Number One - Day Four at Edgbaston

At the start of the series there were two main topics of conversation: could England make it to number one and would Sachin Tendulkar make his hundredth international hundred? England, of course, have achieved their goal in the grandest manner but for Tendulkar, one of the true greats of the game, the wait goes on.

There have been glimmerings of the Sachin of old. In the second innings at Trent Bridge he was the only member of the much vaunted batting line-up to offer any resistance and the same was true here. He had played fluently for his forty as the innings lay in ruins at the other end and his dismissal, run out by a deflection from Graeme Swann’s hand, rather summed up his tour so far. 

Unfortunately, so did the rest of the top order batting, which rolled over in the face of a sustained burst from Jimmy Anderson. On the same pitch on which England had scored over 700 they looked all at sea, although Rahul Dravid seemed to be a little unlucky. MS Dhoni, for the second time in the match, showed some character and Praveen Kumar’s innings entertained everyone except the increasingly exasperated Graeme Swann, but the game was wrapped up by tea by a humiliating margin and the celebrations were well and truly underway.

So, England are number one in the world. Lord MacLaurin was overly optimistic in his original desire to have got there by 2007 but a lot of hard work by a lot of people has got them to the pinnacle and they thoroughly deserve it. The challenge now is to stay there.

Cook at the Double - Day Three at Edgbaston

On 27^th July 1990 I was lucky enough to be at Lord’s when Graham Gooch turned the first ball after tea, from Ravi Shastri, behind square on the leg side to bring up the only test triple century scored by an Englishman in my lifetime. I was especially lucky since it was only seen by spectators in the ground: the BBC, showing their usual sense of priorities where cricket is concerned, were busy showing the expectant millions the runners and riders at Doncaster. 

Since that happy July day, so Englishman has exceeded 250, let alone challenged Gooch’s score, but for much of today it appeared that Alastair Cook, the protégé of Gooch, was going to change that. In the end he had to settle for 294, rather surprisingly caught near the point boundary, but spectators at Edgbaston can at least say that they were there when England passed 700 for the first time since Hutton’s test at the Oval in 1938. For those of us who have been watching England play test cricket for a while this is taking some getting used to. 

It is hard for any bowler to emerge with much credit when the opposition make 700, but Praveen Kumar and Mishra at least kept going and the attack kept their discipline to the extent that England didn’t take the game away in the way that Kevin Pietersen had threatened to do yesterday. Instead Cook, ably supported by Morgan, simply went on and on, and when Morgan, Bopara and Prior departed in quick succession he found a worthy ally in the ever-impressive Tim Bresnan, who started watchfully but seemed to be rather enjoying himself by the end. 

All the plaudits, though, must go to Cook. He had looked scratchy and poorly balanced in the first two tests and wasn’t fluent at the start of this innings, but what he lacks in style he makes up for in concentration, shot selection and fitness. After batting for more than twelve hours he was still scampering singles and turning ones into twos without breaking sweat. Indeed, he went for much of the day without hitting a boundary, but such was his fitness and appetite for runs he as able to score at a reasonable rate anyway. At the age of twenty-six he already has nineteen hundreds, two of them doubles, and an average just under fifty: England’s batting records are there for the taking. 

Having reached the scarcely believable heights of 710-7, England then had the added bonus of removing Virender Sehwag first ball for a king pair. Anderson bowled just about the perfect ball to him, tempting him to drive but just shaping it away to take the outside edge. Had Swann had his leg before appeal against Gambhir upheld, as it should have been, then they would have been delirious – as it is they will have to settle for simply being ecstatic. India will have to bat out of their skins to come close to saving this match: the evidence of the series so far is that they haven’t got a hope.

A Lesson From History - Day Two at Edgbaston

In the autumn of 1958 an England side, unbeaten in test series since 1951, the undisputed world number one and described as ‘the best team ever to leave these shores’, set off for Australia. The following spring they returned having been thrashed 4-0. The Notes by the Editor in the 1959 Wisden bemoan the failure of the much vaunted batting line-up and is critical of the fielding while Peter May, the unfortunate captain, later admitted that the squad had grown old together and was now over the hill. Sound familiar?

Today was by far the ugliest day in what has been an ugly series for India. At Lord’s and Trent Bridge there were times when they looked ready to seize the initiative, but here there was no hope and precious little desire. With the honourable exceptions of Praveen Kumar, who ran in all day as those his life depended on it, Rahul Dravid, who at least looks as though he cares, and Suresh Raina, who is at least an international standard fielder, the rest were at best desultory and at worst an embarrassment. Mishra contrived to bowl no balls off a negligible run up, Laxman spent all day with his hands in his pockets and Sehwag eventually left the field apparently suffering from no more than a bout of ennui. The bowling lacked threat, the fielding was poor and the body language was abysmal: they’re not a dynamic side in the field at the best of times but for much of the day they resembled a team of bored schoolboys, viewing fielding as a necessary chore to be got through en route to the fun stuff rather than as a fundamental part of the game.

Praveen bowled extremely economically in the morning, although he didn’t force the batsmen to play as much as he might, but at the other end Ishant bowled too wide and Sreesanth too inconsistently. The ball moved, but Strauss and Cook played with soft hands and the Indian slip cordon were too deep for any chances to go to hand and progress to lunch was pretty serene, if unspectacular.

After lunch it looked for a time as though England would pile on the humiliation and go past India’s total without losing a wicket, but Mishra broke through, bowling Strauss round his legs from what turned out to (too late for Strauss) to be a no ball. Bell played breezily, although he should have been caught at slip, but by now Alastair Cook, who had struggled in the first two tests, had settled and was looking as remorseless as he had through the winter and the early part of the summer.

Bell fell to a beautiful delivery from the admirable Praveen Kumar which ripped out his off stump, but with India’s body language deteriorating there was to be no respite as Kevin Pietersen laid about him. In the run-up to tea India’s bowling and fielding deteriorated in the face of Pietersen’s aggression and the game finally ran away from them.

The final session saw the departure of Pietersen, a decision that would have appalled Bob Wyatt, after whom one of the stands at Edgbaston is named and who believed that no batsman should be given out LBW on the front foot, but which pleased this old bowler, but Cook and Morgan continued remorselessly to the close. We even saw Tendulkar bowl and some sharp turn from Raina, who was described as ‘right arm optimistic’ by Michael Holding during the morning, which will have excited Graeme Swann.

It’s impossible to see where India go from here in this match. They must try at least to improve, both in their performance and their attitude, but even if they do it is impossible to see them saving the game unless the weather intervenes.

Dhoni's Cameo but England's Day - Day One at Edgbaston

At tea the word ‘Perth’ was pushing itself to the forefront of my mind: England, following a convincing win, had India in trouble only to be hit by a rearguard action lead by a player whose form had been abject to that point. This is the best England team of my lifetime but the scars of the past are hard to shift even for this optimistic Englishman.

As with the first two tests it was a good toss to win, although the decision to bowl first was not the no-brainer it had been at Trent Bridge. India had Sehwag and Gambhir back to strengthen the batting and Mishra, arguably, strengthens the bowling given Harbhajan’s abject form of late, while Ravi Bopara came into the England side to replace Jonathan Trott.

