Tag: Bees

All Time XIs – South Africa Since Readmission

The third and final part of mini-series looking at South African cricket history. As usual I also have a fine photo gallery.

This is third part of a mini-series looking at South Africa’s cricket history (follow the links to part one and part two to complete the picture) looking at the period since they were readmitted to international cricket.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *Graeme Smith (left handed opening batter, captain). A superb playing record and a very good win percentage as captain, a role he first took on at a much younger age than most test captains.
  2. Herschelle Gibbs (right handed opening batter). To complement the decidedly functional left hander we have a rather more aesthetic right hander, but one who scored plenty of runs.
  3. Hashim Amla (right handed batter). The only South Africa ever to score a test triple century, just one of many magnificent innings he played over the years.
  4. AB de Villiers (right handed batter, occasional wicket keeper, occasional medium pacer). Best known for his deeds in limited overs cricket, Abraham Benjamin de Villiers was still good enough facing a red ball to average 50 with the bat at test level.
  5. Jacques Kallis (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). If one had to pick a single player as the greatest ever produced by South Africa most people would name this man.
  6. Brian McMillan (right handed batter, right arm medium fast bowler). One of the best players of the period immediately after South Africa were readmitted. He was already close to 30 when the opportunity to play test cricket arose, but still averaged 40 with the bat at that level and took some useful wickets along the way.
  7. +Mark Boucher (wicket keeper, right handed batter). One of the greatest keepers ever to play the game and a handy lower middle order batter.
  8. Keshav Maharaj (left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter). South Africa is not a country that many visiting spinners of recent times would have fond memories of, and his test record (158 wickets at 31.99 to date) has to be viewed through the lens of how difficult it is to bowl spin in that part of the world these days.
  9. Kagiso Rabada (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). At 28 years of age he has plenty of power to add to his achievements, and he has already achieved enough that he will rank among the greats of the game even if he does nothing more.
  10. Allan Donald (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). He had the opportunity to qualify for England through residence, playing county cricket for Warwickshire in the 1980s, but chose not to do so, believing that South Africa would be readmitted in time for him to play for them. They were, and although Donald was nearer 30 than 20 by the time the opportunity came he showed the world what followers of county cricket had already been well aware of – he was both seriously quick and seriously accurate.
  11. Dale Steyn (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). At his peak he was indisputably the best fast bowler in the world, and his record, as with Donald and Rabada, puts him among the finest ever.

This side has a powerful batting line up, three of the finest fast bowlers ever to play the game, a quality spinner, a great keeper, a great captain, and two of the six batters would be legitimate bowling options as well.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

The biggest miss by far was Shaun Pollock. I do not like not having any spin available, and Boucher at six and Pollock at seven would be something of gamble. I always select with long form cricket in mind, so I want the best keeper. But for this latter I could get Pollock in on a minor gamble by playing Quinton de Kock as keeper, have him bat at six (dropping McMillan), Pollock at seven, one place above his most frequent slot for SA, and then my four chosen bowlers.

Dean Elgar was a gritty and determined left handed opener, but with Smith inked in I wanted my second opener to be right handed, so he missed out. Gary Kirsten, another tough left handed opener can have a coaching gig – another job he has done well.

Had Daryll Cullinan been able to handle Australian leg spinners as well as he did other bowlers he would have given me more pause than he actually did. He averaged six runs less per knock at test level than de Villiers to whom I gave his regular number four slot.

Francois ‘Faf’ Du Plessis was a good middle order batter, but South Africa’s power in that department over the years keeps him out. Also in his last innings against England he repeatedly handled the ball – England complained about it, but wrongly IMO did not use the ultimate sanction of appealing against him – the umpire would have had to raise the finger.

Ashwell Prince had a respectable test record but again the strength of the middle order keeps him out.

I would have liked to be able to include Paul ‘frog in a blender’ Adams, but his record was unfortunately not as remarkable as his bowling action.

Two seriously fast bowlers who had to miss out were Mornantau ‘Nantie’ Hayward who was to inconsistent to challenge my actual choices and Anrich Nortje who does not yet have the weight of achievement to merit selection.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – South Africa 1971-91

A look at South African cricketers in that country’s period as a pariah nation. Also a bumper photo gallery.

