A look back at the ending to the test match between Australia and India at the MCG and a large photo gallery.
This post is a few days late – between the Christmas Panto and work I have been busy in the early part of this week. In it I look back at the final day of the Australia v India test match at the MCG.
A RASH SHOT AND A DRS CONTROVERSY
When India reached tea on day five only three wickets down in their second innings, and with Yashavsi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant having batted through the afternoon session without too many signs of difficulty a draw looked likely. Immediately on the resumption Pant was tempted into a rash shot against a short ball and was caught in the deep, the second time he had tossed his wicket away in the course of this match. This dismissal was not quite as appalling as his first innings one, but he should have taken care to play the ball down in to the ground – India were looking to bat through for a draw, so safety first should have been the guiding thoughts. That opened the door for Australia, and when Ravindra Jadeja and first innings centurion Nitish Kumar Reddy both fell cheaply the door was practically off its hinges. The moment that effectively sealed India’s doom came via the Decision Review System (DRS). Yashavsi Jaiswal, on 84 and playing beautifully was given not out in response to an appeal for a catch. The Australians sent it upstairs. The replay appeared to show a deflection from either bat or glove, but the snickometer did not pick up any sound. Nevertheless, knowing that it was effectively handing the match to Australia, the third umpire, faced with conflicting evidence decided to go with the visual clue rather than the lack of a noise and told the on-field umpire to reverse his decision and give it out. That left Washington Sundar and three tail enders with a long time still to bat, and they did not come close.
Over the five days some 373,000 spectators watched at the ground, a record for a test in Australia, beating one that had stood since the 1936-7 Ashes when the star attraction was a certain DG Bradman.
Pat Cummins, with 90 runs across the two Australian innings and six wickets across the two Indian ones, was awarded the Mullagh Medal for Player of the Match (Johnny Mullagh was part of the all-aboriginal party that toured England in 1868, and showed himself to be a fine all rounder on that tour).
Australia won by 184 runs in the end, and as well as Pant’s two batting errors, the second of which opened the way for India’s final collapse, India were poor in the field, at least four clear cut chances being dropped. Australia now lead the series 2-1, meaning that so long as they do not lose in Sydney they regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy, which has been in Indian hands for a decade. Full scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Most of these are from the back end of 2024, but I have included some from today…
The venue for the Pantomime.The first 2025 picture I have posted.
A look back at fay four at the MCG and a large picture gallery.
This post looks back at the events of day four of the test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
A DAY OF UPS AND DOWNS
At one point after a great spell of bowling from Jasprit Bumrah, in the course of which he became a member of a club of one – bowlers with 200+ test wickets at under 20 a piece (among those whose careers have ended only Syd Barnes with 189 scalps at 16.43 each even has over 150 at under 20) – Australia were 91-6, 196 runs ahead. By the end of the day they were 228-9, 333 runs to the good. That margin is significant – the biggest ever successful fourth innings chase at this ground was 332-7 by England in the 1928-9 Ashes, Herbert Sutcliffe chiselling out 135, his second Ashes settling innings in two and a half years, following his 161 at the Oval in 1926 which left England with an effectively unassailable lead going into the fourth innings. However, in giving themselves this many to defend but not as yet declaring (an overnight declaration is possible), Australia may well have deprived themselves of sufficient time to dismiss India in the fourth innings – and Australia are more in need of a win than India, who as holders of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy need only to draw the series to retain it. Bumrah’s burst notwithstanding it has to be classed as Australia’s day, but it has a dog-in-the-manger feel to it with Australia not in a position to take that attitude.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
Today there was a WNAG pizza making session at Pizza Express. This was my product in its finished state.
A look at the events of day three at the MCG and a mention of the miseries of Melbourne Stars. Also a huge photo gallery.
This post is largely devoted to the events of day three of the Australia v India test match at the MCG.
