Tag: Spiders

How the Six Nations was Won

A look back at the final day of the Six Nations rugby and a huge photo gallery.

Yesterday saw the final round of the Six Nations rugby. This post looks back at how events unfolded.

THE SCENARIOS

The final fixtures, in order of playing, were Ireland v Italy, Wales v England and finally France v Scotland. Ireland, England and France all had chances to win, with the latter in pole position, Scotland were sure to finish fourth, with the wooden spoon between Wales and Italy. Ireland needed a bonus point win to have any serious chance of lifting the trophy. England could then displace them, a bonus point win putting them ahead at the top of the table outright and a win putting them ahead on points difference unless Ireland racked up a really huge score. Even a bonus point win for England was likely to leave France needing only to win the final match to clinch the title. A bonus point is awarded to teams scoring four or more tries in a match for the record.

THE FIRST TWO MATCHES

Ireland did get their bonus point win, but the margin was small, largely because their kicker, while good in open play had a nightmare when kicking at goal, only putting one such kick over in the entire match. In Cardiff it was one way traffic, with England racking up over 60 points. This included two tries for 20 year old debutant Henry Pollock. With that it was over to Paris for the final instalment of the tournament, with the home side knowing that any win would be enough.

THE GRAND FINALE

France started out dominating, but it took 17 minutes for their dominance to show on the scorecard, when in quick succession a penalty and a converted try put them 10-0 up. From here Scotland mounted an impressive fightback, the remainder of the second half being their best period of the match and quite possibly of the entire tournament. The French had a temporary numerical disadvantage that probably have been a permanent one when Mauvaka was yellow carded for a vicious headbutt on Ben White. Since the incident was off the ball, and not part of a tackle it has hard to seen any excuse for it being a yellow rather than a red card, but such was the verdict. On the stroke of the interval Scotland grounded the ball for what they, and everyone else, believed was a try giving them a half time lead. However, the video technology ruled it out on the ground that Blair Kinghorn had been in touch before Jordan grounded the ball. Thus at half time it was France 16 Scotland 13. That was the last sight Scotland had of victory, and thus the last sight England had of the title. The French went 10 points clear early in the second half. Bielle-Biarrey put himself into the record books with his try, which meant that a) he had scored in every round round of the tournament, something no one else had ever done, and b) he had scored a total of eight tries in the tournament, a new all time record. Scotland’s resistance was broken, and two more tries followed, and even with the previously immaculate Ramos failing to convert the final try that made it France 35 Scotland 16, 19 points ahead with 18 minutes left in the tournament. France did not add to their points tally after that, but neither did Scotland add to theirs. France had scored 30 tries in the tournament, another new record, beating the 29 scored by England in 2001. That England side announced itself in that tournament and went on to win the 2003 world cup. This French side have announced themselves in this tournament, and there is a world cup in 2027. Wales ended with a second straight wooden spoon, and Italy were equally clearly the second worst side in the tournament. Perhaps the time has come to make places at northern hemisphere rugby’s top table a privilege rather than a right by introducing relegation, with whichever side finishes last being replaced in the following year’s tournament by the next highest ranked northern hemisphere side.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Bin-gland

A look at the state of the England Men’s ODI team. Also a large photo gallery.

England’s participation in the Champions Trophy is at an end, and they have been the worst team at the tournament, being the only side in either group not to record a single point. This post looks briefly at yesterday’s match and then at the problems with this England Men’s ODI side.

EXITING WITH A WHIMPER

England’s elimination was already confirmed before yesterday’s match began, but the question was whether they would depart with a bang or a whimper. Afghanistan were hoping for it to be an almighty bang, since a victory by 207 or more runs would push South Africa’s net run rate below Afghanistan and mean that the latter made the semi-finals. In the event England exited with the tamest of whimpers. The match started in familiar fashion, with Phil Salt (no 1 in the England batting order) and Jamie Smith (no 3) both departing cheaply, both to terrible shots. That once again brought Duckett and Root together with a rebuilding operation to perform. This time round we got an illustration of the fact that if you keep on needing rescue operations you don’t always get them – Duckett made 24 and Root 37, which would remain England’s top score. Brook, officially next in line for the captaincy vacated by Buttler, managed 19. Buttler, attempting to provide some stability, a role for which he is not well suited, managed 21 off 43 balls, while Jofra Archer ended up second top scorer with 25 off 31 balls, and the comparative ease with which he was able to bat was a damning indictment of his alleged betters in that department. All of this added up to 179 all out from 38.2 overs – a scoring rate of below five an over and 11.4 overs left unused. Marco Jansen took 3-39, and was outdone figures wise by Wiaan Mulder who had 3-25. No South African bowled badly, with Kagiso Rabada’s 1-42 from seven overs being the worst figures of any of their five bowlers. Rassie van der Dussen, 72 not out off 87 balls, and Henrich Klaasen, 64 off 56 balls before perishing in the moment of victory were the chief performers responsible for making England’s total look as pathetic as it was, South Africa winning by seven wickets with 20.5 overs to spare – in other words they had more than the length of a T20 innings to spare.