In my previous post I looked at South Africa’s first incarnation as a test playing nation. Now I look at the period when the repugnant policies of the apartheid government finally caused South Africa to be banned from the international arena. Some of the players named in this XI did play test cricket, but in all cases they were prominent on the world stage at a time when playing for South Africa was not officially possible., and none played for any country other than South Africa.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Barry Richards (right handed opening batter). Rated by Donald Bradman as the best right handed opener he ever saw in action.
  2. Jimmy Cook (right handed opening batter). His three test appearances, after SA’s readmission, came too late for him to show his true skills at that level, but over 20,000 FC runs at 50 including 64 centuries indicate a player of class.
  3. Ken McEwan (right handed batter). Essex fans of a certain vintage will recognize the name of one of the most talented batters they ever had at their disposal.
  4. Eddie Barlow (right handed batter, right arm medium pacer). The man who singlehandedly breathed new life into a moribund Derbyshire in the 1970s. He was one of two possible captains for this XI, but I have decided he has to settle being vice captain.
  5. Clive Rice (right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). A very long career, including many years service for Nottinghamshire, yielded him 26,000 runs at almost 41 and 930 Fc wickets at 22.5. A wicket taking rate of less than two per match (482 FC appearances in total) militates against him being labelled as a genuine all rounder but as you will see this side is not short of bowling resources.
  6. +Lee Irvine (left handed batter, wicket keeper). Played SA’s last four tests before isolation, averaging 50 with the bat in that brief international career. He ended up just shy of 10,000 FC runs, at just over 40 a time, and held 240 catches and made seven stumpings as a keeper. He played for Essex at one time.
  7. *Mike Procter (right arm fast bowler, occasional off spinner, right handed batter, captain). In first class cricket, including a long spell at Gloucestershire, he averaged 36 with the bat and 19 with the ball, and his aggression would make him a good fit for number seven in a powerful line up.
  8. Stephen Jefferies (left arm fast medium bowler, left handed batter). Had an all ten in the course of his first class career, and once reduced an English one day cup final to near farce by ripping out the top four in the opposition line up in his opening burst, virtually settling the match before it was more than a few overs old. Good enough with the bat to have amassed 14 first class fifties and averaged 25 in that department.
  9. Garth Le Roux (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A ferocious proposition, even on the docile surfaces that Hove (where he played a lot of his county cricket) generally produces. Like Jefferies he was a reasonably useful lower order batter, averaging 25 in that department, which in his case means that his averages are the right way round – he took his wickets at under 22 a piece.
  10. Denys Hobson (leg spinner, right handed batter). Generally reckoned to be the best South African spinner of the period concerned, his 374 FC wickets came at 27.52 a piece. Hobson is the only member of this XI who never played county cricket, a detail that led to him missing out on World Series Cricket.
  11. Vince van der Bijl (right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). His first class career yielded 767 wickets at 16.54 a piece, including a season at Middlesex where he was massively popular.

The batting line up is powerful, and there is plenty of depth with Procter a genuine AR and Jefferies and Le Roux as noted both handy lower order batters. The bowling, with a front line attack of Van der Bijl, Le Roux, Jefferies, Procter and Hobson plus Rice as sixth bowler, and Eddie Barlow unlikely ever to get a look in is simply awesome. The spin department is unquestionably light, with Procter’s off spin incarnation the only remotely serious support for Hobson’s leggies, but this attack should be well capable of capturing 20 opposition wickets on any surface nevertheless.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Graeme Pollock played on through the 1970s, but having (correctly IMO) named him in the first squad I decided to keep him out of this one. Other than that I have little to add to the above.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – South Africa 1889-1970

An XI from South Africa’s first period as a test playing nation and a huge photo gallery.

This is the first of what will be three posts about South African cricket – I will also cover the period of isolation and their second incarnation as a test nation. I have previously done an all time SA post (click here, although a current version would show some changes).