A BAD START
India had reached 164-5 at the end of day two, in reply to Australia’s first innings 474 (see here for more details). Pant and Jadeja had advanced that score to 191 when Pant fell to a truly awful dismissal, walking straight into very obvious trap set by Australia. That brought Nitish Kumar Reddy to the crease. The youngster is in his fourth test match and had made useful but not major batting contributions in all of the first three. With 84 still needed to avoid the follow-on things were looking grim for India, and when Jadeja departed at 221 it still looked bad for them…
THE GREAT REVIVAL
Washington Sundar now joined Reddy, and India enjoyed their best period of the match. The pair put on 127 together for the eighth wicket, in the process removing follow-on considerations from the equation. Sundar contributed exactly 50 of those, and Reddy was approaching a greater milestone. He was on 99 when Jasprit Bumrah was ninth out, but Siraj, a genuine tailender, rose to the occasion and held out for long enough for the landmark to be achieved. The weather also made its presence felt, eventually halting play a little early, with India 358-9, Reddy 105 not out. Australia lead by 116 with two days to play. Scott Boland, who knows this ground better than anyone else involved in the test match, reckons that Australia need to give themselves four sessions to get India out a second time. If they cannot do that India will go Sydney needing only a draw to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
MELBOURNE STARS MISERY
Readers of this blog may recall that the Melbourne Stars women finished WBBL10 holding the wooden spoon. The 14th edition of the men’s BBL is now well underway, and Melbourne Stars defeat at the hands of Sydney Thunder today means that they have started the tournament with five losses in a row, which even with the qualification rules being over generous almost certainly means that they will not feature beyond the league stage.
A look back at yesterday and today’s BBL games and a large photo gallery.
Yesterday Brisbane Heat took on Adelaide Strikers in the BBL, and today saw Melbourne Renegades face Perth Scorchers. This post looks back at both matches.
A LAST BALL THRILLER
The fortunes of war swayed hither and thither in this game, and there were periods when each side appeared to be heading for an easy win. It ended up being a day of triumph for Nathan McSweeney of the Brisbane Heat, recently dropped from the Australian test side after three matches in which he achieved basically nothing. Bashing the ball around in a T20, even one of high standard, is a rather different exercise to fronting up to Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball in his hand in a test match, and McSweeney made the most of being in a less intimidating setting. He scored 78 not out off 49 balls, backed by another former test player, Matt Renshaw, who scored 54 off 27 balls. Nevertheless, in spite of the heroics of these two, it took Brisbane Heat until the final possible ball to secure the win, and they were seven down. Strikers efforts had a touch of Rome and Avignon 700 years ago about them – Ollie Pope scored 34 and held a catch, while his namesake Lloyd took 2-17, – but even with two Popes on side simultaneously they were unable to win in the end. Scorecard here.
A GAME OF FOUR QUARTERS
After 10 overs Perth Scorchers, having lost the bat flip and been put in, were 48–4 and seemingly already beaten. They rallied to post 143-8, a total that still looked inadequate but at least wasn’t downright risible. Cooper Connolly scored 66 for the Scorchers, and Canadian international Matthew Spoors managed 29. Other than those two only extras with exactly 10 reached double figures. Tom Rogers was the pick of the bowlers, with 3-22 from his four overs.
Melbourne Renegades made a racing start to the chase, though they lost wickets along the way. Jacob Bethell and Laurie Evans seemed to have settled things with a 50 partnership, but Bethell fell to the fourth ball of the tenth over to make it 96-4, at which point drinks were taken. With a mere 48 needed from 10.2 overs Renegades should not have been in the slightest hint of trouble, but they played some brainless cricket in the second half of their innings. They were eight down and had only one over remaining when they finally sealed. Will Sutherland, a member of the ‘not even the best in the family’ club (outranked in his case by sister Annabel, whose many achievements include a test match double century against South Africa), saw the Renegades home to a not entirely well deserved win with 15 not out in the closing stages. Scorecard here.
