yes, you've probably seen me ramble on about this before but the difference, this is the draft for an article to be included in media coursework.
After the extinction of the ‘Benson & Hedges cup’ in 2002, the ECB required another one-day competition to replace it and so twenty20 cricket was born. Now almost ten years later, it seems as if the whole world has gone mad for t20: every cricket playing nation embraced it almost immediately. Back in England, most counties sell out for twenty20 nights and this provides a large majority of the club’s income – something they do not get from the other two domestic competitions. With the beer flowing and the pop music deafening, it seems a world away from cricket from yesteryear. Venture to a championship match at the same ground a week later and see the difference before your eyes: thousands of empty seats, with only a row of ‘Daily Telegraph’ reading, middle class, sixty year olds, sipping tea from their thermal flasks. The counties seem to be doing their upmost to entice people into watching the longest form of the domestic game, citing that their main objective is to either achieve promotion or to win the first division. With England top of the test rankings, it was hoped fans would take a bigger interest in the county championship and we shall hope for positive results in 2012 season.
Although the county game is suffering and failing to encourage supporters to attend matches, England themselves do not seem to be having such problems. Despite the amount of seemingly meaningless ODIs – the English fans are continually selling out grounds to watch England in all three formats of the game, in particular test cricket. However other places in the world have appeared to grow bored of test matches, which was always previously seen as the pinnacle of international cricket. Recent test matches in both India and Australia have been poorly attended but what are the reasons for this? Too much cricket – is the packed international schedule leading to a lack of interest from supporters? Are ticket prices simply extortionate, therefore cricket not being affordable for the average fan? Or is it simply a love of test cricket is wilting and have fans found a worthy substitute in twenty20 competitions?
Maybe the IPL is to blame for some India fans’ slack attitude towards test cricket. Set up in 2008, the tournament has appeared to be a great success in India and a hit with fans all around the world, broadcast to millions in many different countries. Its brand value is said to be over three billion pounds and is the second highest paid league in the world, only the NBA beating it on salaries and lucrative sponsorship deals. The wages of your ‘average’ test cricketer can no longer compete with the IPL, more and more players seem to be neglecting international cricket in favour of these well paid twenty20 competitions (Chris Gayle, a topical example), and if the best players in the world are participating in such tournaments, it is assumed the fans will follow.
A majority of the best cricket matches in history have all been test matches and the ICC needs to lure cricket fans back to watching test cricket. Introduce the test championships sooner rather than later and cut down on the amount of ‘pointless’ ODIs and put the emphasis back on test matches, don’t let the world fall out of love with it.
wannabe journalist - true football & cricket geek with a lifetime of failure fastly approaching. arsenal fc, england, the english cricket team, essex ccc + the beatles♥
Tuesday 6 December 2011
Monday 21 November 2011
are footballers out of control?
a short rambling for media coursework
Gone are the days when our sporting icons were only mentioned on the back pages of a newspaper. Their scandalous private lives dominate the media but are we still intrigued by such goings on? Have we become disillusioned with these overpaid louts?
The English Premier League is full of quality players – many of whom are internationals and have represented club/country on the world stage but is football still the priority to these superstars? Members of our own national team cannot seem to escape the prying eyes of tabloid journalists and photographers, although it can be argued that frequently they do not even bother to hide their actions. Excessive drinking before a game, tales of adultery and sometimes the just plain bizarre incidents – an England left back with a rifle at his Surrey training ground springs to mind.
No one could begrudge them a night out after an important victory, many wouldn’t expect them to be tucked up in bed by half past nine but believe it or not, these men have responsibilities and are seen as role models by many of the younger generation – a couple of pints doesn’t need to turn into an all night drinking bender, exiting the nightclub at four in the morning with your trousers around your ankles.
Despite earning over a hundred thousand pounds a week and living the life many of us dream of; our heroes just can’ seem to stay out of trouble. Fans are now starting to resent certain footballers and their attitude to the beautiful game: these are the people who spend thousands of pounds following their team, usually with little reward. Yet they receive no thanks from the club or the players, in fact sometimes their loyalty is thrown back in their faces - players claiming they need a ‘fresh start’, when we can all see the dollar signs in their eyes.
We will never fall out of love with our national game but watch the divide between players and fans grow even more – who can now relate to our top footballers? Call it an old fashioned opinion but footballers should only be on the back pages, not the front.
Gone are the days when our sporting icons were only mentioned on the back pages of a newspaper. Their scandalous private lives dominate the media but are we still intrigued by such goings on? Have we become disillusioned with these overpaid louts?
The English Premier League is full of quality players – many of whom are internationals and have represented club/country on the world stage but is football still the priority to these superstars? Members of our own national team cannot seem to escape the prying eyes of tabloid journalists and photographers, although it can be argued that frequently they do not even bother to hide their actions. Excessive drinking before a game, tales of adultery and sometimes the just plain bizarre incidents – an England left back with a rifle at his Surrey training ground springs to mind.
No one could begrudge them a night out after an important victory, many wouldn’t expect them to be tucked up in bed by half past nine but believe it or not, these men have responsibilities and are seen as role models by many of the younger generation – a couple of pints doesn’t need to turn into an all night drinking bender, exiting the nightclub at four in the morning with your trousers around your ankles.
Despite earning over a hundred thousand pounds a week and living the life many of us dream of; our heroes just can’ seem to stay out of trouble. Fans are now starting to resent certain footballers and their attitude to the beautiful game: these are the people who spend thousands of pounds following their team, usually with little reward. Yet they receive no thanks from the club or the players, in fact sometimes their loyalty is thrown back in their faces - players claiming they need a ‘fresh start’, when we can all see the dollar signs in their eyes.
We will never fall out of love with our national game but watch the divide between players and fans grow even more – who can now relate to our top footballers? Call it an old fashioned opinion but footballers should only be on the back pages, not the front.
Tuesday 15 November 2011
Spanish slayed at Wembley - 'negative' England stun Spain.
written for my media coursework after my trip to Wembley on Saturday
With an under strength team and European and World Champions, Spain, the visitors – nobody gave England a chance. After a week of controversy surrounding FIFA and their reluctance to allow England players to wear a poppy on their shirts (claiming it to be a ‘political gesture’, the game itself had barely been spoken about. Something else that had dominated the headlines was the ongoing investigation into whether England and Chelsea captain racially abused QPR defender, Anton Ferdinand. Capello had confirmed a couple of days prior to the game that Terry would be unavailable for the clash with Spain for ‘footballing reasons’. England were missing several other key players too – Rooney, Gerrard and Wilshere to name a few. The Spanish however were at full strength and English fans would have been fully aware of the threat posed by Torres, Fabregas and Villa. The first half was relatively dull and lifeless: Spain were very comfortable on the ball, as to be expected but created very few genuine goal scoring opportunities and England created even less themselves. Shortly after half time, things got a lot better for England when Frank Lampard nodded in James Milner’s free kick. The virtually anonymous Bent played a key role, leaping higher than two Spanish defenders to set up stand-in captain Lampard but this proved to be the Aston Villa striker’s only significant contribution of the match. However the English supporters didn’t seem to care - they were ecstatic, hardly believing they were a goal up on Spain, who in recent times have rarely known defeat (although their record in friendlies against so called ‘bigger sides’ has been less than convincing). England knew they had to be resilient to sustain the lead and Spain had many chances to pull a goal back; Villa hit the side netting soon after Lampard’s goal and substitute Fabregas came close on two occasions. After an anxious and nervy end to the mach, Wembley collectively breathed a sigh of relief when the referee blew his whistle for full time. Parker and Lescott particularly impressed for England, with the former picking up the man of the match award.
It can be argued that this victory counts for very little due to it only being classed as a friendly but take nothing away from the three lions – a depleted England side defended brilliantly and managed to beat a team jam packed with Spanish superstars. If we are serious about winning Euro 2012, we’ve got a lot of improving to do but Saturday proved that England can compete with Europe’s elite and not get blown away. Despite a disastrous campaign at the World Cup campaign in South Africa, there is still belief in this side from supporters and the management alike.
England’s next challenge is against Sweden at the Home of Football, with an even younger and inexperienced team expected to start.
With an under strength team and European and World Champions, Spain, the visitors – nobody gave England a chance. After a week of controversy surrounding FIFA and their reluctance to allow England players to wear a poppy on their shirts (claiming it to be a ‘political gesture’, the game itself had barely been spoken about. Something else that had dominated the headlines was the ongoing investigation into whether England and Chelsea captain racially abused QPR defender, Anton Ferdinand. Capello had confirmed a couple of days prior to the game that Terry would be unavailable for the clash with Spain for ‘footballing reasons’. England were missing several other key players too – Rooney, Gerrard and Wilshere to name a few. The Spanish however were at full strength and English fans would have been fully aware of the threat posed by Torres, Fabregas and Villa. The first half was relatively dull and lifeless: Spain were very comfortable on the ball, as to be expected but created very few genuine goal scoring opportunities and England created even less themselves. Shortly after half time, things got a lot better for England when Frank Lampard nodded in James Milner’s free kick. The virtually anonymous Bent played a key role, leaping higher than two Spanish defenders to set up stand-in captain Lampard but this proved to be the Aston Villa striker’s only significant contribution of the match. However the English supporters didn’t seem to care - they were ecstatic, hardly believing they were a goal up on Spain, who in recent times have rarely known defeat (although their record in friendlies against so called ‘bigger sides’ has been less than convincing). England knew they had to be resilient to sustain the lead and Spain had many chances to pull a goal back; Villa hit the side netting soon after Lampard’s goal and substitute Fabregas came close on two occasions. After an anxious and nervy end to the mach, Wembley collectively breathed a sigh of relief when the referee blew his whistle for full time. Parker and Lescott particularly impressed for England, with the former picking up the man of the match award.
It can be argued that this victory counts for very little due to it only being classed as a friendly but take nothing away from the three lions – a depleted England side defended brilliantly and managed to beat a team jam packed with Spanish superstars. If we are serious about winning Euro 2012, we’ve got a lot of improving to do but Saturday proved that England can compete with Europe’s elite and not get blown away. Despite a disastrous campaign at the World Cup campaign in South Africa, there is still belief in this side from supporters and the management alike.
England’s next challenge is against Sweden at the Home of Football, with an even younger and inexperienced team expected to start.
