crease….

The entire England innings highlights are here…

I may have lost a lot of my regard for Sir Ian in his life as a commentator, but this was pure gold and showed why we were big fans of his playing days.  Merv Hughes was vaunted as a new leader of the attack. Botham put him to the sword. Add to that the mental impact this had on the series. Hell, who knows if the 30th anniversary had a subliminal impact on Australia in Hobart this morning! We also got DeFreitas making 40 on debut, a half century for Gower and England went on to win the match.

Here’s a report by Tony Lewis on the day’s play:

day-2-brisbane

Happy memories of the Gabba, prior to it being turned into a soulless concrete bowl!

14 years ago today Dmitri was in Port Douglas, and England were in Hobart playing Australia A. It was a lovely Friday morning, and we were fresh off our journey to the Barrier Reef the day before (one of my great lifetime experiences) and Sir Peter and I were readying ourselves for a drive up to Cape Tribulation. Before we left we say Martin Love blatantly smack the cover off the ball when on about 7, the bent Aussie umpire had his deaf aid switched off, and Love went on to make 201 not out.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/121124.html

The match reporter showed the usual Aussie disregard for matters trivial..

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/story/121123.html

 

I’ll be returning to these tours post Christmas, when we have a large void to fill in the run up to the English summer, but any memories you have of 1986, let me have them….

HHH – Haseeb Hameed Hyperbole

LordCanisLupus64 Comments

I picked up a copy of the Evening Standard on the train this evening. On the back there was the repeating of a claim I’d heard already today that this was, in the view of Trevor Bayliss, the most complete performance he had seen from England in his time as coach. But it was when I flicked inside that my heart sunk.

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Now people can say this about me and they might have a point. “Dmitri, if this cheeses you off that much, why don’t you try a sport that doesn’t?” Or you could say “Lord Canis Lupus, if you can’t get excited about a great new talent, why do you watch?” Or you could say Mark “surely a coach pumping up the tyres of a young kid isn’t that surprising, is it?”

I’ve been around the block a bit, and try not to get above myself when it comes to hype. I’ve not anointed Virat Kohli the new Tendulkar, Steve Smith as the new Border or Quentin de Kock as the new Gilchrist. Yet they have a more firm body of evidence than Haseeb. Yes, you can say that Haseeb is a young kid and surely you have to get excited, and believe me, I am. He seems a great lad, a great attitude and approach to the game, a beautiful temperament and very importantly for the sport in this country, a British-Asian batsman with what we hope is true staying power. But it’s so early in his career to be giving us this nonsense.

Bayliss, in the article, say Haseeb reminds him of Sangakkara in his love of batting., wanting to practice all the time etc. etc. Great. That’s not what the headline screams, is it? And even the most naive of media trained coaches must have known how this would be presented. Is there a big deal? No, not really, but English sport is littered with young sports stars who flamed out. Four England players made hundreds in this test match and Haseeb wasn’t one of them, but because we’ve been so desperate for an opener this strikes me as a little bit of over excitement. But I’ll say this once, and then hope it sticks. Judge Haseeb after a year. Judge him after this series, on more difficult surfaces than this on. Judge him on a home series against South Africa. Judge him on how he tackles an overseas Ashes series. We have time to see if the kid is the real deal, or if he gets worked out. We know he has the temperament, we can see that. Now let’s see if he is the package. Pumping tyres is all well and good, but if Bayliss really thought that of him, he’d have had him in the team at Chittagong, not at Rajkot. It looks daft, the headline looks daft, and we invite ridicule with this stuff.

It’s not a lot, but if you can’t see why I’m worried, people, you haven’t been paying attention. This England team, this set-up, over the years has chewed up great talent and spat it out. Sure, get excited, but keep your heads. Say nice things, of course. The lad deserves them. But keep some proportion, for heaven’s sake. Our press have built up enough to knock them down. Good luck HH!