ENGLAND’S PROBLEMS

England personnel wise (for the moment we will ignore questions of the domestic schedule) have four main issues, of which only the first is definitely being dealt with:

  1. They have the wrong captain. Buttler has stepped down, which starts to address this, but my own feeling is that they need to do something more radical than merely turn to ‘next cab in the rank’ Brook. Perhaps Liam Dawson, who playing skills would help to address other problems could be brought straight in as captain.
  2. Numbers one and three in the order need replacing. You cannot expect to win matches when losing two early wickets on an absolutely regular basis, and the dismissals of Salt and Smith against South Africa suggest that neither learned anything from their failures in the first two matches.
  3. Lack of all rounders. This, with five bowlers required to be used in every innings, creates issues of balance – you either pick five proper bowlers, relying on the top six to do the bulk of the scoring, or you pick four front line bowlers only and rely on part timers to bowl the fifth allocation of ten overs. England have opted for the latter approach, and their lack of either depth or variety in the bowling department has cost them at this tournament, which leads to…
  4. Too much similarity in bowling. England have not a left armer of any type at this tournament (look up the bowling half of the package offered by Dawson the player), the fast bowlers used have all been very similar, making it easy for opposing batters to take them on. The one trustworthy component of the England bowling attack at this tournament, Adil Rashid, is now 37 years old, and the endurance of James Anderson notwithstanding probably has a fairly limited remaining shelf life at the top level.

England have not been struggling in ODIs for nearly as long as they had been when they crashed out of the 2015 World Cup, but a reset of a similar type to the one that took place then is required.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off (with a reminder as we start a new month that images can be viewed at a larger size by clicking on them)…

Rain Reduces Afghanistan Qualification Hopes

A look at developments in the Champions Trophy, and at the battle for qualification between Afghanistan and South Africa (Australia are through after today, and England were confirmed as out two days ago). Also a photo gallery.

Yesterday’s match between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Champions Trophy was washed out without a ball bowled, meaning the only team in the tournament without a point are now England. Today saw Afghanistan and Australia face off in Lahore in a match that would see the winners progress and the losers eliminated, unless rain struck again…

THE AFGHANISTAN INNINGS

Afghanistan were saved from disaster by two contrasting innings. Sediqullah Atal held the early part of the innings together with a solid 85 (95), before Azmatullah Omarzai produced another impressive performance, scoring 67 off 63 balls. Afghanistan were all out off the last ball of their innings, for 273. Ben Dwarshuis with 3-47 from nine overs was Australia’s top wicket taker, while Spencer Johnson with 2-49 from his full 10 was the economical. Rashid Khan would have noted rival leg spinner Adam Zampa finishing with 2-48 from eight overs.

THE AUSTRALIAN REPLY

Australia started like a bullet from a gun, helped by some poor bowling and worse fielding from Afghanistan (three ‘dolly’ catches went begging). However, with Australia 109-1 after just 12.5 overs, Head 59* (40), Smith 19* (22), the heavens opened in almost Noachian fashion. The field at the Qaddafi Stadium soon resembled a lake, and although the rain eventually stopped, the ground remained sodden. There was an inspection at 8:45PM local time (3:45PM UK time), but that was merely to officially confirm that there was no way the game could resume on time even for the 7.1 overs that Afghanistan would have had to bowl for there to be an official result to happen. This means that Australia have four points and are qualified, Afghanistan have three points and need England to absolutely thrash South Africa in the sole remaining fixture in this group for the Proteas net run rate to drop below theirs (if England bat first and the game is a full 50 over per side affair England would need to win by 207 runs or more for Afghanistan to qualify, while if South Africa bat first then effectively Afghanistan’s fate is sealed, since the least unrealistic scenario involving an England chase is if South Africa are all out for 125, when England would then need to knock the runs off in 12 overs or less to get Afghanistan through. This match has been confirmed in the course of today as Buttler’s last as England white ball skipper (officially he has resigned the role, which I suspect means he just beat England management to the punch – there was no way after a third straight elimination at the first stage of a tournament that has captaincy remained tenable). The likely semi-finalists at this tournament are, in alphabetical order: Australia, India, New Zealand and South Africa. As to who England’s new white ball captain will be (or if that will remain the split – India have Rohit Sharma captaining the test and ODI teams and Suryakumar Yadav captaining the T20 side, reflective of the fact that actually for all that the latter two are played with the same colour ball the difference between ODIs and T20s is much greater than that between tests and ODIs) I am unsure. The conventional choice would be Harry Brook, but it has been known for sides in real trouble, as England are now, to opt to really draw a line under the past by bringing in a brand new captain from outside the squad.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

This picture and the next show the remains of the bus stop sign at the stop from which i catch the bus to work…
…I am not quite sure how it got totalled, but whatever caused it must have been quite a sight.
This is a remotely operated machine for cutting down undergrowth.
Beyond that fencing is the railway line. I am not quite sure what induced a cormorant to make this particular small stretch of the Gaywood its home, but I have seen it there several times now.