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. Herby Taylor (right handed opening batter). The number of test match batters who could claim with any conviction to have mastered the great Syd Barnes totals one – this man, who in a series when Barnes took 49 wickets in four matches at less than 10 a piece before missing the fifth due to a dispute over terms and conditions scored 509 runs at 50.90.
  2. Trevor Goddard (left handed batter, left arm medium paced bowler). He was a regular opener, averaging 35 with the bat at test level and taking his test wickets (123 in 41 matches) at 26 a piece.
  3. Bruce Mitchell (right handed opening batter, occasional leg spinner). His bowling is not likely to be needed here as will be seen later. He 42 played matches over a 20 year span (split into two by WWII), scoring 3,471 runs at 48.88. He usually opened but I have put him one place lower in this XI to mix up the left and right handers.
  4. Graeme Pollock (left handed batter). He played enough test matches before isolation for his greatness to be confirmed, and because he never played county cricket he was barred from playing in Packer’s World Series Cricket, so his deeds post 1970 were largely confined to those performed in his native land, hence my decision to pick him in this XI rather than the next.
  5. *Dudley Nourse (right handed batter, captain). One of the legendary figures of South African cricket, averaging 53 at test level.
  6. Aubrey Faulkner (right handed batter, leg spinner). The most genuine of genuine all rounders, and as such one of the first names on the team sheet.
  7. +John Waite (wicket keeper, right handed batter). 141 dismissals in his 50 test appearances, and a good enough batter to average 30 at the highest level, with four centuries along the way, and that when he was often used as an opener, a tough ask for a keeper.
  8. Bert Vogler (leg spinner, right handed batter). 64 wickets at 22.73 in his 15 test appearances, and good enough with the bat to average 17 at test level with two half centuries.
  9. Hugh Tayfield (off spinner, right handed batter). One of the most economical of all test bowlers, once sending down 137 successive dot balls against England. He was also South Africa’s leading wicket taker of their first incarnation as a test nation with 170 scalps in 37 test matches at 25.91 a piece, and like Vogler he sometimes had his moments as a lower order batter.
  10. Peter Pollock (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). As the elder of two brothers he had to get his younger brother out if he wanted a bat on their backyard games as a child, and since that younger brother was Graeme Pollock this took a fair bit of doing. 116 wickets in 28 test matches at 24.18 confirms that he developed into a decidedly good bowler. He was also far from being a rabbit with the bat.
  11. Neil Adcock (right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A genuine number 11 with the bat, but 104 wickets at 21.10 each in 26 test matches confirms his greatness in his chosen department.

This side has great batting depth, with only Adcock absolutely incapable of assisting in that department and a well varied bowling attack. The seam department is a little light, with Goddard third in line in that department, but I would not anticipate this side struggling to take 20 opposition wickets.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I ruled out Barry Richards, reserving him for the 1970-91 side, as four test matches is an insufficient sample, and unlike RG Pollock he was seen all around the world after the enforced ending of his international career. That meant that other than my choices there were two serious candidates for the opening berths – Alan Melville and Eric Rowan. Melville, because of WWII, only got to play 11 test matches, though his record was outstanding in those matches. Rowan was nearly as awkward a customer for his team mates and the SA cricketing authorities as he was for opposition bowlers.

Two great figures from the early days of SA cricket, Jimmy Sinclair (their first ever test centurion) and Arthur William ‘Dave’ Nourse missed out because their records lacked sufficient substance to back up their legendary status.

The only rival for Faulkner’s slot was Eddie Barlow, but his test record was that of a batter who bowled, not an all rounder, so I opted for Faulkner as offering a more complete package. Some would have opted for Denis Lindsay as keeper, but he only had one really good series, whereas Waite was a consistent performer over a long period of time.

I regarded all my four specialist bowlers as having ironclad cases for inclusion. Of the quicker bowlers Peter Heine was the unluckiest to miss out based on concrete achievements. We have no way of knowing how great Krom Hendricks might have been if given the chance, and ‘Buster’ Nupen was superb on matting pitches but ineffective on turf, a disparity that is reflected in his modest test record. Athol Rowan was possibly an even more talented off spinner than Hugh Tayfield, but a knee injury sustained during WWII ruined his career.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

RCB Win WPL

An account of yesterday’s WPL final between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore and a bumper photo gallery.

The final of the second edition of the Women’s Premier League took place yesterday afternoon UK time. The two teams to make it there were Delhi Capitals who had qualified by the direct route of topping the league stage, and Royal Challengers Bangalore who had had to go the long way round.