I see George was saying this was the most entertaining England team he’s ever seen. Interesting. I’ve been clearing out a lot of stuff and came across the DVDs of the highlights from Adelaide 2010. So I put them on. I watched us bowl out the Aussies for very little, I watched Cook and Trott make hay, and then KP applying the coup de grace. That team would have murdered this one. And with the bat, which I care about the most it has to be said, they were really, really good to watch. Cook’s knock was magnificent – on the back of 235 – and well, KP was KP. Prior’s demolition of the demoralised was fun. I sometimes wonder if George takes the bowling dry thing too much as lacking entertainment. The MCG morning was certainly entertaining!

OK. Hope that explained my thinking, if you care!

Just thought I’d say that I’m reading Ian Chappell’s book at the moment. It makes me sad. Really sad. Chappelli absolutely raves about Sir Garfield Sobers. I hate the fact I’m in my late 40s and only just missed him makes me really sad. I wish I’d got to see him play, even as a childhood memory. But I don’t. I also went on a holiday 11 years ago where the previous year the star guest for the evening I went to was Sobers. I felt a little cheated to get “only” Joel Garner! The Chappell book is a good read so far, and I might do a review when I finish.

OK. That little ramble over, have a good night, and I’ll speak soon…

India v England – Match Drawn

LordCanisLupus70 Comments

Maybe we’ll do a more considered piece later, but some immediate reactions are always worthwhile:

  • The declaration – I hate declaration speculation and pretty much always side with the skipper when it comes to them. For example, in the West Indies in 2009, I could understand both Andrew Strauss’s declarations where the opposition were left 8 or 9 down at the end. So, unlike others, I’m not going to lambast Cook over the timing of the declaration. I also have to say that I was asleep until the Indian innings had begun, and with those wickets in hand we might have scored a little more quickly but that is easier said than done. There is no way our media is going to say we didn’t score quickly enough because that would be to criticise our captain, and we aren’t having that. That one member of the media felt it necessary to retweet Alison Mitchell’s pro-Cook piece in TCP immediately after the game finished speaks volumes. As does someone tweeting that this was one of Cook’s best tests as captain (er, really? On what basis?), the message requirement speaks more than the words they contain. Cook did what 95% of international captains would do. Maybe that’ll stop one former correspondent for saying how influential BMac has been on our game after 2015. In summary, we might have batted more quickly, but it’s at the margins.
  • Hameed’s 82 is a really promising start, but just that. Gary Ballance made test hundreds in his second, fifth and sixth tests, with a 71 in the fourth and 74 in the third. I am not doing this to be a killjoy, a malcontent, a churl. I’m doing this to inject some realism. We need a new opener in the worst way. We love the fact the kid is 19. Brilliant. Young talent, temperament to die for, a great story. But he couldn’t get a game in Bangladesh and so there were obviously doubts. He has a career best of 122, so he’s not pummeling in massive hundreds yet. So let’s wait before we anoint him the king of the hill. Why rush to excitement when we’ve been disappointed before after great starts. The other day marked the birthday of Ben Hollioake. Remember how he looked to the manor born on his international debut? Remember how difficult it was to establish yourself in the game once people have seen you play? Remember how Joe Root had a horrible time, and was dropped? Let’s be measured here.
  • Adil Rashid did not win man of the match (but someone tweeted he did – sorry) but had a top match. I could laugh my head off. In fact I will. Stack that fragile, luxury, card marked agenda away for a couple more tests, pundits. He is an attack weapon, not a stock bowler. If he can be our Stuart MacGill, an attacking expensive bowler who took wickets at a rare old click, we should be delighted. Anyone watching notice how Nasser did a complete “Shiny Toy” on Rashid saying we had found a wicket-taking spinner (then qualifying it by saying for one test). We don’t have memories of goldfish Nasser. He was fragile a few days ago. Well bowled Adil, you did your fans proud. I’m sure Bob Willis will be gracious enough to admit his error on The Verdict.
  • Overall – a really good England performance. Four centuries and a good debut by HH. A couple of “what ifs” but none we should really dwell upon. This blogger never thought we’d lose 5-0. One of the reasons is that the Indian batting “ain’t all that” despite the hype. Gambhir opening was a joke. Ashwin at six is at least one place too high on wickets like these. It just takes a little weakness and the chasm could open. Of course, that goes for us too, but this team, as it stands, looks balanced. Of course, there are vacancies in the bowling, despite in the same circumstances as Anderson finds himself now, KP had “no vacancies in the middle order” (don’t laugh). They’ll find a way in for Jimmy, and the rumours are it will probably be Ansari now (as the bigging up of Joe Root’s spin seemed to hint at in the evening session comms). In a test where three spinners seemed to be confirmed as the right way to go, it now appears as though we’ll think of four seamers instead. I do hope they are wrong.
  • For information, Stuart Broad now averages 125.6 with the ball in India after his match figures of 1 for 80-odd.