A One Day Clash Between Past and Present

Two XIs – ‘Blasts from the Past’ – an XI who would have been excellent in limited overs cricket given the chance – and an XI picked from the best English white ball players of modern times. Also a photo gallery.

During the bit of commentary on yesterday’s third ODI between England and Australia that I was able to catch (between work and a weather induced early finish not nearly enough for me to write about) there was some discussion about greats of the past who might have fared well in limited overs cricket had it been a thing in their eras. I therefore offer a clash of two England XIs – an XI exclusively from before the era of limited overs cricket and an XI from the era of limited overs cricket. Usual one day rules apply.

BLAST FROM THE PAST XI

  1. Charlie Barnett (Gloucestershire) – right handed opening batter. He once had 98* to his name going into lunch on day one of an Ashes match, having told his opening partner Leonard Hutton not to worry about trying to give him the strike in the final over before the interval because “we’ve given them enough cause for indigestion”.
  2. Lionel Palairet (Somerset) – right handed opening batter. He scored pre-lunch hundreds off scratch no fewer than five times in his first class career. He may also have had the most stories per match of anyone with more than one international cap – his two England appearances were Old Trafford and The Oval tests of 1902, the first a pulsating encounter that the Aussies won by three runs and the second “Jessop’s Match”.
  3. Frank Woolley (Kent) – left handed batter, left arm orthodox spinner. A fast scoring batter, a genuinely front line spinner (he achieved the “batting all rounder’s double” of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets in first class matches in the same season no fewer than four times.
  4. Denis Compton (Middlesex) – right handed batter, occasional left arm wrist spin bowler. He was capable of scoring at a breath taking rate and his penchant for unorthodoxy would have stood him in good stead in a limited overs setting.
  5. +Les Ames (Kent) – right handed batter, wicket keeper. His aggressive batting (winner of the Lawrence trophy for the fastest first class hundred of the season twice in the first three years of its existence) he was the only candidate for the gauntlets in this side.
  6. Gilbert Jessop (Gloucestershire) – right handed batter, right arm fast bowler. If ever there was a guaranteed selection for a side of this nature it was he. The most consistently rapid run scorer the game has ever known, a useful fast bowler and an outstanding fielder, he had all the attributes to have been a key member of any limited overs side.
  7. *Percy Fender (Surrey) – right handed batter, right arm leg spinner, captain. Still holds the record for the fastest first class century against legitimate as opposed to declaration bowling, 35 minutes against Northamptonshire. A fine leg spinner and an astute captain as well.
  8. Frank Foster (Warwickshire) – left handed batter, left arm fast medium bowler. A good enough batter (and attacking by instinct) to have a first class triple century to his name, and a good enough bowler to have been one half of one of the great new ball pairings in test cricket alongside the guy at number 10 in this side.
  9. Billy Bates (Yorkshire) – off spinner, right handed batter. A fine all rounder in his day, and a notably economical bowler.
  10. Syd Barnes (Warwickshire, Lancashire, various league sides) – right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter. He would doubtless grumble about only being allowed 10 overs in the innings, but he would undoubtedly be a challenge for anyone to play, and in this XI he would be sharing the new ball with one of his favourite partners, and would be well handled by skipper Fender.
  11. Alfred Shaw (Nottinghamshire, Sussex) – right arm medium/ right arm slow bowler, right handed batter. The man who bowled more first class overs than he conceded runs at that level – to me almost as much of a cast iron pick for this XI as was Jessop.

This XI features great batting depth, with everyone down to Bates capable of major contributions there, a stellar collection of bowling talents – Compton would be eighth choice bowler in this side, a crafty and astute captain and a great wicket keeper.

THE MODERNS

  1. Alastair Brown (Surrey) – right handed opening batter. He was unlucky in terms of England caps because his prime was before England had really grasped the concept of separate squads for test and one day cricket. However he produced some devastating performances for Surrey, including 268 v Glamorgan, which remains the highest by an English batter in a limited overs match.
  2. David Gower (Leicestershire, Hampshire) – left handed batter. He did quite frequently open in limited overs matches, and was one of the first English batters to have great success in the format.
  3. Kevin Pietersen (Nottinghamshire, Hampshire, Surrey)- right handed batter, occasional off spinner. One of the most explosive talents ever possessed by anyone.
  4. *Joe Root (Yorkshire) – right handed batter, occasional off/leg spinner. The best England batter to appear in my lifetime, and certainly among the top half-dozen the country have ever had. I have reservations about his captaincy.
  5. +Jos Buttler (Somerset, Lancashire) right handed batter, wicket keeper. Excellent as an ODI finisher, the role he has here, and also as a T20I opener.
  6. *Ben Stokes (Durham) left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler. A great match winner (cf his heroics in the 2019 world cup final), and as he has shown in test cricket a fine captain as well, which role I have given him in this side.
  7. Liam Dawson (Hampshire) – left arm spinner, left handed batter. A high quality all rounder who has been poorly treated by England – the fact that he will not be on the plane to Pakistan for England’s next tour is frankly scandalous.
  8. Moeen Ali (Worcestershire, Warwickshire) – off spinner, left handed batter. An excellent white ball cricketer.
  9. Adil Rashid (Yorkshire) – leg spinner, right handed batter. Without question the best white ball spinner of any kind England have ever had, and as such a shoo-in for this XI.
  10. Darren Gough (Yorkshire) – right arm fast bowler, right handed batter.
  11. Jofra Archer (Sussex) – right arm fast bowler, right handed batter. When fully fit he is absolutely devastating.

