Goodfella
Posts: 15022
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: North Devon
|
Two fine days of sun, cider and cricket for me then! Just got back with a tiny bit of what I've come to call them, given the word association with our current economical climate, a double-dip hangover! That kind of one where you went a little bit heavy the day before until a little bit later than you should have so the hangover hasn't quite kicked in properly the next day and your body has already enticed you in too thinking you can start drinking again! This, I can assure you, is not the body telling you the whole truth, as I found out when I woke up this morning. But, anyway, enough about the state of my liver, back to the cricket....
Dominant stuff from England, to say the least, reminded me of Sri Lanka in Cardiff a few summers back, a test that flitted with inducing heart-attacks in the head offices of various bookmakers across the country before leveling out more predictably then before the final act, an almost one-man show of the highest order of sheer control and destruction, ensured, then it was Graeme Swann, yesterday it was Stuart Broad.
It got a little more than dubious for England before all that though on Saturday evening as Joe Root, who made a serene 71 and take nothing away from that young man again, found an inside edge to Tim Southee, and then Johnny Bairstow played that kind of stroke that makes you want to jump through the television screen in fury, got caught napping against the fuller delivery from the impressionable Southee and played right across his stumps, I said earlier he looks very fidgety early on at the crease and plays a lot of his shots, especially those into the legside, very late, something for him to work with Graham Gooch going into the Headingley test later this week. Prior took full vantage point this test for his declaration of England's Cricketer Of The Year with a pair you just couldn't have called, he loves the pull shot but got that one all wrong and it dipped in a little on him before finding square leg before Trott was the unluckiest victim of all as that was an absolute ripper from part-time spinner Kane Williamson, one Swann had spent the better part of the day before looking for hit, the green, hit the rough, it spun all sorts and Trotty didn't stand a chance and England were in the proverbial shit going into play next day on 171-6 with Bell's involvement delayed due to illness, another concern as to how much time, and how many runs they were actually going to get out of him. The "resistance" from England the following morning would have been generally described as tepid, Finn went out in a blaze of hanging his bat out there like he expected someone's coat to be tethered onto it, Bell lasted for 6 runs prodded one that moved back into him to Brownlie who had a good test at second slip and Broad actually batted well for a rather defiant 26 not out from 25 balls, moving his feet better this time and getting into the line of the ball more, he also got over it and went after the bad one early, Swann played a rather hideous shot to get out and Anderson was never going to last awhile for England to get anywhere near 250, especially after all the hard work he'd done in the first innings.
It sounds like a statement littered with hindsight now I know, but I had a little feeling going into yesterday that even with a slender target of 239 that this test was still very finely-balanced. The lights came on again and the conditions were ideal for seamers, especially those who could move it back into the right-hander out of the bits of rough, when Broad lands it on the right length he can be nigh-on-impossible to play which is why he has such a high percentage of batsmen playing on in his wicket tally and why so many of them come at grounds like Lord's and Trent Bridge where the ball carries more and can nip through, it didn't at all there in the first two days and a half but it did yesterday morning with Fulton showing a weakness for pushing outside the line to be the first dismissal within two overs of play. Broad then just hit his flow, it was like his spell against India at Trent Bridge back in 2011, and I'm talking outside just the memorable hatrick, he absolutely scattered the tourists, hitting middle and off he had the ball jumping in and out off the seam, a little bit of reverse swing and a real lick of pace, something that unnerved New Zealand even more because it had been a relatively slow pitch up until that point. The delivery to remove Rutherford was my personal best, because the ball jumped up sharply off the seam and Rutherford just couldn't get on top of it at all, it was like the kind of bowling Glenn McGrath used to deliver, unplayable pace and seam movement, he carved it open for Finn as well as Williamson tried to put Broad down to cover and found the slips and McCullum tried to play straight too him but Broad was just too good, he literally had them all on the rack by himself and Brownlie went out to Anderson as he tried to find a way out of the mire for himself and his team.
It didn't help New Zealand that both wicketkeeper BJ Watling and legspinning all-rounder Bruce Martin were both clearly injured and lasted with little might after lunch and Watling almost just nicked his way out of the painful process and Martin got knocked over as Broad continued to find his stride before dangerous left-arm seam pair Trent Boult and Neil Wagner proved whilst they can form a formidable and complimentary partnership with the ball it's probably best not to have them batting together too often and it was all over. It almost seemed to go in the blink of an eye, one moment we're contemplating an Ashes summer-stubbing, history-making defeat to arguably the worst test side in the world (if you squint your eye and don't include Zimbabwe who are starting to play test cricket again with series against Bangladesh and the West Indies recently) and then the next everything is right with the world again, we have the best bowling attack if you pretend any of the following don't exist - Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander or Jacques Kallis, and a few others too boot - and for the third time in almost 30 months of cricket we've bowled a test nation out for less than 100, the plucky but perilous New Zealand joining the forementioned Sri Lanka and the arch nemesis, Australia, on that list.