Thursday 27 October 2011
half the world away.
after a truly remarkable and successful summer for the english cricket team, they headed to india knowing they had the edge over their rivals - unbeaten after four test matches and five one day internationals, it was clear to see that for the first time in a while, england could fly to india with confidence: if anybody knew how to beat india, it was england - they had become experts in it over the summer. it was confirmed before the start of the five match odi series, that india would be without superstars sehwag and tendulkar. despite proving his fitness in the champions league twenty20, first choice spinner harbhajan singh, who missed a majority of the summer, was left out of the selected squad. this came as a surprise to many as in indian conditions, harbhajan would have expected to shine. ashwin and jadeja proved more than worthy of their places in the side.
the england team flew out in early october - the squad seemed to have the perfect balance between youth and experience - determined to put right the wrongs that occured on their last tour of india, all the way back in 2008. the tourists were beaten 5-0, with the two final games of the series postponed due to the terroist attacks in mumbai. despite such a good summer in test cricket, the shorter formats of the game still troubled england. both ODI series earlier on in the year had been won by the home side but it was clear to see there was a lot of improvement still to be made.
after two weeks in india and two victories for the tourists in the warm up games, the series was finally underway in hyderabad. india captain m.s dhoni had won the toss and elected to bat. after a slow start by the indians, england's bowlers could have been forgiven for being reasonably pleased with their efforts. with india 123-4 with nearly thirty overs gone, the formidable dhoni came to the middle. his explosive partnership with raina helped set india on their way to a challenging total. the final overs were dominated by dhoni and raina/jadeja, destroying finn and bresnan's respectable bowling figures. india set england a tricky but not impossible, target of 301 to win. this would mean scoring at just six runs an over but in modern one day internationals, good sides are expected to successfully chase down such a total. england crumbled, with alastair cook the only batsman to record a decent score of 60. a flurry of wickets in the middle overs meant england were all out for 174 in 36 overs - made even more disappointing when you consider the talent in the england line up: trott, pietersen, bairstow to name a few. india's spinners ashwin (3-350 and jadeja (3-34) did the majority of the damage. against india in their home conditions, you know you will always have to chase 300 or around that - england did not look close to the threatening india with the bat. seamers praveen kumar and vinay kumar also impressed, both picking up a wicket and bowling tightly.
onto the second ODI in delhi and this time, it was the england captain who won the toss and chose to bat. england got off to the worst start possible as both openers were dismissed without scoring. trott, pietersen, bopara and bairstow made valuable contributions but nobody could go on and post a huge score which is clearly necessary in a winning side. the previously under pressure samit patel performed well, adding crucial late runs but england were all out for 237. it was never going to be enough but england fans would have been confident their bowlers could make the game more competitive and they got two relatively early wickets - patel and rehane falling to tim bresnan. despite the early breakthrough, gambhir and kohli comfortably won the game for india - the latter scoring a superb century, 112 from 98 balls. dernbach and swann particularly suffered at the hands of the winning partnership as the indian crowd went wild - boundary after boundary led to tension between the england fielders. england are usually known for such impeccable fielding standards but this series, they looked inferior when compared to their rivals in the field.
england simply had not been good enough in the previous two games and needed to put in a serious performance if they were to come away from this tour with any credibility. if they were to lose this game in mohali, india would clinch a series victory with two games to spare. again england named an unchanged side and won the toss, choosing to bat first. cook was out cheaply leg before to vinay kumar and after a quick burst from kieswetter, who was bowled by part-time bowler kolhi for 36, england were under pressure at 53-2. luckily for england, a steady partnership between trott and pietersen gave england a lifeline. pietersen looked in fine form before being dismissed lbw by jadeja but samit patel, who had been promoted up the order, gave england a real chance with 70 from just 43 deliveries. the ever consistent jonathan trott finished on 98 not out - proving why he is in the team, the statistics don't lie. trott is england's leading run scorer in ODIs this year and to drop him from the team, would be madness. 'slow' he may be and his strike rate may not be as impressive as other international batsmen but with the likes of pietersen or kieswetter hitting big boundaries, there is no reason for trott to change his game drastically - the 'anchor' role is crucial in a successful one day side. for the first time in the series, england had posted a respectable batting score and gave india their first real challenge - finally the bowlers had something to bowl at, a score they could feel confident defending. steven finn was the pick of the bowlers and continued his great form picking up figures of 2-44 from 10 overs. sadly it wasn't to be for england. another poor fielding display, combined with average bowling led to another england defeat, this time by five wickets. wicketkeeper kieswetter had a particularly bad day: dropping gambhir and kolhi before failing to run out jadeja - carelessly kicking the stumps. young rahane was the stand out performer for india, falling just short of a century. the ever dangerous dhoni and jadeja secured the winning runs with four balls to spare.
after that painful defeat in mohali, alastair cook decided to make a couple of changes for the fourth match of the series, with england now only playing for pride, hoping to avoid a whitewash. graeme swann was left out of the team to give scott borthwick a chance and the previously uncapped stuart meaker, replaced jade dernbach, who was particularly expensive in the last game. england again won the toss and elected to bat but they couldn't replicate their batting performance from the previous. all out for 220 was unlikely to win you the game - cook himself admitted after, that england were 40/50 runs short - tim bresnan top scored with an impressive 45 after coming down the order. the indian spinners shared five wickets between them with the man on debut, aaron, picking up three.
finn and meaker grabbed early wickets, putting england in a decent position but virat kholi and suresh raina took the game away from england. india had won by six wickets and england were facing the possibility of a whitewash. 5-0 india would not be flattering towards the hosts as england themselves would admit they had been well and truly beaten. one of the only positives from the tour is the form shown by steven finn. in conditions that were thought not to suit him, finn has been easily england's best player, earning praise from management and fans alike - he's bowled well and quickly, consistently hitting 90mph and unlike many of the other england players, he's fielded well in all five matches too. will he be in the side when james anderson and stuart broad are available? who knows - but he's done all he can for now: nobody can doubt his passion and commitment to the england team.
kolkata was the setting for the last one day international - england again winning the toss, the toss being england's only victories in a miserable series. cook put india into bat in front of a small crowd at eden gardens. india's innings seemed to stutter at first, they lost wickets at crucial (as england had been doing the whole tour) but the arrival of m.s dhoni at the crease, dented england's confidence once more. an unbeaten 73 led india to a solid score of 271.
after an opening partnership of 129, england looked well on their way to securing their first victory of the series. both openers were batting superbly - kieswetter in particular, who up until this point had not performed well - behind the stumps or with the bat. cook was bowled by aaron on 60 and what followed, was simply astounding. with the risk of sounding like chris kamara, it was unbelievable. wickets fell in quick succession and suddenly england were all out for 173. england had lost ten wickets for forty seven runs - a collapse we'd hoped not even england were capable of!
and there it is. a comprehensive, resounding and incredible series win for india. i have chosen not to go into matters off the cricket field - m.s dhoni is a fantastic and entertaining batsmen to watch but his comments about the english cricket team are unacceptable - it is not his role to verbally attack our players when goded by the press.
england have one more match to play before they fly home - a twenty20 match in kolkata. it is still important and crucial if england want to retain their place as the number one t20 side.
the england team flew out in early october - the squad seemed to have the perfect balance between youth and experience - determined to put right the wrongs that occured on their last tour of india, all the way back in 2008. the tourists were beaten 5-0, with the two final games of the series postponed due to the terroist attacks in mumbai. despite such a good summer in test cricket, the shorter formats of the game still troubled england. both ODI series earlier on in the year had been won by the home side but it was clear to see there was a lot of improvement still to be made.
after two weeks in india and two victories for the tourists in the warm up games, the series was finally underway in hyderabad. india captain m.s dhoni had won the toss and elected to bat. after a slow start by the indians, england's bowlers could have been forgiven for being reasonably pleased with their efforts. with india 123-4 with nearly thirty overs gone, the formidable dhoni came to the middle. his explosive partnership with raina helped set india on their way to a challenging total. the final overs were dominated by dhoni and raina/jadeja, destroying finn and bresnan's respectable bowling figures. india set england a tricky but not impossible, target of 301 to win. this would mean scoring at just six runs an over but in modern one day internationals, good sides are expected to successfully chase down such a total. england crumbled, with alastair cook the only batsman to record a decent score of 60. a flurry of wickets in the middle overs meant england were all out for 174 in 36 overs - made even more disappointing when you consider the talent in the england line up: trott, pietersen, bairstow to name a few. india's spinners ashwin (3-350 and jadeja (3-34) did the majority of the damage. against india in their home conditions, you know you will always have to chase 300 or around that - england did not look close to the threatening india with the bat. seamers praveen kumar and vinay kumar also impressed, both picking up a wicket and bowling tightly.
onto the second ODI in delhi and this time, it was the england captain who won the toss and chose to bat. england got off to the worst start possible as both openers were dismissed without scoring. trott, pietersen, bopara and bairstow made valuable contributions but nobody could go on and post a huge score which is clearly necessary in a winning side. the previously under pressure samit patel performed well, adding crucial late runs but england were all out for 237. it was never going to be enough but england fans would have been confident their bowlers could make the game more competitive and they got two relatively early wickets - patel and rehane falling to tim bresnan. despite the early breakthrough, gambhir and kohli comfortably won the game for india - the latter scoring a superb century, 112 from 98 balls. dernbach and swann particularly suffered at the hands of the winning partnership as the indian crowd went wild - boundary after boundary led to tension between the england fielders. england are usually known for such impeccable fielding standards but this series, they looked inferior when compared to their rivals in the field.
england simply had not been good enough in the previous two games and needed to put in a serious performance if they were to come away from this tour with any credibility. if they were to lose this game in mohali, india would clinch a series victory with two games to spare. again england named an unchanged side and won the toss, choosing to bat first. cook was out cheaply leg before to vinay kumar and after a quick burst from kieswetter, who was bowled by part-time bowler kolhi for 36, england were under pressure at 53-2. luckily for england, a steady partnership between trott and pietersen gave england a lifeline. pietersen looked in fine form before being dismissed lbw by jadeja but samit patel, who had been promoted up the order, gave england a real chance with 70 from just 43 deliveries. the ever consistent jonathan trott finished on 98 not out - proving why he is in the team, the statistics don't lie. trott is england's leading run scorer in ODIs this year and to drop him from the team, would be madness. 'slow' he may be and his strike rate may not be as impressive as other international batsmen but with the likes of pietersen or kieswetter hitting big boundaries, there is no reason for trott to change his game drastically - the 'anchor' role is crucial in a successful one day side. for the first time in the series, england had posted a respectable batting score and gave india their first real challenge - finally the bowlers had something to bowl at, a score they could feel confident defending. steven finn was the pick of the bowlers and continued his great form picking up figures of 2-44 from 10 overs. sadly it wasn't to be for england. another poor fielding display, combined with average bowling led to another england defeat, this time by five wickets. wicketkeeper kieswetter had a particularly bad day: dropping gambhir and kolhi before failing to run out jadeja - carelessly kicking the stumps. young rahane was the stand out performer for india, falling just short of a century. the ever dangerous dhoni and jadeja secured the winning runs with four balls to spare.
after that painful defeat in mohali, alastair cook decided to make a couple of changes for the fourth match of the series, with england now only playing for pride, hoping to avoid a whitewash. graeme swann was left out of the team to give scott borthwick a chance and the previously uncapped stuart meaker, replaced jade dernbach, who was particularly expensive in the last game. england again won the toss and elected to bat but they couldn't replicate their batting performance from the previous. all out for 220 was unlikely to win you the game - cook himself admitted after, that england were 40/50 runs short - tim bresnan top scored with an impressive 45 after coming down the order. the indian spinners shared five wickets between them with the man on debut, aaron, picking up three.
finn and meaker grabbed early wickets, putting england in a decent position but virat kholi and suresh raina took the game away from england. india had won by six wickets and england were facing the possibility of a whitewash. 5-0 india would not be flattering towards the hosts as england themselves would admit they had been well and truly beaten. one of the only positives from the tour is the form shown by steven finn. in conditions that were thought not to suit him, finn has been easily england's best player, earning praise from management and fans alike - he's bowled well and quickly, consistently hitting 90mph and unlike many of the other england players, he's fielded well in all five matches too. will he be in the side when james anderson and stuart broad are available? who knows - but he's done all he can for now: nobody can doubt his passion and commitment to the england team.
kolkata was the setting for the last one day international - england again winning the toss, the toss being england's only victories in a miserable series. cook put india into bat in front of a small crowd at eden gardens. india's innings seemed to stutter at first, they lost wickets at crucial (as england had been doing the whole tour) but the arrival of m.s dhoni at the crease, dented england's confidence once more. an unbeaten 73 led india to a solid score of 271.
after an opening partnership of 129, england looked well on their way to securing their first victory of the series. both openers were batting superbly - kieswetter in particular, who up until this point had not performed well - behind the stumps or with the bat. cook was bowled by aaron on 60 and what followed, was simply astounding. with the risk of sounding like chris kamara, it was unbelievable. wickets fell in quick succession and suddenly england were all out for 173. england had lost ten wickets for forty seven runs - a collapse we'd hoped not even england were capable of!
and there it is. a comprehensive, resounding and incredible series win for india. i have chosen not to go into matters off the cricket field - m.s dhoni is a fantastic and entertaining batsmen to watch but his comments about the english cricket team are unacceptable - it is not his role to verbally attack our players when goded by the press.
england have one more match to play before they fly home - a twenty20 match in kolkata. it is still important and crucial if england want to retain their place as the number one t20 side.