This side is strong in batting, and has a well varied bowling attack. There are only three pace options – Gough, Archer and Stokes, but there are three genuine spinners plus Root and Pietersen as back up options.

COMPARISONS

First to clear up a small point for regular readers, I have decided to omit the usual honourable mentions section from this post as if I did such a section any kind of justice it would be longer than the rest of the post put together. Please feel free to volunteer your own suggestions, though please remember to consider who you would replace from my selections and how that would affect the balance of the side(s).

The ‘Blasts from the Past’ are better equipped in all departments, and I would not rate Fender an inferior leader to Stokes. If a time machine enables these sides, with all 22 players at their peak and uninjured, to contest a five match series I would expect the ‘Blasts from the Past’ combo to win 4-1.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Hubris and Nemesis

A look back at the England v Sri Lanka test match at The Oval which Sri Lanka won by eight wickets at lunch time on Monday, and a photo gallery.

My second most recent post here was titled “England in Control in Spite of Themselves” This post brings that story up to date.

THE END OF DAY TWO

The light closed in with Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis still in residence. Pope continued to treat the occasion lightly, using Root in partnership with Bashir when the light was too bad for pacers. This approach would have been justified for five or six overs just to see if anything good happened, but Pope kept it going for 17 wicketless overs which yielded 69 runs.

DAY THREE

This was Heritage Open Day (see here), so I missed the early part of the day. England had done well with the ball in the morning, claiming a first innings lead of 62, and had lost Duckett by the time I joined the coverage. Lawrence made his highest score to date as an opener (35), but it was an incredibly unconvincing innings, and his name is absent from the squad to tour Pakistan, with Crawley fit again. However, this was where phase one of England’s punishment for their earlier lackadaisical approach began, and only one score higher than Lawrence’s would be registered in the innings, as Sri Lanka found their bowling mojo with a vengeance. Jamie Smith did his best for the cause, with a magnificent 67, the last 50 of which, with tailenders in at the other end, came in 17 balls. Even with this performance to lift it the whole innings mustered a mere 156, the lowest total England have ever scored in a home match v Sri Lanka (previously 181, also at The Oval, in 1998 when Muralidaran weaved his webs to the tune of 9-65). That left Sri Lanka needing 219 to win. Pope started out as though he had 400 to defend rather than just over 200, and runs were soon coming at an alarming rate. Woakes took a return catch to dismiss Karunaratne for 8, but that was the only scalp for England that evening, and Sri Lanka scored 94 runs before the light closed in, with Pathum Nissanka completing his second 50 of the match, both of them at better than a run a ball.

DAY FOUR

England never looked like getting back into things, and the game was done on the stroke of lunch, Nissanka hitting a four which took his share of the spoils to 127 not out, to give Sri Lanka an eight wicket win. Kusal Mendis fell to a superb catch by Bashir off Atkinson for 39, but Angelo Mathews provided excellent support for Nissanka, who was simply majestic. He showed England how to score rapidly AND safely – the split between boundaries and running between the wickets was almost 50/50 – 13 fours and two sixes = 64 in boundaries, and therefore 63 out of 127 actually run, but he was adept at picking gaps and getting back for twos. Nissanka was Player of the Match for his performance, absolutely rightly. Root was Player of the Series, and Kamindu Mendis was named Sri Lanka’s Player of the Series. Match details here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The first genuine signs of autumn – fallen leaves and…
…conkers.
This insect was at the end of my washing line where it is tied to an upright.
Possibly the last red admiral of the year, this morning.

England in Control in Spite of Themselves

Yesterday morning the third and final test match of the series between England and Sri Lanka got underway at The Oval. This post looks at developments so far.

DAY ONE

The biggest news selection wise was the debut of 20 year old left arm pacer Josh Hull, a very controversial selection given his lack of first class experience. However Hull’s bowling was delayed as Sri Lanka won the toss and put England in to bat, as they virtually had to with an all seam attack and grey skies overhead. Unfortunately for them they did not bowl well, and Duckett and Pope certainly batted well. Duckett threw a century away when he holed out for 86, but Pope did reach three figures. There had been one stoppage for bad light already (it is long past time that they had a stock of pink balls at test venues to allow play to continue under the lights in these circumstances – ball changes are so frequent anyway that swapping a red ball for a pink one would hardly even raise an eyebrow), and with England 221-3 after 44.1 overs the light intervened once again, this time ending the day’s play.