A look at how England Women completed an emphatic victory over South Africa Women in the test match at Bloemfontein, meaning they had won every element of the tour, and a photo gallery.
England’s Women completed their tour of South Africa by winning a thumping victory in the test match, meaning that they have won every leg of the tour, having already won the T20I and ODI series. This post looks back at what happened in the closing stages of the test match.
KNIGHT HOLDS ENGLAND 2ND INNINGS TOGETHER
England had a 114 run lead on first innings, and they extended that to precisely 350 on a pitch starting to misbehave . There were two noteworthy performances, one on each side. Heather Knight was chiefly responsible for England getting as many as they did, fighting her way to 90. Nonkululeko Mlaba was the bowling star for the proteas, taking 6-79 to give her 10 wickets in the match.
A HORRENDOUS COLLAPSE
South Africa had an awkward mini-session to negotiate before the tea interval. A target of 351 already looked fairly mountainous to begin with, and when Laura Wolvaardt was trapped LBW for 4 to make it 8-1 it took on Everest proportions. Right on the stroke of tea Lauren Filer trapped the other opener Anneke Bosch LBW for 4 and it was 15-2 after 5.2 overs. At 22 Bell had Annerie Dercksen caught by Beaumont (a slightly controversial dismissal, as the umpires conferred before giving it, and the only doubt they could have had was whether Dercksen had actually made contact – Beaumont had certainly made the catch). Then came the period that ensured that the third day would be the last (I was at work when this happened, but listened to the commentary on catch up when I was back home). At 31 Sune Luus was bowled by a beauty from Bell, and then Nadine de Klerk suffered a horror run out immediately after (would have been a horror in any situation and any format, but in a test match with the innings in the process of going into freefall it was particularly atrocious). Two runs later Sophie Ecclestone, who had relieved Lauren Filer, pinned Chloe Tryon plumb in front. When Sinalo Jafta was trapped in front by a superb ball from Bell it was 44-7, and moments later Beaumont took a catch off Ecclestone to account for Kapp whose 21 represented the sum total of protea resistance in the fourth innings to that point. It was then 44-8, and it was known that Ayanda Hlubi was not going to bat due to being injured. Tumi Sekhukhune and Nonkululeko Mlaba added 20 to this dismal total, before Mlaba was run out, failing to get her bat grounded quick enough to beat Bell’s throw. It was appropriate that Bell finished the match – she had taken four cheap wickets in each innings (4-49 and 4-27) in addition to effecting that run out, and was named Player of the Match. The England bowling unit was excellent (Dean didn’t bowl well in the only innings in which she got to bowl, but that was the only blemish). Lauren Filer’s pace, Lauren Bell’s swing (and cut, a new development for her) with the added awkwardness created by her height, the craft and guile of Ecclestone and Dean and the reliable medium pace options provided by Nat Sciver-Brunt and Ryana McDonald-Gay meant that the injured Kate Cross was barely missed in the event. If you are wondering how England were able to accommodate six genuine front line bowling options in a test match line up the answer is simple: Sciver-Brunt is one of the best batters in the side, and Dean, Ecclestone and McDonald-Gay can all be considered all rounders (although she batted at number nine in this match I suspect that McDonald-Gay will be moving up the order before too long – she is probably better with the bat than either Dean or Ecclestone). A full scorecard is available here.
Detailed looks at the men’s match between Australia and India and the women’s match between South Africa and England that are currently in progress, a mention of the men’s match between New Zealand and England, a 35 second video and a photo gallery.
The New Zealand and England men’s teams are currently playing the third match of a series already won by England, while the Australian and Indian men’s teams are playing the third match of a five match series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the South Africa and England women’s teams are playing a one-off test match to end England’s tour there. This post looks at goings on in these matches, the second and third in a bit of detail as I have been able to follow them. As for the first, suffice to say that it looks like England are copping a hammering and that said result will be entirely justified.