THE DELHI CAPITALS INNINGS

Aussie legend Meg Lanning and Indian star Shafali Verma opened the batting for Delhi, and they got away to a flier, scoring 61 from the six overs of Power Play without being separated. The seventh over stemmed the flow, and then the match took a dramatic turn in the eighth over – 64-0 becoming 64-3 in the space of four balls as Verma’s explosive innings ended caught in the deep, and then Jemimah Rodrigues and Alice Capsey both scored ducks. Ten runs later came a crucial moment as Shreyanka Patil pinned Lanning LBW, a decision that was sent upstairs in sheer desperation but confirmed as being out. The floodgates were well and truly open now for the RCB bowlers, and the scorecard soon read 87-7, at which point Radha Yadav and Arundhati Reddy offered a little resistance, ended by the run out of Yadav who had become only the third player of the innings to reach double figures. Patil completed the rout with the scalps in very quick succession of Reddy (the fourth and last double figure score of the innings) and wicket keeper Taniya Bhatia, to give her four wickets for the innings and put her at the top of the wicket takers list for the tournament. At high water mark Delhi Capitals had been 64-0, and they ended up all out for 113 – all ten wickets going for 49 runs. Other than the run out every wicket went to spin bowling – Molineux’s three that started the rout, Patil’s four and two for leg spinner Asha Sobhana.

THE RCB CHASE

RCB have had an IPL franchise since that competition started in 2008 and have never won the competition, and RCB women had not won only previous edition of this tournament. It was only the fact of RCB’s status as serial non-winners that could cause anyone to view of a chase of 114 as other than a formality, and in the end it was exactly that. Yes, victory was only achieved in the final over, but of greater significance than the exact time at which the winning run was scored was that RCB lost only two wickets, and were never really struggling with the run rate – the nearest they came to being so was when they need 29 from the last four overs, but the two batters together at that stage, Ellyse Perry, an Aussie legend to rival even Lanning, who only a few days earlier had shone with the other side of her game, becoming the first ever to take a six-wicket haul in a WPL game, and Richa Ghosh (India’s current first choice keeper, though she is rather more accomplished with the bat than with the gloves) stayed calm and took their side to a well merited victory. Sophie Molineux, whose triple wicket burst interrupted Delhi Capital’s momentum and changed the course of the match was named Player of the Match. Uttar Pradesh Warriorz and India off spinning all rounder Deepti Sharma was named Player of the Tournament. The Player of the Match award was unquestionably correct – statistically Molineux was outdone by Shreyanka Patil, but it was Molineux’s burst that derailed the Delhi Capitals when they appeared set for an enormous score. A full scorecard can be viewed here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a splendid photo gallery – the first bees of the year are out and about, and not only did I have another sighting of the Brimstone Butterfly, I also got another butterfly, a Comma…

Afghanistan Zindabad!

An account of today’s match between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup, and a large photo gallery.

Today’s match at the 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup was between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. The winners would keep alive their hopes of claiming a slot in the semi-finals. This post looks back at the match.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bowl. Their skipper, Hashmatullah Shahidi, expressed very positive reasons for doing so – no “don’t really know why we are bowling first” from him! They made one change from their previous outing, left arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi replacing left arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad in the line up. Sri Lanka brought Dimuth Karunaratne into their XI in place of Kusal Perera.

THE SRI LANKAN INNINGS

Afghanistan bowled well, especially Fazalhaq Farooqi, who recorded the outstanding figures of 4-34 from his 10 overs. Seam bowling all rounder Azmatullah Omarzai had 1-37 from seven overs of right arm medium-fast, Rashid Khan claimed a scalp in his 1o0th ODI appearance, a career landmark reached at the age of 25. From a Sri Lankan perspective it was a tale of jobs being half done – six batters scored at least 22, but no one managed more than 46. The result was a final total of 241 from 49.3 overs, modest, but not necessarily indefensible – both yesterday and the day before totals of 229 had proved well beyond the chasing sides.

THE AFGHANISTAN INNINGS

Rahmanullah Gurbaz was out for a duck, but Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah put on 73 for the second wicket, and then Ibrahim Zadran and Hashmatullah Shahidi added a further 58 for the third. At 131-3, with Zadran just out for 62, Sri Lanka still had hopes, but Azmatullah Omarzai soon extinguished those. The fourth wicket pair were still together, entirely unruffled, when the scores drew level. Azmatullah Omarzai was almost caught in the deep at that point, but the chance went down, and the batters took the winning single with 4.4 overs to spare. Azmatullah Omarzai had scored 73* (63) and Hashmatullah Shahidi 58* (74), and their unbroken stand was worth 111. Somewhat unfortunately for Omarzai, who had an outstanding match, the Player of the Match award went to Fazalhaq Farooqi for a great display of left arm pace bowling. This was Afghanistan’s third win of the tournament, and the third time they had beaten a former winner of the competition (Pakistan 1992, England 2019, Sri Lanka 1996). It keeps their hopes of a semi-final slot alive, and if they get that far it becomes a straight shoot out, with them needing two victories for the title. A win for them were it to happen (and I am not counting them out) would be a far more extraordinary story than Sri Lanka’s in 1996 was, and that result itself shocked a lot of pundits at the time. Every team has now played six matches, and the league table looks like this:

I published the table as it stood at the end of yesterday to shame England, who approached this tournament with arrogance and disrespect and are being punished for their hubris. I publish today’s version to give credit to Afghanistan who have contributed magnificently to the event.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (remember to view any image at a larger size click on it)…

The Mallard in its new home on my living room mantelpiece.
The Caledonian Railway tank engine in its new hom atop the Cabinet of Curiosities.
The first of two street names which related to cricketers. Each street could be associated with at least two professional cricketers. Can you identify all four (answers in next blog post).
The other street sign.
Flowering Ivy is massively important in the autumn. Four pics.
Possibly the last bee of the year (two pics)

A World Cup Upset In The Making?

A look at developments in a match that is now likely to end in the first upset of this world cup, and it will be a colossal upset at that – defending champions England are under the cosh against Afghanistan who have only won one previous world cup match. Also features a photo gallery.

The 2023 ODI Cricket World Cup hasn’t yet seen an upset – a minor nation taking down a major one. Today’s match features defending champions England and Afghanistan, who come into it with one win from 17 previous world cup matches. This post looks at developments in that game so far.

A TALE OF TWO BOWLING STYLES

Jos Buttler won the toss and put Afghanistan into bat. The first ominous sign was his revelation after the toss that he didn’t know why he had chosen to bowl first. Afghanistan got away to a rapid start as England’s seamers indicated that they had little idea of what they should be doing on that surface. By the end of the 10th over Afghanistan were 79-0. Afghanistan slowed thereafter, and lost three quick wickets when Ibrahim Zadran fell for 28 (out of an opening stand of 114, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz playing brilliantly and England contributing quite a few extras). Rahmat Shah was out cheaply, and then Hashmatullah Shahidi caused the downfall of Gurbaz for a splendid 80 when he took on a single that was never there and Gurbaz, even with a desperate dive at the end, was a good two yards short of his ground. Hashmatullah also scored very slowly in his own innings. Fortunately Ikram Alikhil played a fine innings, and Mujeeb Ur Rahman played an aggressive cameo late on. Afghanistan were all out to the second last scheduled ball of their innings for 284, a new highest ever world cup innings for them. The seamers bowled 25.5 overs and had combined figures of 3-189, while the spinners sent down 24 overs (Livingstone, who had never previously bowled a full allocation in an ODI innings, 10-0-33-1, Rashid 10-1-42-3 and Root, called on in desperation because the seamers, particularly Curran and Woakes, were so dire, 4-0-19-1) for a combined 5-94, while there were two run outs, one of them the tenth wicket. It was ominous that England’s spinners had done so well, since two of them, Livingstone and Root, are primarily batters, while Afghanistan had the talents of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and the veteran Mohammad Nabi available to them.

AFGHANISTAN IN CONTROL WITH THE BALL

Bairstow fell early to Fazalhaq Farooqi, and Root was also out cheaply, bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who shared the new ball. Dawid Malan’s dismissal for 32 was really odd – he played the ball straight into a fielder’s hand. Naveen ul Haq got through the defences of Buttler to make it 96-4, and 21 runs later came a farcical situation. Livingstone was hit on the pads by Rashid Khan, absolutely plumb in front, and duly given out. He sent it upstairs, knowing that unless it was overturned it was virtually game over for England. When he saw the replay on the big screen he started walking even before they got to using the ball tracking software, so blatantly stone dead was it. That made it 117-5. England have moved on to 128-5, but Sam Curran, the number seven, has barely been any less unimpressive with the bat than he was the ball (given his figures of 4-0-46-0 it would be hard to be more so).

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off, including what may be the last butterflies of 2023 (today, like yesterday, has been sunny but cooler than the early part of October):

A small amount of rain fell with the sun still shining yesterday evening, and the next five pictures show one result.

While I have been preparing this post for publication Sam Curran’s miserable participation in this match (4-0-46-0 and 10 off 23 balls) has come to an end. England are 145-6 in the 31st over, needing 140 runs off 118 balls.

India v Pakistan

A look at today’s fixture in the ODI Cricket World Cup – a small matter of India v Pakistan. Also a photo gallery – though the temperature is more October like today than it has been for the previous 12 days of the month the sun has been out, making walking pleasant.