DAY TWO

Brook and Pope resumed at 11 o’clock on a rather brighter day. Brook never suggested permanence, benefitting from a truly awful drop by Asitha Fernando early on, but failing to make use of it. Smith looked to be playing more patiently but fell cheaply in the end. Thereafter, with the shining exception of Pope who went on to pass 150, the England batting became increasing feckless and irresponsible. They were all out for 325, leaving Sri Lanka one over to negotiate before lunch. All ten England wickets were out to catches, and even the one that went behind the wicket (to gully) was an attacking shot that went wrong rather than a bowler finding the edge.

Sri Lanka got to lunch without loss, and enjoyed their best opening stand of the series so far. The end of it was entirely self-inflicted, Nissanka going for a run that was never there which resulted in his partner Karunaratne being out by two yards or thereabouts. This was particularly unfortunate for Karunaratne since he was on 6,999 test career runs at the time. Kusal Mendis helped Nissanka add 34 more for the second wicket before he edged Woakes to Brook, the 12th wicket of the match and the first to be an authentic seamer’s dismissal, the grey skies notwithstanding. Angelo Mathews never looked comfortable at the crease, and with his own score on 3 and Sri Lanka on 86 he was third out, caught by Pope off Stone. Five runs later Josh Hull claimed his first test scalp, having Nissanka caught at extra cover for 64. Two runs later Stone pinned Chandimal plumb in front (Chandimal reviewed, and the replay showed that it was indeed stone dead). That was 93-5. Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis, the latter of whom has been Sri Lanka’s best batter this series have batted sensibly, and tea has just been taken with the score 142-5. To all appearances England are in full control, but few sides can have looked less impressive while getting into such a position.

Overlapping with this match is a match at Belfast between the Irish and English women’s sides, Kate Cross’s first international match as captain. Ireland are fighting hard, but Cross (who already celebrated her elevation by recording her best ever international bowling figures in any format – 6-30) is currently proving an excellent partner for Bess Heath. England need 31 more to win, so it is not done yet.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

All Time XIs – Past and Present Combined

An all time XI selected on a basis of juxtaposing ancient and modern – six players from way back, five players from the 21st century, interleaving with one another so that no two players from the same era are next to each other in the batting order, Also a bumper photo gallery.

In this post I present an all time XI selected using very specific criteria – my players are either from the long past or are players at least some of whose career took place in the 21st century, and the interleave so that no two players from the same era are next to each other in the line up.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *WG Grace (England, right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various styles through his career, captain). In spite of not getting to play test cricket until he was 32 years old he twice held the record individual score for England – 152 on debut in the first match on English soil in 1880, and 170 in the final match of the 1886 series, regaining the record from Arthur Shrewsbury who had set it the previous match with 164.
  2. Yashavsi Jaiswal (India, left handed opening batter). Has just had an amazing series against England (712 runs including two double centuries), and looks set to have a long career for India.
  3. Don Bradman (Australia, right handed batter). Quite simply the greatest test match batter the world has ever seen.
  4. Brian Lara (West Indies, left handed batter). Succeeded everywhere and against every type of bowling, including 688 runs against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka against peak Muralidaran (off spinners are supposed to cause left handers particular problems).
  5. Aubrey Faulkner (South Africa, right handed batter, leg spinner). Has a case to be regarded as the most genuine of genuine all rounders, averaging 40.79 with the bat (just over 1,700 runs) and 26.58 with the ball (85 wickets). No one else to have played enough matches to qualify for consideration has ended with a batting average of over 40 and a bowling average of below 30.
  6. Ben Stokes (England, left handed batter, right arm fast medium bowler). A talismanic figure for England in recent years, with a value to the side that goes far beyond his mediocre looking figures at test level.
  7. +Leslie Ames (England, wicket keeper, right handed batter). The first test match class wicket keeper to also be a genuinely high class batter.
  8. R Ashwin (India, off spinner, right handed batter). One of the greatest of all off spinners, and a useful lower order batter as well.
  9. Syd Barnes (England, right arm fast medium bowler, right handed batter). 189 wickets in just 27 test appearances, at 16.43 a piece.
  10. Jasprit Bumrah (India, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). India’s greatest ever fast bowler, and one of the greatest of all time.
  11. William Mycroft (Derbyshire, left arm fast bowler, right handed batter). Over 800 FC wickets at 12.09 a piece, but born just too early to play test cricket. In this XI he would probably come on first change after Barnes and Bumrah had done their stuff with the new ball.

This side has a powerhouse batting line up, and a bowling attack of Barnes, Bumrah and Mycroft to bowl pace/seam/swing and Ashwin and Faulkner to bowl spin, with Grace and Stokes in reserve, is not likely to have any great difficulty taking 20 opposition wickets. I will not produce an honourable mentions section on this occasion because it would have to be massive to do anything approaching justice to those who have missed out. Comments welcome, and if you are feeling really bold feel free to suggest an alternative XI selected on similar lines that you reckon could make a game of it with this one.