According to many commenters on cricinfo, the return of Sehwag would make all the difference, leading India to the promised land of a massive first innings score, so they would have been bitterly disappointed to see him glove his first ball to a gleeful Matt Prior. It was a decent delivery from Stuart Broad, but Sehwag was slow to drop his hands.

Gambhir and Dravid then batted nicely against tidy bowling, with the ball doing a bit but certainly not going round corners, and it looked for a time as though England’s decision to bowl first may backfire, but Gambhir was bowled driving loosely, Tendulkar, having been greeted by the standard standing ovation, prodded meekly outside off stump and then, on the stroke of lunch, Dravid was the unfortunate recipient of the one unplayble ball off the session, a snorter from Bresnan ripping out his off stump.

India’s travails continued after lunch, Raina, as has been the case for much of the series, not hanging around for long and Laxman falling to the pull shot for the third time in the series. Laxman seems to be having real problems with building on starts, something that has dogged his whole career, for his conversion rate is poor for a player of such class. Maybe it is an issue with concentration, maybe it is an issue with fitness, but this was not the first time that he has got himself out when set.

Mishra didn’t hang around and India were in the mire at 111-7, but the pitch was losing whatever demons it had had and Dhoni, whose batting so far in the series had ranged from the abysmal to the merely weak, finally showed what he was made of, taking the attack to England in partnership with the swashbuckling Praveen Kumar and, for the first time in the day, causing some consternation in the England ranks. Andrew Strauss’s captaincy was questionable at times during the onslaught, as were the tactics of England’s bowlers, but it is not always easy to combat the kind of hitting that we saw here and credit must be given to the two Indians and especially the skipper.

It was too good to last, however. Kumar feathered an attempted hook to Prior, although it needed a review to send him on his way, Dhoni edged to slip where Strauss held on comfortably and then Ishant, summing up the way that the series has gone so far, fell to a freakish catch at silly mid-off from Cook, who didn’t know a lot about it.

The pitch had now flattened considerably (and, in truth, it was never a 111-7 pitch to start with) and England’s openers, neither of whom has been in great form in the series, played watchfully at first and then opened out into a broader range of strokes to leave them 84-0 at the close and firmly in charge of the game. If England can continue to build in the morning and if the loss of Jonathan Trott doesn’t hamper them too much, then it could be a long few days for India.

In praise of... Matt Prior

There was a time, not so long ago, when the thought of writing this would have been as far from my mind as a piece praising Zaheer Khan’s physical fitness. When Matt Prior first came into the England side he represented everything that was wrong about attitudes to wicket keeping: his batting was fine, although nowhere near the level that it is today, but his keeping wasn’t even first class standard, let alone test standard. His glovework was clumsy and his footwork non-existent. I, a fully paid up member of the Campaign for Real Wicket-keepers, watched, appalled, through my fingers as the ball rebounded from hard hands and he launched himself into another fruitless dive from an entirely static position. He epitomised Duncan Fletcher’s ludicrous assertion that you can teach someone to catch but you can’t teach them to bat and seemed to have bought wholeheartedly into the false notion that in order to be an effective keeper you also had to behave like an idiot, as the infamous jelly bean incident showed. He was the bastard lovechild of Geraint Jones and Kamran Akmal. You may have gathered by now that I wasn’t a fan.

How times change. After a poor run of form saw him ditched from the England side in favour of Tim Ambrose he starting working with Bruce French, a much underrated technician behind the stumps, and his keeping has improved spectacularly. His glovework is tidy and his footwork, an all too frequently neglected aspect of keeping (see Brad Haddin for details) is unobtrusive and effective. Balls that once would have prompted a desperate dive are now collected on his feet, although the departure of Steve Harmison from the England side may also have helped.

At the same time his batting, which was always handy, has blossomed. I have seen hm bat twice in the flesh this year, in the Lord’s tests against Sri Lanka and India, and on both occasions he made a hundred, piercing the offside field with aplomb and driving and pulling effectively when the bowling strayed onto his legs. When Michael Vaughan suggested during the first test that he is currently the best wicket-keeper batsman playing test cricket he was greeted with some derision from proponents of MS Dhoni, but there is no doubt that he was right. Such has been his improvement that he may even be the best pure keeper currently playing test cricket, something that would have been inconceivable a few years ago.

His importance to England now cannot be understated. To have a number seven who not only averages in the mid-forties with the bat but who also scores at such a rate that he can take the game away from the opposition in a session is a luxury that is afforded to very few sides. In both of the games mentioned above he came to the crease with England some way short of where they wanted to be but through a combination of scintillating stroke play and aggressive running he took the game away from the opposition in a manner that was almost Gilchrist-esque.

Of course there is still the odd blemish and he can still be vulnerable to the ball moving back into him, especially early in his innings when he can play rather waftily around off stump, but he has become a vital cog in an increasingly impressive England side. I can’t remember many cricketers who have improved so dramatically after making their test debut, for which both he and his coaches deserve the utmost praise. All hail Matt Prior.

Disintegration - Day Four at Trent Bridge

For the second test running England took the final Indian wicket as I stood at Harlow Town station (it’s a glamorous life that I lead). I’m considering setting up camp there permanently during the Edgbaston test.

India’s wheels had threatened to come off since Matt Prior and Tim Bresnan started taking the long handle to the bowling on Sunday evening and today they did. With one or two honourable exceptions they were a shambles with bat, ball and in the field. Rarely, if ever, can such a highly ranked side have produced such an awful day’s cricket.

Prior and Bresnan carried on where they had left off but Prior’s early dismissal, which could have provided some vain hope for the Indians, simply brought the startlingly belligerent Stuart Broad to the crease and he and Bresnan laid about them as the bowling and fielding became more insipid. Suresh Raina might as well have waved a white flag as he propelled the ball to the other end such was his ineffectiveness.

Broad was run out by the sub fielder (it was to be a good day for substitutes) and Bresnan fell next ball for his second score in the nineties in seven test innings. Many may have expected Strauss to declare, but he wanted to keep India on the field for as long as possible to completely demoralise them. Steve Waugh would have been proud of him.

India would have wanted to survive until lunch and then re-group but, after Mukund was reprieved by Tim Bresnan at slip first ball, Dravid edged Stuart Broad behind to complete a miserable session for the Indians and their millions of supporters.

What followed will give Duncan Fletcher sleepless nights for weeks to come. Laxman was beaten by a beauty from Anderson and Tendulkar stood firm, but the rest of the batting capitulated to relentless fast bowling. Mukund, his fluent 49 at Lord’s a distant memory, scratched his way to three from forty-one balls before falling to a well-directed bouncer, Raina, who clearly didn’t fancy the short stuff, hooked wildly to England’s sub and Yuvraj was pinned on the hand and then caught by Alastair Cook close in on the offside. I shudder to think how they would have coped with the 1980s West Indians.