Wednesday 31 August 2011
the eagles in flight: cb40 2011
another competition and another disappointment. after an indifferent twenty20 campaign, the essex eagles were expected to kick on in the cb40 but fans were left frustrated as essex missed out on a semi final place. after being drawn in a tricky group, very few could have antipiciated such a start.
nottinghamshire outlaws were the first visitors to the county ground and as the reigning division one champions, probably expected to win against an essex who had experienced a poor start to the season. a century from the much admired alex hales put them on their way. a delightful 116 from hales, backed up by an impressive 69 from samit patel set essex the target of 288. not unbeatable but said to be beyond essex's reach.
however, the eagles refused to lay down and with england's ashes hero, alastair cook, opening the batting - almost anything was possible. cook, at this point did not play one day cricket for england, fell four short of a cenutry, with his england colleague bopara chipping in with a tidy half century. the county ground was buzzing and could sense an unlikely essex victory here. they were rewarded for their support when james foster and matthew walker put on a match-winning partnership. captain foster scoring 66 from only 44. essex had won by seven wickets and registered their first points in group c. now to another tricky tie, lancashire lightning were in town.
essex dismissed lancashire for 190 - a very beatable score, surely one that even essex could reach without any scares. not reaching 200 in 40 over cricket will always put you in a vulnerable position and with essex still buzzing from the previous day's victory, it was likely lancs would be making the long trip back up north with no points to show for their troubles. both essex openers - pettini and cook were out cheaply to mahmood and with the score at 32-2, the optimism was slowly draining out of the essex fans. in the end, they really had no need to worry as ravi bopara shone with an unbeaten 75, his score just beaten by captain foster who again was essex's top scorer with 77. again, the eagles had won by seven wickets and they could breathe easily, knowing they had thoroughly beaten two division one sides, both tipped for great things in division one and in the shorter forms of the game. also remember, this was an essex team without ryan ten doeschate and new addition to the team, owais shah, who were both still in the sub continent playing in the indian premier league.
the sky cameras were in cardiff as essex played their first away game of the cb40 campaign against glamorgan, hoping to see a spectacular innings from the newly appointed england one day captain alastair cook. sadly for sky and essex fans, we never got to see cook work his magic as only one half of the match was completed due to rain. essex won the toss and put glamorgan into bat. a rather dull innings from glamorgan was livened up thanks to a sensational hattrick from graham napier, a man who has grabbed the headlines before on a few occasions. glamorgan ended their forty overs on 222-7 but essex were not given a chance to reply, as traditional welsh weather set in for the night.
two days later the essex eagles travelled to bury st edmunds to play the unicorns, who were yet to ever record a victory in the cb40. as expected, essex eased to victory winning with thirty five deliveries to spare. a comfortable win was always on the horizon after tim phillips claimed career best figures of 5-28, as the home side were all out for 137. cook and napier were'nt around for long but bopara and pettini reached the modest target easily, earning essex their third victory of the campaign so far.
there was a short break in forty over action as essex's attention turned to two championship games against surrey and middlesex. after two draws, it was back to the cb40 and another chance to face the unicorns. unicorns posted a slightly more competitive score of 183, chris wright the pick of the bowlers taking 4-20. fine batting and a match winning partnership of 149 from mark pettini (88*) and matt walker (71*), saw essex extend their unbeaten run in the competition - finally winning by eight wickets.
the month of june and half of july was dedicated to a hectic twenty20 schedule, in which essex failed to fufil their potential. onwards and upwards. after a victory in the championship at grace road, essex visited trent bridge hoping to replicate the same result as earlier on in the season against the same opposition. a rain affected game in nottingham was delayed and stopped many times due to the adverse weather conditions. the outlaws managed to score 127-7 from their 23 overs. essex were set a manageable 74 from 10 overs to win but yet more rain set in and the umpire abandoned the game before the essex batsmen could face a ball.
the middle of july and we were already fed up of this 'british summer'. many games falling victim to the weather and essex's next game against glamorgan was no exception. rain had been forecasted to fall in chelmsford for almost the duration of the game but we did get more cricket than expected. ravi bopara, essex's stand in captain won the toss and decided to bowl, knowing the rain was fastly approaching. the stand out from glamorgan's innings was a century from gareth rees, 101 from 105 balls. glamorgan innings was reduced to 38 overs and essex target was 133 runs in 15 overs. in typical essex fashion, they lost the early wickets of wheater and napier. an exciting cameo from owais shah wasn't enough to see essex to victory as more rain fell and yet another game was abandoned.
essex's next game at cheltenham had no such issues with the rain, although this time the eagles may have wished to be saved by the weather. all out for 195 simply wasn't good enough - relying on the bowlers to provide the runs to ensure it wasn't a total humiliation. tim phillips passed his previous highest first class score of 41 on his way to an unbeaten 58. chris wright was the only other player to secure a respectful score - 42 from 43 balls. gloucestershire won with five overs to spare, helpful contributions from many of their batsmen - cockbain's unbeaten 48 was the top score.
essex were argubably facing their toughest opponents in the game down at southend, somerset: last year's runners up with a formidable batting line up. essex won the toss and elected to bat but didn't make the most of their chances - only scoring 140. a score which would be hard to defend when facing a so called 'lesser team' but somerset were not a team to under perform against. somerset breezed past essex's total in less than thirty overs.
essex's campaign was faltering and they needed a victory against lancashire at old trafford if they were to challenge somerset and nottinghamshire for a semi final place. lancashire's innings didn't get off to the best of starts after the ever-impressive tim phillips bowled opener smith for one and soon after, bopara trapping croft lbw. lancashire lightning knew they had to score big runs, quickly and karl brown provided them, scoring an unbeaten century to help set essex a target of 258. quite a task for an essex team who had seemed so out of form recently in one day cricket.
brown wasn't the only centurion at old trafford as mark pettini steered essex to victory with a superb 104 before being stumped by wicketkeeper cross off the bowling of keedy. owais shah again peforming well, his seventy five help set up a tense finish. essex won with two balls to spare, ryan ten doeschate scoring the winning run!
the last home game for the eagles in the cb40 was at colchester's castle park where they faced the gloucestershire gladiators. the essex innings was off to an appalling start as mark pettini was dismissed lbw first ball by fuller. fast bowler fuller caused the essex batsmen huge problems in his first few overs before adam wheater was back to his free scoring self, before falling to fuller on 40. the real star of the show at castle park was owais shah, his entertaining 104 thrilled spectators scoring nine fours and four sixes. captain foster adding late, quick runs before being bowled on 66 by payne. essex had set gloucs 300 to win, a difficult target but the gladiators did have ireland's kevin o'brien in their line up and most of the crowd had seen his big hitting at the world cup. the previously mentioned o'brien opened the batting, scoring just 13 before he was bowled by mr consistent himself, david masters. not one batsmen reached a half century for gloucestershire, as the wickets fell, the visitors all out for 181. essex had won their must-win game by 118 runs but knew the real test was next monday, somerset down at taunton.
monday 29th august: somerset had virtually guaranteed their place in the semi finals but this game was still very important for them as a desperately needed home draw was up for grabs. essex had chosen to rest a couple of players after a long summer and somerset were missing kieswetter and buttler as they had been called up to england for the one-off twenty20 game against india. somerset's batting line up was further weakened after a serious looking ankle injury to their captain and star man, marcus trescothick. essex youngsters topley, mills and craddock all bowled well, the latter with impressive figures of 2-38 from his eight overs. luckily for somerset, they managed to recover and set essex 252 to win, against a strong somerset bowling attack.
essex fell forty runs short of their target, jaik mickleburgh top-scoring with 56 and graham napier making 41. young fast bowler reece topley, managed to score his highest score of the season, a solid 19. sadly, all their efforts were in vain as essex missed out on a semi final spot.
from an essex perspective, this season is almost dead and planning for next season will start as soon as possible. with the young talent present at the club and a few quality additions, there's no reason why essex cannot aim for promotion next season, as well as improvement in the shorter forms of the game.
nottinghamshire outlaws were the first visitors to the county ground and as the reigning division one champions, probably expected to win against an essex who had experienced a poor start to the season. a century from the much admired alex hales put them on their way. a delightful 116 from hales, backed up by an impressive 69 from samit patel set essex the target of 288. not unbeatable but said to be beyond essex's reach.
however, the eagles refused to lay down and with england's ashes hero, alastair cook, opening the batting - almost anything was possible. cook, at this point did not play one day cricket for england, fell four short of a cenutry, with his england colleague bopara chipping in with a tidy half century. the county ground was buzzing and could sense an unlikely essex victory here. they were rewarded for their support when james foster and matthew walker put on a match-winning partnership. captain foster scoring 66 from only 44. essex had won by seven wickets and registered their first points in group c. now to another tricky tie, lancashire lightning were in town.
essex dismissed lancashire for 190 - a very beatable score, surely one that even essex could reach without any scares. not reaching 200 in 40 over cricket will always put you in a vulnerable position and with essex still buzzing from the previous day's victory, it was likely lancs would be making the long trip back up north with no points to show for their troubles. both essex openers - pettini and cook were out cheaply to mahmood and with the score at 32-2, the optimism was slowly draining out of the essex fans. in the end, they really had no need to worry as ravi bopara shone with an unbeaten 75, his score just beaten by captain foster who again was essex's top scorer with 77. again, the eagles had won by seven wickets and they could breathe easily, knowing they had thoroughly beaten two division one sides, both tipped for great things in division one and in the shorter forms of the game. also remember, this was an essex team without ryan ten doeschate and new addition to the team, owais shah, who were both still in the sub continent playing in the indian premier league.
the sky cameras were in cardiff as essex played their first away game of the cb40 campaign against glamorgan, hoping to see a spectacular innings from the newly appointed england one day captain alastair cook. sadly for sky and essex fans, we never got to see cook work his magic as only one half of the match was completed due to rain. essex won the toss and put glamorgan into bat. a rather dull innings from glamorgan was livened up thanks to a sensational hattrick from graham napier, a man who has grabbed the headlines before on a few occasions. glamorgan ended their forty overs on 222-7 but essex were not given a chance to reply, as traditional welsh weather set in for the night.
two days later the essex eagles travelled to bury st edmunds to play the unicorns, who were yet to ever record a victory in the cb40. as expected, essex eased to victory winning with thirty five deliveries to spare. a comfortable win was always on the horizon after tim phillips claimed career best figures of 5-28, as the home side were all out for 137. cook and napier were'nt around for long but bopara and pettini reached the modest target easily, earning essex their third victory of the campaign so far.
there was a short break in forty over action as essex's attention turned to two championship games against surrey and middlesex. after two draws, it was back to the cb40 and another chance to face the unicorns. unicorns posted a slightly more competitive score of 183, chris wright the pick of the bowlers taking 4-20. fine batting and a match winning partnership of 149 from mark pettini (88*) and matt walker (71*), saw essex extend their unbeaten run in the competition - finally winning by eight wickets.