Today’s match in the ODI Cricket World Cup is the biggest clash of the group stage – bitter rivals India and Pakistan are in opposition. These two sides rarely meet outside tournaments because of the strained relations between the two countries. This post looks at the match that is currently in progress.

PAKISTAN MAKE A GOOD START…

India won the toss and put Pakistan in to bat. Pakistan looked to be going very well for much of their innings. Both openers got going but then got out (Abdullah Shafique for 20, Imam-ul-Haq for 38). However Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan looked like setting Pakistan up for a very respectable total, pushing the score up to 155-2.

…THEN COLLAPSE

The Pakistan innings unravelled spectacularly from this point – Babar Azam was out for exactly 50, Saud Shakeel failed outright (these two falling in the space of four balls from Kuldeep Yadav, the left arm wrist spinner), then Rohit Sharma cashed in on this double strike by calling Jasprit Bumrah back into the attack at the other end. Bumrah clean bowled Rizwan for 49 and Pakistan were five down. Both the two new batters failed cheaply, one to Jadeja and one to Bumrah (Yadav had completed his 10 overs, with superb figures of 2-35), and Pakistan were suddenly 171-7. The eighth wicket pair cobbled together a stand of 16, at which point Score Predictor had Pakistan somehow mustering a final total of 237, which looked very optimistic indeed. It soon looked like a fantasy land prediction, as both batters were out with the score on 187, and with 9.5 overs to go Pakistan had numbers 10 and 11, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf batting together. They advanced the score by four runs before Rauf was pinned LBW. From 155-2 at high water mark Pakistan had surrendered their last eight wickets for just 36 runs. While the failure of the middle and lower order batters was shocking the real problems had actually happened earlier – three of the top four had topped 30, but none went on to play the sort of major innings around which a respectable total can be built. Rizwan took 69 balls to accrue his 49 runs, a rate of progress that can only be justified if you do actually bat all the way to the end of the innings AND you considerably increase your rate of scoring in the late part of the innings.

INDIA IN TOTAL CONTROL

Pakistan’s only hope after posting such a poor score themselves was to start fast with the ball, with early wickets being imperative. In the event it was India who got away to a flier, and their tempo has never slackened. Rohit Sharma followed his astute captaincy with a batting masterclass that had commentators speculating on him reaching a century before the end. That was not to be, as he was caught by Iftikhar Ahmed off Shaheen Shah Afridi for a superb 86, but as I type these words India are 161-3 after 23 overs, needing a mere 31 with 27 possible overs remaining.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Today’s photo gallery is not as large as some of mine, but I think it is good one…

While I have been preparing this for publication India have moved on to 168-3 after 26 overs – 24 needed off a possible 24 overs.

ODI World Cup Thursday and Friday

A look at recent developments in the ODI cricket world cup, and a very large photo gallery.

In this post I will look briefly at events yesterday, which all took place while I was at work and in today’s match between New Zealand and Bangladesh.

AUSTRALIA IN TROUBLE

Yesterday in the world cup Australia took on South Africa. I did not catch any of the match as Australia were so inept that it finished before I was home from work, with the proteas victorious by a thumping 124 runs. At the moment, with New Zealand and Bangladesh in action today every team has played two group matches, and Australia lie second from bottom having lost both of their matches and having a ghastly net run rate of -1.846. This effectively means that they need to win six of their last seven group matches to qualify, as their poor net run rate means that five wins and four losses will not be good enough for them to qualify. Four teams have won two out of two, South Africa, New Zealand, India and Pakistan and two others, England and Bangladesh have won one and lost one, while the other four, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Australia and Afghanistan have lost both their matches.

BANGLADESH v NEW ZEALAND

A West Norfolk Autism Group committee meeting meant that I missed the whole Bangladesh innings. They managed 246 from their 50 over, which would not normally be expected to be a winning total. However Bangladesh are faring quite well in the field – New Zealand are 101-2 in the 22nd over. Bangladesh used to be over reliant on spin, but they have finally got some decent pace bowlers – in this match they have three specialists in that department, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed, the last named being the quickest of the trio. Both the spinners in the XI, Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz are genuine all rounders.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

While I have been preparing this for publication New Zealand have advanced to 123-2 after 25 overs, meaning that they are precisely halfway to the target after precisely half of their overs.