PHOTOGRAPHS

A bumper gallery for you today – while it has not been conspicuously sunny it has been reasonably pleasant outside…

Batting Order = Alphabetical Order

A variation on my all-time XI theme and a large photo gallery.

This is a variation on my all-time XI theme. Today I pick an XI starting with my first choice opener and moving down the order in strict alphabetical fashion, each player with a surname starting exactly one letter ahead of the person immediately above them in the order. Each player will be introduced with an outline of their role. There will also be a brief honourable mentions section.

THE XI IN BATTING ORDER

  1. *WG Grace (England, right handed opening batter, right arm bowler of various styles through his career, captain). A natural choice for this role, as the first great superstar of cricket. He was captain my of all time Gs XI and you can read more about him in that post.
  2. JB Hobbs (England, right handed opening batter, brilliant cover fielder, occasional medium pacer). The Master, the all time leading scorer of first class runs and first class hundreds. He was in my Hs XI.
  3. Yashavsi Jaiswal (India, left handed top order batter). The only player in this XI not to have featured in my cricketing journey through the alphabet, he has come to the fore in no uncertain terms since then, and has a chance of breaking an all time Indian record for runs in a series in the fifth and final test match of the current series. As it is, only one cricketer has ever had more test runs to their name after eight appearances at that level, a certain Donald George Bradman. The Js are very strong in batting, but even if I did not feel able to fit him in there I would indulge in a quibble cook and drop Martin Young from the Ys so that he could open for that XI.
  4. Virat Kohli (India, right handed batter). The Indian maestro has missed this series for personal reasons, but his record is enough to guarantee selection. He occupies this same slot in my Ks XI.
  5. Brian Lara (West Indies, left handed batter). Lower in the order than he would usually be, but I reckon he could handle this slot. He featured in my Ls XI.
  6. Keith Miller (Australia, right handed batter, right arm fast bowler). One of the greatest of all all rounders, in the same slot he had in my Ms XI.
  7. +Paul Nixon (Leicestershire, wicket keeper, left handed batter). The only non-test cricketer in the XI, but his outstanding service for an unfashionable county over the course of many years deserves recognition, and he occupies the same slot as the one I gave him for the Ns.
  8. Chris Old (England, right arm fast medium bowler, left handed batter). A little higher in the batting order than one might like, but he did have his moments with the bat. He was in the Os XI.
  9. Peter Pollock (South Africa, right arm fast bowler, right handed batter). A fearsome fast bowler whose test career was shortened by his country being banished from international cricket. He had this same slot in my Ps XI.
  10. Abdul Qadir (Pakistan, leg spinner, right handed batter). The art of leg spin bowling almost died out in the 1980s as teams became more and more inclined to rely on pace and seam, with maybe a finger spinner or two being used to tie up an end. There was however one leggie of undisputed top class in that decade who kept the torch burning, this man, the star of my Qs XI.
  11. Wilfred Rhodes (England, left arm orthodox spinner, right handed batter). I have remarked before, notably in my Rs XI, where he is one place higher than in this one on Rhodes’ extraordinary five-phase career, which started and finished with him in the side as a specialist left arm spinner. He was number 11 at The Oval in 1902 when he and Hirst saw England to a one-wicket win, and at the SCG in 1903 when he scored 40*, helping RE Foster (287, at the time an all comers record, and still a debut record) add 130 for the last wicket.

This side has a powerful top five, a great all rounder, a quality keeper/batter and four excellent and well varied bowlers. I do not anticipate P Pollock, Old, Miller, Rhodes and Qadir having any great difficulty in taking 20 wickets, especially with the skipper in reserve.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

I will deal with these in batting order:

Grace was the chosen opener, but I acknowledge that Gavaskar, Gambhir, Gayle and Greenidge would all have their advocates.

I also regarded ‘The Master’ as sacrosanct, though George Headley (West Indies), Len Hutton (England) and possibly Matthew Hayden (Australia) could all make cases for inclusion.

The number three pick was controversial, with two Sri Lankans, Jayasuriya and Jayawardene (whose regular slot this was) firmly in the mix, and a couple of tough and competitive antipodeans, Andrew Jones (NZ) and Dean Jones (Aus) also worthy of mention. However, my feeling is that Jaiswal is not just a flash in the pan.

I would have annoyed over 1 billion of the game’s most avid fans had I named anyone else at number four, though there was also a case for Jacques Kallis.

Lara’s major challenger was another West Indian, but I don’t think even ‘big Hubert’ would think himself hard done by, especially given that with Grace in the side he was never getting the captaincy.

Of the two main challengers for Miller’s slot one, Mushtaq Mohammad could not be accommodated given that the self set rules of this exercise virtually mandated the selection of Qadir. The other, Mulvantrai ‘Vinoo’ Mankad certainly could, but I decided in Miller’s favour (Mankad, a left arm spinner with the ball, could be got in by dropping Rhodes and bringing in one of Kagiso Rabada, Tom Richardson or Andy Roberts, though the last named would be out of position at no11).