MS Dhoni has won a lot of friends in this test but his cricket has been pretty awful. His keeping has gone into decline, his batting, especially against the moving ball, is technically lacking and his captaincy has been a little erratic. He will hope that his dismissal here, palpably leg before to a ball that he was leaving alone, represents the nadir of his tour.

Harbhajan at least provided some entertainment, although the freedom of his strokeplay raised doubts as to how bad his stomach injury actually is, and when Tendulkar, who had made batting look rather easier than his colleagues, also fell offering no stroke, Praveen Kumar also enjoyed himself, thumping a rapid twenty-five.

It wasn’t going to last, however, and when Harbhajan fell to another catch by the sub the writing was on the wall. Praveen continued to blaze away merrily, but at about half past five on the fourth day India, batting on a pitch on which England had scored 544 at four and a half an over, were bowled out for 158.

It has been an extraordinary test, not least because India looked the likelier winners for much of the first two days, but MS Dhoni, Duncan Fletcher et al must be very concerned at the manner of the defeat. They can point to injuries, but England were without Chris Tremlett and lost Jonathan Trott for much of the test. All sides suffer from injuries from time to time – what matters is how you respond and the performances of England’s stand-ins, Tim Bresnan scoring over a hundred runs in the match and taking seven wickets including a five for and Ian Bell making 159 batting out of position were in stark contrast to their counterparts. If India don’t get their act together, starting at Northampton, then it could be a very long series for them.

England, though, were superb on days three and four. Rahul Dravid made the observation that they just keep coming at the opposition and they are blessed not just with a superb bowling attack but also with a magnificent lower order. The best may yet be to come.

The Tide Turns - Day Three at Trent Bridge

There have been two points in this game when India looked almost certain to square the series: when England were 124-8 on the first day and when India were 267-4 on day two, only for Stuart Broad to intervene. Today, however, the game seems to have gone away from them and they must be looking at a 2-0 deficit.

Much of the talk will be about Ian Bell’s run out, and we will come to that later, but that would detract from what was a day of superb batting from England. India were hampered by Harbhajan’s lack of full fitness and Ishant and Kumar were, by the end of the day, showing signs of fatigue after their efforts at Lord’s, but England made 417 runs in the day, their highest score in one day since the fifties. Not even in their wildest dreams could they have imagined this at the start of the day.

Strauss went early, caught behind, but Bell, fluently, and Pietersen, less so, built a partnership that started to swing the game England’s way. The pitch seemed to have eased but the ball was still swinging and Bell batted beautifully, his balance and timing oozing class, although he was helped by MS Dhoni’s reluctance to post a third man.

Having survived until lunch, which was taken with the score on 130, Pietersen put his foot down in the afternoon, playing some trademark shots before being caught behind off the persevering Sreesanth. There was no let-up for the wilting Indians, though, as Bell continued on his merry way and Morgan took advantage of what Geoffrey Boycott described as benefit match bowling.

The run out incident, which was entirely Ian Bell’s fault, meant that the session ended with a certain amount of farce. The incident has been described in some detail elsewhere, but it should be said that Mukund was perfectly within his rights to remove the bails and India were quite correct to appeal. The TMS commentators were comparing it to the run out that England fashioned when Ryan Sidebottom and Grant Elliott collided, but a much closer recent parallel was the run out of Murali by Brendon McCullum when Murali prematurely walked down the wicket to congratulate Kumar Sangakkara on reaching his hundred. On that occasion the appeal stood, as it would have done here if the tea interval hadn’t intervened. It is interesting that Rahul Dravid, interviewed at the end of the day, spoke of the unanimity of the Indian dressing room and praised MS Dhoni’s leadership, and the Indian team deserve a lot of credit for their attitude throughout.

The evening session looked for a time as though it would go to India. First Bell edged Yuvraj to Laxman, who took a sharp catch after a deflection off Dhoni, and then Morgan and Trott, batting in the unfamiliar position of number seven, succumbed to the new ball and some superb bowling from Kumar. The ball that got Trott was a brute that he would have struggled to play even without an injured shoulder. India scented the chance to bowl England out and set themselves a reasonable target.

Unfortunately for India England bat deep and have the man who is currently the best wicket keeper batsman in test cricket in their side. With the attack tiring and Harbhajan struggling Prior and Bresnan went berserk, adding 102 in just 18.2 overs to finally knock the stuffing out of India. They are 374 runs ahead with four wickets still in hand and will be looking to put the game completely beyond their shell shocked opponents. This game has already had its fair share of twists and turns, but it is hard to see another one.

Dancing Myself Dizzy - Day Two at Trent Bridge

One Sunday morning in 1995 I awoke later than planned and headed for the launderette with my cricket kit, the comments of my team mates having been less than complimentary the week before. When I returned, delayed by a queue for the tumble dryers, it was 11.15 and I had missed the first hat trick by an England bowler since 1957.

Fast forward to today. Having watched much of the afternoon session (although I missed Pietersen dropping Yuvraj while looking for a missing piece of Lego) I eventually lost control of the television to a bored seven year old. Still, if anyone asks me what I was doing when Stuart Broad took his test hat-trick I can tell them that I was playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii.

For much of the day it was like watching test cricket in years gone by. England had been skittled on the first day and their opponents, helped by butter-fingered fielding, were building a considerable lead. Just about everything was going to the script: VVS Laxman was dismissed after reaching fifty, Rahul Dravid was batting on and on and Yuvraj was playing loosely at the start of the innings. The only surprise was that Sachin Tendulkar, whose record at Trent Bridge is formidable, fell early, but his record against England over the last nine years is not as stellar as might be expected.

As with yesterday, however, Stuart Broad was to have significant impact on the game, delivering one of the great spells in test cricket history. The new ball has been difficult to play in both innings and now he was devastating. First Yuvraj feathered a brute of a ball to Matt Prior, but then came the real fireworks. Dhoni slashed ill-advisedly to slip, Harbhajan was given out leg before although he had got a big inside edge and Praveen Kumar was comprehensively bowled to give Broad a hat-trick as Trent Bridge went wild. In the next over, Bresnan had Dravid caught at third man (can such a thing ever have happened before?) and Broad polished off the innings not long later to complete a spell of 5-0 in just sixteen balls. Astonishing.

Harbhajan, of course, can feel rightly aggrieved about the decision that cost him his wicket, but his right to show dissent, as he also did when he had a leg before appeal turned down at Lord’s, is invalidated by his board’s refusal to embrace the full DRS. Indeed, the evidence of this series seems to be that hot spot, which they have kept, is appreciably less reliable than Hawkeye. It will be interesting to see if their attitude softens after this series.

England, then, found themselves behind on first innings but not to the catastrophic extent that appeared likely in mid-afternoon. They lost Cook, who seems to have lost his rhythm, before the close but Strauss and Bell, promoted in place of the injured Jonathan Trott, saw them through to the close. Tomorrow promises to be a fascinating day.

Twisting and Turning - Day One at Trent Bridge

Some years ago I found myself, for reasons which escape me, watching Sky’s rugby league coverage just at the point when Stevo, at the end of a lengthy rant, described league as ‘our game, the greatest game’. He was, of course, wrong. The greatest game, as we all know, is cricket, and its greatest form is test cricket.