the month of june and half of july was dedicated to a hectic twenty20 schedule, in which essex failed to fufil their potential. onwards and upwards. after a victory in the championship at grace road, essex visited trent bridge hoping to replicate the same result as earlier on in the season against the same opposition. a rain affected game in nottingham was delayed and stopped many times due to the adverse weather conditions. the outlaws managed to score 127-7 from their 23 overs. essex were set a manageable 74 from 10 overs to win but yet more rain set in and the umpire abandoned the game before the essex batsmen could face a ball.
the middle of july and we were already fed up of this 'british summer'. many games falling victim to the weather and essex's next game against glamorgan was no exception. rain had been forecasted to fall in chelmsford for almost the duration of the game but we did get more cricket than expected. ravi bopara, essex's stand in captain won the toss and decided to bowl, knowing the rain was fastly approaching. the stand out from glamorgan's innings was a century from gareth rees, 101 from 105 balls. glamorgan innings was reduced to 38 overs and essex target was 133 runs in 15 overs. in typical essex fashion, they lost the early wickets of wheater and napier. an exciting cameo from owais shah wasn't enough to see essex to victory as more rain fell and yet another game was abandoned.
essex's next game at cheltenham had no such issues with the rain, although this time the eagles may have wished to be saved by the weather. all out for 195 simply wasn't good enough - relying on the bowlers to provide the runs to ensure it wasn't a total humiliation. tim phillips passed his previous highest first class score of 41 on his way to an unbeaten 58. chris wright was the only other player to secure a respectful score - 42 from 43 balls. gloucestershire won with five overs to spare, helpful contributions from many of their batsmen - cockbain's unbeaten 48 was the top score.
essex were argubably facing their toughest opponents in the game down at southend, somerset: last year's runners up with a formidable batting line up. essex won the toss and elected to bat but didn't make the most of their chances - only scoring 140. a score which would be hard to defend when facing a so called 'lesser team' but somerset were not a team to under perform against. somerset breezed past essex's total in less than thirty overs.
essex's campaign was faltering and they needed a victory against lancashire at old trafford if they were to challenge somerset and nottinghamshire for a semi final place. lancashire's innings didn't get off to the best of starts after the ever-impressive tim phillips bowled opener smith for one and soon after, bopara trapping croft lbw. lancashire lightning knew they had to score big runs, quickly and karl brown provided them, scoring an unbeaten century to help set essex a target of 258. quite a task for an essex team who had seemed so out of form recently in one day cricket.
brown wasn't the only centurion at old trafford as mark pettini steered essex to victory with a superb 104 before being stumped by wicketkeeper cross off the bowling of keedy. owais shah again peforming well, his seventy five help set up a tense finish. essex won with two balls to spare, ryan ten doeschate scoring the winning run!
the last home game for the eagles in the cb40 was at colchester's castle park where they faced the gloucestershire gladiators. the essex innings was off to an appalling start as mark pettini was dismissed lbw first ball by fuller. fast bowler fuller caused the essex batsmen huge problems in his first few overs before adam wheater was back to his free scoring self, before falling to fuller on 40. the real star of the show at castle park was owais shah, his entertaining 104 thrilled spectators scoring nine fours and four sixes. captain foster adding late, quick runs before being bowled on 66 by payne. essex had set gloucs 300 to win, a difficult target but the gladiators did have ireland's kevin o'brien in their line up and most of the crowd had seen his big hitting at the world cup. the previously mentioned o'brien opened the batting, scoring just 13 before he was bowled by mr consistent himself, david masters. not one batsmen reached a half century for gloucestershire, as the wickets fell, the visitors all out for 181. essex had won their must-win game by 118 runs but knew the real test was next monday, somerset down at taunton.
monday 29th august: somerset had virtually guaranteed their place in the semi finals but this game was still very important for them as a desperately needed home draw was up for grabs. essex had chosen to rest a couple of players after a long summer and somerset were missing kieswetter and buttler as they had been called up to england for the one-off twenty20 game against india. somerset's batting line up was further weakened after a serious looking ankle injury to their captain and star man, marcus trescothick. essex youngsters topley, mills and craddock all bowled well, the latter with impressive figures of 2-38 from his eight overs. luckily for somerset, they managed to recover and set essex 252 to win, against a strong somerset bowling attack.
essex fell forty runs short of their target, jaik mickleburgh top-scoring with 56 and graham napier making 41. young fast bowler reece topley, managed to score his highest score of the season, a solid 19. sadly, all their efforts were in vain as essex missed out on a semi final spot.
from an essex perspective, this season is almost dead and planning for next season will start as soon as possible. with the young talent present at the club and a few quality additions, there's no reason why essex cannot aim for promotion next season, as well as improvement in the shorter forms of the game.
Monday 29 August 2011
love is a losing game, one i wish i'd never played.
eighteen hours later and i'm still not sure what happened. no one expected us to go up to old trafford and win, not even our own supporters. that line up, plagued by injuries and suspensions, couldn't have won at the home of the champions but i don't think anyone had predicted what would happen between the hours of four and six o'clock yesterday evening. a massacre, a spanking, a thrashing - call it what you want but arsenal were destroyed yesterday at old trafford.
we were overwhelmed and our players just couldn't cope - rooney and young running riot, highlighting arsenal's ever present defensive woes. the away support in manchester was terrific but the players themselves, gave the fans nothing to cheer about. a performance which lacked passion, aggression and spirit: they seemed resigned to the fact that united were the better side. of course this was a young, depleted arsenal side but a team said to be competing for the title should have faith in the whole squad to deliver results home and away.
where was the commanding centre back in vermaelen's absence? johan djourou and laurent koscielny were woeful. and with our first choice left back injured, we need a decent replacement - armand traore has been seeking a transfer out of the emirates all summer and yesterday played like a man who couldn't wait to jump ship. jack wilshere, emmanuel frimpong and alex song were unavailable due to injury and suspsension, arsene was running out of options. he turned to the impressive arsenal youth side and decided to give a premier league debut to francis coquelin, who had previously been on loan at french side lorient. he himself did not nothing wrong but on the rare occasion we had the ball, the midfield created virtually nothing - a total contrast to manchester united who were toying with arsenal all afternoon. everytime the likes of young and cleverley were on the ball, the crowd sensed something special was about to happen. arsenal were given a route back into the game at 1-0 united but van persie's penalty was saved by de gea. not many teams manage to score two at old trafford but then again, not many concede eight in a game either. wojciech szczesny was helpless as he had the perfect view of a devestating masterclass from manchester united. the sending off of youngster carl jenkinson just added to arsenal's suspsension list and an all round miserable day for everyone associated with arsenal football club.
after that horrendous afternoon in manchester, we're already eight points behind the two manchester clubs and six points behind chelsea - can this team win the league? no is the simple answer. a full strength arsenal team would have struggled yesterday, what we need is quality signings. players with experience and determination who can turn this around.
a knee-jerk reaction from the mindless minority claim this is the time to 'sack wenger'. how could that benefit arsenal in any way? yes arsene wenger can be stubborn in the transfer market but most of the players, past and present, have been attracted to our club because the opportunity of working alongside arsene wenger is something they simply couldn't pass up. after yesterday's horror show, arsene knows improvement is desperately needed. two and a half days left of the transfer window, and i hope we shall be active right up until the deadline.
i have been an arsenal supporter my whole life and have never known arsenal without arsene wenger at the helm: i wouldn't want it any other way. let's get behind the team - come may, we could be looking back at this with a long awaited trophy in the cabinet.
we were overwhelmed and our players just couldn't cope - rooney and young running riot, highlighting arsenal's ever present defensive woes. the away support in manchester was terrific but the players themselves, gave the fans nothing to cheer about. a performance which lacked passion, aggression and spirit: they seemed resigned to the fact that united were the better side. of course this was a young, depleted arsenal side but a team said to be competing for the title should have faith in the whole squad to deliver results home and away.
where was the commanding centre back in vermaelen's absence? johan djourou and laurent koscielny were woeful. and with our first choice left back injured, we need a decent replacement - armand traore has been seeking a transfer out of the emirates all summer and yesterday played like a man who couldn't wait to jump ship. jack wilshere, emmanuel frimpong and alex song were unavailable due to injury and suspsension, arsene was running out of options. he turned to the impressive arsenal youth side and decided to give a premier league debut to francis coquelin, who had previously been on loan at french side lorient. he himself did not nothing wrong but on the rare occasion we had the ball, the midfield created virtually nothing - a total contrast to manchester united who were toying with arsenal all afternoon. everytime the likes of young and cleverley were on the ball, the crowd sensed something special was about to happen. arsenal were given a route back into the game at 1-0 united but van persie's penalty was saved by de gea. not many teams manage to score two at old trafford but then again, not many concede eight in a game either. wojciech szczesny was helpless as he had the perfect view of a devestating masterclass from manchester united. the sending off of youngster carl jenkinson just added to arsenal's suspsension list and an all round miserable day for everyone associated with arsenal football club.
after that horrendous afternoon in manchester, we're already eight points behind the two manchester clubs and six points behind chelsea - can this team win the league? no is the simple answer. a full strength arsenal team would have struggled yesterday, what we need is quality signings. players with experience and determination who can turn this around.
a knee-jerk reaction from the mindless minority claim this is the time to 'sack wenger'. how could that benefit arsenal in any way? yes arsene wenger can be stubborn in the transfer market but most of the players, past and present, have been attracted to our club because the opportunity of working alongside arsene wenger is something they simply couldn't pass up. after yesterday's horror show, arsene knows improvement is desperately needed. two and a half days left of the transfer window, and i hope we shall be active right up until the deadline.
i have been an arsenal supporter my whole life and have never known arsenal without arsene wenger at the helm: i wouldn't want it any other way. let's get behind the team - come may, we could be looking back at this with a long awaited trophy in the cabinet.
Monday 22 August 2011
we are number one, say we are number one.
about four and a half hours ago, england were confirmed officially the best test side in world cricket. we've come a long way from the team who used to regularly get turned over by the so called 'lesser' teams and spent more time drowning our sorrows, than drinking sweet champagne in celebration. after a fantastic ashes winter, andrew strauss' men faced an even tougher summer - sri lanka and india were the opponents to test whether england had a chance of reaching that elusive number one ranking. england's summer started with a rain affected 1-0 series win against sri lanka but the real challenge was the upcoming four match series against the indians, who were led by the newly-appointed duncan fletcher. they had rested many of their top names in their three match series in the carribbean, including sachin tendulkar. the little master arrived on english soil on a quest to achieve his hundreth century and many felt it would be incredibly appropriate if sachin got his hundreth hundred at lords, the home of cricket. due to a fantastic eighteen months, in test cricket at least, the england team were settled and you would assume the team picked itself, although there was one selection issue perhaps. the inclusion of stuart broad in the first test at lords may have raised a few eyebrows, due to an average test series against sri lanka and then an even poorer one day series against the same opposition. he was constantly bowling far too short and sri lanka's fantastic top order obviously enjoyed batting against him, his only wickets coming at home ground trent bridge before being dropped for the fifth ODI at old trafford - samit patel selected in his place, as a traditional spinner's wicket was expected in manchester. broad's competition for a place in the test team, tim bresnan, was in great form for county and country. i rate both bowlers incredibly highly, so i would have loved both of them to have made the starting eleven but you couldnt leave out leader of the attack anderson or man of the previous series tremlett - what a fantastic dilemma for flower and his backroom staff to have. this highlights the strength in depth england have shown over the last year - not forgetting the fantastic talents of finn, onions and dernbach, who would argubably walk straight into most sides in the world.