Nixon had no serious challenger, and neither did Old.

Although there are two other notable fast bowlers with surnames beginning with P both (Mike Procter and Shaun Pollock) would have been absurdly out of place at number nine, and I was not prepared to bend the rules to that extent.

Qadir had no challenger.

Had I opted for only one front line spinner then Rhodes as described above could have been replaced, but it seemed appropriate given these two colossi bestrode the cricketing scene for 65 years between them (Grace’s FC debut happened in 1865, Rhodes retired in 1930) for an order that began with Grace to end with Rhodes.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

The ladybirds are out in force this year. This one had positioned itself in such a way that it almost passed for the centre of the flowerhead on which it was resting.

A Match of Many Twists and Turns

An account of the second half of a thoroughly absorbing test match between India and England at Ranchi, and a photo gallery.

This post deals with the second half of an extraordinary test match between India and England, the fourth of the series currently taking place between the two teams. I covered the first two days here, so the body of this post picks up the action on day three (yesterday).

DAY THREE – ENGLAND STUMBLE

Play resumed with India 219-7, 134 adrift. England’s first task was to take the last three Indian wickets as quickly as possible. Unfortunately they were baulked in contrasting styles by wicket keeper Dhruv Jurel who played a superb innings and left arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav who resisted stoutly, comfortably completing a ‘Den-tury’ – 100 balls survived in an innings (look up the career of Joe Denly for the origin of this term). When Yadav was finally dislodged for a 131 ball 28 debutant Akash Deep continued the resistance, surviving a further 29 balls. Mohammed Siraj really is a genuine number 11, and it was in the Jurel who was last out, bowled by Tom Hartley for a splendid and spirited 90 off 149 balls. India has thus reached 307, a deficit of a mere 46. Shoaib Bashir recorded figures of 5-119 from 44 overs, becoming the fourth England bowler to take their maiden first class five-for in a test match. Christopher Heseltine (Hampshire, right arm fast) did so in 1896 in South Africa, in a series whose claim to test match status is decidedly dubious – visiting South African teams were not given test matches in England until 1907, while the other two members of this club are both part of the current England set up, and both principally batters – Joe Root who took 5-8 at Ahmedabad last time England were in India and Will Jacks who took a six-for in Pakistan.

Things still look good for England with an advantage of 46 and India having to bat last, but their second innings soon started going pear shaped. Crawley and Bairstow threatened a revival, and at 110-3 England looked comfortable. However Crawley fell for a fine 60, and then Stokes suffered his second failure of the match, and for the second time in the match England went into an interval, tea in this case, having just lost their skipper, and five down for not a huge amount. Soon after the interval a loose stroke spelt the end of Bairstow and it was 120-6. Hartley failed again with the bat, and Robinson was unable to repeat his first innings efforts. Foakes resisted gamely and did his best to shepherd the tail, but eventually he attempted to play one from Ashwin through midwicket and got a leading edge straight back to the bowler. Anderson lasted three balls, the last of which he nicked to the keeper, and England were all out for 145, leaving India 192 to get.

Stokes now opted to give the new ball to Root and Hartley. There was merit in the idea of giving a spinner the new ball, especially given that Robinson had been decidedly underwhelming with the ball, but James Anderson should have bowled at one end for the mini-session India faced at the end of this third day – this would have given England a measure of control, whereas in the event India were 40-0 off eight overs by the close, needing 152 more for victory.

THE DENOUEMENT

India advanced their score to 84 before a splendid catch by Anderson off Root accounted for Yashavsi Jaiswal, leaving the new India opener needing to tally 120 or more in the fifth match of the series to break a record that has stood to Sunil Gavaskar’s credit since 1970 for the most runs in a series by an Indian opener.

15 runs later Foakes achieved a double dismissal of Rohit Sharma – it was initially recorded as stumped, but replays showed that there had been an edge, and it now appears as caught Foakes bowled Hartley 55. One run later Rajat Patidar was on his way back for a five ball duck, courtesy of a good catch by Pope off Bashir, and I suspect that unless he intends to watch the match Patidar will not be in Dharamsala for the final match of the series. Ravindra Jadeja never looked comfortable, and with 120 on the board, and himself on 4 off 32 balls he hit a full toss from Bashir straight to Bairstow to end a tortured stay at the crease. The very next ball Sarfaraz Khan was snapped up Pope to make it 120-5, and Bashir had three wickets and was on a hat trick. At that point Jurel joined Gill, and these two players steered India home. Gill completed a 50, while Jurel was unbeaten on 39, and appropriately enough the winning runs came from his bat – he was deservedly named as Player of the Match, having kept very well in tricky conditions and scored 129 in the match for once out. India have an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series, but England have had moments in all four matches when things looked like going their way, and given the loss of Leach, the inexperience of the remaining spinners and the fact that no visiting side have laid a glove on India in the last decade this is very far from a humiliation. Bashir and Hartley, especially the former, look very promising for the future. Robinson, who finished the match off the field nursing a back problem, must be in jeopardy – when the force is with him he is a very good bowler indeed, but in this match he was consistently 10kph below his best pace, and given his previous injuries and fitness issues I think England have to say that enough is enough. Matthew Potts of Durham, Josh Tongue of Worcestershire and Gus Atkinson of Surrey are all fine bowlers, Tom Lawes of Surrey may be on the radar, and there are probably other younger seamers who could do a job for England as well. James Anderson’s bowling and fielding leads one to wonder whether he has a portrait hidden away somewhere that is ageing in his place!