THE GABBA: AUSTRALIA v THE WEATHER
The third match of the series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy in Brisbane has lost a lot of time to the weather with possibly more interruptions in the two days that remain. The weather has done rather more to stand in Australia’s way than India have managed. India won the toss and opted to field, a lure that has tempted several captains there in the past, though the results should influence modern era skippers against doing so: Hutton put Australia in in 1954-5 and they scored 601-8 declared and won by an innings and 160 runs, though England fought back to win the second, third and fourth matches of that series; Border put England in in 1986-7 and they scored 456, bowled Australia out twice and knocked off the runs needed in the fourth innings; and finally Hussain put Australia in in 2001-2, the hosts were 367-2 at the end of day one and won a thumping victory. Unless the rain persists Rohit Sharma will come away with the same result as those three did – Australia have scored 445, a total kept within some sort of bound only by Jasprit Bumrah who emerged with 6-79. In such batting time as the rain has allowed them in their own first innings India have limped to 48-4, meaning that Australia need 16 more wickets to win and are 397 ahead, given that we are going into day four and there is still rain about, if they do indeed bowl India out for 245 or less it will be mandatory to enforce the follow on.
THE GHOSTS OF DRS PAST AND FUTURE HAUNT CSA
This test match will almost be the last such game involving either sex not to feature the Decision Review System – both the England innings, and the South African response still in progress have featured moments where the absence of DRS for this match has been crucial, and England have been the beneficiaries of both. Tammy Beaumont was given not out in response to a concerted appeal for LBW on the second ball of the match, and South Africa would certainly have sent it upstairs had DRS been in place, and would very probably have seen it overturned. In the South African innings their skipper Laura Wolvaardt was on 65 and frankly looking impossible to dislodge when a ball from Ecclestone struck her pads and she was given LBW. Wolvaardt made it obvious that she was certain that she had nicked it into her pads, and with DRS in place she would have sent it upstairs and it would have been overturned. Maia Bouchier scored a century on her test debut, and Natalie Sciver-Brunt also contributed a ton, reached off just 96 balls, to England’s efforts. England fell away a bit late in their innings, but a score of 395-9 declared is not to be sniffed at. At 237-3 with Marizanne Kapp and Sune Luus going well South Africa looked to be heading for somewhere close to parity, but Kapp being bowled by Ryana McDonald-Gay opened an end for England, and wickets have been falling regularly since then. The latest go has been Chloe Tryon, clipping one from Lauren Bell straight into the hands of Tammy Beaumont. Luus had succumbed just previously to a fearsome burst from Lauren Filer, finally fencing one into the gloves of Amy Jones behind the stumps to go for 56. Number nine Tumi Sekhukhune has just got off the mark with a four, but at 275-7 South Africa are 120 adrift with only three first innings wickets standing. Things have moved on while I have been preparing this post for publication – Lauren Bell has bowled Jafta with a beauty and then with her next ball, assisted by the number 10 backing away so much that she was practically in a different post code from the ball, removed Nonkululeko Mlaba’s middle stump. Nat Sciver-Brunt has just terminated the innings by pinning Ayanda Hlubi LBW for 1 and South Africa are all out for 281, giving England a first innings lead of 114.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Before I produce my latest photo gallery I have a short video to share with you…
Sharing a large quantity of photographs taken in the last two days in and around King’s Lynn.
I did two walks during the daytime yesterday, visited my sister and nephew for supper in the evening. I have also done a very long walk this morning, taking full advantage of weather that was genuinely pleasant by December standards – it started to rain lightly near the end of the walk, but I got over two hours worth of dry weather before the rain came.
These excursions provided me with a very large photo gallery – once I had finished the editing process there were 150 pictures there. As well as pretty much all the regular bird sightings I managed to get pictures of a dunnock and a common sandpiper (the latter was near the mouth of the Nar this morning).
This afternoon has been unyieldingly grim, and this being December even at 4PM the such daylight as there was is already beginning to fade.
