Reverse Swing

You feel that over the last few months England have been quietly getting better at this one-day cricket business. In the World Cup so far they’ve looked competent against the lesser teams, and while the faults in the England team have been obvious – poor starts by the openers, a lack of overall quality in the bowling – you never felt they were totally out of things.

Against Sri Lanka today they looked they’d worked on the game: plenty of variation in the bowling with slower balls and different lengths, accuracy at a premium, and the fielding was sharp. They looked like they’d come together as an outfit, and when they dismissed Sri Lanka for 235 you felt they were in with a good shout.

It looked like they were purposefully chasing down the target when Pietersen and Bell were together, and the latter was narrowly run out. The wickets that quickly followed of Pietersen Flintoff and Collingwood seemed to put England right out of the game. The best batsmen disappearing together in the space of a few overs.

Enter Nixon and Bopara. ” I don’t know why you’re watching this,” said my wife.” Forty-five minutes later she was cheering on Nixon, as he wickedly improvised, reverse sweeping Murali for 6, and Bopara standing there, calm at the crease, looking like it was his destiny to win this game. In one way when you come as close as this and lose heroically you’ve won whatever happens: after playing all day it comes down to what happens off one ball.

But I felt sorry for Bopara at the end, especially when Fernando ran in for what should have been the final ball and it never left his hand. The actual final ball that was delivered bowled him, and you wonder whether he had been disturbed by Fernando’s failure to deliver the ball. Perhaps it was nerves in the Sri Lankan bowler, but I wouldn’t like to see this non-release of the ball become an established tactic in the close moments of a game.

It’s a good job that there wasn’t a sixth England-Sri Lanka ODI today as it could very well have been England on the end of the world record score of 443-9. Unluckily for the Netherlands they came up against a Sri Lankan team who have played themselves nicely into form.

Jayasuriya’s turnaround has been remarkable: a year ago he was struggling as Somerset’s overseas player and he wasn’t even picked for this tour – retired from the international game it looked like his time had gone. Now he looks unstoppable and it was 157 off 157 balls today.

England need a similar turnaround. They currently stand at 8th in the ODI rankings and at the moment you wouldn’t fancy their chances in a round robin tournament with Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Kenya.

The problematic area has been selection, and they seem to have lost track of who are their best one -day players as they have moved uncertainly from one choice to another, and the players have sensed this lack of confidence in them. The Worcester pair, Kabir Ali and Vikram Solanki, seem to have been the main casualties here.

A couple of years ago when Rod Marsh was in charge of the academy and a member of the selectors, there was a greater air of certainty, when he would comment on who was up to it and who wasn’t. If you got the nod from Rod then then you re-paid the confidence he showed in you, and played like you were up to it.

The turning point in his relationship with Fletcher seemed to be in 2004 when Fletcher preferred Geraint Jones to Chris Read, the choice of Rod Marsh, as wicketkeeper. Despite this he continued as selector until resigning in June 2005, and he was in charge of the academy at Loughborough until September of last year, a date that seems to have been the turning point for England.

In recent weeks it’s seemed like a return to the chaotic selection of the past, and you wonder just how much England are missing the judgement of Rod Marsh in selection and his work in preparing the next generation of players.

crowd

Originally uploaded by Spiderpops.

Spiderpops has captured this Mexican wave at Old Trafford in the Eng v Sri Lanka ODI. Looks like you needed protective headgear for this one.

I was wondering when this one was going to be openly mooted. In Richard Hobson’s preview of the England V Sri Lanka ODI to be played today in Durham, there’s little mention of the players and the cricket on the field. Instead he focuses on the possibility of Tom Moody becoming the next coach of England.

It’s not difficult to come up with a list of reasons why the ECB could be interested in Moody:

• Sri Lanka’s fight back
• Development of younger Sri Lankan players
• English wife, house in Worcester
• He applied for the Academy post

But then again with John Buchanan out of contract afer the World Cup, it could be Australia who will attract Moody’s interest.

Duncan Fletcher’s contribution to English cricket has been immense, and there will certainly be no change in the coach until after the winter tour of Australia and the World Cup. But with England’s continued lack of progress in the ODI format, and the tail-off in test form, the speculation on the succession will only increase.