I enjoyed the bits of the Rajkot test I saw, and it reaffirmed five day tests brilliance in my eyes. Reaction and all the other stuff to follow. Comment away….

UPDATE – On the man of the match thing…

I love you India….

India v England -Day 4

LordCanisLupus39 Comments

p1070637Unless something very, very odd happens tomorrow, this test match is destined to be filed under “bore draw” along with Nagpur 2012 and Trent Bridge 2014; the last two tests to go the full distance between these two teams. That it doesn’t quite feel like that is because of the debacle in Dhaka. We would, according to the scribes and the pundits, have bitten your hands off for this result. England’s batting looking stronger than it has in the last few seasons. England’s spinners outbowling the Indian spin attack we were supposed to be terrified of. It has been a very good England performance on a surface that has not deteriorated noticeably over the first four days.

Yet again I have a confession to make. I saw the last hours play only. Blame Australia. Watching their collapse in Hobart last night was car crash TV. They not only capitulated to some excellent seam bowling, there was a comedy run out (which prompted the debutant’s brother to storm out in disgust) and Steve Smith assaulting Vernon Philander. Add to that Michael Clarke appearing to be under the apprehension that Philander being off the field meant the visitors had to field with 10 men (the sub fielder I think executed the run out) and Mark Taylor admonishing Paf du Plessis for running towards the umpire on an LBW shout (while sitting next to his co-commentator, that ultimate respecter of umpires, Shane Warne) and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. This meant bed time at 2 am, and waking up late. So sorry, I hope you enjoyed more of the play than I did.

Of course, we are seeing that age old English media trait of appointing someone as the saviour on the basis of first evidence. Take it away Scyld:

and if that wasn’t enough:

Now let me say this before you tear into me. I’m thrilled he looks the part, and he does. But he’s playing on a placid surface, against bowlers neutered by the pitch and in a 500 plays 500 test, more or less. What he has shown his temperament and class. Of course he has, but because he’s 19 we’re touting him as some child prodigy. “Touched by genius” in my view is a bit strong. Let’s see a big ton in the 1st innings of a match, or a pressure-filled hundred on a bunsen before we go the whole hog. This is a hugely impressive debut, but it’s not Trott at The Oval in 2009, it’s not KP at Lord’s (coming in at 20/3, soon to be 20/5) and it’s note even Cook at Nagpur in 2006 which was in the balance when he made it. This test was there to be made safe and Hameed has. There’s plenty to get excited about before we make Hall of Fame plans. Scyld can be a bit of an outlier, and in this case, I think the heat might have got to him.

He’s not alone, though. Plenty will follow, marvelling at the talent and temperament of a mere 19 year old. I’m sure I saw someone suggest he make our T20 team (because he hit a six). I’m here to be the grump. Let him play five/ten tests, playing on surfaces more testing than this, to see if he truly is the messiah, or merely a young talented boy.

Adil Rashid. Luxury bowler. Discuss media. Discuss.

The match appears headed for a draw. England’s 114 for 0 put them 163 in front, and a brisk pre-lunch session may tempt the visitors to try to set up a three to three and a half hour exercise in survival. England have worked very hard and will not give the hosts a sniff, so a lead of 270-280 with 45 overs left may be something like a target to go for. There is a school of thought that we should bat out time and let the hosts fry. I hope not, but also strongly believe a big marker has been laid down here by England. We aren’t going to be outmatched so horrendously that 5-0 was on the cards. It’s not the time to gamble, and we have a captain who won’t. If we are back here tomorrow talking about anything other than a routine draw, we are in for a hell of a day.