Enjoy a bumper gallery (and don’t forget to click to view pictures at larger size)…
Sunday morning pics…The dunnock. In size and build it is not dissimilar to a sparrow, but the colouring is very different.Sunday afternoon pictures…This new building……was inspired by this much older one opposite it.Sunday night pics.I got a picture of the train fully lit up at the third attempt.Todays pictures start here.The official start of King’s Lynn coming in from the southeast of the town.In olden times this was the southern edge of the town.A stretch of the Nar – this river has its source near the town of East Dereham, close to the centre of Norfolk.Two cormorants with wings outstretched simultaneously.Lapwings in triangular formation at the waters edge (the far side of the Great Ouse from me).The common sandpiper, which features in five images in total.The feature image.
An account of the match that confirmed Adelaide Strikers’ elimination from the WBBL and an explanation of why I am turning my back on twitter after ten years. Also a huge photo gallery.
The main subject of this post is today’s WBBL match, which featured Hobart Hurricanes and Adelaide Strikers. However, before I get onto that I have one other thing to do first…
A FINAL PARTING OF WAYS
After just over ten years of being on there I have finally made the decision to end my involvement with twitter. Today will be my last day on there, and I will deactivate my account today. This decision has been over a year in the making. The final provocation came yesterday morning when I saw that from November 15th (Friday) twitter posts will be used to train AI with staying on twitter being taken as automatic consent to do so. I may or may not have agreed for this happen with my own posts had it been broached in proper consultative fashion, with people being given the option to refuse, but the high handed decision to force this on all of us means that as a matter of principle I am dissenting in the only way left to me by Elon the Execrable: by leaving twitter. For those of my followers on here who are also interested in social media, I am on Mastodon, and will be posting there regularly: https://mas.to/@autisticphotographer
HOW THE STRIKERS LOST
Adelaide Strikers arrived in Hobart for what is officially their ‘derby’ fixture (Melbourne, the closest city on mainland Australia to Tasmania, has two teams, so that is their derby) with just one win in six matches. The Hobart Hurricanes were far better placed, having won three of their six games. Strikers had been thrashed after batting first in their previous match, so when they won the toss they opted to bowl in the hope of faring better chasing than they had setting.
Megan Schutt was her usual reliable self with the ball, but Orla Prendergast, given the new ball alongside her, had an absolute shocker of an evening. Strikers also dropped several catches, two off Lizelle Lee, fresh from a record breaking 150*, along the way. Lee cashed in on the reprieves, becoming the first ever to score back to back centuries in the WBBL. Her dismissal for 103 off 57 balls was something of a freak – her partner Nicola Carey essayed a fierce drive and the bowler, ambidextrous spinner Jemma Barsby, deflected the ball into the stumps with Lee out of her ground. Carey was now joined by Elyse Villani, and they maintained the tempo of the innings pretty well. With two overs left they had reached 174-2 and a score of 200 looked within the realms of possibility. Schutt put paid to that, conceding a mere five from the 19th over, meaning that in an otherwise very fast scoring innings she had 4-0-21-1. The only other wicket was the Lee run out, so with 12 coming from the final over to boost Hurricanes tally to 191-2 the other bowlers had taken 0-170 from 16 overs.