10:30, thursday 21st july: india won the toss and elected to field. their opening bowler, zaheer khan would obviously be the biggest threat to england but after swiftly taking the wickets of england openers, strauss and cook, he limped off due to a hamstring problem. a massive blow to india but the word from the indian dressing room was that he'd be fit in a couple of days time - this proved to be completely untrue and zaheer did not bowl another ball in the series. he flew back to india after the second test and is set to miss the ODI series starting in durham on 3rd september. back to india's bowlers who were still on the field, none of them could compete with the powerful batting from trott and in particular pietersen, the latter who went on to score a extravagant double century. the other batting highlight from the england's first innings was a superb and incredibly positive seventy one from wicketkeeper prior. kumar dismissed prior and broad in two balls, broad for a golden duck but his hattrick wasn't to be - kumar was the only indian bowler who impressed (a recurring theme throughout the series) as england declared on 474 for 8. kumar taking 5-106, earning himself a well deserved place on the famous lords hounour board. finally it was time for the adoring public to see india's batting superstars - tendulkar, dravid, laxman, dhoni. one of india's big guns was missing, sehwag was not due to play until the third test at edgbaston and youngster mukund who had featured against the west indies, was given a chance to shine. and that is what he did, narrowly missing out on a half century after being bowled by broad on 49. this was the second highest score in the innings. the majority of the indian stars had come to the crease with confidence and left it promptly, looking rather foolish. however one man does not fit into this category and his name is rahul dravid, hero to millions and all round 'nice bloke'. an unbeaten 103 saving the indians from total embarassment. an effortless performance by the man they nickname 'the wall', he remained calm and composed as he lost countless batting partners - later to be named india's man of the series. the previously out of form stuart broad was the pick of the bowlers taking 4-37, including the prized scalp of tendulkar. india were all out for 286 - disappointing when compared to their usual high standards but this ended up being one of their highest totals of the series - only scraping 300 once throughout the four matches.
england were back to batting again, hoping for the same quality shown in the first innings. however, a devastating spell from sharma left england 62-5 and then 107-6 after morgan was dismissed. could england really mess up such a good position and risk not winning a match, they had dominated for four days? no need to worry, as this story has a happy ending. what i love about this england team is that even when one or more of the 'top players' do not perform, the match winners throughout the team, save the day. on this occasion it was prior and broad, who ended the innings on 103* and 72* respectively, thrilling the packed crowd at lords. england now had a decent lead and knew time was on their side, they had just over a day to bowl out an indian side who looked very unconvincing first time around. yet another lack lustre performance from a weary indian side resulted in a comfortable victory for england. only two players had passed fifty and destructive bowling from anderson, taking 5-65, saw england win by an awesome 196 runs.
confidence was very much with the england boys as they travelled to nottingham hoping to secure a 2-0 lead in the series. an unchanged eleven was expected but chris tremlett sustained an injury in training on the thursday, which meant tim bresnan came into the side. although losing tremlett was a blow, england were able to substitute quality with quality. again india won the toss and chose to bowl. day one was a disaster for england. after losing cook and trott cheaply, it was hoped pietersen and strauss would build a formidable partnership but after they were dismissed, the wickets began to fall and the batting line up collapsed. england needed someone to help them out of this mess and after his heroics with the bat and ball at lords, stuart broad once again proved the saviour for the three lions. his notts and england team-mate graeme swann joined him at the crease to entertain the crowd at trent bridge, steering england past 200. swann's brief yet exciting cameo came to an end on 28 but broad secured his second half century of the series as england were all out for 221. not the greatest total but after being 124-8, england were grateful to have made a competitive total at all. india were in a great position and with a decent batting performance, they could have england on the back foot by the end of day one. they got off to the worst of starts imaginable, mukund out first ball after a fantastic delivery from anderson. vvs laxman and zaheer khan's replacement, yuraj singh, scored half centuries but yet again, india's stand out performance was dravid, another exquisite century after being moved up the order to open in place of gambhir. however the headlines was dominated, not by dravid's superb batting but by a match-winning hattrick from stuart broad, dismissing dhoni, harbhajan and kumar: saving england when india were firmly on top and looked ready to build a huge first innings lead. broad ended with career best figures of 6-46 as india were all out for 287: bresnan and anderson sharing the other four wickets between them. england needed one of the top five to step up and score big runs in the second innings, this time it was ian bell who thrived under pressure. he scored a magnificent, yet controversial 159 - the controversy came due to a run out which was given out and then not out by the umpires either side of tea. the incident occured in the last over before tea. bell and his then current batting partner, eoin morgan, walked off for tea after allegedly being told so by the umpires. the indian fielders however had seen no signal for tea and then proceeded to run bell out. careless from bell you may say and he was evidently annoyed with the decision, although according to the laws of the game - this decision should have stood, bell should have been out. the crowd at trent bridge seemed annoyed at the lack of sportmanship showed by dhoni and believed it was against the spirit of cricket. after tea, the decision was reversed. bell was back in and went on to score 159 before falling to yuraj singh. pietersen, morgan and bresnan all provided more big runs for england - bresnan agonisingly short of a maiden test century, his 90 from 118 was a delight to watch. england had reached 500 and had nearly two days to bowl india out again, which hadn't been a problem previously. only three indian players reached double figures, including a half century for tendulkar but even the little master couldn't inspire his team - they slumped to 158 all out and england won by a mammoth 319 runs.
a week's break between the second and third test saw opening batsmen sehwag return to the indian team in a two day game against northamptonshire. he didn't have to wait long for a bat in the test match as england won the toss and put india in. sehwag must've wondered why he even bothered boarding the plane to england - he was out for a golden duck: caught by prior off the bowling of broad. gambhir, dravid and laxman all made starts but they were torn apart by some excellent bowling from england, in particular broad and bresnan who took four wickets each. at 111-7, captain dhoni knew he had to do something drastic. he himself had had a poor series up till then with some average wicketkeeping and not the usual fluid batting we had come to expect from him. this innings his luck changed and he scored an impressive 77 from 96 balls - scoring three sixes in the process. we also got to see more positive batting from kumar, a man who looks a future threat for india. his enthusiasm was second to none and his bowling & batting was a pleasure to watch. a lot of the indian players looked as if they'd rather be anywhere else in the world than at edgbaston but kumar showed passion and fight, something i love to see in a sportsman. yet another ordinary performance from india meant they looked very likely to concede their status as number one in the world sooner rather than later.
a partnership worth 186 set england off to the best possible start when it was their turn to bat. the previously out of form strauss and cook confidently took on this tired indian bowling attack and looked almost invicible before strauss was unluckily bowled on 87 by spinner mishra, a replacement for the injured singh. vice captain cook had no such issue and went on to better his own highest test score of 235 at brisbane, he fell narrowly short of 300 - only 40 short of mentor gooch's 333 against india. the other big score of the england innings was that of eoin morgan, his century helped england post a total of 710. pietersen and bresnan also contributing half cenuries but a disappointing score of just seven for ravi bopara who had come into the squad for the injured jonathan trott. it would take something special for the indians to even make england bat again, let alone get something from the match. india needed sehwag to perform if they were to save face and avoid another thrashing from england. this time it was anderson who put sehwag out of his misery - a king pair for india's superstar, his miserable series did not stop there and sehwag was left walking back to the dressing room as edgbaston erupted and the england players celebrated. gambhir and dravid didnt stay around for long, and yet again all the pressue was on tendulkar's shoulders. the passionate indian supporters in the stands desperately needed something to cheer about. sadly for them, tendulkar only managed forty runs before being run out - excellent fielding from graeme swann again denying sachin his hundredth hundred. another good partnership between dhoni and kumar lifted the indians' spirit again but they were just delaying the inevitable. england had won in spectacular fashion, by an innings and 242 runs.
india had been dethroned as number one in the world and it was now england sitting pretty at the top - could we achieve a whitewash and beat the sorry indians 4-0 at the oval?
sadly for me and the other 23,000 people who bought tickets for day one at the oval, it was a very disappointing day. not due to the cricket itself, it was a very solid session for strauss and cook after england had won the toss and elected to bat. sadly one session was all we got to witness as around half one persistent rains set in. the morning session of day two didn't go accordingly to plan on the field, strauss and cook both out quickly to sreesanth and sharma. luckily ian bell, promoted to number three in jonathan trott's absence, put in a man of the match performance scoring a delectable 235 and put on a 350 partnership with pietersen, who scored a huge hundred too. by lunch on day three, england were in a fantastic position especially with bopara and quick scoring prior on to bat. however, another lengthy rain delay meant england had to declare on 591-6 to move the game on, bopara on 44*.
up until now, graeme swann had had a quiet series. the seamers had exploited the conditions in the previous three tests but the oval was the ground swann was expected to contribute most in and he did not disappoint. yet again, sehwag wasn't around for long. this time he scored the lowly amount of eight before being trapped leg-before to anderson. his opening partner, dravid had a very different innings. his unbeaten 146 made him a class apart from team mates. all his team mates seemed to be having enormous problems facing the england bowlers and with the pitch but dravid made it look easy, his partnership with mishra india's highlight of the match, before the leg spinner fell to bresnan on 43. bresnan and swann were the pick of the bowlers as india were all out for 300 and england enforced the follow on, sensing they could get a few indian wickets before the close of play on sunday. dravid had been on the field every minute of the game until then and he was out to bat again. sadly for dravid, he departed from the field after scoring thirteen, the series not ending well for india's only bright spark. sehwag recorded his highest score of the series before also falling to swann, a fantastic delivery from england's off spinner on a pitch that really was turning - swann was expected to do a lot of damage on day five. anderson claiming the last wicket of the day, a beauty to bowl vvs laxman. the morning session of day five really did belong to india, not a phrase used often this series. tendulkar and nightwatchman mishra put on an entertaining partnership, making england's bowlers work harder than they had done for a lot of the series. mishra was bowled by swann on 84 and tendulkar left soon after, given out lbw to bresnan on 91. hawkeye proved it was just clipping the stumps but it takes a brave man to give sachin tendulkar his marching orders, nine away from that hundreth century. i can't imagine simon taufel is popular man in india tonight. this sparked a batting collapse, india losing seven wickets for twenty one runs. graeme swann running riot taking 6-106, breath-taking bowling at times and england had done it. we had achieved the unthinkable and we'd beat india 4-0. not even the most optismitic england supporter could have predicted this surely? andrew strauss and andy flower have proved the ultimate team in helping england climb the world rankings and it's all down to hard work. the england boys have come so far on this journey and the sky is the limit - i believe this team can dominate test cricket for years to come. we've got the best coach in the world, the best batsmen in the world and the best bowling attack in the world: the future's bright.
