Mark Chilton – LiveCricket.in
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17th
Although it was a disappointing end, Andrew Strauss and his men can hold their heads high after a successful tour of South Africa. To come away with a win in the 1-day series and a squared Test Series is a highly commendable effort. Despite there being areas for improvement i thought the England team showed a lot of bottle and unity against the no.1 rated team in the world. It seems that the Strauss/Flower combination is working really well and they have an exact idea of how they are going to become the best England outfit for many years.
I enjoyed the series and thought it was a fantastic advert for Test cricket, which has come under some pressure recently. The standard of quick bowling in the Final Test was something that hasn’t been seen for some time and even caught the imagination of the Sky commentators who had previously dealt with the likes of Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh, Donald, Pollock etc.
A little break now before England travel to Bangladesh where they will face completely different conditions and styles of cricket. I have to agree with David Gower who wrote that he thought it a shame that Strauss is not going to lead that tour. They had a great opportunity to keep the momentum going that they have created over the last 12 months.
Signing off now but more to follow.
18th
It has been a while since writing and much has happened. The Pieterson/Moores affair has finally been dealt with but not without consequences. I wanted to get some opinion on how influential a Captain should be, especially at the international level. Should the ECB have given Kevin Pieterson what he wanted or are they the ones that put everything in place and then people learn to work together for the best of the country/team.
Personally i think the Captain’s opinion clearly needs to be sought but too much power can be a dangerous thing and it is crucial when making appointments that these people are happy to work together. Clearly Pieterson had his problems with Moores from an early stage so why was he appointed as Captain? Surely to the people closely involved, the final outcome wasn’t overly surprising.
It is sad that it all happened the way it did and is clearly not ideal preparation for the upcoming tour of the West Indies. Andrew Strauss has a tough job on his hands harmonising, what could be, a difficult changing room. I am sure his aim will be to get the team to be open and honest and try to rebuild some team spirit.
I am backing Kevin Pieterson to score runs in the Caribbean but whether the team will gel together well enough to force some positive results remains to be seen.
2nd
So Australia get beaten on their own soil since 1993 and there is suddenly a crisis and every man and his dog voices their opinion. The fact is they just haven’t been used to getting beaten that often and to be so convincingly turned over means questions get asked. I have read many articles over the last few days about where they go from here and I thought I would offer another opinion.
It is no secret that they are a different team without Glenn Mcgrath and Shane Warne, especially the latter, and their deficiency in the spin departement has proved to be a real problem. I reckon they have two options.
Firstly, they could pick their four best bowlers (regardless of action), six best batters and Brad Haddin to keep wicket. The possible batters in my view would be Brad Hodge or David Hussey.
Secondly, they find an allrounder to allow them to play the spinner. I would play Jason Krejza who is a more attacking spin option then pick a bloke who can do a holding job as a fourth seamer to allow some control when the three quicks are tired or the spinner fetches it. Andrew Macdonald is a consistent performer having a great season with Victoria and has an opportunity to show is potential. A fully fit Andrew Symonds would still make my starting eleven but he has to able to bowl the overs.
Althought the results were ultimately pretty convincing the Aussies had South Africa on the ropes at times and failed to convert their strong positions. They are still a quality side and if they can keep confidence will still be a tough team to beat in Sydney and provide a stern test for England in the Ashes next year.
14th
Looks like an exciting game ahead but i am still backing our boys. Fantastic effort my Andrew Strauss, i think he becomes only the seventh player in history to score a hundred in each innings on the sub continent and the first England player. He hasn’t played much recently and the preparation for this game was so disrupted that it makes the feat even more impressive.
Straussy has clearly thought long and hard about his gameplan, particularly against the spinners where he looked to sweep on a regular basis but he also played the reverse swinging ball extremely well, playing the ball late and not looking for too many big shots.
Sehwag has played a typically aggressive innings to put India in with a sniff but i reckon Englands attack is well equipped to finish the job off….Flintoff 4 wickets. This would be a huge result for us, India have been in good form and are full of confidence so lets hope the boys finish the job off.
3rd
After the shocking terrorist attacks in Mumbai the England Cricket Team faces a tough decision on whether or not to return to play the two test matches that have been arranged. It is a difficult dilemma for all involved but i personally think they should continue on with the games and try to bring some relief to what has been a dreadful time for the whole of the Indian public. Obviously there needs to be clearance from all the security checks that will be taking place but if that comes back positively then i would encourage the team to tour.
I can understand players concerns and if the tour gets the go ahead they face difficult decisions but hopefully the majority will feel positive about the situation and give the Indian public something to concentrate their minds on after such a terrible time.