Test cricket, of course, is at its best when there is a balance between bat and ball and although conditions at Trent Bridge were perhaps overly helpful to bowlers, this was preferable to watching batsmen having it easy. India, having won an important looking toss, bowled beautifully and although Alastair Cook’s dismissal was further evidence that the luddites obstructing the use of Hawkeye as part of the DRS are wrong, the other England batsmen could have no such complaints. Praveen Kumar could probably swing the ball anywhere so he was particularly dangerous, but Ishant resumed where he had left off at Lord’s and Sreesanth was at his least bonkers at England fell to 124-8. 

When these two sides last met at Trent Bridge in 2007, England had Chris Tremlett batting at number eight, with Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson following him and it isn’t unreasonable to assume that had that been the case today England wouldn’t have made 150. Times, however, have changed. With Tim Bresnan replacing the injured Tremlett England had a number nine with a test hundred to his name and a number ten with an average of around twenty-fine and a highest first class score of 183. Stuart Broad must be the first lower order batsmen in test history to make an unbeaten seventy in one test and find himself moved down the order in the next. 

Broad’s recent test record with the bat bears some scrutiny. Since the Oval test last year, where he began to recover some form, he has played nine test innings. He’s been out for nought three times (twice first ball), for three once and six once. However, if he gets into double figures his lowest score is forty-eight and, in spite of those failures, he’s averaging 44.25. Here he, in tandem with Graeme Swann, decided that attack was the best form of defence and his buccaneering sixty-four carried England to the relative respectability of 221. It seems odd to think that it is only just over a week since many people, including me, didn’t think that he should be in the side at all. 

England came out to bowl with a spring in their step that had seemed unlikely not long before and when Anderson removed Mukund with the first ball of the innings the momentum seemed to have shifted their way. They had reckoned without Dravid and Laxman, however, who survived with some good fortune and a lot of skill to the close. Tomorrow promises to be a fascinating day.

Triumph! - Day Five at Lord's

I forgot to mention it yesterday, but there was a point during the Broad/Prior partnership that the woman next to me in the pavilion (something that, in itself, would have had the members muttering into their gin and tonics not so long ago) described the day’s play as ‘going up and down like a whore’s drawers’.  But I digress.

There was a time, not so long ago, when this game would have petered out to a draw, especially given that this was a decent fifth day pitch and India’s batting line-up. However, England are made of sterner stuff than was once the case and they dripped away, not allowing missed chances or poor umpiring decisions to shake them from their task, and they duly completed a deserved victory with time to spare.

Lord’s was packed, queues having snaked around the ground since the small hours of the morning, and those who had taken advantage of the ticket prices were richly rewarded. Only those who came in hope of a hundredth hundred from Tendulkar would have left feeling remotely short changed.

Dravid and Laxman started solidly against a seam attack that carried on where it had left off the night before, before Dravid, uncharacteristically, hung his bat out at a delivery from Anderson and edged through to Prior. Laxman was joined by Gambhir, still in pain from his elbow injury but able to contribute to the cause.

These two added thirty-seven, Laxman going past his fifty before uncharacteristically dragging a long hop to Ian Bell at midwicket. Gambhir went not long after, leg before to the persevering Graeme Swann, and England scented victory.

Tendulkar and Raina dug in, adding a somewhat tortuous thirty in sixteen overs. Tendulkar, who was clearly still struggling following his virus, played a bizarre innings, allowing the England bowlers to dictate to him and at one point going scoreless for forty deliveries. He had a fair amount of luck as well, being palpably leg before (oh for the DRS) and then dropped by Strauss, who was having a thin time of it at slip. The drop turned out not to be costly, however, as Anderson snared him, plumb in front, two balls later.

It was left to Suresh Raina, who hadn’t scored in the first innings, to hold the fort, and he performed admirably, albeit also with a certain amount of good fortune and with a not out that had one pining for the DRS, but at the other end Dhoni departed to a waft outside off stump and Harbhajan showed as little stomach for the fight as he had in the first innings. The end came quickly, Kumar failing to provide the same entertainment that he had in the first innings, Raina was caught behind and Ishant was plumb, giving England victory by the whopping margin of 196 runs.

India had some ill fortune, certainly, but they would be unwise to dwell on it for too long, for it doesn’t alter the fact that their batting was limp in each innings (with the honourable exceptions of Dravid in the first innings and Raina in the second) and had England not been uncharacteristically butter fingered and the umpires slightly more eagle-eyed it could have been a wider margin. Certainly nothing could be done about Tendulkar’s illness, although given his record at Lord’s it might not have made much difference, and Gambhir was unfortunate to be struck by Prior’s slog sweep, but Zaheer’s failure to last the course wasn’t, in truth, a great surprise given his physical condition. India looked underprepared, unfit and indolent for much of the game. Only while Ishant was bowling his inspired spell on Sunday morning did the fielding raise itself from its torpor and that didn’t last, with the aggressive running of Prior and Broad rendering it shambolic. They will have to raise their game considerably at Trent Bridge, but England will also be looking to improve. Bring it on.

The Joy of Test Cricket - Day Four at Lord's

I’ve been watching test cricket at Lord’s for the best part of thirty years. In that time there have been plenty of ‘I was there’ moments, from Sunil Gavaskar’s hundred in the Bicentenary Test to Trott and Broad’s partnership against Pakistan last year via Graham Gooch’s triple century. I’ve even seen Mark Butcher and Anthony McGrath share seven wickets in a test innings. Today’s play, though, was up there with the best that I’ve seen. There was some superb bowling, a rousing fight back and the opportunity to watch two of the greatest batsmen of the last ten years dogging it out against some superb seam bowling. It was marvellous.

Before play, the talk had been of when England would declare and what sort of target they would leave. By the end of the England innings this was still a matter for speculation, but the route that they had taken was somewhat circuitous and made for some enthralling cricket.

England started the morning brightly, Strauss looking in good touch as he clipped a couple of boundaries to settle the nerves. Cook finally got off the mark and looked unperturbed by his long scoreless spell before Kumar produced a beauty to have him caught behind, bringing in Jonathan Trott against an attack that was functioning markedly better than it had in the first innings. Ishant’s first spell was a marked step up from his travails on the first couple of days, bowling at a decent pace to a much tighter off stump line and causing some problems without managing to make the breakthrough.

England moved fairly serenely to 54-1 as Lord’s dozed gently in the sunshine. Harbhajan looked ineffective from the Nursery End, although the slope didn’t help his spin, and Kumar, the wicked delivery to Cook aside, looked less effective than he had in the first innings. All this was about to change, however.

At the end of Kumar’s spell Dhoni, juggling his rather thin bowling resources, switched Harbhajan to the more helpful Pavilion End and brought Ishant, after only a short rest, back at the Nursery End, a move that was to reap considerable rewards. First, Harbhajan trapeed Strauss leg before, a decision that the England captain looked unhappy with but which was later vindicated by Hawkeye. Then Ishant produced a spell that will last long in the memories of those who saw it. Pietersen was dismissed by a beauty, an effort ball that bounced appreciably more than its predecessors and took the glove as Pietersen took evasive action. Bell then followed, edging behind as Ishant made Geoffrey Boycott purr with his use of the corridor of uncertainty. When Trott was bowled playing uncharacteristically loosely at a ball that jagged back improbably up the hill England were 62-5 and India were scenting a chance of victory.

