Reverse Swing

As Matthew Hayden scores his third century of the World Cup against New Zealand his old opening partner, Justin Langer, not to be outdone, scores a triple century for Somerset against Middlesex. Makes you wonder whether they kept an eye on each other’s score.

During the rain in Antigua Sky showed the batting highlights from Australia’s matches against South Africa and the West Indies. This double-dose of centuries from Hayden as he clubbed the attacks of the next strongest teams in the competition was an awesome sight.The one-handed six off Samuels when he found his feet in the wrong position must have been a first in any form of cricket. Even when you take modern bats and boundaries out of the equation, his hitting has been pretty spectacular.Not so long ago there was talk of the end of his international career when Hoggard was getting him early in the tests – there was a sense that he’d been worked out. The thing is, have he and Australia peaked too early in this competition?

It was quite something to watch the ruthlessly professional West Indies squeeze Pakistan out of the game at Sabina Park. Tight bowling, spattering the spot, nothing down the legside, and definitely no extras, as they were backed up some athletic fielding, culminating in Bravo’s astonishing left-handed catch off his own bowling to dismiss Gul.

The last sight of the West Indies was in their warm-up game against India when they were giving catching practice. And then there was Tony Cosier’s commentary: does anyone shout more loudly for their own team than Tony Cosier?

Today I shall be cheering on Scotland against the Aussies. Strange how these things work out. If this was a football match then I would be cheering on Australia rather than Scotland.

It takes some time to get used to the idea of winning a ODI series in Australia, but it’s generally a good feeling. Today in Sydney, it was the pleasure of watching Plunkett and Mahmood’s improvements as bowlers as the weather provided some seaming conditions. Suddenly, England has an attack with these two backed up by Flintoff, and with Panesar spinning and Dalrymple and Collingwood providing the pace off the ball stuff. The latter of course somehow managed to out-shine even his own recent efforts, top-scoring with 70, a couple of wickets, and somehow contriving to provide a clone of himself at backward point when Dalrymple took a stunning left-handed catch.

But of course the real pleasure of today has been gently pissing on the parade, and in particular on the script of the Commonwealth Bank series, designed to celebrate yet another Australian triumph. The king-size cheques and the trophy which resembles something used by an illegal car-clamper in Deptford, and Ponting promising to win it for the Commonwealth Bank next year, showed how a genuine contest like the Ashes doesn’t need hype like this.

Talking of hype the last thing England need at the moment is the English media talking up the team’s chances. It’s good to win against Australia three times on the trot but the team is some way from achieving the consistent levels of performance needed for success in the World Cup. For at start they need to do some work on the problem of run-outs.

While I’m not quite at the stage of thinking that England may have a chance of becoming the first overseas side to beat Australia in a ODI series in Australia since who knows when it’s good to enjoy success for a moment or two. I may write to John Buchanan pointing out that the inadequacy of the Australian bowling attack is interfering with England’s World Cup preparations, but then again we all know ODI cricket is not that significant in the great scheme of things.

What I am enjoying are the performances of Collingwood. Successive centuries, some excellent take the pace off the ball bowling and his athleticism in the field make him a fine cricketer, far more than a useful one-day player.

I’m also pleased for him because he’s been blamed in some quarters in southern England for losing the Ashes, for his obdurate 22 n.o. at Adelaide and for making Shane Warne angry with his sledging. ( His detractors also seem to forget his double-century in the first innings at Adelaide.) It’s largely been down to his gritty excellence that England are now in the position they are. And suddenly, overnight, very discreetly the prospects for the next few months are considerably brighter.

While it was good to see England finally win a game in Australia, the best part was that they showed some character. When Symonds wandered out of his ground and Nixon lobbed the ball at the stumps and hit Symonds who slapped the ball away something was said. It took you back to how England played in 2005 with Jones’ shy at Hayden and Harmison hitting Ponting in the first test. It’s the kind of spirit and aggression that’s gone walkabout for England in this series, and while its return may be late it demonstrated that they’re still capable of playing with some passion.

There’s been a problem with the sound on my TV for the last four months, and yesterday I finally got around to taking it in for repair.

“How long it will be?” I asked
“Around a week,” said the engineer.
“That’s fine,” I said.

What will I miss? Just a couple of ODI defeats for England, nothing new. England may be a nation of spectators rather than participants when it comes to sport but it looks like we’re giving that up to. The Barmy Army are selling their tickets and coming home, there was no coverage of cricket in the Guardian today, no preview of the ODI international, only some significant discussion of Aston Villa’s new pay structure, which shows you how far cricket has slipped in the scheme of things. The nation is into displacement when it comes to the summer game.

In fandom land you know that once you reach the lowest point that an upturn invariably arrives. But have we reached the lowest point yet? Bowled out of for 111 and losing by 9 wickets seems pretty bad. Let’s just hope that this is the lowest point.

With England suffering their first 5-0 defeat since 1921 in an Ashes series it’s fall-out time.

After all not even the mixed bags of teams that were sent out in the 1990s lost 5-0 and not even Mike Denness’s 1974-75 team lost by that margin, and nor did that of Wally Hammond’s in 1946-47.