Some Statto Tweets for reference:

and

Which includes Mark Ealham and Ed Smith…..

Comments below….

India vs England: 1st Test day three

thelegglance29 Comments

This particular Test has caused a mild outbreak of panic at BOC Towers, falling as it does during a period when all three of us are snowed under with work during what tends to be our busiest time of the year in our respective jobs.  Add into that 4am start times, lots of travelling and full days and trying to keep abreast of goings on in Rajkot appear to be a little distant.  In my own case, this week has been spent at World Travel Market at Excel, where international goings on allowed me to play a small joke on various colleagues on Wednesday morning:  “Have you seen the news overnight?  Isn’t it extraordinary?”, “Yes it is, I wonder how all the people on the American stands are feeling this morning”, “Oh I doubt they care too much, but 311-4 is a really impressive start”.

England’s 537 all out undoubtedly created scoreboard pressure, on a pitch that was felt likely to deteriorate, but India’s response has been one of outstanding batting and perhaps slightly disappointing bowling.  The seamers have been tidy enough, without being especially threatening while the spinners have been short too often, and badly used in at least one instance.  The stand between Vijay and Pujara was both essential and deeply impressive, slowly getting India back into the match, taking few risks and batting time.  Having reached 277-1, what followed was something of a surprise, for England had shown few signs of being likely to take wickets, only to snare three in little more than an hour.  If nothing else it was a reward for plugging away, and for keeping the scoring rate under control.

High scoring matches often appear to drift for large parts of a given day, as one side slowly claws their way towards parity and the other fruitlessly tries to stop them.  It’s why low scoring matches tend to be consistently exciting throughout, whereas with ones like this the viewer can disappear for an hour or two and come back to see how little has changed in terms of the balance.  The three late ones don’t exactly amount to a clatter, more of a gentle rattle, but they will have caused a frisson of anxiety in Indian ranks and raised the hopes of the English ones.  The pitch so far hasn’t been a dead one by any means, and there is both spin available and some movement off the surface for the seamers and rather more in the air.  It may be simply that both sides have batted well, it wouldn’t be the first time.

While Stokes removed the fluent Pujara, it was Adil Rashid who got the obdurate, yet intermittently attacking Murali Vijay with a delicious googly in his first over back just before the close.  And here is where even Sky felt it reasonable to offer up some criticism of Cook (before Rashid took the wicket, note) for not making more use of him and going to him as the last possible option.  It’s a criticism this blog has made repeatedly, and it’s not a matter of being wise after the event, it’s because there’s absolutely no point in having a leg-spinner if he’s not to be used as an offensive weapon.  England’s plethora of all rounders frees up spaces for luxury players who can bring something different, and a leg spinner is about as different as it gets for an English team.  Yes, he will go for runs, yes, he will be sometimes inconsistent.  But he’ll also get you wickets, that’s the whole damn point.  England have six frontline bowlers in this side, there are plenty of fall back positions should the leggie have a bad day – for him to bowl the fewest of any of the spinners on a pitch that is offering purchase is a waste of resource.

As for the wider question of where this game is going, as things stand the draw appears the favourite, but that is based on how the bat has dominated to date.  The behaviour of the surface is going to dictate much, yet with few signs of radical change to date it’s perhaps wishful thinking to expect it to drive a result on its own over the next two days.  India have plenty of batting still to come but are also a sizeable 218 runs still in arrears.  Should they get remotely close then the pressure will transfer to England as they will be doing nothing other than playing for the draw with the time remaining, while even if they only add another hundred it’s hard to conclude that England would feel safe enough to declare until some time into day five assuming things went well.  But perhaps given the kneejerk response to defeat in the last Test in Bangladesh, that’s still a position England should be pleased with.  The old mantra that they are never quite as good or quite as bad as the press portray them is as true now as it ever was.  All things considered, so far it’s quite even.

Day Four Comments Below