England collapses have been a feature of the last three Lord’s tests. Against Pakistan last year they were 102-7 before the extraordinary Trott and Broad partnership and against Sri Lanka they were 22-3 before recovering to make well over 400, so they did not panic. Morgan and Prior saw them through to lunch, by which time Ishant had 3-15 from thirteen overs.

After lunch, Dhoni gave Ishant a rest and brought on Kumar from the Nursery End, a move which was understandable given Ishant’s exertions in the morning but which gave the England batsmen some respite. Morgan and Prior started to rebuild, but the return of Ishant saw Morgan spoon the ball to midwicket where Gambhir took a fine catch low to the ground.  At 107-6 India were right back in the game.

Stuart Broad’s first scoring shot was an extremely tight single to mid-on, and this set the tone for what was to come. Prior and Broad ran like demons, exploiting unathletic Indian fielding, that verged on the shambolic. As the partnership built, both started to open out, Prior indulging in some characteristic offside shoots and Broad thumping the ball down the ground off the front foot and pulling with relish.

Both had moments of good fortune, Prior twice lobbing the ball into open spaces and Broad edging a huge drive between Dhoni and Dravid, neither of whom moved. Then they really put their foot down, Prior moving into the nineties with a sweetly timed six into the Mound Stand and Broad playing a shot a ball. India’s plight was rather summed up when Prior was on 99: Dhoni brought the field up to deny Broad a single, whereupon he took ten from the first three balls of the over and then took a single anyway, allowing Prior to complete his hundred. The declaration followed immediately, a state of affairs that would have been impossible to imagine at lunch.

Gambhir had taken a shuddering blow to the elbow fielding at short leg, so Dravid opened with Mukund. Mukund got off to a flying start, taking boundaries in the first two overs, but England soon got the radar right and the Indian batsmen were given a torrid time. Mukund departed, playing on to Broad for the second time in the match, but Dravid and Laxman showed their class, first by surviving as the ball whistled past the edges of their bats and then starting to thrive as the day drew to a close. An Indian win tomorrow looks close to impossible, but if these two can bat for a long time in the morning then a draw could yet be theirs.

The Broad Wall of India - Day Three at Lord's

It was meant to be all about Sachin, but in the end it was Rahul Dravid who found his name on the honours board with a typically gutsy innings. Although he benefited from Graeme Swann spilling an awkward but very catchable chance at second slip, no-one could have begrudged him his hundred on a day when the much vaunted Indian batting line-up struggled against a disciplined and, occasionally, inspired England attack.

For England, all eyes were on Stuart Broad. Many people, including me, would have picked Tim Bresnan over him for this match and his first ball duck on Friday hardly inspired confidence, but with the ball he was back to his best, pitching it up and swinging it, rather as he did at the Oval a couple of years ago. Gambhir had no answer to a big in swinger and Mukund dragged on a rare wide ball to bring Tendulkar to the crease.

There were flickers of genius, most notably a gorgeous back foot punch through the off side, but there were also some plays and misses as the great man settled down to his task and, in truth, it was no great surprise when he edged to slip to continue his dismal run of scores in tests at Lord’s.

It was a surprise, however, when England dropped two catches in an over. Strauss’s was one that he would catch 99 times out of 100, but today was not his day. Swann’s was harder, but he has caught superbly over the last couple of years and I suspect that both Stuart Broad and Rahul Dravid were surprised to see it grassed, although  their other emotions may have been rather different.

The drop of Laxman proved not to be too costly as he wafted Tremlett to Trott at deep backward square, and Raina’s stay was brief. Dhoni hung around, restraining his natural instincts to help Dravid to add fifty, but once he had departed the only resistance came from an entertaining cameo from Praveen Kumar that took India past the follow-on total. England had a few tricky overs to survive to the end of play, but did so without any great alarms and will resume tomorrow with all ten wickets standing.

The day, though, was all about Rahul Dravid’s maiden Lord’s century, fifteen years after his 95 on debut, and Stuart Broad’s dazzling return to form. Tomorrow promises to be another fabulous day – bring it on.

The Pietersen Show - Day Two at Lord's

Before today only two England batsmen, Wally Hammond and Len Hutton, had made more than two test double centuries, with seven and four respectively. Today the much maligned Kevin Pietersen added his name to that list with his third, and second in eight tests.

Watching Pietersen bat on Thursday one would have got good odds on his achieving such a remarkable landmark today, but he blossomed as the innings progressed, ending in flurry of boundaries, one of which was six that may have significantly reduced the life expectancy of a number of members who were in the vicinity when it landed. It’s true that he had a little luck: he was, correctly, reprieved by hot spot when MS Dhoni thought that he had snared his first test wicket, but before that he survived what was probably a clean catch by Rahul Dravid. It is ironic that the ICC has given way to the highly qualified ballistics experts at the BCCI on the use of Hawkeye but persist in using the cameras for low catches but it has been proven time and again not to be accurate.

Trott went reasonably early on having added just twelve to his overnight score, leg before to the persevering Kumar. Bell then batted nicely and England looked comfortable until he, rather surprisingly, edged Kumar to Dhoni. With Morgan falling to a superb ball later in the same over, although there was some doubt as to whether he had actually nicked it, there was a real risk that England might squander their good start, especially with Kumar swinging the ball extravagantly at times.

Anyone reaching that rather pessimistic conclusion, however, would have reckoned without Matt Prior. Over the last year or so his batting has been superb and here he looked in good order straightaway, taking the pressure off Pietersen and upping the tempo as the Indian bowlers understandably tired.  Then after tea they went bananas.

Between tea and the declaration, Kevin Pietersen faced 81 balls and scored 87 runs, with his last 50 coming from just 25 balls. At the other end, Matt Prior added 51 from 57 and, after Broad’s first baller had given Kumar a deserved five wicket haul, Swann joined in the fun with some lusty blows. The fact that he should have been given out leg before and would have been but for the hare-brained decision not to use ball tracking technology simply added to the fun.

Pietersen reached his double century in style, plundering sixteen from the first four balls of Raina’s over before Strauss, slightly surprisingly, declared. The Indians will have been glad to get off the field – they undoubtedly suffered a major setback when Zaheer was hurt but the rest of the bowling, with the honourable exception of Kumar, was pretty moderate, and the fielding became very ragged as England accelerated in the afternoon. Duncan Fletcher has work to do.

Enlgand would have hoped for a breakthrough in the overs that were left in the day but Mukund and Gambhir held firm. Another fascinating day’s cricket has set up an intriguing weekend.

Trotting Along - Day One at Lord's

First days of test matches are rarely conclusive, particularly when truncated by rain, but this was, nonetheless, a fascinating opening to what promises to be a fascinating series. Geoffrey Boycott is fond of telling us that teams can’t win test matches on the first day but that they can lose them (which makes fans of logic wonder what the other team are doing), but England will be happier with their day’s endeavours.