This match was a thoroughly absorbing contest which commanded attention right to the end. Though it does scant justice to the events of the last four days a full scorecard can be viewed here.

PHOTOGRAPHS

I end with my usual sign off…

I thought that the arrangement of leaves on this plant made it look a bit like a very large green butterfly.

England Going Well In Ranchi

A look back at the first two days of the fourth test match of the India v England series and a substantial photo gallery.

The fourth match of the five match test series between India and England got underway in Ranchi at 4AM Friday morning UK time. This post looks at the action from the first two days of play.

THE PRELIMINARIES

India had gone one up in the series following a thumping victory in the third match of the series (I was unable due to my internet situation to follow that match). England were forced to make one change to their line up, Rehan Ahmed having flown home for personal reasons. This meant a recall for Shoaib Bashir. Mark Wood was rested, with Ollie Robinson taking his place in the XI, and the England selectors failed to take the opportunity to drop Bairstow who has a had a horrible series, meaning that Dan Lawrence is still yet to feature. India made only one change, resting Jasprit Bumrah in the name of workload management, and handing a debut cap to Akash Deep in his place. I would have thought it would be better to keep him in the side for this match, aiming to settle the series early and then rest him. England won the toss, and chose to bat (choosing to bowl first on that surface and with Ranchi’s history would have made Nasser Hussain’s Brisbane 2002 howler of a decision look positively Solomonic).

DAY ONE

England reached 47 without undue difficulty, at which point Zak Crawley got himself out. Shortly after this it was 57-3, with Pope gone for a duck and Duckett also back in the pavilion. Bairstow scored rapidly but never suggested permanence, and sure enough, just before lunch he essayed one outrageous stroke too many and was on his way back to the pavilion. The interval came early when Stokes got a horrible ball from Jadeja, which shot through virtually at ground level, and hit the bottom of his pad so obviously plumb in front that the England skipper was setting off for the pavilion before the umpire’s finger was fully raised. Thus England were looking decidedly shaky with score 112-5.

However, Joe Root and Ben Foakes batted through the afternoon session together, and England took tea feeling somewhat happier at 198-5.

Post tea England continued to prosper. Foakes after initially being very slow hammered two sixes and a four in quick succession to move to 47, but then he holed out to end a partnership that had over doubled England’s score. When Hartley fell it was 245-7, and things were still very much in the balance, but Ollie Robinson batted sensibly, while Root continued on imperturbably to reach a superb century, his 31st in all test cricket, a record 10th against India and also a record third against India in India. England reached 300 just before the close, and by the end of the day were far the happier side, finishing on 302-7.

DAY TWO

England continued their revival, with Ollie Robinson completing an invaluable maiden test fifty, and Root finally ending on 122 not out, with England all out for 353. James Anderson soon had test wicket number 697, that of Rohit Sharma to a catch by Foakes. Jaiswal batted beautifully, but Gill became Shoaib Bashir’s first victim for 38, and Patidar and Jadeja were both out cheaply. At 161 Jaiswal’s innings came to an end for 73, bowled by the impressive Bashir. Jaiswal had become only the second ever Indian opener to score over 600 runs in a series, though he has a bit to do to overhaul Gavaskar’s 774 against the West Indies in 1970. Sarfaraz Khan, hugely talented (he averages 70 in first class cricket) but also inexperienced, struggled, and at 171 a fine catch by Root off Hartley ended his innings with his score on 14. Ashwin, who had done little to distinguish himself in this match either with the ball or in the field, mustered a single before Hartley trapped him LBW. Kuldeep Yadav provided one of India’s few bright spots of the day by batting through to the close in the company of Dhruv Jurel who ended the day 30* in a score of 219-7. India need this pair to continue their good work tomorrow – if England end with a big first innings lead the match will be as good as settled. Shoaib Bashir produced an exemplary spell of bowling, 32-4-84-4, keeping it tight and taking wickets. Anderson was Anderson, Hartley had his moments but also bowled quite a few loose balls, and Ollie Robinson was accurate, but lacking in pace (he was not even hitting 80mph). Ben Stokes did some bowling warm ups in the innings break, but did not put himself on, while with Bashir bowling so well Root was not called on save for one over near the end of the day. At the moment a 2-2 scoreline going to Dharamsala for the final match seems likely. England deserve great credit for the character they have shown to come back from the humiliation of the previous match and their decidedly unimpressive start to this match. I would say that after the first session on day one was indisputably India’s session England have had the better of all other five we have had so far, notwithstanding the late defiance of Jurel and Yadav.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…