A target of 192 was daunting – had Strikers been successful it would have been their highest ever winning chase. While Smriti Mandhana was there, timing the ball with absolute precision and scoring at an incredible rate it looked a possibility – Strikers were ahead of the rate of their four over opening Power Play. It was the arrival of Amy and Lauren Smith and the easing of field restrictions after four overs that slowed Strikers progress. Mandhana completed a splendid 50 off 31 balls, but then immediately got out, caught by Chloe Tryon off Lauren Smith to make it 67-1 in the eighth over. Amy Smith had bowled a superbly tight seventh over, and Lauren Smith was continuing the good work in the eighth. Laura Wolvaardt joined Katie Mack. Mack never got going at any stage of her innings, and her dismissal for 14 off 20, caught by Carey off Amy Smith to make it 83-2 in the 11th over was not necessarily bad news for the Strikers. Tahlia McGrath, the Strikers captain, was in next, and she too struggled, managing just four before her eighth ball was caught by Callie Wilson off Molly Strano to make it 93-3 after 12.4 overs. With 99 needed off 44 balls big things needed to happen, and Bridget Patterson the new batter had some form behind her. However, Wolvaardt and Patterson dropped further and further behind the rate, even though the Hurricanes fielders started dropping catches during their stand. Eventually midway through the 19th over the asking rate became greater than six runs per ball. At this point, far too late, Wolvaardt finally really got going. It was into the 20th over that she completed her 50, a landmark greeted with a smattering of in my opinion undeserved applause. She finished the match with a flurry of meaningless boundaries – having reached 50 off 37 balls she ended on 63* from 40. The margin was still 28 runs, and in any case because of the position they were in coming into this match anything less than a win was useless for them. They now have two points from seven matches, and are guaranteed to end up with an overall losing record, which even with four teams out of eight progressing to the knockouts will ensure that they do not qualify. Hurricanes sit top of the table for the moment, though they are there only on net run rate, and the teams in second and third both have a game in hand on them.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
We start with some pictures from Monday afternoon.Then a few pictures from yesterday, either side of work.Finally we have pictures from this morning, a splendid day to be out walking.No cormorants on ‘Cormorant Platform’ today….…but there were some a little further upstream, near the path through Hardings Pits.However even they were topped by this Little Egret in the shallows (The Great Ouse was at very low tide – these rocks are not normally visible).My last picture before leaving the Great Ouse was these lapwings.
A look back at today’s WBBL10 double header and a large photo gallery.
There were two back to back Women’s Big Bash League games starting early this morning UK time. This post looks back at both.
THE MELBOURNE DERBY
Melbourne Renegades won this match by 15 runs – 146-6 for them, 131-9 for the Stars. The big story of the game was the performance of WBBL debutant Charis Bekker. The 20 year old leg spinner was only playing because of an injury to Sophie Molineux, but I suspect that her place is now secure. She recorded figures of 4-0-9-1, quite astonishingly economical in this tournament – and that wicket was the key one of Meg Lanning. Bekker was correctly named Player of the Match for this performance. Alice Capsey for the Renegades played the innings of the contest, a blistering 33 (15) that gave her side a much needed injection of pace. Naomi Stalenberg (26 not out off 17) and Nicole Faltum (29 off 23) helped to ensure that the momentum provided by Capsey wasn’t entirely dissipated. For the Stars the only batters who came close to doing the needful were Deepti Sharma (23 off 20) and Marizanne Kapp (16 off eight). Kapp was also the best of the Stars bowlers with 2-22 from her four overs. Scorecard here.
HEAT v STRIKERS
This was a real rarity – a WBBL game at The Gabba (Brisbane Heat are normally confined to Allan Border Field for home matches). Adelaide Strikers won the toss and put Brisbane Heat in to bat. Indian star Jemimah Rodrigues hit 61 off 40 balls, backed up by Grace Harris (33 off 22 balls), Jess Jonassen (32 off 21 balls) and Nadine de Klerk (23 not out off 10 balls at the death). With these key contributions Brisbane Heat tallied 175-6 from their 20 overs.
Strikers made a disastrous start to the chase, being 15-3 with all of their top three (Katie Mack, Smriti Mandhana and Laura Wolvaardt) out for single figure scores. Shikha Pandey, Charli Knott and Nicola Hancock had a wicket a piece. Tahlia McGrath and Bridget Patterson stopped the collapse, but scoring remained slow. McGrath suffered a credulity testing dismissal – medium pacer Nadine de Klerk bowled a wide, and Georgia Redmayne pulled off a spectacular stumping. That was 54-4 after 9.4 overs, so 122 needed off 10.2 overs – and cricinfo’s Win Predictor had Heat on 95%.