This was a good toss to win, under heavy cloud and with a little drizzle in the air, and MS Dhoni had no hesitation in putting England in. Zaheer must have been purring as he marked his run up and he proceeded to bowl beautifully, moving the ball at a decent pace and discomfiting all of the England batsmen.

Cook’s astonishing run had to come to an end at some point and he was palpably leg before to a beautiful delivery from Zaheer. Strauss, in the meantime, looked in better touch than he had against Sri Lanka, presumably buoyed by his hundred guesting for Somerset. He will not look on his dismissal with any great joy, however, for, on a day when only certain scoring opportunities should have been considered, Zaheer’s bouncer was too wide of off stump for the hook shot to be viable and he duly perished.

In Jonathan Trott, England had the perfect man for the situation. In similar conditions against Pakistan last year he alone had stood firm and he brought the same qualities to bear in this innings, defending resolutely, leaving judiciously and punishing the bad ball. At the other end, Kevin Pietersen looked rather less composed, at times seemingly at odds with both his body and his game, but he too was resolute in reining in his more swashbuckling instincts and will come back in what promise to be more favourable conditions in the morning.

They did have one significant slice of good fortune, however, when Zaheer pulled up with what looked like a hamstring injury. If he is unable to bowl again in the match then it will be a massive blow to India, for although Kumar bowled nicely, Ishant looked out of sorts and Harbhajan is the shadow of the bowler that he once was. A fascinating day’s play is in prospect.

Botham

Last night, BBC2 showed an hour long documentary on Ian Botham, presumably to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the seminal 1981 Ashes series. While it was great to see a free to air broadcaster acknowledging that cricket exists it was an opportunity wasted, failing to add anything of interest to the story of Sir Ian (as Nasser Hussain insists on calling him) and omitting much of the detail that would have added flesh to the rather over-familiar bones.

All of the usual material was here: his heroic innings against Hampshire in 1974, five wickets on test debut, the close relationship with Mike Brearley, the disastrous captaincy, Headingley, drugs etc. What was missing was any sort of insightful analysis, which was hardly surprising when the main interviewees, John Major, Elton John, Stephen Fry and Mick Jagger, seemed to be indulging in a private competition to reveal which one of them knows the least about cricket.

Take the issue of the captaincy. I would be the first to agree that Botham was a terrible captain, but it is also true that he was a pretty unlucky one. Had David Gower held an awkward catch at midwicket in the first test of the rain ruined 1980 series then England might well have achieved an unlikely series win over the West Indies, much as New Zealand had managed the preceding winter.  The tour of the Caribbean that followed was blighted by the Jackman Affair, which was skated over, and the death of Ken Barrington, which wasn’t mentioned at all. In amongst the discussion of the reception that Botham was given by the MCC members (or Lord’s members if you’re Sir Elton) on completing his pair (or double duck to Sir Elton) in 1981, no mention was made of his part in the shambles of the Saturday of the Centenary Test the year before. Context is all.

Things got worse when they came to 1981, for there was next to no acknowledgement that any other Englishmen, save for Bob Willis and Mike Brearley, were playing. Fair enough, it’s a Botham documentary, but not to mention Graham Dilley’s innings at Headingley at all was crass. Stephen Fry’s assertion that Brearley didn’t give Bob Willis the new ball in the second innings to make him angry was also risible: Brearley says quite clearly in ‘Phoenix from the Ashes’ that he gave Graham Dilley the new ball because he though that he would be confident after his innings. The really significant decision in that innings, to give Willis a go down the hill and for him not to worry about his no ball problem, was completely ignored.

The same was true of Edgbaston. The 5-1 that Botham took was startling, but it is even more remarkable when you consider that he was reluctant to bowl and had been brought on with the instruction of ‘keep it tight for Embers’. Again, there was no mention of this.

The final omission, though, was, in some ways, the most startling. In amongst the discussion of drugs and tabloid scandals there was no mention at all of Tim Hudson and his pernicious influence. The decline and fall of Ian Botham can be attributed to a whole range of factors - his back injury, the retirement of Mike Brearley, his reluctance to practice etc. – but Hudson would have to feature prominently in that list. One wonders at the reasons for his airbrushing from history.

The final segment was, however, heart warming. Ian Botham’s contribution to leukaemia has been extraordinary and to hear about the impact of the money that he has raised from some of those directly affected was probably the best bit of the programme. It’s just a shame that the bit about cricket was so poorly thought through and, ultimately, failed to do justice to a childhood hero.

Bring it on

In a little under twenty-four hours, weather permitting, the captains will toss and the eagerly anticipated England v India series will be underway. But what will happen?

England will look to start well and may well see Lord’s as their most likely victory of the summer. Lord’s has never been a happy hunting ground for India, a solitary test victory in 1986 and the 1983 World Cup final aside, and the evidence of their warm-up game is that they are a little undercooked. They played some decent, if unambitious, cricket in the Caribbean, but they will find conditions, not to mention the opposition, rather different in England and they would have benefited from more than one game to acclimatise, especially given how poorly they performed in it.

It is, of course, unwise to draw too man conclusions from tour matches - in 1993 Shane Warne was pasted all around New Road prior to bamboozling England in the tests – but there was little in India’s cricket at Taunton to keep the Andys awake at night. At Lord’s they will be bolstered by the return of Tendulkar, but his horrible record at Lord’s coupled with his lack of recent first class cricket may make the dream of completing his hundredth international hundred at the home of cricket unattainable, wonderful though it would be. If England perform as they can, and the weather behaves, then England could well leave North London with a 1-0 lead, and after that anything is possible.

There is no doubt that this is a fine Indian side – you don’t get to be number one in the world by accident, after all. However, the feeling lurks that they are a side just starting a downward slide. Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman have been written off before, of course, but they are all close to the end of their remarkable careers and a decline will have to set in at some point. England, in the meantime, are on the way up. The question is whether or not their upward trajectory will overtake Indian’s gentle downward curve this summer. Reading Gideon Haigh’s marvellous book about the recent Ashes series I was reminded of the 1958-9 England side that was touted as the strongest ever to leave these shores yet was hammered 4-0 in Australia. Speaking afterwards, Peter May blamed the defeat on the team looking better on paper than on the pitch – too many big names were finishing their careers. The thought persists that this may also be true of India in 2010-11.

All that said, however, it is hard not to see India’s quality shining through at some point. 2-1 to England.

So where were we?

It’s been a while. My blogging, which started with such a bang in the winter, has petered out somewhat of late. Perhaps it was a lack of enthusiasm for one day cricket, perhaps it was Ashes fatigue, perhaps it was sheer laziness. We shall never know.