10:30, thursday 21st july: india won the toss and elected to field. their opening bowler, zaheer khan would obviously be the biggest threat to england but after swiftly taking the wickets of england openers, strauss and cook, he limped off due to a hamstring problem. a massive blow to india but the word from the indian dressing room was that he'd be fit in a couple of days time - this proved to be completely untrue and zaheer did not bowl another ball in the series. he flew back to india after the second test and is set to miss the ODI series starting in durham on 3rd september. back to india's bowlers who were still on the field, none of them could compete with the powerful batting from trott and in particular pietersen, the latter who went on to score a extravagant double century. the other batting highlight from the england's first innings was a superb and incredibly positive seventy one from wicketkeeper prior. kumar dismissed prior and broad in two balls, broad for a golden duck but his hattrick wasn't to be - kumar was the only indian bowler who impressed (a recurring theme throughout the series) as england declared on 474 for 8. kumar taking 5-106, earning himself a well deserved place on the famous lords hounour board. finally it was time for the adoring public to see india's batting superstars - tendulkar, dravid, laxman, dhoni. one of india's big guns was missing, sehwag was not due to play until the third test at edgbaston and youngster mukund who had featured against the west indies, was given a chance to shine. and that is what he did, narrowly missing out on a half century after being bowled by broad on 49. this was the second highest score in the innings. the majority of the indian stars had come to the crease with confidence and left it promptly, looking rather foolish. however one man does not fit into this category and his name is rahul dravid, hero to millions and all round 'nice bloke'. an unbeaten 103 saving the indians from total embarassment. an effortless performance by the man they nickname 'the wall', he remained calm and composed as he lost countless batting partners - later to be named india's man of the series. the previously out of form stuart broad was the pick of the bowlers taking 4-37, including the prized scalp of tendulkar. india were all out for 286 - disappointing when compared to their usual high standards but this ended up being one of their highest totals of the series - only scraping 300 once throughout the four matches.
england were back to batting again, hoping for the same quality shown in the first innings. however, a devastating spell from sharma left england 62-5 and then 107-6 after morgan was dismissed. could england really mess up such a good position and risk not winning a match, they had dominated for four days? no need to worry, as this story has a happy ending. what i love about this england team is that even when one or more of the 'top players' do not perform, the match winners throughout the team, save the day. on this occasion it was prior and broad, who ended the innings on 103* and 72* respectively, thrilling the packed crowd at lords. england now had a decent lead and knew time was on their side, they had just over a day to bowl out an indian side who looked very unconvincing first time around. yet another lack lustre performance from a weary indian side resulted in a comfortable victory for england. only two players had passed fifty and destructive bowling from anderson, taking 5-65, saw england win by an awesome 196 runs.
confidence was very much with the england boys as they travelled to nottingham hoping to secure a 2-0 lead in the series. an unchanged eleven was expected but chris tremlett sustained an injury in training on the thursday, which meant tim bresnan came into the side. although losing tremlett was a blow, england were able to substitute quality with quality. again india won the toss and chose to bowl. day one was a disaster for england. after losing cook and trott cheaply, it was hoped pietersen and strauss would build a formidable partnership but after they were dismissed, the wickets began to fall and the batting line up collapsed. england needed someone to help them out of this mess and after his heroics with the bat and ball at lords, stuart broad once again proved the saviour for the three lions. his notts and england team-mate graeme swann joined him at the crease to entertain the crowd at trent bridge, steering england past 200. swann's brief yet exciting cameo came to an end on 28 but broad secured his second half century of the series as england were all out for 221. not the greatest total but after being 124-8, england were grateful to have made a competitive total at all. india were in a great position and with a decent batting performance, they could have england on the back foot by the end of day one. they got off to the worst of starts imaginable, mukund out first ball after a fantastic delivery from anderson. vvs laxman and zaheer khan's replacement, yuraj singh, scored half centuries but yet again, india's stand out performance was dravid, another exquisite century after being moved up the order to open in place of gambhir. however the headlines was dominated, not by dravid's superb batting but by a match-winning hattrick from stuart broad, dismissing dhoni, harbhajan and kumar: saving england when india were firmly on top and looked ready to build a huge first innings lead. broad ended with career best figures of 6-46 as india were all out for 287: bresnan and anderson sharing the other four wickets between them. england needed one of the top five to step up and score big runs in the second innings, this time it was ian bell who thrived under pressure. he scored a magnificent, yet controversial 159 - the controversy came due to a run out which was given out and then not out by the umpires either side of tea. the incident occured in the last over before tea. bell and his then current batting partner, eoin morgan, walked off for tea after allegedly being told so by the umpires. the indian fielders however had seen no signal for tea and then proceeded to run bell out. careless from bell you may say and he was evidently annoyed with the decision, although according to the laws of the game - this decision should have stood, bell should have been out. the crowd at trent bridge seemed annoyed at the lack of sportmanship showed by dhoni and believed it was against the spirit of cricket. after tea, the decision was reversed. bell was back in and went on to score 159 before falling to yuraj singh. pietersen, morgan and bresnan all provided more big runs for england - bresnan agonisingly short of a maiden test century, his 90 from 118 was a delight to watch. england had reached 500 and had nearly two days to bowl india out again, which hadn't been a problem previously. only three indian players reached double figures, including a half century for tendulkar but even the little master couldn't inspire his team - they slumped to 158 all out and england won by a mammoth 319 runs.
a week's break between the second and third test saw opening batsmen sehwag return to the indian team in a two day game against northamptonshire. he didn't have to wait long for a bat in the test match as england won the toss and put india in. sehwag must've wondered why he even bothered boarding the plane to england - he was out for a golden duck: caught by prior off the bowling of broad. gambhir, dravid and laxman all made starts but they were torn apart by some excellent bowling from england, in particular broad and bresnan who took four wickets each. at 111-7, captain dhoni knew he had to do something drastic. he himself had had a poor series up till then with some average wicketkeeping and not the usual fluid batting we had come to expect from him. this innings his luck changed and he scored an impressive 77 from 96 balls - scoring three sixes in the process. we also got to see more positive batting from kumar, a man who looks a future threat for india. his enthusiasm was second to none and his bowling & batting was a pleasure to watch. a lot of the indian players looked as if they'd rather be anywhere else in the world than at edgbaston but kumar showed passion and fight, something i love to see in a sportsman. yet another ordinary performance from india meant they looked very likely to concede their status as number one in the world sooner rather than later.
a partnership worth 186 set england off to the best possible start when it was their turn to bat. the previously out of form strauss and cook confidently took on this tired indian bowling attack and looked almost invicible before strauss was unluckily bowled on 87 by spinner mishra, a replacement for the injured singh. vice captain cook had no such issue and went on to better his own highest test score of 235 at brisbane, he fell narrowly short of 300 - only 40 short of mentor gooch's 333 against india. the other big score of the england innings was that of eoin morgan, his century helped england post a total of 710. pietersen and bresnan also contributing half cenuries but a disappointing score of just seven for ravi bopara who had come into the squad for the injured jonathan trott. it would take something special for the indians to even make england bat again, let alone get something from the match. india needed sehwag to perform if they were to save face and avoid another thrashing from england. this time it was anderson who put sehwag out of his misery - a king pair for india's superstar, his miserable series did not stop there and sehwag was left walking back to the dressing room as edgbaston erupted and the england players celebrated. gambhir and dravid didnt stay around for long, and yet again all the pressue was on tendulkar's shoulders. the passionate indian supporters in the stands desperately needed something to cheer about. sadly for them, tendulkar only managed forty runs before being run out - excellent fielding from graeme swann again denying sachin his hundredth hundred. another good partnership between dhoni and kumar lifted the indians' spirit again but they were just delaying the inevitable. england had won in spectacular fashion, by an innings and 242 runs.
india had been dethroned as number one in the world and it was now england sitting pretty at the top - could we achieve a whitewash and beat the sorry indians 4-0 at the oval?
sadly for me and the other 23,000 people who bought tickets for day one at the oval, it was a very disappointing day. not due to the cricket itself, it was a very solid session for strauss and cook after england had won the toss and elected to bat. sadly one session was all we got to witness as around half one persistent rains set in. the morning session of day two didn't go accordingly to plan on the field, strauss and cook both out quickly to sreesanth and sharma. luckily ian bell, promoted to number three in jonathan trott's absence, put in a man of the match performance scoring a delectable 235 and put on a 350 partnership with pietersen, who scored a huge hundred too. by lunch on day three, england were in a fantastic position especially with bopara and quick scoring prior on to bat. however, another lengthy rain delay meant england had to declare on 591-6 to move the game on, bopara on 44*.
up until now, graeme swann had had a quiet series. the seamers had exploited the conditions in the previous three tests but the oval was the ground swann was expected to contribute most in and he did not disappoint. yet again, sehwag wasn't around for long. this time he scored the lowly amount of eight before being trapped leg-before to anderson. his opening partner, dravid had a very different innings. his unbeaten 146 made him a class apart from team mates. all his team mates seemed to be having enormous problems facing the england bowlers and with the pitch but dravid made it look easy, his partnership with mishra india's highlight of the match, before the leg spinner fell to bresnan on 43. bresnan and swann were the pick of the bowlers as india were all out for 300 and england enforced the follow on, sensing they could get a few indian wickets before the close of play on sunday. dravid had been on the field every minute of the game until then and he was out to bat again. sadly for dravid, he departed from the field after scoring thirteen, the series not ending well for india's only bright spark. sehwag recorded his highest score of the series before also falling to swann, a fantastic delivery from england's off spinner on a pitch that really was turning - swann was expected to do a lot of damage on day five. anderson claiming the last wicket of the day, a beauty to bowl vvs laxman. the morning session of day five really did belong to india, not a phrase used often this series. tendulkar and nightwatchman mishra put on an entertaining partnership, making england's bowlers work harder than they had done for a lot of the series. mishra was bowled by swann on 84 and tendulkar left soon after, given out lbw to bresnan on 91. hawkeye proved it was just clipping the stumps but it takes a brave man to give sachin tendulkar his marching orders, nine away from that hundreth century. i can't imagine simon taufel is popular man in india tonight. this sparked a batting collapse, india losing seven wickets for twenty one runs. graeme swann running riot taking 6-106, breath-taking bowling at times and england had done it. we had achieved the unthinkable and we'd beat india 4-0. not even the most optismitic england supporter could have predicted this surely? andrew strauss and andy flower have proved the ultimate team in helping england climb the world rankings and it's all down to hard work. the england boys have come so far on this journey and the sky is the limit - i believe this team can dominate test cricket for years to come. we've got the best coach in the world, the best batsmen in the world and the best bowling attack in the world: the future's bright.