Really though, that all said and done, it turned out it was a pretty slow pitch and 232 in the first inning was a reasonable score, England would still have expected to do better with the bat and I'm not going to make excuses, there were some poor early shots, some of them I think a little down to dusting off the cobwebs of a winter-to-summer hiatus, it was a tough pitch though, not one England would usually fancy and in the first test of the summer to not get skittled out for less than 200 still takes a level of commitment and penetration with the bat, and a lot of that was down to young Joe Root who continues to excel as an all-round fixture in the England set-up, 111 runs at an average of 55.5, three 50s since debut against India in Ahmedabhad last November and on three separate occasions now surrounding circumstances have almost seemed to attribute too a robbing of his first maiden ton, it certainly hasn't struck of him not being able to kick on but more with the timing of the new ball and what he is left to do with and to tackle with but that 71 was beautiful, his best innings so far in my opinion given the stage he came in at, the way New Zealand were bowling, the way the stage of the test was set and how he ticked along, he has a real eagle eye for the ball and there is a serendipity about the way he plays, it sometimes looks almost effortless but not arrogant but then you look at his face and the concentration and determination and you see just the kind of player he is, one who has always been talented and had potential but one who has had to graft for it along the way and one who, quite simply, knows how to play the game.
Fantastic result for England, Cook and Flower will have been delighted with the way we bowled over the course of the five days and maybe a little less excited about the pitches but definitely about the conditions, Australia have a good, young seam attack too but they don't have the ability and experience of this seam unit when it clicks, only South Africa are better than us at bowling in the world right now, and Cook will fancy similar conditions at Headingley, he'll want England to improve individually and as a team batting, there's no question about that, but he'll ride the storm there as well as I think if South Africa had faced a moving and low pitch like that even they wouldn't have racked up so many either. Expect Leeds to be similar, it's how it's played for Yorkshire and those that have visited for us so far this season, so I'd expect another exciting and entertaining test match. As impy says....
quote:
Oh cricket...
quote:
I once played a game where I came in at 4 wickets down for a single run. A pretty fast bowler who just seamed it in slightly and was either trapping the batsmen or taking their stumps. I survived an lbw appeal first ball and managed to tick the score over to about 20 before I got bold, tried to knock one out of the park and top edged it (I still hear my coach telling me to roll the wrists). Our number 8 was a bit of a ringer and took the score up to 60 before he list partners.
I have a similar story too that. I used to play for Belvdere when I lived in south London and we were coached by Alan Knott's late brother who was a chain-smoking, part-time driving instructor and general cricket fanatic. We had far from a great team to be honest and many who would show up some weeks and not the next (they're a lot better now though by just looking at their website from time to time) and often we would all move around the junior levels to fill in vacant spaces on other age-group teams as there was always a bit of leniency from League officials when it came to that sort of thing as long as it wasn't a 15 year-old playing in the U11s or anything silly like that, but at 13 I played for the U15s which even with the squad issues was a pretty big deal! I bowled more than I batted at my age group as it was so I didn't come in until 8 for this game and at that point we were at 24-6 and facing a short and sharp defeat! I think I played and missed for what seemed like an hour and a half before scoring four boundaries in 10 balls, getting a few byes off my pads, somehow managing to miss short leg with an almighty heave against the spinner, one that I'll admit, from the pavilion, probably looked like a swan trying to tap-dance, and got myself to the mid-30s, I was bouncing inside as I hadn't scored a 50 all season at that point at any level and then I went into a mode of shocking ignorance and got clean bowled playing a shot similar to the one of Bairstow's yesterday, with even less grace than that, I think we were out for about 80-odd and still lost by at least 7 wickets and I'm pretty certain I bowled two overs for the better part of a half-century, I bowled something between medium-pace and what Darrel Hair would probably deem to be chucking. Coach Knott gave me a bit of a rollicking after the game but he was always such a nice bloke and could barely race a voice in between coughing fits and whenever he made any point about batting, even if it was the simplest of defensive prods, he'd have to somehow, inevitably, compare it to something Viv Richards used to do. He loved that man so much, he made us practice his pull shot independently with him for at least half an hour each nets session. No matter how many times I practiced it, I still looked fucking stupid trying it on the pitch. I'd often end up either playing on or, on at least three separate occasions, kicking my stumps out whilst falling over! I love my cricket more than anything, but I won't ever pretend that I'm a very good player!
Anyway I'll do my player ratings shortly once I decide on who I think my MOM should be!
_____________________________
"It is the Shawshank Redemption! Just with more tunneling through shit and less fucking redemption."
Last Film Watched: Flight ****
|
Printable Version
RE: Cricket - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread