Pressure Situations

Hello and welcome back to my blog

You would be forgiven for sitting back, upon reading the title of this entry, and thinking to yourself 'well this guy's wasted that theme before we've even got to the finals stages' and perhaps you may be right. However I couldn't shrug off the impression that certain teams were placed/placed themselves in pressure situations this week and some dealt with it well while others provided a cold chill of fear to their fans as they realised that the finals haven't begun yet.

Results

Australia 'beat' Zimbabwe by 91 runs but managed to make the whole thing as agonising as possible to watch. If I knew he wasn't already in the commentary box I could have sworn that Sunil Gavaskar was the current AUS coach after they reached just 28 from 10 overs. Perhaps he is fulfilling both roles and it was upon hearing about Gavaskar's first World Cup innings that Ricky Ponting, discovering the predicament he and his team were in, lost his temper on a near by television; I would assure him that the damage done to that fixture was nothing compared to that done to people who sat through his team's innings

England 'beat' The Netherlands by 6 wickets but somehow managed to make the game as hard as possible by conceding 290 runs and put all sorts of pressure on themselves early in this tournament

Pakistan beat Kenya by 205 runs - only thing to really note here was the ridiculous number of extras gifted by Kenya to Pakistan - 46 (including 37 wides). Again a team put itself under unnecessary pressure by under-performing in the area that is almost solely the realm of the bowler and his/her control of line/length

South Africa beat the West Indies by 7 wickets in a clinical display that serves the purpose of building up the faith of their fans in them - faith being the ideal word here: believing in something without evidence, because the only evidence that could possibly allow a rational person to believe in SA would be if they actually won a tournament and not before that day. Expect that faith to be shattered sometime in the finals round

Australia beat New Zealand by 7 wickets. Now this result intrigues me a little. Naturally my first reaction was not so measured and involved the use of certain words one doesn't use in polite conversation, but now I begin to see the hold that AUS still appears to have over the NZ team and the pressure this illusion of grandeur places on the players resulting in some of the awful bowling and batting on display

Bangladesh beat Ireland by 27 runs. A victory led by key players Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan

Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 11 runs in a surprise result that deflate the image of Sri Lanka (particularly their batting) as a strong contender in this tournament while also reminding people of Pakistan's title as the best and worst cricket team rolled into one, internal-battle filled being

India tied with England in the most exciting match so far with wonderful centuries to Tendulkar and Strauss. India will feel worse after this match because their bowling attack has been shown up as a little weak and will necessitate the team choosing to bat first in every match or face the task of chasing massive totals themselves - often the more difficult task

Lastly congratulations to the leading member of my Fantasy League on cricinfo.com who has 3800 points as of this post. In the first week there has been healthy competition at the top (while sadly I languish in the middle - largely due to my refusal, on principle, to choose certain players (Watson, Johnson, Kallis etc)) and I wish people good luck in the coming week

Also don't forget that for each UNIQUE VIEW this blog receives during the World Cup I will be donating $1 to the Christchurch relief effort

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's good bye for now

The battle back home

Hello and welcome to my blog

This is a special post regarding the recent earthquake in Christchurch the home of many of New Zealand's most beautiful buildings and, this is a cricket blog after all, to some of its finest cricket victories. As well as a community of wonderful people who's lives have been shaken to the core (if you'll excuse the expression). This disaster is predicted to become the country's greatest in terms of lives lost among other measures and the urge to help or donate is strong.

Therefore I have decided to donate $1 to the Red Cross for every unique view this blog receives during the Cricket World Cup

1 Unique View=$1 given by me to the Red Cross

I will be donating weekly and encourage readers to follow my posts during this time. Although I would plead that you don't simply get every friend on facebook to view this blog just for the unique view count - i'm not made of money!

I also plead that each reader of this blog over the next month not simply comfort themselves knowing that I will donate, but help out in whatever way you can

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's goodbye for now

Was that really necessary?

Hello and welcome back to my blog

...and welcome to my coverage of the 2011 Cricket World Cup!

The opening weekend saw three absolute thrashings of minnows by top-tier teams. All six teams tried to prove something early in this tournament and three of them succeeded. The results don't exactly help those of us trying to keep the lesser teams at these tournaments though as poor technique - both mental and physical - was exposed on each occasion. As I type this, Australia have chosen to bat against Zimbabwe and only carnage can follow.

Fans of the winning teams will no doubt be very pleased with the efforts of their countrymen (as an aside, I'm not sure English fans fit in this bracket - more likely the South African fans will be happy twice) but fans of competitive World Cup cricket can't help but feel that the bloated group-match round is merely an extension of the warm up matches.

The individual games:

India beat Bangladesh by 87 runs on a very flat wicket. Sehwag was the most impressive on show, not just for his 175 runs but the proclamation of his intention to bat for a long innings and the will power and patience (of a kind) to go through with this. Kholi also showed useful control in a situation where some may have forgiven an aggressive but brief stay at the crease. For Bangladesh there was the bizarre decision to bowl first and then bowl terribly, their batting was competent but not without an element of Sunil Gavaskar's attitude from 1975 (where he decided the total was too hard to chase and settled in for batting practice and ended on 35* after 60 overs)

New Zealand beat Kenya by 10 wickets by aiming at the stumps and hitting them or the legs precariously placed in their defense. It was a simple plan and well executed but will hardly give the team great confidence going forward (although this might work against Shane Watson on Friday when NZ play Australia). Kenya were simply outclassed in every way

Sri Lanka beat Canada by 210 runs with the most quiet but also the most ruthless display

Assuming that Australia post a large total tonight and then blast out the Zimbabwe batsmen, New Zealand will be the only team to not have given their top-order a good work around, which will be my largest fear going forward

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's goodbye for now

Not quite what cricket wants but probably what it deserves

Hello and welcome back to my blog

Well the World Cup is upon us, to use the same phrase I found in almost every single article in the last week about cricket. Actually perhaps this pronouncement is more accurate in the following form: the eight-week long parade of mediocre cricket teams is about to begin like an agonisingly long soup-omnibus and good luck to you all, may most of you survive to the end. After what feels like an age since the last World Cup, in which time 2020 cricket has turned the sport inside out and made more than one player a lot more wealthy than they otherwise would (or ever should) have been, and the main thing I can predict or profess about the impending monster of a tournament is that it will not satisfy the purist cricketer. This sounds simplistic and more than a little cliched but my path of thought stems from something Peter Roebuck wrote this week about the need for the World Cup (I have linked his article below in ARTICLE OF INTEREST) where he suggests that, if not the early rounds, the final stages are what the world order of cricket is based on and that the truly great cricketers make their mark in these moments

1. 1975=Clive Lloyd (century)
2. 1979=Vivian Richards (century)
3. 1983=Kapil Dev (catch)
4. 1987=ascendancy of the Australian team (my inclusion not his)
5. 1992=Wasim Akram (3 key and memorable wickets)
6. 1996=Aravinda de Silva (century)
7. 1999=Shane Warne (key wickets in the semifinal and final)
8. 2003=Ricky Ponting (century)
9. 2007=Adam Gilchrist (century)

I believe this to be what cricket wants and probably needs after at least four years of more controversy than inspiring cricket. However I fear, call me a contrarian if you will, that the problems of the recent past ensure that this World Cup will be the least likely to provide the quality of performance that Roebuck is talking about. The advent of 2020 cricket and the absence of truly world-class performers (or the decline of the few that inspired in the last decade) may result in the cricket getting more what it deserves than what it wants. I quickly accept the criticism that this void provides the opportunity for the next generation (ignore for the moment that the individuals listed above were already secure in their roles before their world cup success) and normally I would agree but the fact that THIS tournament is in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - the fatherland of flat, slow wickets (a product more and more successfully exported to touch on another fear) - ensures the success of mediocrity in the form of powerful and technique-devoid batting, average spinners and all pace-bowlers looking the same.

Of course I extend the challenge to the teams to prove me wrong but I fear they won't. In the heat of the subcontinent the hope of uncovering the next Donald, Hutton or Pollock (Peter, Graeme or Shaun) is a forlorn one.

Now in terms of who may win this tournament, aesthetically pleasing or not, here are the top teams:

• Australia: 6-1 defeat of England on bouncy (er) wickets looks like nothing after two average warm up games. In 2007 they were lucky they got away with using a few old relics - the only thing that prevented their decline from being noticed earlier was the relative weakness of everybody else's old relics (Shaun Pollock played in that world cup for goodness sake!)
• Bangladesh: my dark-horse favourite to get into the finals if not the actual final ala Sri Lanka in 1996 (and for similar personnel reasons)
• England: they will play in the conditions most removed from their own and will likely prove a little tired after a long winter tour already. They have the talent to compete but don't be surprised if the drive was spent during three innings wins against Australia over Christmas
• India: to repeat myself, powerful and technique-devoid batting, average spinners and all pace-bowlers looking the same, but they are playing at home and their powerful and technique-devoid batting, average spinners and all pace-bowlers looking the same appear to be in better form than everyone else's powerful and technique-devoid batting, average spinners and all pace-bowlers looking the same
• New Zealand: we now know which commentators actually pay attention to us. Any that have called us the dark-horse for this tournament (again) don't know what they're talking about and haven't done their research. The bowling and batting ineptitude of the team keep changing places this summer - a semi-final berth should be counted as a victory. It will be the small improvements that I will be looking for from the team in preparation for the 2015 event (in our neck of the woods too)
• Pakistan: The only team that can beat this Pakistan team is the Pakistan team; enough said
• South Africa: will likely beat everyone until a key knockout match during which they will invent a new way to choke. The day will surely come when they don't and maybe 2011 will contain that day but until then I will keep my money away from that bet thank you very much. It will be interesting to see how well Steyn and Morkel perform in the conditions because if they don't the team will be in trouble
• Sri lanka: see my thoughts on India's chances above
• West Indies: Gayle and Roach are the key players for this team and possibly Bravo in the middle order
• Zimbabwe: Don't be surprised if they give a few teams a scare - they have not lost all of their skill since 2005. The player Taylor who opens the batting has put some good scores together in the last 12 months

There are probably some minnow teams playing and I'm sure they will do their best - Ireland is usually up for it and already gave England a scare in their warm up match - but just like many other major sports the lesser teams don't really have a chance to get passed the first round; good luck to them nonetheless.

As for my coverage of the World Cup I intend to give my thoughts on each and every match probably on alternate days or whenever practical. I will also mention the standings in my fantasy league on cricinfo.com (pin 855 for anybody that hasn't joined yet)

NEWS

The ICC has banned the use of Twitter by players, coaches and management for the duration of the World Cup to avoid spot/match fixing. I could and probably should write a whole blog on this topic but that will have to come later

RECENT RESULTS

New Zealand Cricket's one day final was played this week and provided a high scoring thriller including centuries for Vincent and Nicol, neither player will be at the World Cup and you can bet that their absence will be trumped up as a mistake at some point. To be fair it was nice of them to hit form after the squad was announced

ARTICLE OF INTEREST

http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/500957.html

As mentioned above this is Peter Roebuck's article about the importance of the World Cup. He makes some good points and as usual it is well written

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's good bye for now

World Cup Fantasy Team

Hey everyone!

I have just set up a private league on cricinfo.com for the World Cup. Would really like to see as many readers and followers of this blog join up and have some fun over the next 8 weeks as possible. For anyone interested please follow the link below to the homepage of the fantasy cricket, you have to create your team and then you can join my league

http://espncricinfo.fantasyleague.com/

The league is named 'Bowling Blind Followers' and the entry PIN is 855

See you there!

New Zealand's wicket keeper crisis examined

Hello and welcome back to my blog

It surprises me that Australia continue to struggle in their search for a quality spin-bowler after the retirement of Shane Warne (4 years of searching no less) and it's also surprising that Nathan Hauritz is the best they have found so far. To say that New Zealand cricket is walking down a similar path of futility with it's national wicket keeper role is slightly exaggerated (particularly given the continued existence of Brendon McCullum's playing contract as opposed to Warne's which is mostly definitely finished -ignoring the cries for his return this summer of course) but perhaps equally as mystifying given the apparent competition for that spot in 2003/4 when McCullum first got the role and then again throughout the last 7 seasons. Although not a huge concern to me, this topic has become a hot one for discussion among my peers so this blog entry was requested (of course any requests in the future will be answered at some point or other)

When it was finally decided that Brendon McCullum would give up the keeping gloves in Test cricket to prolong his career we suddenly had no definite answer to the obvious question of who would wear them in his place. Gareth Hopkins has often been his understudy but at this point he is 34 years old and looking ever more the elderly, as opposed to veteran, cricketer with poor performances in the sub-continent last year. Hopkins is of Auckland so if not him the corollary question becomes, from which other province do you pluck a keeper from obscurity and force into the role that was so frustratingly left absent by an aging (29) McCullum?

Well from top to bottom we have:

• (ND) Peter McGlashan (31 years old) a favourite of mine for the simple reason that he appears to be a thinking- keeper with his work on the gear he uses but in terms of technique (perhaps both batting and keeping) he seems to be type-cast into the 2020 form of the game; his flicks and reverse-sweep-for-six are good fun in that form but would not stand up to the scrutiny of pure cricket
• (AUK) Gareth Hopkins (34 years old) really his age is reason enough to end this experiment - even if he were a very good keeper and competent batsmen I would worry about picking him
• (CD) Kruger Van Wyk (31) from what I have seen of this wicket-keeper-batsman he appears to have similar attributes to McGlashan above although there appears to be less frenetic energy in his game (likely due to his other role as captain of his side). If he were picked (when he is finally eligible to play for NZ) he could also fill the role of captain soon to be vacated by Daniel Vettori - although wasn't this plan tried before...
• (CD) there is also Timothy Weston (28) who averages 40 in first class cricket but has limited keeping experience at that level
• (WEL) Christopher Nevin (96?) do I have to repeat my arguments against Hopkins here? I realise he was recalled to Wellington this season but that makes him good enough for them - not difficult at the moment
• (WEL) Joseph Austin-smellie (21) too wet behind the ears I'm afraid
• (CAN) Reece Young (31) made his test debut and maiden test fifty against Pakistan this summer and looks good enough to remain in the role for now. His is a story of being a what the English call a county pro - competent and hard-working but never likely to dazzle anybody; skills the team welcomes at this point
• (OTA) Derek de Boorder (25) with a first class average of 35 he could be good mix of youth and some apparent batting skill. His citing of Adam Parore as his mentor and influence is a good sign too. He could be a good choice when Young moves inevitably from low-30s to late-30s and the retirement that comes with it

The other point worth discussing now would be the bizarre decision to use Jamie How as a back-up keeper during the World Cup. Just to clarify, by 'bizarre' I mean 'insulting' and by 'back-up keeper' I mean 'person to stand there and look the part at least until the first edge flies his way.' I can just imagine Justin Vaughan about to begin the press conference to name the squad and suddenly realising they didn't pick another keeper, at which point he ducked his head into the changing room and yelled 'hey can any of you boys keep?' The only question I have at this point is, if we have to pick a non-keeper for this role and have them really there to bat in the top-order, why not pick Lou Vincent a proven batsman at this level and keeper on the side (not to mention a brilliant ground-fielder). He is also in fantastic form in the domestic List-A games

So even though wicket keeper selection has has a Xavier-Doherty feeling about it lately, there is something to work with amongst the domestic ranks. If that doesn't work I know an individual who has kept to my deliveries over the years who would have my recommendation (not a bad 6 hitter either)

NEWS

• Tim Southee was reported to have got into trouble with a woman at a bar (yes that old story) during the flight to Dubai this week. Although first rumours had him channeling some of Shane Warne's best off-field moments, the official story includes nothing more than a kiss on the cheek by a rather drunk passenger
• Pakistan players Butt, Asif and Amir were banned this week for 10, 7 and 5 years respectively. I felt that life-bans were in order for the first two and quite possible for Amir but at least this is something (not to mention the ban is from ALL cricket so their careers could effectively be over anyway). The worst part to this conclusion is the hiring of Butt by a Pakistan TV station for the World Cup - a disgusting ploy for ratings and nothing more
• Wellington Cricket have ended their relationship with coach Anthony Stewart after no domestic titles were won under his tenure
• Shane Watson was awarded the Allan Border Medal this week - my how that team has fallen
• It was announced today that former England all-rounder Trevor Bailey died at age 87 in a fire. He played 61 tests between 1949 and 1959 for 2290 runs and 134 wickets, he also had a successful career for Essex before joining Test Match Special

RECENT RESULTS

• Australia pulled off a 6-1 victory during the ODI series against England just to make sure we don't write them off completely for the World Cup
• New Zealand constructed an encouraging win in Auckland to finish their series with Pakistan at 2-3 after Jesse Ryder's second ODI century. An encouraging sign was Nathan McCullum's two fifties at the end of this series which may finally mark the coming-of-age of this talented limited-overs player

ARTICLE OF INTEREST

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/cricket/news/article.cfm?c_id=29&objectid=10705275

This talks of the Tim Southee 'incident' and although within it's paragraphs it is quite clear that nothing happened the whole thing reeks of desperation by a paper tailored to conservative old people. You will notice the title which doesn't really make sense given the facts and the graphic of Tim Southee with a hooded jacket - picture if you will the elderly couple enjoying a bit of youth bashing while reading this - and you get the impression of a feeble news outfit trying to remain relevant by catering to the demographic that is on it's last leg

This piece of NZ Herald garbage is little better than the hiring of Salman Butt by that TV station (at least done for the same reasons). If you think that's false equivalence then notice the part at the end where they mention other in-flight mischief as if they are all part of a rich tapestry

SLEDGE OF THE WEEK

The NZ bowlers seem to have picked up on the idea that they need to be more aggressive in pace and in attitude while bowling - Southee and Franklin in particular. Well they have a way to go before they match the king Fred Trueman.

An edge off Trueman's bowling went to slip and through the legs of Raman Subba Row, at the end of the over this famous exchange was produced

"Sorry Fred, i should've kept my legs together"

"Not you, son. Your mother should've"

Well that's it from here and i hope you join me again

It's good bye for now

World Cup Fantasy Team

Hey everyone!

I have just set up a private league on cricinfo.com for the World Cup. Would really like to see as many readers and followers of this blog join up and have some fun over the next 8 weeks as possible. For anyone interested please follow the link below to the homepage of the fantasy cricket, you have to create your team and then you can join my league

http://espncricinfo.fantasyleague.com/

The league is named 'Bowling Blind Followers' and the entry PIN is 855

See you there!

From one choker to another

Hello and welcome back to my blog

As enticing as it was to come up with a pun involving 'lightning' for my profile blog about Allan Donald the former South African fast bowler I thought you and I deserve a little better. Although John Kerry once said that the cliche is waiting in the keyboard to pass through the fingertips, travel up the arm, into the brain and be dumped on the page. I did think of saying something like 'will lightning strike twice?' but decided on the above title after considering a different question: is it wise to employ a key player from the worst chokers in ODI cricket, and World cups in particular, to act as bowling coach for another world cup choker (NZ) for the duration of a world cup? Well I would say that Donald's record might lead you to either extreme answer to that question

South Africa's White Lightning played 72 tests for his country between 1992 and 2002, taking 330 wickets @ 22.25 (strike rate a healthy 47) with 20 5-wicket-hauls and 3 10-wicket-matches. Highlights include:

• Leading SA to victories at Lords in 1994 (5-74&2-29) and 1998 (5-32)
• 8-71 against Zimbabwe - his best innings figures
• 80 wickets in 1998 - including 33 in England
• Averaged just 16.8 per wicket in victories

More than these figures, Donald was his country's first world-class cricketer post-apartheid and his performances are found throughout South Africa's notable victories during the 1990s as they reestablished themselves on the world stage. However, just like many of his team mates, his performances against Australia were poor and contributed to his team's below-average performances against them. It wasn't just the 1999 runout that produced the 'choker' label for SA (that runout was of Donald as it happens) but the feeling that their best was for when it didn't matter. So would such a mentality transfer through to whichever team he was coaching?

I'm not so sure about that, Donald took up commentary after his international career was over (he retired during the thrashing by Australia in 2002) and eventually took up a coaching role with England in 2007. While only a temporary contract he quickly became popular and respected for his work with that team. He decided not to extend that role due to family reasons but did take up a similar role for his former county team Warwickshire in 2008 - helping them to notable success in the second division.

My opinion is that if he can instill the kind of hostility he possessed as a bowler in those he coaches that would be enough - certainly in the Black Caps - and if he can teach bowlers to perform like the below clip then all the better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaJ8-4jrCWQ

Or this clip - considered to be one of the fiersest spells in modern cricket

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a10FtSaAsQQ

NEWS

• The rotation policy being used by the NZ selectors is said to not be agreeable with either Vettori or John Wright and has come under criticism by commentators across the land for producing small crowds and an inconsistent showing from the players themselves. I don't think it's fair to blame this policy for their performance - maybe if they had won some of those 11 games that they didn't win... However I don't like the policy because of the poor performance it will produce in the World Cup if a solid 11 is not used BEFORE then (not starting with the first group match)

RECENT RESULTS

• NZ have slipped to 1-2 against PAK after a classic match in Napier. I was equally impressed with the death bowling during the last 15 overs of this match from the Black Caps and Vettori's captaincy that was notable for clever bowling rotation and clear planning of how to apply pressure; this ability to scrap will be needed to win key matches in the future and it's good to see it appearing in this young team
• AUS took an unbeatable lead in their 7 (sigh) ODI series against England but does anybody care? Apparently Matt Prior cares enough to cheat by taking the bails off with his gloves before appealing for BOWLED (ala Brad Haddin although far less accidental)

LOOKING BACK

February 1st - this week marked the 30th anniversary of the underarm ball when Greg Chappell instructed his younger brother to bowl along the ground to prevent New Zealand from getting a 6 off the last ball to TIE the match in question. Some say it's time to forgive this outrage but I argue that this would only be possible if Australia would stop crossing the same line (although less severely) since then

SLEDGE OF THE WEEK

On his first tour to Australia, Michael Atherton was given a lucky reprieve when not-out was called on a caught behind appeal. At the end of the day, Ian Healy walked passed the lucky batsman and had a few words:

'You're a fucking cheat."

To which Atherton simply replied:

"When in Rome, dear boy."

Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again

It's good bye for now