England vs India at Lords

Welcome to my test commentary for the 2000th test match

DAY ONE

Once India won the toss and elected to bowl in overcast conditions unless their slow, swing bowlers get 2-3 wickets in the first spell the opportunity to use Sharma my have been missed - in the first 30 mins of the 2005 test, Harmison had struck Langer and Hayden and a crucial aggressive tone was set.

India's fielding was strangely without energy even for a subcontinent team and the two dropped catches off Trott will likely cost a fair few runs. The most important moment had to be suspected hamstring injury to Zaheer Khan who settled into his work very nicely as he picked up both opening batsmen. He pulled up after a delivery to Trott and I couldn't help but think it may be a huge loss to India - even if he recovers to play in the series he will likely be below-par

Sadly rain reduced the first day to barely 50 overs of play and most of that was quite slow going both in run rate and over rate

DAY TWO

Two stars today as Kumar toiled throughout to take 5 wickets while Kevin Pietersen regained his confidence and form to slaughter the rest of the attack and deposit the ball to all corners of a packed Lords cricket ground. 202* he finished on and England were able to declare with over 450 on the board despite Trott going early in the day. Tonight we get to witness the Indian batting line up battle in swinging conditions that should favour the likes of Anderson and co. Can Tendulkar make his 100th international century?

DAY THREE

Stuart Broad remembered his junior cricket days and decided to pitch the ball up and as a result netted 4 good wickets (including Tendulkar for 34) as India were bowled out just passed the follow on mark. Dravid scored a wonderful unbeaten century but support was hard to find and the ball continued to swing. England will look to build that lead to over 400 on Sunday and set a up a hard fought contest for Day five. I'm still hoping that the little master can at last score a Lords century (and his 100th) but the result will likely rely on Dravid again. however a batting collapse by England will make things interesting but with a wicket that is getting flatter and Zaheer Khan out of action this is unlikely. Then again, as I write this, Cook was just dismissed for 1 (27) by a really good ball so who knows?

DAY FOUR

Today we discovered why England will win this test series. As I said before, Zaheer Khan was India's important bowler and to have him go down injured on the first day was the worst blow possible for India. Today Ishant Sharma looked set to create an English collapse reminiscent of the 1990s and perhaps set up a target of 300 or so to provide a thrilling last day. At lunch this looked quite possible after Ishant took 3 wickets for next to nothing but after lunch the absence of Zaheer Khan was quite noticeable as well as Prior playing a wondeful counter-attacking role. When you are behind in the match you almost always require TWO bowlers to run through an opposition; Shane Warne and Brett Lee did this role during the latter stages of their careers. One bowler might take the majority of the wickets but it's the pressure at BOTH ends that does the damage. Tomorrow India will be fighting to save the test and lament the day one injury that prevented them from winning it and should prevent them from winning the series as well

DAY FIVE

India could not withstand some fine bowling and fielding from England and overall were outclassed in each facet of the game. The margin of victory was almost 200 runs as James Anderson took the key wickets and ended with 5. Tendulkar played what might be his last innings at Lords but was dismissed far short of the century that, like Shane Warne's 5 wicket haul at Lords, will be the one that got away; even Bradman was proved to be human at the end. For India there is plenty to rectify if they wish to compete in the rest of the series including their batting, bowling and fielding (I don't think I left anything out). The fielding lacked fitness, the bowling lacked consistent accuracy and the batting looked amazingly underdone. England will simply need to maintain the their intensity and should aim for the 2 match winning margin required for the ranking to become no1 in test cricket. As a fairly neutral spectator I have hope and that is for Zaheer Khan to return fit as soon as possible to make the ledger a tad more even

I will take 2000 more please sir

Hello and welcome back to my blog

Tonight (NZ time) Lords will host the 2000th match of test cricket. England and India begin their 4 match series at the 'home' of cricket and it would appear that only weather could disrupt this most brilliant of match ups as the two top ranked sides do battle, Rahul Dravid returns to the ground where he made his debut in 1996 and Sachin Tendulkar sits on 99 international centuries. I do feel a slight shiver of fear at the likelihood that this may be a boring draw going on Lords' wickets of the last decade or so, but on the other hand the bowling attacks of both sides may just comprise enough talent to avoid this disappointing possibility. As always the ability to master the Lords' Slope will be a crucial factor in this match but as for the series overall I think England are the favourites for no better reason than home advantage. For in these two teams we have opposites in terms of conditions, style and attitude to cricket. I have always said that if either team wishes to be the undisputed number-one test side they must prove it in the other's conditions.