All Time XIs – England Not The Best In Their Own Family

In this post I select an all time England XI who were not the best players in their own families. Some of my choices are undoubtedly controversial but I believe I can defend them all.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. EM Grace (Gloucestershire, England, right handed opening batter, lob bowler). In the early 1860s, before WG, seven years his junior, overtook him he was the acknowledged cricketing marvel of the age. His sole England appearance came in the first test on English soil in 1880, and even then, at the age of 39 and long past his best he was able to contribute to an opening stand of 91 with WG in the first innings. The test that led to the creation of The Ashes may well have gone the other way had he been in the team instead of AN ‘Monkey’ Hornby – WG would have undoubtedly captained the side better than did Hornby, whose tinkering with the batting order in the final innings contributed to England’s defeat, and EM, even at 41, would probably have been better value with the bat than Hornby, who was never comfortable against Spofforth. I have explained in previous posts how under arm could be relegalized without danger of a repeat of the Trevor Chappell incident – simply rule that a ball that rolls (or is rolled) along the deck has bounced an infinite number of times and call it ‘no ball’.
  2. Chris Broad (Gloucestershire, Nottinghamshire, England). His England career ended when he decamped on the last ever rebel tour of apartheid South Africa in 1989, but while nowhere near on a par with son Stuart he had a very respectable England career, including an away Ashes series in which he scored 487 runs at 69 including three successive centuries.
  3. Michael Vaughan (Yorkshire, England, right handed batter). Although at a casual glimpse his test record reads the best of the three members of his family to have played at that level (he is related to Johnny and Ernest Tyldesley of Lancashire and England many years ago), I have noted that Johnny Tyldesley’s record was better than it looked due to him playing the vast majority of his cricket before WWI, generally on wickets that favoured bowlers, while Ernest got surprisingly few England caps for so prolific a county scorer, so I have (with Neville Cardus doubtless backing me from beyond the grave) opted to rate Johnny the best of the three and therefore select Michael Vaughan and Ernest Tyldesley in this XI.
  4. Ernest Tyldesley (Lancashire, England, right handed batter). The only Lancastrian ever to score 100 FC hundreds. See my comments re Vaughan for the justification of his inclusion.
  5. KS Ranjitsinhji (Sussex, England, right handed batter). One of two members of the ruling family of Nawanagar to play for Sussex and England, and I have decided that the other, his nephew KS Duleepsinhji, outranks him and so included him in this XI.
  6. Richard Hutton (Yorkshire, England, right handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). Good enough to be selected for England as an all rounder, but unquestionably outranked by his father Leonard.
  7. *David Bairstow (Yorkshire, England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). The best wicket keeper in the Bairstow family, but outranked overall by his son due to the latter’s batting.
  8. Maurice Tremlett (Somerset, England, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). The most talented of his family, but was sadly messed up by well meaning coaches, meaning that he was outachieved by his grandson Chris.
  9. Tim Tremlett (Hampshire, right arm medium pace bowler, right handed batter). Never selected for England, but 450 FC wickets at 23.99 each shows that he was a good county bowler, and he also managed a first class hundred.
  10. *James Lillywhite junior (Sussex, England, left arm orthodox spinner, left handed lower order batter, captain). The fact that his uncle William Lillywhite, “The Nonpareil” was regarded as the greatest bowler of his era, a distinction never conferred on the nephew, enables to me to include England’s first ever captain in this XI. His two tests, the first two such games ever played, yielded him 8 wickets at 15.75. In first class cricket, where the sample size is much larger, he took 1,210 wickets at 15.23, including 96 five wicket innings hauls and 22 ten wicket match hauls. His best innings figures were 10-129. He also scored 5,530 runs at 14.30 with a best of 126*.
  11. Dean Headley (Kent, Middlesex, England, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). His grandfather George was one the game’s all time greats, which enables me to select him in this team (his father Ron also played test cricket). In 15 test matches he managed a very respectable 60 wickets at 27.85, while in all first class cricket he took 466 wickets at 28.52.