Wednesday 10 August 2011
out with the old and in with the.. erm... new?
and it's back. the football season already in full swing after the first round of games in the football league and now it's time for the new premier league season. the drama, the passion and those gritty 0-0 draws in pouring rain on tuesday nights: we've missed it terribly. pre-season counts for nothing, it all starts here.
there's been a lot of transfer buzz this summer - sadly most stories involving arsenal football club have been centred around players leaving, rather than bringing the players we desperately need to end the infamous six year trophy drought. a commanding centre half should be the priority - with a reserve left back and decent goalkeeper also on most fans' wish list. we've been linked to the likes of bolton's gary cahill and blackburn's christopher samba but no such deal has materalised. earlier on in the summer we lost the last of the invincibles to manchester city - gael clcihy, a fine left back and will be sorely missed at the club, last season wasn't the best example of his sheer class and talent but trust me, city have signed a gem there. promising youngsters such as alex oxlade chamberlain and carl jenkinson have not excited the arsenal fans enough, they crave more high profile signing such as gervinho - finally signing for arsenal after a two month wait. a lack of activity in the transfer market has led to a lot of frustration amongst arsenal fans but we have to be patient. there could be a flurry of late transfers... i won't hold my breath though!
weeks of stories in the written and digital press, two players have stole the limelight. still on arsenal's books but if all the current stories are to be believed, both are on the verge of jumping ship and their names are samir nasri and cesc fabregas. the latter is constantly talked about - his love affair with his former club has left him a driving ambition to return there and he's said to be desperate to be reunited with his national team mates in la liga. even current arsenal players, bacary sagna and marouane chamakh, have said themselves that they believe fabregas will leave this summer.
last season, i would have done anything to keep cesc fabregas. i couldnt comprehend that losing our captain could benefit the club in any way but now i have matured and realised that cesc's burning desire for barcelona will never die. no matter how much he claims to love arsenal football club, this obsession with returning home to spain means his head and heart are not with us in north london. yes, his head has been turned by comments from barcelona players but at the end of the day, cesc has his own mind and most arsenal fans know this too. not even the most deluded cesc fabregas fan expects him to fufil his contract at arsenal - like he promised three years ago, declaring that he'd be happy spending his whole career at the arsenal. arsenal fans know it's time for him to move on but the main issue now is the money received for him, in order to buy a replacement - one of a similar quality to the world class fabregas. a running theme of this transfer saga is barcelona's disrespect to arsenal and this hasn't stopped this summer, offering arsenal twenty seven million pounds for the spanish superstar. in the 'real world', twenty seven million is a lot, okay more than a lot. but this is football and everything is extortionate. this offer looks even more ridiculous when compared to others this summer - for example stewart downing's twenty million pound switch to liverpool. this is a player who in my opinion is one of the most overrated players to wear an england shirt in the last ten years - so how is cesc only seven million better than him?! of course, arsenal rejected this. barcelona's seemingly endless persuit to get their man has resulted in many rejected offers along the way but if reports circulating twitter and from high profile jounralists, are correct then the figure apparently agreed by the two clubs is around £35 million. again, arsenal losing out moneywise but probably having to take the offer because of player power. contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on nowadays and are only used for players to beg more money out of their clubs - because its obviously ludicrous for these poor pampered players to live on £120,000 a week. if fabregas didn't want to play at the weekend and force his move to barcelona, i'm sure he'd do it. long have gone the days where the club had some sort of authority over these players.
another 'unsettled' arsenal player is samir nasri. allegedly, he has told arsenal that he will not sign another contract with the club and like his french team mate clichy, is desperate to satisfy his thirst for trophies. he's being linked to manchester city too, after a brief period of interest from manchester united - due to united's desire to sign dutchmen wesley sneijder, another player their manchester neighbours seem to be keen on! out of both nasri and fabregas, i personally would rather keep nasri. i know some fans agree with me and others won't - but that's okay. up until recently, i was sure that nasri would be committed to arsenal enough for one more quality season before leaving on a free next summer. it would be a shame to see such a great player leave on a free transfer but we're apparently in a great financial postition - so this aspect shouldn't be too worrying. this is a player who can change games at the click of his fingers and who knows, if he was to stay, he could end up being the most important player in a premier league winning team. however, recent comments have led me to believe that this committment won't be there next season. he seems as desperate as fabregas to leave arsenal and we don't need players like that, no matter how good they are.
if they don't want to play for arsenal football club, then here's the door. thousands of young men would give their left arm to represent this great club and wear the red and white of arsenal. yet these two have their hearts set on leaving. if this is goodbye cesc and samir, thank you for the memories x
there's been a lot of transfer buzz this summer - sadly most stories involving arsenal football club have been centred around players leaving, rather than bringing the players we desperately need to end the infamous six year trophy drought. a commanding centre half should be the priority - with a reserve left back and decent goalkeeper also on most fans' wish list. we've been linked to the likes of bolton's gary cahill and blackburn's christopher samba but no such deal has materalised. earlier on in the summer we lost the last of the invincibles to manchester city - gael clcihy, a fine left back and will be sorely missed at the club, last season wasn't the best example of his sheer class and talent but trust me, city have signed a gem there. promising youngsters such as alex oxlade chamberlain and carl jenkinson have not excited the arsenal fans enough, they crave more high profile signing such as gervinho - finally signing for arsenal after a two month wait. a lack of activity in the transfer market has led to a lot of frustration amongst arsenal fans but we have to be patient. there could be a flurry of late transfers... i won't hold my breath though!
weeks of stories in the written and digital press, two players have stole the limelight. still on arsenal's books but if all the current stories are to be believed, both are on the verge of jumping ship and their names are samir nasri and cesc fabregas. the latter is constantly talked about - his love affair with his former club has left him a driving ambition to return there and he's said to be desperate to be reunited with his national team mates in la liga. even current arsenal players, bacary sagna and marouane chamakh, have said themselves that they believe fabregas will leave this summer.
last season, i would have done anything to keep cesc fabregas. i couldnt comprehend that losing our captain could benefit the club in any way but now i have matured and realised that cesc's burning desire for barcelona will never die. no matter how much he claims to love arsenal football club, this obsession with returning home to spain means his head and heart are not with us in north london. yes, his head has been turned by comments from barcelona players but at the end of the day, cesc has his own mind and most arsenal fans know this too. not even the most deluded cesc fabregas fan expects him to fufil his contract at arsenal - like he promised three years ago, declaring that he'd be happy spending his whole career at the arsenal. arsenal fans know it's time for him to move on but the main issue now is the money received for him, in order to buy a replacement - one of a similar quality to the world class fabregas. a running theme of this transfer saga is barcelona's disrespect to arsenal and this hasn't stopped this summer, offering arsenal twenty seven million pounds for the spanish superstar. in the 'real world', twenty seven million is a lot, okay more than a lot. but this is football and everything is extortionate. this offer looks even more ridiculous when compared to others this summer - for example stewart downing's twenty million pound switch to liverpool. this is a player who in my opinion is one of the most overrated players to wear an england shirt in the last ten years - so how is cesc only seven million better than him?! of course, arsenal rejected this. barcelona's seemingly endless persuit to get their man has resulted in many rejected offers along the way but if reports circulating twitter and from high profile jounralists, are correct then the figure apparently agreed by the two clubs is around £35 million. again, arsenal losing out moneywise but probably having to take the offer because of player power. contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on nowadays and are only used for players to beg more money out of their clubs - because its obviously ludicrous for these poor pampered players to live on £120,000 a week. if fabregas didn't want to play at the weekend and force his move to barcelona, i'm sure he'd do it. long have gone the days where the club had some sort of authority over these players.
another 'unsettled' arsenal player is samir nasri. allegedly, he has told arsenal that he will not sign another contract with the club and like his french team mate clichy, is desperate to satisfy his thirst for trophies. he's being linked to manchester city too, after a brief period of interest from manchester united - due to united's desire to sign dutchmen wesley sneijder, another player their manchester neighbours seem to be keen on! out of both nasri and fabregas, i personally would rather keep nasri. i know some fans agree with me and others won't - but that's okay. up until recently, i was sure that nasri would be committed to arsenal enough for one more quality season before leaving on a free next summer. it would be a shame to see such a great player leave on a free transfer but we're apparently in a great financial postition - so this aspect shouldn't be too worrying. this is a player who can change games at the click of his fingers and who knows, if he was to stay, he could end up being the most important player in a premier league winning team. however, recent comments have led me to believe that this committment won't be there next season. he seems as desperate as fabregas to leave arsenal and we don't need players like that, no matter how good they are.
if they don't want to play for arsenal football club, then here's the door. thousands of young men would give their left arm to represent this great club and wear the red and white of arsenal. yet these two have their hearts set on leaving. if this is goodbye cesc and samir, thank you for the memories x
Saturday 16 July 2011
predictably unpredictable
the phrase most associated with essex over the last ten years. a competitive south group needed consistently good performances that essex just didn't put in. defending champions hampshire, runners up somerset and the likes of sussex and surrey were always likely to pose essex a threat but with this 'superb' batting order - surely we could overcome such a challenge?
the campaign started down at hove and after winning the toss, foster put sussex into bat. essex have always been a fan of chasing a total down and i personally prefer that - batting first, there's always a risk of not knowing what a good score is. when you know your target, you can usually prepare yourself a lot better tactically.
sussex's innings ended on 173-4, murray goodwin top scoring with 53. three wickets from tim phillips, who went on to impress throughout the whole competition. the other wicket from the new addition to the squad, new zealand international, tim southee. 174 not the easiest target to chase down but with the batsmen all the way through the team, you'd expect essex to be there or there abouts.
sadly with the exception of kiwi t20 superstar styris, the rest of the batting order collapsed and essex were all out for 141.
the next game was said to be a little easier and proved to be a walk in the park for essex. we set gloucs an ambitious 205 to win, which would seem to be a winning score for anyone else but you can never be too sure when essex are concerned and of course, gloucestershire had ireland's world cup hero kevin o'brien turning out for them. luckily like the rest of his team, they faded away into nothing and essex's bowlers finished them off quickly - dismissing them for 82 all out. fortress chelmsford had seen what we all hoped was going to be the first win of many in the competition.
back to back home games saw sussex visit chelmsford, essex fans praying for revenge after the sharks' relatively comfortable win a few days beforehand. again essex decided that they wanted the sharks to bat first and yet again, sussex posted a good but not unbeatable target. luke wright passed 1500 runs in twenty20 matches when he reached 74, finishing on 81 not out. again, there were three more wickets for left arm spinner phillips. unfortunately, the batting was disappointing and we finished 17 runs short of the target. people were already starting to question the batsmen's order and/or places in the side - why is such a good t20 batting order, maybe even the best in the country, constantly finishing short of the mark? there's quality from 1-11 - that is undisputed but everybody seemed puzzled by the lack of form showed by key players - ten doeschate and bopara are good examples of this.
the day later, essex went to the home of cricket knowing they needed a win to get themselves back in the group - other teams had started brightly and essex couldnt afford to be left behind. middlesex opted to bat first and set essex 151 to win - a below par score which many expected essex to reach easily. this time we did get there but made things a lot harder of ourselves than we needed to. owais shah's match winning 78 was the only thing to write home about, alongside a solid knock from captain foster, 30 from 18 balls. - both openers out for ducks and disappointing scores from walker and ten doeschate.
monday 13th june saw the eagles' charge to glory move onto the oval. napier took two wickets in his first two overs - taking the wickets of captain, hamilton-brown and england wicketkeeper, steven davies. roy, maynard and de bruyn all making decent scores. the impressive youngster ansari on his debut, added a delightfully entertaining 30 at the end. after being set the mediocre target of 155, you can probably guess what happened next. yes, you guessed it - cue a dreadful batting performance. only foster and wheater scoring more than 20, with the injured napier out for a golden duck and big hitting tim southee run out without scoring. all out for 111 was simply not good enough - the players and coaches themselves had admitted this.
back to chelmsford to take on somerset - the runners up in the 2010 competition and argubably, the best all round one day outfit in the country. their star man marcus trescothick scored a fantastic 108 off only 61 deliveries. hildreth and trego also looking impressive - meaning essex had to score 226. it would only be possible if essex used the powerplay wisely and got off to a flyer. only two players got into double figures - a throughly frustrating performance which left a bitter taste in the mouth. all out for 82 turned out to be essex's worst performance of the season and somerset left chelsmford knowing they'd spanked essex and more importantly, taken two crucial points with them.
the match down at bristol which essex would have been confident of getting two points from was rained off.
glamorgan at sophia gardens was the next test for the eagles. glamorgan didnt set the world alight with their average batting and this gave essex hope that they could indeed reach 142. of course essex tried their best to lose it, keeping glamorgan in the game right till the end, with three of the six wickets coming from careless run outs. luckily for essex, shah put in a man of the match performance and saved essex.