There are plenty of factors that will likely play a part. For instance, many of England's players have just been part of their domestic 2020 competition while India have just played a tough test series in the West Indies, but counterbalance this with their surprisingly poor showing in the warm up game against Somerset where their attack was flayed to all parts (by Strauss for a time which may be something to note - his form will be crucial and in particular against Zaheer Khan the left-arm swing bowler). Khan is one key bowler for India as his ability to get both Strauss and Trott (who I believe has a weakness to good left arm pace) will be essential to breaking up the most effective top order going around. Sharma is the other key bowler: the match up against Plunket will be fascinating but I would offer a piece of advice to the lanky Indian quick: pitch the ball up a tad more than you normally would - Glenn McGrath learnt that (particularly at Lords) that you give yourself the best chance of swing and seam (as a tall bowler) if you do that. This may seem like common sense but... For England they must hope that Alastair Cook's run of form continues for at least as long as Strauss is out of form and that Pietersen can destroy Harbhajan Singh (who perhaps should change to left arm orthodox for those contests).

I suspect that the swing and seam of Anderson, Plunket and Broad/somebody better will do for India in one of the test matches even against their very experienced batting line up, whereas India will need to rely slightly more on batting pressure on the flatter wickets. The battle of the offspinners really isn't that important - it should be fun to watch Swann contend with right-handed Indians though (basically the opposite of his preferred victims i.e. left-handed-anybody-but-an-indian).

In the end I will simply cross my fingers for a tight contest and sit back to enjoy what could be classic series and a fine way to celebrate 2000 examples of my favourite sport. Expect plenty of pomp and ceremony at Lords this week and why not - there are far worse ways to celebrate this milestone as you will see below

NEWS

• New Zealand Cricket has confirmed Damian White of Australian domestic cricket circles as the new bowling coach for the Black Caps. Some of you may remember him as a bowling option of average quality when you played games like EA Cricket 2004 or International Cricket Captain 2005. That has been my answer to people asking 'who?' because that's all I really know about him - I hope NZC know more than that or we are in trouble
• The ICC announced the idea of making the championship final (held once every 4 years now) a timeless test. To which I can only gape and say 'yes, lets celebrate the survival of test cricket to its 2000th match in 2011 by announcing a return to the most ridiculous part of its past! Forget about introducing it to the USA market where they already scorn the idea of 50-over cricket let alone 5-day cricket or this outdated suggestion'

Will keep this post short in anticipation of the test series in England but expect regular posts during that contest

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

It's good bye for now

Do not allow mediocrity to get the better of you

Hello and welcome back to my blog

I have said in this space before that 'if everybody is somebody then nobody is anybody'. If fours and sixes are struck every over we lose the ability to describe the truly great batting assault because our superlatives lie withered on the ground, wasted on mediocrity. If an average medium-pace bowler takes wickets when a hint of seam movement destroys what little is left of a batting line-up's technique (due to a gluttony of flat wickets), the second coming of Glenn McGrath is proclaimed. I originally made this argument within the context of cricket commentary where practitioners have bought into the hype of 2020 cricket to a more disgusting degree than its promoters, but now I grow ever weary of the same weakness sneaking into the cricket talk in front of the television. I am increasingly aware that cricket media is powerless to prevent this because in the absence of a real star or real talent, television will hype anything

Suddenly Stuart Broad is the new Andrew Flintoff, Jacques Kallis is the new Garfield Sobers, Jonathan Trott is the new Steve Waugh and yes even Alastair Cook is the new Leonard Hutton (please don't make me say Jack Hobbs!). As cricket fans we desire enthralling cricket based on the concept of the battle between bat and ball but I refuse to be told that I should be happy with Mitchell Johnson bowling short at Ian Bell when I have seen Allan Donald bowl fire at Michael Atherton. Or watch James Anderson swing the ball around Sri Lanka when I have watched footage of Malcolm Marshall. We do our love of cricket a disservice when we allow ourselves to believe that any success we witness is of quality comparable with the greats of the past; we currently experience a nadir in the supply of great cricketers. To convince yourself otherwise will rob you of the ability to appreciate past greats and leave you with little to say when the current crop of talent (there is plenty) reaches maturity.