During this hiatus there’s been some fascinating cricket. England’s extraordinary final afternoon at Cardiff was eventually enough to give them a thoroughly deserved series win against a Sri Lankan side struggling to come to terms with the loss of Murali, the constant political interference that was quite rightly criticised by the ever lucid Kumar Sangakkara and the rain that kept them off the field for long periods of the tests. In truth, however, the last was something of a mercy, for it kept the series scoreline respectable. When the sun shines and all is well they have a formidable batting line-up, but the bowling looked toothless and the fielding, in the tests at least, was execrable. On the first day at Lord’s Prasanna Jayawardene had to wait until after tea for a throw from the outfield that didn’t either have him scrabbling around in the dirt or extending his rather small frame as far as it would go. Without Murali, and with Ajantha Mendis having been exposed as the emperor’s new clothes, it could be a long few years for the Sri Lankans, in test cricket at least.

As for England, they did were comfortably the better side without consistently reaching the heights of Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The bowlers were superb in the latter stages at Cardiff, but were wayward at Lord’s and rather fizzled out on the final afternoon at the Rose Bowl. Chris Tremlett cemented his place in the side, James Anderson’s importance to the attack was shown at Lord’s when he was missing and Graeme Swann was his usual self, but both Steven Finn (who had some luck) and Stuart Broad (who didn’t) struggled for rhythm, length and line, both bowling too short. With Tim Bresnan fit, Finn is surplus to requirements for the first India test and Broad may find himself going the same way.

Andrew Strauss struggled horribly for form, his footwork sluggish and his stance to the left arm over bowlers looking too open, but Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott took up where they had left off in Sydney, and with Ian Bell in sparkling form, Eoin Morgan showing signs of fulfilling his promise, Kevin Pietersen finding his way back to his best and Matt Prior playing arguably the innings of the summer so far at Lord’s, the batting looked in good shape. Sterner challenges await, but it is a mark of how far England have come that there was no collective panic at 22-3 on the first day at Lord’s, rather a rebuilding exercise that then blossomed into a free scoring final session.

The one dayers also brought some hope for England in a format that they do not generally enjoy. They were made to chase leather in the second and third games when the conditions suited the visitors, but they were devastating in helpful conditions at the Oval and Trent Bridge and were good enough to prevail in the most evenly matched game at Old Trafford. There is still much work to do, but Alastair Cook was a revelation, especially to the media, with the bat and the bowling and fielding were generally pretty good. Jade Dernbach had his moments and will be better for the experience but still doesn’t entirely convince in an England short, while there are still concerns about the batting order, especially with Ian Bell at number six. Still, it was a promising start to the post-World Cup rebuilding exercise.

The India series awaits (and a preview will appear here in due course), but England enter it with a decent first half of the summer behind them. Bring it on.

Rain in Wales - Day One at Cardiff

Following a positively Saharan spring it was no surprise to dyed in the wool cricket supporters that the first day of the international summer dawned rainy and cool. It even rained in Cambridge, a city where grassland and concrete has long been indistinguishable, so Cardiff had no chance.

There was a time when a morning of rain would have put paid to play for the day, but drainage systems and attitudes have changed since the 1980 Centenary Test and the constant fretting of Dickie Bird, so although play didn’t start until mid-afternoon there was still time for forty-eight overs and for the game to start to take shape.

In truth, though, foreshortened days are seldom entirely satisfactory, and today was no exception, the game being finely poised when stumps were drawn. Both sides played some good cricket, England bowling pretty consistently and beating the bat without getting the nicks that they were looking for, while the Sri Lankans batted with intelligence and application to overcome the conditions and make a solid start. Tharanga Paranavitana in particular showed good judgment in leaving the ball alone while Tillakaratne Dilshan successfully reined in his more aggressive instincts before falling to an ill-judged cut. His observation at the end of the day that he had batted within himself but would still go 100% at anything that was there for him brought to mind the words of an erstwhile batting partner of mine who observed that that was fine, it was just the judgment of what was there that was concerning him, but he showed admirable restraint.

Kumar Sangakkara’s indifferent record in England was maintained with the lightest feather through to Prior. His head shaking lead to the dismissal being described as controversial, but the evidence supported the decision of the third umpire and was reward for a fine spell from Anderson. Paranavitana and Mahela Jayawardene survived fairly comfortably to stumps, so the first session on Friday will be crucial. Sri Lanka’s batting lacks depth with Prasanna Jayawardene, fine keeper though he is, probably too high at six and Samaraweera, for all of his career average of over fifty, averages just 4.25 in England. If England can knock over a couple of wickets in the first hour then they will be in the box seat, but if Sri Lanka can survive until lunch with only one wicket down they will feel that they are in the box seat. Bring it on.

Bring it on!

Ah, the English summer. There are few times that John Major’s idealised vision of the English village, featuring warm beer and people cycling to church bears any resemblance to reality, but on the eve of the first test of summer it is hard not to be misty eyed at the thought of the resumption of test cricket. Either that or the pollen count is rather high.  

England’s startling success in the Ashes seems a long time ago now, the preserve of DVD box sets and faithfully clutched copies of Wisden, but it is less than five months since the sprinkler dance was performed in Sydney. Such is the whirligig of modern international cricket that much one day water has passed beneath the bridge since then, but the fact remains that this is a fine side who will take some beating. The Andrews Strauss and Flower have fostered an enviable atmosphere within the camp that will have survived the travails of the latter part of the winter and the fast bowling resources, in particular, are enviable. Stuart Law, the new Sri Lankan coach, was quoted this week as saying that he considered England to be the best test side in the world and, while it may be a little premature to make that statement, it would be foolish to laugh the idea out of court. England’s improvement since the debacle of 51 all out in Jamaica has been startling, but this summer will be a test of where they truly stand in test cricket’s pecking order.

One thing that can be guaranteed is that they won’t be underestimating Sri Lanka. By keeping faith with members of the Ashes squad they have, in spite of the line of questioning adopted by the increasingly deranged Gary Richardson on Radio 5, shown admirable continuity. As Geoff Miller pointed out, it’s meant to be difficult to get into an international side. Eoin Morgan’s knock at Derby will have soothed the nerves as well: one suspects that he was the selectors’ preferred option for number six, but had he failed and Ravi Bopara scored well, as he has done for Essex in recent weeks, then it would have been a difficult decision. The injury to Tim Bresnan has also smoothed the way for the return of Stuart Broad with, presumably, Steven Finn missing out.

Sri Lanka have a less settled feel to them. Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene are all world class performers at the top of the order but their newly Murali-less bowling, for all of their second innings heroics against the Lions, looks pretty toothless and the premature departure of Nuwan Pradeep hasn’t helped their cause. It remains to be seen what the fall out of the post-World Cup shenanigans will be since the top players immediately hightailed it to the IPL, but they are going to have to pull together and work hard if they are going to enjoy their summer. The freakishly dry weather may create conditions that suit them better than those endured by Pakistan last year, but it is still hard to see them bowling England out twice.

So, having correctly predicted the outcome of the Ashes series and the World Cup it’s time for me to make myself a hostage to fortune once again. England to win 2-0.

Fenner's Fantasia

What little talk there was in the build up to the game between Cambridge MCCU and Surrey was, not unreasonably, about the return to action of Kevin Pietersen, but the MCCU have played some decent cricket this season and the decision of the Surrey coaching staff to field a virtual second eleven to support him looked flawed from day one.