Great innings from Jayasuriya – whatever the field, whatever the delivery, I’ll place it where I want. There’s no one quite like him when he’s at the top of his game.

Good bowling from Harmison too as the senior pro:- 10-2-31-3 is impressive economy in a total of 320.

But why oh why did Strauss keep on bringing Mahmood back? It’s always good to give a bowlers another chance but you could see it wasn’t going right for him from the start – 7-0-80-2 – was that in four spells? You could see his confidence was dropping, and he didn’t even take pleasure in his final wicket, which is always the worst sign. They’ve really got to nurture these bowlers and with plenty of bowling options around Strauss could have done that so much more effectively.

Harmison was bullish at the end of the Sri Lankan innings – “it’s a 320 pitch and we’ve got the names in the dressing-room.” We shall see, as they say.

There’s an opportunity today for Bresnan, Plunkett or Mahmood and that’s the vacant 4th seamer slot in the test team. I know this is a different format but it’s the kind of overall impression you make, and it’s worth remembering that Collingwood’s route to the test team was via the ODI squad.

At 85mph plus Mahmood looks to be the man with the speed for the Ashes but Jayasuriya has just clobbered him for a couple of sixes over cover….

This is the reverse sweep or left-handed sweep six from the 2nd test. Will it be seen again in the ODI series or was it a one-off?

If you didn’t see Murali’s 8 wickets at Trent Bridge then take a look at them here – from YouTube.

Wasim Jaffer

Originally uploaded by caribbeancricket.

At lunch on the final day the West Indies are 3 wickets down as India slip into pole postion. Sreesanth’s dismissal of Lara looked to be the crucial wicket.

But all of this is down to Wasim Jaffer’s fine innings of 213 off 399 balls. Sometimes a “stodgy Bombay opener” is essential. England could have done with someone like him yesterday. Nice shot of him saluting the crowd from Caribbean Cricket.

Sri Lanka beat England by 134 runs to tie the series 1-1. With Sri Lanka’s poor record in England and England’s recent good run of home form you would never have expected this result a month ago. The script, stated out loud by some, and thought by others, was that Sri Lanka were here to help get England into shape after their winter tours, so that the hosts could blood some new players, get into form, and to demonstrate how they could handle the spin of Murali in an extended outdoor net. It didn’t quite turn out like that.

Yesterday afternoon England moved from 84-0 to 125-6 by tea, and 190 all out, their total inflated by some big hitting from their number 11 Monty Panesar. It was some incredible bowling, where Murali whipped out his CV and showed the England batsmen his full range of deliveries. The Pietersen Murali battle? Clearly won by Murali with Pietersen leaving the field with a “I didn’t touch it walk.” The replays showed he did. You could see Murali was enjoying it out there, one minute frowning, the next smiling, intent and engaged with his craft, doing those things that can never be replicated by Merlin the spin bowling machine in the nets.

It was right that Murali had the star role, but this was a team effort. The Sri Lankan team played like they wanted to win it, inspired by Murali and all doing their bit when asked. Their were strong opening spells from Vass and Malinda, with Jayasuriya providing some interesting spin support, the ball often keeping low. In the field there was some good stuff from Malinga and a run out from Kapugedara.

This was not a lucky win where Sri Lanka caught England batting last on a dodgy wicket. It’s been coming throughout the series, as the Sri Lankan team has shaped and grown in confidence, from the fight back at Lords to the possibility that they might set a winnable total at Edgbaston to the 4th day at Trent Bridge. They deserve to draw the series and yes it does feel like a lost series for England.

What’s even more extraordinary about Sri Lankas’s performance is that it comes on the back of some turmoil and confusion in their domestic game : the wasted decade

In the immediate aftermath the one England player to have enhanced his reputation in the game is Monty Panesar: his 5-78 off 37 overs was great bowling. There’s been talk of a return for Giles when he’s fit, but now England have gone with Panesar they have to stick with him. In the long run what England may have learned from Murali and the  Trent Bridge defeat is that an attacking spinner is essential, and that Panesar is the man in that mould.