After hearing a couple of friends defend Cook and Trott as top class batsmen recently (friends whose understanding of cricket I respect and whose opinions I listen too) I was saddened to realise just how far this weed of mediocrity could spread. If cricket fans of such purity can allow their standards to drop then there is little hope for the money paying population. Cook's 766 runs in the Ashes this past season, while impressive for its temperament and consistency is not the equal of Vaughan's 600 runs of 2002/03 where an elegant technician took on the greatest attack in the world and won (personal, if not team victories). Cook is still a young man and has great potential, he is currently experiencing a wonderful vein of form but don't race to crown him the best opening batsman just yet. When his form does run out he will lose his wicket to another over-hyped player who then gets to be 'the great bowler who took down England's great batsman' and the cycle begins again.

Just because Trott takes an age to set his guard and pleasantly feasts on disappointing bowling attacks upon lifeless surfaces (which requires some skill but is largely a waste) does not make him the great no3 batsman that England hasn't had in decades. These young players need to be tested against the best exponents of the opposing skill (batting or bowling) before we can enjoy truly great cricket. I look forward to the 2013 Ashes when an English side, filled with talent now, will have grown into a juggernaut of quality cricket players to fight against a (hopefully) resurgent Australian XI. I drool at the idea of what Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder and Tim Southee will achieve rather than sit content with what little success they have experienced so far. I plead with you not to be content with mediocrity now, when the true richness of cricket is simply absent and will return.

ICC NEWS

• Minnows to be included in the 2015 World cup - to the exclusion of many from the 2012 and 2014 T20 world cups (only 2 of them in each). It is certinaly too soon to come up with cliches like 'won the battle but lost the war' and yet I cannot help but wonder if this point will be recorded as the moment when lesser cricketing nations were shafted
• The decision review system will now be mandatory in all international matches although the use of ball tracking systems (Hawkeye or, the better, Eagle eye) will be negotiated by the two teams before a series. Hotspot will be mandatory. Progress of a kind I think and certainly a step forward of sorts in terms of democracy within the sport; there was no Indian dictatorship on this occasion
• The running out of non-striking batsmen by the bowler (mankading) will now be legal again. Not really an important rule change given there hadn't been an instance of it in nearly 20 years. The one are here they need to change, in my opinion, is the ridiculous running out of the nonstriker off the bowler's body from a straight drive. This type of dismissal has always seemed counter-productive in a sport where the straight drive is supposed to be the pinnacle of the batsman's technique. If the ball comes off the bowlers hand then I have less of an issue but now with the review system surely we can stop the runout (in this circumstance) where the ball is off the foot or the elbow or the shoelace.
• There will be no runners in international matches; Jesse Ryder has not yet recovered consciousness after this was announced
• ODI cricket will now feature a new ball at each end of the pitch, an idea that has been suggested by many people ever since that stupid 34th over ball change rule came into affect
• The optional powerplays must now be taken between overs 16 and 40; I really think this rule change was obviously required right from the off with only wishful thinking keeping it at bay until now
• Batsmen can now be dismissed obstructing the field if they change their path to intercept the ball and good luck to the poor people who have to write the rule/sections to cover this one - not to mention the umpires that will have interpret them. A nice idea but this could be a disaster in the making
• There have been some alterations to the rules around suspension of captains for slow over rates (two strikes and you're out instead of three - ACT Party eat your heart out)

RECENT RESULTS

• IND win the test series in WI after Chanderpaul's last day century and some terrible rule abuse by the two captains (see this article for more information) ensured a draw in the final test. India next play in England for what should be a cracking series
• ENG won their ODI series against SRL after being 2-1 down. They produced a green top for the 4th match and predictably won by 10 wickets before winning a thriller in the 5th match.

ARTICLE OF INTEREST

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/5262133/Cricketer-Iain-O-Brien-admits-depression

This I stumbled upon today and seemed like a story that some people may have missed. Ian O'Brien has admitted suffering from depression since his university days and joins the list of former international cricketers to admit this as a constant through their career. O'Brien talks very candidly about the condition in this article and as somebody with family who suffer from the same thing (not to mention a few friends) I found it particularly interesting. I decided to include at as something different. Worth a read

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

It's good bye for now