At this point I should express an interest, since I’ve been going to Fenner’s on a regular basis for over twenty years, in which time I’ve seen Mike Atherton, John Crawley, Steve James and Ed Smith shine for the light blues and plenty of highly talented opposition players make hay against a generally friendly bowling attack. As a consequence, the two hours that I watched last night and the regular updates on cricinfo that I’ve been following for three days have, I suspect, more resonance for me than for many cricket fans, but this was a fabulous performance by the MCCU.

After reducing Surrey to 234-9 on the first day, the usual trend would have been for the MCCU to fold for around 200, with a bravura performance from the county to following the second innings. This, however, didn’t happen. First of all Ansari (who had previously bowled superbly for his 5-33) and Ackland put on a hundred for the first wicket in quick time, Craig Park steadied the middle order and then Paul Best, recently captain of England under 19s and with an appearance for Warwickshire under his belt this season, played the innings of his life. His 150 from just 181 balls featured some audacious strokeplay and a remarkable 129 run partnership for the ninth wicket with the composed Josh Poysden. In all, the MCCU’s last four wickets added 243. Heady times.

The start of the Surrey innings was remarkable. Gary Wilson survived a confident appeal for caught behind first ball and was dismissed two balls later, and Matthew Spriegel, having confidently dispatched his first ball for four, fell to a high looking LBW decision to the last ball of the first over. Whatever Kevin Pietersen had in mind for his comeback, I suspect that coming in at 4-2 didn’t feature very highly.

Pietersen looked in good touch, helped by some rather sloppy feeling which required me to climb over a bench to retrieve the ball, but this morning the impressive Rob Woolley, the MCCU captain, brought his innings to a close and the rest slipped away, leaving the MCCU just four to win which they duly achieved from the third ball of the innings.

Yes, I know that this was basically Surrey 2^nd XI, but the fact is that they were spanked by a good looking MCCU side, who will rightly be celebrating tonight. It will be interesting to see what kind of side Surrey pick next time they play Cambridge.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/county-cricket-2011/engine/current/match/492084.html

A Tale of Three Captains

The decision of England’s selectors to split the captaincy three ways has met with mixed responses. To some it is a bizarre dilution of responsibility, while to others it is a pragmatic solution to the current circumstances.

In a perfect world, one suspects, any international side would look to have one captain for all forms of the game, although Andrew Strauss has spoken recently of the strain of captaining England in both tests and ODIs. England, however, are not in that perfect world at the moment and, given the position that we are in the international cycle, now seems the perfect opportunity to experiment.

England’s test side are currently in good shape, moving up the rankings and fresh from a hammering of Australia. Andrew Strauss’ leadership and his relationship with Andy Flower are central to that success and he can reasonably be expected to carry on until the 2013 Ashes before handing over the resins. However, he doesn’t want to play ODIs anymore and has never featured in England’s Twenty20 plans, so clearly if he is to remain as test captain then the captaincy would have to be split since it would be daft to change the test captain simply in order to provide consistency with the ODI and Twenty20 sides.

It would seem that Geoff Miller et al are keen to use the ODI side as a proving ground to look at promising young players and to provide valuable international experience. Such a side requires an experienced international cricketer to lead it and Alastair Cook, long identified as Strauss’ successor at the helm of the test side, seems a reasonable choice. There has been plenty of comment surrounding Cook’s suitability as an ODI player, but his limited overs form in county cricket has been good over the last couple of years and we should also bear in mind that opener was one of the positions that England most struggled with at the World Cup. He provides a natural replacement for Strauss at the top of the order, albeit probably more at home in English conditions than those that might be found in the sub-continent.

Cook, however, doesn’t play any part in England’s Twenty20 plans and so a third captain is required. For all of Paul Collingwood’s rather surprising protestations, the time is right to look forward and, again, Stuart Broad seems a reasonably logical choice. He is guaranteed his place in the side and has an opportunity to grow into the role as England look to develop a new generation of international cricketers. It will be interesting to see how he fares, but he is respected by his team mates and seems to have plenty of innovative ideas. It may also serve to make him grow up a bit, although that remains to be seen.

The decision, therefore, is not a bizarre one by any means, rather it is a sensible solution to the current international environment, while also including an element of succession planning. Rather than carping we should be wishing Alastair Cook and Stuart Broad well.

The Summer Ahead

An exciting summer of cricket beckons for England with the visits of Sri Lanka and India to these shores. The Ashes triumph seems a long time ago, its memory tarnished by the one day series and World Cup performances that followed, but England are now a formidable proposition in test cricket and will be looking to build on their spectacular successes in the winter.

They have the benefit of a settled side and an established coaching team. With most of the side now back on county duty after a well earned rest we can start to turn our attention to Cardiff on 26 May. It seems likely that the selectors have only a handful of decisions to make: the top three are settled, Matt Prior will keep wicket and bat at number seven and Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann seem assured of their places, fitness permitting. The middle order presents one or two challenges but, that apart, the only decision seems to be the identity of the third seamer.

An obvious gap has been created in the middle order with the retirement of Paul Collingwood, but Kevin Pietersen’s hernia and Ian Bell’s development will also pose questions, if only about the order. Pietersen may well benefit from a move to number five, the position from which he made such a stellar start to his test career, with Bell’s new found maturity being given its head at number four.

The gap, then, exists at number six, and the selectors have a range of options. Last summer they went for Eoin Morgan but his performance in, admittedly, bowler friendly conditions was patchy and his decision to play in the IPL significantly restricts his opportunities to impress the selectors in the build up to the tests. Ravi Bopara, who turned down the IPL in order to concentrate on trying to get a test spot, started the season poorly but is starting to hit his stride and, of course, offers the bowling option that Collingwood also provided. Outside these two the selectors will also be looking seriously at James Hildreth, who has also endured a pretty mediocre start to the season but performed well as captain of the Lions in the winter and possibly James Taylor, another who enjoyed his winter in the Caribbean and who has started the season pretty well. What the selectors should definitely do is resist the temptation to include Varun Chopra. He has certainly been impressive in scoring two double hundreds but his career so far has been patchy and he will need to prove himself over a longer period if he is to be seriously considered for a test place. He is also an opening batsman: players such as Nick Knight and Ian Ward have suffered in the past from being picked out of position and it makes more sense in this instance to go for an established middle order batsman. If it were down to me I would go for Bopara, but the suspicion lurks that the selectors will want to have another look at Morgan.

The man in possession of the role of third seamer is Chris Tremlett and natural justice dictates that he should keep his place after his superb performances in Australia. He will be pushed hard by a whole host of quicks, though, for Tim Bresnan also bowled magnificently in Melbourne and Sydney, Steven Finn looks considerably better for having had a rest, Graeme Onions has returned from injury impressively for Durham, Chris Woakes is in fine form for Warwickshire and Jade Dernbach will have been encouraged by his call-up to England’s World Cup squad and will feel that he has a chance if he can put together a consistent run of form. It is an area of enviable depth for England at the moment and they will need it against the impressive batting line-ups that they will face this summer.