This team has a powerful top five, a genuine all rounder at six, a keeper who can bat, and four high quality front line bowlers. The spin bowling is a bit light, with only Lillywhite a front liner in that department. For all that none of these players were on my reckoning the best in their own families I would expect this combination to give a good account of itself.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

GF Grace might have had to slot I gave to Richard Hutton, but I preferred to accommodate an extra family. The Cowdrey and D’Oliveira families missed out because in each case the principal cricketer in that family was the only one worthy of inclusion (picking Brett D’Oliveira as an opening batter would also have given me a leg spin option, but in truth he is not good enough in either department). John Langridge was a contender for the right handed openers slot I gave to Chris Broad, being definitely outranked as a player by James Langridge, but still very fine. While there is reasonable evidence to support the view that Gubby Allen was actually the son of Plum Warner and not of Walter Allen I could not accommodate Plum in this XI, and while Gubby Allen’s extra pace would have been welcome he has to outrank his alleged father as a cricketer and was thus ineligible. A possible leg spin option was Archie Lenham of Sussex, currently definitely outranked by father Neil and possibly by grandfather Les, but more than likely to eclipse both before he is done. Claude Woolley (Northamptonshire) was undoubtedly outranked by brother Frank, but was IMO not good enough to warrant selection in this XI. Second choice keeper for this XI would be Leslie Compton (Middlesex), outranked in cricketing terms by brother Denis, and possibly by two of Denis’ grandsons, Nick and Ben. In football, Denis and Leslie both played for Arsenal, and it would be Denis in that sport who would rate as not the best in his own family.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I have a huge photo gallery to share with you…

A green bug on a green leaf.

Europe’s Ryder Cup Triumph

At about 4:15PM UK time yesterday (the match was taking place in Italy, an hour ahead) Tommy Fleetwood won the 16th hole to go two up with two to play in his match against Rickie Fowler. That meant that a minimum a half a point was guaranteed for Europe in that match, which meant that Europe could no longer finish on less than 14.5 points, which meant that whatever happened from that moment on the Ryder Cup would be returning to Europe. This post looks back at the victory (I have covered up to the early stages of the Saturday afternoon fourballs here).

THE CLOSING STAGES OF DAY TWO

The Saturday afternoon fourballs went better for the USA than any previous session, though that isn’t saying a great deal. In the end the day finished with the scores Europe 10.5 USA 5.5, which meant that to retain the cup the USA would have to achieve a record turnaround on the final day. Singles is traditionally the USA’s strongest suit, possibly because the team element is more remote there than in either fourballs or especially foursomes – the day can be viewed as 12 straight head to head contests, whereas team play obtrudes on fourballs and is inescapable in foursomes, when the players play alternate shots – if your partner puts a ball in the water you then have to play the shot from the drop zone, if they dump one into a bunker it is your sand skills that get tested, but even so they were looking straight up a very steep mountainside.

PHOTO GALLERY ONE

Here to break things up a bit are some pictures from yesterday…

DAY THREE – MOMENTUM

Both teams were seeking a fast start in the singles – the USA because they needed to wrench the momentum back from Europe and Europe because the easiest way to prevent a good lead from being overturned is to settle the match quickly, snuffing out any chance of a revival. At Brookline in 1999 when the USA were 6-10 behind at this stage they came out and won the first seven singles matches, completely turning things upside down, and in the end, albeit in bitterly controversial circumstances the USA won (there was some disgraceful USian behaviour on the 17th in the crucial match, when their guy holed a long putt across that green, and premature celebrations involving both spectators and USian players, which distracted Jose Maria Olazabal of Europe, who had a slightly shorter putt on the same line (and was an excellent putter) to halve the hole – he unsurprisingly missed, and the USA were uncatchable). Here, John Rahm and Scottie Scheffler fought out a halved match in which both played some outstanding golf, while Europe in the persons of Hovland and McIlroy dominated matches two and four, with only Patrick Cantlay in match three winning an early point for the USA. Europe were on 13, the USA 7, and although the USA were doing well in a number of the remaining matches it was as good as settled.

THE CLOSING STAGES

Matt Fitzpatrick lost match five on the closing hole, by which time Tyrrell Hatton had banked Europe’s 14th point, winning match six 3&2. The 7th, 8th and 9th matches all went USA’s way, hauling it back to 14-11, but by that point Europe had moved ahead in all three remaining matches, and in quick succession Fleetwood and MacIntyre had made themselves sure of at least half a point a piece, while Shane Lowry and Jordan Spieth were in a contest that would go to the wire. Fleetwood and MacIntyre both made sure of full points, and with the destiny of the cup long settled and the 18th in the Lowry/ Spieth match a carnival scene those two players shook hands on a halved match, making the final score Europe 16.5, USA 11.5, which also meant a single scores of 6-6 meaning Europe had won days 1 and 2 and tied the third.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Following the news of the act of vandalism against the Sycamore Gap tree near Hadrian’s Wall I am making an effort to photograph more trees.