Let me know your views, especially you Willo! Englands prospects will be discussed soon.
16th
Not a great start! England have now suffered two humiliating defeats within a fortnight and are going to have to turn things around very quickly to try and regain some confidence. Losing is never fun…but getting whooped is dreadful. They face a stiff challenge, the Indian team look full of confidence in both forms of the game and are taking the game to the opposition by playing positive, aggressive cricket.
My feelings are that they England are going to have to match this and go all out to try and assert themselves from the start of the game. Whether they bat or bowl first tomorrow the first ten overs will be crucial and the game can be won and lost in that time. This puts alot of responsibility on the likes of Matt Prior and Ian Bell with the bat and Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad with the ball.
The injury to Yuvraj Singh would be a bonus after his phenomenal performance the other night!
5th
What a finale….both captains, Ricky Ponting of Australia and Indias golden boy Mahendra Dhoni, have both publicly stated the importance of the final test at Nagpur. After having been comprehensively outplayed in the first three tests, Australia still has a chance to come away from India holding the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
They will be under no illusions though, it will be an incredible result if they pull it off. The pitch will be a huge hurdle for them, all reports suggest a slow, low pitch suited to the spinners….no surprise there then. Australia are still faced with the problem of no Shane Warne, it is time to give Jason Krejza his opportunity. Krejza is relatively unknown but must be there for a reason, he has been selected as the Aussies number one spinner and they have to put some faith in him. Australia have performed well to stay in the series, to follow a huge Indian total of over 600 is never easy no matter how flat the surface and they batted admirably.
Great to see Lancashire new recruit, VVS Laxman, in the runs. He was fabulous in his short stint in 2007 and i am sure we are all looking forward to his arrival. A quick congratulations to him, this will be his 100th match for India….quite an achievement.
My tip….a step to far for Australia. Indian win
2nd
So the bonanza comes to an end in disappointing fashion for the fans and a slightly embarassing one for the England players. Not only did they miss out on the biggest purse of their careers but they also failed to perform even close to their potential on the night. The money is obviously a huge factor but i also think they will be gutted to not have given a better performance.
Right from the start there seemed to be a funny feeling surrounding the whole event. Kevin Pieterson made no bones about the fact that he hadnt enjoyed the experience and there seems to be a cloud over how things will go forward from here. A performance like the one in the final often screams of some sort discontent or lack of focus and maybe the players were uncomfortable with how the whole event turned out. I certainly think Pieterson is on the ball when it comes to preparing and focusing for cricket matches so i find the whole thing quite bizarre.
Although England didnt come out of the whole affair covering themselves in glory i think KP has handled it all with a degree of dignity and that we have the right man in charge.
21st
India have won the 2nd Test Match by a massive 300 run margin. The Australians were never in it after they failed in their first innings. I have mentioned on a couple of occasions how first innings runs are crucial to teams competing on the sub continent and Ricky Ponting admitted being two hundred runs short. Playing catch up out on Indian wickets, especially with the strength of their spin departement, proved a task too difficult.
The other interesting feature from the match was the difference in the potency of the bowling attacks. Despite a docile surface the Indian bowlers continually tested the Australian batsman with a combination of spin and reverse swing. The Australian bowlers, however, failed to get any assistance at all. They only managed some reverse swing late in the day with a very old ball.
This is the huge advantage the Indians have playing on their own turf, they understand the conditions perfectly and are able to exploit them to the full. It takes a huge amount of skill to manouvre the ball like Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma did. It was a high class display of quick bowling on the sub-continent.
I fear a bit more than a bit of ‘fine tuning’ will be required by the Aussies to bounce back from this crushing defeat.
16th
It seems there is no stopping India and Australia in spicing up their fixtures with a little friendly better between tests! It is safe to say that their relationship has been a little fraught with tension for some time now, and the build up to the test match in Mohali is no different.
Words have been exchanged between the two Captains, Ricky Ponting and Anil Kumble, both having their own little digs. There are question marks over Kumbles position both as player and captain and Ponting has commented on his ineffectiveness with the ball. The Indian Captain has spat back with a dig at the Australians lack of potency on a fifth day wicket……all tame stuff really.
After a fairly flat end to the 1st Test Match i think all will hoping that there is a bit more life in the pitch and the battle can continue on the pitch. There were some fine performances in Bangalore, namely Ponting and Hussey, who proved they are the two best batsmen in the world at the minute. Hussey in particular has been outstanding since making the step up to Test level, and no one deserves this opportunity more than him. A remarkably consistent performer over many years now and great to see him in the limelight.