Madeline Penna joined Patterson, and the pair fared well, though not quite as well as they needed to. With five overs to go Strikers were up to 105-4, 71 short of victory, meaning that the fifth wicket stand was worth 51 in 5.2 overs. The pendulum swung one way and then another through overs 16, 17 and 18. By the end of the 18th Penna and Patterson were still together, and they needed 35 off the last two overs.
The 19th over, often crucial in chases of an magnitude, yielded 16 of those runs. The meant that Strikers needed 19 off the final over. As well as having plenty to defend Heat had one further advantage – the experienced Indian Shikha Pandey was available to bowl that over. With two balls to go Strikers needed 11 to pull off a spectacular heist. Pandey kept her nerve and bowled two excellent deliveries, from each of which a single accrued meaning that Heat were home by eight runs. For the record Patterson ended up with 61 not out off 47 balls, and Penna who was chiefly responsible for keeping the match alive until deep in the final over had 59 not out off just 30 balls. Rodrigues, whose 61 off 40 had helped Heat to what proved to be a winning total benefitted from her team’s success and was named Player of the Match.
This result leaves Strikers cut adrift at the foot of the table, with just two points from five games. Heat have played a game more and are one of five teams to have amassed six points, while Melbourne Stars and Hobart Hurricanes each have four points from five games. With there being only ten games in the group stage Strikers are in definite jeopardy. Scorecard here.
A look at the early stages of England’s ODI tour of the West Indies and a photo gallery.
An England men’s white ball squad is currently in the West Indies for a three match One Day International series. This series has been arranged because England owe West Indies a favour dating back to 2020, when it was West Indies who travelled to play in England under stringent covid restrictions, and have not been able to repay it until now. This post looks at what has happened so far.
THE ENGLAND SQUAD
England travelled with a necessarily experimental squad, the multi-format players being required for the upcoming tour of New Zealand the start of which overlaps with this one.
ENGLAND’S CHOSEN XI
England named four debutants in the XI – Jacob Bethell, a batter who bowls a bit of left arm spin, Dan Mousley, enough of an off spinner to be described as a batting all rounder, Jamie Overton, making an ODI debut at the age of 30 and down to bat at number eight an known to not be fit enough to bowl, and John Turner, a fast bowler and number 11 batter. The side as a whole was inexperienced, with Adil Rashid, a leg spinner officially listed to bat at number ten, having more career ODI runs than any of his team mates. However, no degree of inexperience could excuse the horror show of a batting performance that was about to unfold.
FAILURE TO ADAPT
West Indies won the toss and put England in to bat. For all that is named in honour of an all time batting great and one of the first players to truly master the art of limited overs batting, the Sir Viv Richards Stadium rarely provides pitches on which batting is straightforward. On that basis one might argue that a total of 204 in 45.2 of a possible 50 overs was not a terrible achievement. However, it was the manner in which the innings developed that was so very disappointing. Virtually every dismissal was self inflicted, and the mistakes leading to those dismissals were all of the same type – essaying cross batted shots on a pitch on which hitting the ball straight was a necessity. One or two such dismissals could possibly be allowed for, but the collective failure/ refusal to adapt to the nature of the pitch was inexcusable. Liam Livingstone and Sam Curran batted best in a poor display, but neither could get as far as 40.
The West Indies was delayed by rain, and then interrupted again by more rain, but there was not enough rain to save England. Evin Lewis played a superb innings which put the ‘efforts’ of the England batters into sharp perspective.
A large part of the problem (and something that the ECB are to blame for) is that the best English white ball players only now play 50 over cricket in an international setting – the English domestic One Day Cup because of when it takes place is basically a tournament for second team and youth cricketers. Thus they approach the game with a T20 type mindset and rapidly become impatient if they are not scoring at high speed. The second match of this series takes place today, starting at 1:30PM UK time.
aspiblog 