It’s embarrassing for the ECB, not just because they’ve got it written down on a piece of paper somewhere “Don’t Lose to the Australians Ever Again,” but also because they’ve taken the Sky money for a product that now looks way past its best-before date. Some of it has been spent it has been on the caravanserai of coaches, masseurs, family members and back-up Academy team and all to no avail – England were stuffed out of sight. So today they’ve announced a wide-ranging review :

“to determine how Team England performances during the period 2003-7 should be improved in order that England regain the Ashes in 2009 and win an ICC Global One Day Event during the period 2007-11″.

Leaving aside the 2003-7 date in the statement – it looks like management has been re-cycling an objective here – England will find it difficult enough to re-gain the Ashes never mind win an international one-day tournament. With the report due in February so

” that actions can be implemented prior to the 2007 World Cup,”

what changes are we likely to see?

1) The coach , Duncan Fletcher, instrumental in England’s success over the last 6 years, is outside the review. However, by the end of the World Cup the ECB may decide its time for a change, and by then Fletcher may decide he’s had enough of the job. In the usual spirit of learning from the Australians the ECB may decide to go for Tom Moody – if he doesn’t get the Australian job – for the start of the test series against the West Indies.

2) The assistant coaches. England’s indifferent bowling and batting performances will mean their roles will come under review. But as Matthew Maynard. Kevin Shine and Mark Garaway were all appointed by Fletcher then they’re unlikely to change until he departs. I suspect that Fletcher will want to work with them to put things right in the ODI series and the World Cup, so there’s no immediate change there.

3) The captaincy. Hampered by his painful ankle and with his all-rounder position Flintoff has tried hard with a side short on form and experience but its clear he’s been called on to do too much. With Vaughan an ever-present in the background on a central contract he’s obviously been kept in situ to take over from Flintoff for the one-day series – fitness permitting. Whether Vaughan with his poor one-day form is the right man to lead in a ODI series is another question, but the ECB may decide that a change of captain will restore England’s fortunes. If his knee doesn’t hold up then Strauss could be asked to take over the role. It would be a pity to see Flintoff held responsible for this debacle after his heroic efforts in the past, but the hope is that released of responsibility he will make a greater all-round contribution with bat and ball.

With the ball moving around and in the context of some recent performances, England’s 234-4 wasn’t that bad today. You could go on about how it was better to field than to bat; about how the openers made a start and then didn’t go on; about how Bell was out for 71 when a hundred was there; about how with one more wicket Australia will be into the tail, but in this series, most England supporters will talk up this performance, hoping against hope that another day of disaster is not lurking round the corner.

And the talker-uppers will also say that with the series won, Australia will feel they only have to turn up to win, and they will also be weighed down by the emotion of the three players and the coach retiring, so they could be at their most vulnerable since Steve Harmison ran in for the first ball of the series.

The game is still there to be won by England and Flintoff, by the way he batted today, was clearly putting his pride on the line. There’s plenty of others in the team with points to prove, and dead rubber or not, it’s in the long-term interests of English cricket to gain a win, rather than to hope that a 5-0 defeat will bring on the long knives more quickly. With the ODI series and the World Cup ahead England still have plenty of cricket to play with Duncan Fletcher and his assistant coaches still in charge.

After England’s collapse in their first innings and Gilchrist’s assault of a century yesterday you didn’t dare to hope for that much from the fourth day’s play from the WACA.

True, Duncan Fletcher had said it was only a case of the next four batsmen getting in and the ever-bullish Pietersen has been saying how it was possible to go to Melbourne only 2-0 down but you felt that even with the Perth wicket losing its bounce that England would struggle, such is the psychological double nelson that Australia has on the team.

And it’s not just been the failings of the England team, the English media has conspired with their Australian counterparts in putting in the boot. On Sky yesterday there was the sight of Stuart Law wearing a suit but with a bat in hand demonstrating to Charles Colville how to play on the WACA pitch. “You’re English now aren’t you?” twittered Colville and the message seemed to be that Stuart Law with his suit, collar and tie could make a better job of batting at Perth than the current crop of English batsman.

Law mentioned that he’d been ready to help England with advice on how to play on Australian wickets but Duncan Fletcher hadn’t contacted him, which leads us into England’s lack of batting experience on Australian wickets. While some of England’s top 6 have played club cricket in Australia, none of them has played test cricket and this must have been a factor in the series. The Australians, of course, have the advantage of nurturing their batting skills and knowledge of the England players in the safe and friendly environment of the county championship before moving into the international arena, as Hussey has done, and as Jaques, Cosgrove and White will undoubtedly do in the near future. The ECB has probably noticed this and in the interests of future competitive series they will approach Cricket Australia about the possibility of two scholarships for each Pura Cup side for promising young English batman. After all if the Ashes contests are too one-sided then a non-contest won’t draw the crowds in Australia, as the empty spaces at the WACA today demonstrated.

In the mean time, this match and the rest of the series gives England’s batsman the chance to spend time at the wicket and toughen up for contests in the future – think Alan Border hardening his resolve in those 1980s Ashes defeats. Ian Bell and Alistair Cook did just that today with the latter scoring his fourth test century at the age of 21 before being drawn to a McGrath delivery that stretched across him. The performance of both batsmen shows that we have the right players in the team. England could still win tomorrow but the victory would be of the magnitude of one that happens every hundred years :1981 Headingly.