champions hampshire arrived in chelmsford with shahid afridi ready to make his first appearance of the season - another factor which seemed to suggest essex were under dogs for this huge clash - hampshire were unbeaten before their visit to the county ground and had been in a great form. the experiment to promote southee to open with pettini seemed a huge risk at the time but with his massive 74 and a valuable contribution from fellow bowler tim phillips, the county ground was rocking - it was raining sixes! essex reached 162, which was a good score but we had to be careful - it is well documented how many good players hampshire have. vince, mckenzie, cork, mascarenhas, to name a few. however, the 'two tims' really helped swing the game in essex's favour - taking seven wickets between them. the dismissal of afridi for two was a massive wicket and essex ended up winning by 26 runs. argubably, the highlight of the twenty20 campaign and i cannot think of a better all round team performance than that one against the royals.
alastair cook was allowed to join up with the essex squad for the game against surrey at chelmsford to get a chance in the shortest form of the game, with the ODI series quickly approaching. however, he had no time at the crease as did no one else as not one ball was bowled at the county ground - downpurs for four hours ensured no play was possible. frustrating for the eagles as the previous night would have given them confidence to go on and get revenge on the surrey lions.
a week passed and after a fantastic county championship victory against leaders northants, essex were back in t20 action down at canterbury. an average performance with the bat didnt give essex the best chance of victory and kent punished the eagles with captain key and mahmood both smashing their way to big scores. a convincing eight wicket win for the spitfires, made even more worrying to the essex fans due to the fixtures coming up. there would have to be a huge improvement if we were to progress from the position we were in.
the most 'winnable' of the upcoming games was a saturday early evening game at chelmsford, against the middlesex panthers. the panthers were already out of the race for a quarter final place so their role in the group was to upset some of the bigger teams and put the cat among the pigeons - and that is what they nearly did. with essex only putting 139 on the board, they put themselves in a vulnerable position. if the opposition had have been a better team, essex would have really been in trouble but a struggling middlesex side was one essex players felt that even a low score was good enough for them to defend. the match ended up being a lot more thrilling than essex really wanted - a vital six runs were added to middlesex's total due to essex's slow over rate, something that dismayed james foster. luckily essex just scraped through but it was clear for everyone to see that something needed to change. and fast.
now came the two tricky away games - somerset at bath and hampshire down at the rose bowl. somerset had thumped essex earlier on in the season and playing at a small ground with small boundaries seemed to suit somerset down to the ground, with the likes of trescothick, trego and buttler in the side. surprisingly the team who made the most of the small boundaries was essex. a staggering 81 from the previously out of form pettini and a timely return to form from ravi bopara saw essex set somerset 210 to win. it was evident that if trescothick got off to a good start, that target would be frequently shrinking. not many people though would have bet on him being bowled by phillips in the first over. after then, a few players tried to stage a comeback but with the required run rate ever increasing, the pressure got to the players and they crumbled - all out for 141. ryan ten doeschate's best bowling figures all season taking 3-18.
could essex make it two wins out of two? two nearly impossible wins? well no, we couldn't. it had rained all day and we were quite lucky to get a game underway at all. vince and ervine scored 55 and 45 respectively, hampshire reaching 151-7. essex's innings was a lot more rain affected due to regular rain showers, duckworth lewis came into play setting essex a new target of 132. essex ran them close but too few boundaries proved costly as they finished nine runs short.
the end was nigh and essex's penultimate game was at home to the glamorgan dragons. it really was a win-or-bust game, even though a win wouldn't do essex the world of good - we'd let outselves get behind the challengers for the third and fourth quarter final places. glamorgan were put into bat by stand-in captain pettini and got to 144. essex were obviously comfortable with the thought of reaching 145 - maybe a little too comfortable. there never seemed to be enough urgency to secure the necessary runs, taking 19 overs.
somehow, last night of t20 and essex were still in contention for a place in the quarters, with a little bit of help from the other games played in the week. surrey, sussex, kent and of course, essex all still needed to qualify. there was only a very small chance of essex winning and not qualifying, so they knew one good performance could see them through. a 69 from denly and a controversial 41 from stevens put more runs on the board than essex were expecting after quite a slow start from the spitfires.
even after a lot of suspect fielding from kent, essex failed to reach the 184 required and the uncharacteristically quiet county ground was filled with the celebrations of the kent players. stevens rightly winning man of the match after taking a wicket in each of his four overs. they deserved it and essex didn't bat well enough - simple as.
the campaign started down at hove and after winning the toss, foster put sussex into bat. essex have always been a fan of chasing a total down and i personally prefer that - batting first, there's always a risk of not knowing what a good score is. when you know your target, you can usually prepare yourself a lot better tactically.
sussex's innings ended on 173-4, murray goodwin top scoring with 53. three wickets from tim phillips, who went on to impress throughout the whole competition. the other wicket from the new addition to the squad, new zealand international, tim southee. 174 not the easiest target to chase down but with the batsmen all the way through the team, you'd expect essex to be there or there abouts.
sadly with the exception of kiwi t20 superstar styris, the rest of the batting order collapsed and essex were all out for 141.
the next game was said to be a little easier and proved to be a walk in the park for essex. we set gloucs an ambitious 205 to win, which would seem to be a winning score for anyone else but you can never be too sure when essex are concerned and of course, gloucestershire had ireland's world cup hero kevin o'brien turning out for them. luckily like the rest of his team, they faded away into nothing and essex's bowlers finished them off quickly - dismissing them for 82 all out. fortress chelmsford had seen what we all hoped was going to be the first win of many in the competition.
back to back home games saw sussex visit chelmsford, essex fans praying for revenge after the sharks' relatively comfortable win a few days beforehand. again essex decided that they wanted the sharks to bat first and yet again, sussex posted a good but not unbeatable target. luke wright passed 1500 runs in twenty20 matches when he reached 74, finishing on 81 not out. again, there were three more wickets for left arm spinner phillips. unfortunately, the batting was disappointing and we finished 17 runs short of the target. people were already starting to question the batsmen's order and/or places in the side - why is such a good t20 batting order, maybe even the best in the country, constantly finishing short of the mark? there's quality from 1-11 - that is undisputed but everybody seemed puzzled by the lack of form showed by key players - ten doeschate and bopara are good examples of this.
the day later, essex went to the home of cricket knowing they needed a win to get themselves back in the group - other teams had started brightly and essex couldnt afford to be left behind. middlesex opted to bat first and set essex 151 to win - a below par score which many expected essex to reach easily. this time we did get there but made things a lot harder of ourselves than we needed to. owais shah's match winning 78 was the only thing to write home about, alongside a solid knock from captain foster, 30 from 18 balls. - both openers out for ducks and disappointing scores from walker and ten doeschate.
monday 13th june saw the eagles' charge to glory move onto the oval. napier took two wickets in his first two overs - taking the wickets of captain, hamilton-brown and england wicketkeeper, steven davies. roy, maynard and de bruyn all making decent scores. the impressive youngster ansari on his debut, added a delightfully entertaining 30 at the end. after being set the mediocre target of 155, you can probably guess what happened next. yes, you guessed it - cue a dreadful batting performance. only foster and wheater scoring more than 20, with the injured napier out for a golden duck and big hitting tim southee run out without scoring. all out for 111 was simply not good enough - the players and coaches themselves had admitted this.
back to chelmsford to take on somerset - the runners up in the 2010 competition and argubably, the best all round one day outfit in the country. their star man marcus trescothick scored a fantastic 108 off only 61 deliveries. hildreth and trego also looking impressive - meaning essex had to score 226. it would only be possible if essex used the powerplay wisely and got off to a flyer. only two players got into double figures - a throughly frustrating performance which left a bitter taste in the mouth. all out for 82 turned out to be essex's worst performance of the season and somerset left chelsmford knowing they'd spanked essex and more importantly, taken two crucial points with them.
the match down at bristol which essex would have been confident of getting two points from was rained off.
glamorgan at sophia gardens was the next test for the eagles. glamorgan didnt set the world alight with their average batting and this gave essex hope that they could indeed reach 142. of course essex tried their best to lose it, keeping glamorgan in the game right till the end, with three of the six wickets coming from careless run outs. luckily for essex, shah put in a man of the match performance and saved essex.
champions hampshire arrived in chelmsford with shahid afridi ready to make his first appearance of the season - another factor which seemed to suggest essex were under dogs for this huge clash - hampshire were unbeaten before their visit to the county ground and had been in a great form. the experiment to promote southee to open with pettini seemed a huge risk at the time but with his massive 74 and a valuable contribution from fellow bowler tim phillips, the county ground was rocking - it was raining sixes! essex reached 162, which was a good score but we had to be careful - it is well documented how many good players hampshire have. vince, mckenzie, cork, mascarenhas, to name a few. however, the 'two tims' really helped swing the game in essex's favour - taking seven wickets between them. the dismissal of afridi for two was a massive wicket and essex ended up winning by 26 runs. argubably, the highlight of the twenty20 campaign and i cannot think of a better all round team performance than that one against the royals.
alastair cook was allowed to join up with the essex squad for the game against surrey at chelmsford to get a chance in the shortest form of the game, with the ODI series quickly approaching. however, he had no time at the crease as did no one else as not one ball was bowled at the county ground - downpurs for four hours ensured no play was possible. frustrating for the eagles as the previous night would have given them confidence to go on and get revenge on the surrey lions.
a week passed and after a fantastic county championship victory against leaders northants, essex were back in t20 action down at canterbury. an average performance with the bat didnt give essex the best chance of victory and kent punished the eagles with captain key and mahmood both smashing their way to big scores. a convincing eight wicket win for the spitfires, made even more worrying to the essex fans due to the fixtures coming up. there would have to be a huge improvement if we were to progress from the position we were in.
the most 'winnable' of the upcoming games was a saturday early evening game at chelmsford, against the middlesex panthers. the panthers were already out of the race for a quarter final place so their role in the group was to upset some of the bigger teams and put the cat among the pigeons - and that is what they nearly did. with essex only putting 139 on the board, they put themselves in a vulnerable position. if the opposition had have been a better team, essex would have really been in trouble but a struggling middlesex side was one essex players felt that even a low score was good enough for them to defend. the match ended up being a lot more thrilling than essex really wanted - a vital six runs were added to middlesex's total due to essex's slow over rate, something that dismayed james foster. luckily essex just scraped through but it was clear for everyone to see that something needed to change. and fast.
now came the two tricky away games - somerset at bath and hampshire down at the rose bowl. somerset had thumped essex earlier on in the season and playing at a small ground with small boundaries seemed to suit somerset down to the ground, with the likes of trescothick, trego and buttler in the side. surprisingly the team who made the most of the small boundaries was essex. a staggering 81 from the previously out of form pettini and a timely return to form from ravi bopara saw essex set somerset 210 to win. it was evident that if trescothick got off to a good start, that target would be frequently shrinking. not many people though would have bet on him being bowled by phillips in the first over. after then, a few players tried to stage a comeback but with the required run rate ever increasing, the pressure got to the players and they crumbled - all out for 141. ryan ten doeschate's best bowling figures all season taking 3-18.
could essex make it two wins out of two? two nearly impossible wins? well no, we couldn't. it had rained all day and we were quite lucky to get a game underway at all. vince and ervine scored 55 and 45 respectively, hampshire reaching 151-7. essex's innings was a lot more rain affected due to regular rain showers, duckworth lewis came into play setting essex a new target of 132. essex ran them close but too few boundaries proved costly as they finished nine runs short.
the end was nigh and essex's penultimate game was at home to the glamorgan dragons. it really was a win-or-bust game, even though a win wouldn't do essex the world of good - we'd let outselves get behind the challengers for the third and fourth quarter final places. glamorgan were put into bat by stand-in captain pettini and got to 144. essex were obviously comfortable with the thought of reaching 145 - maybe a little too comfortable. there never seemed to be enough urgency to secure the necessary runs, taking 19 overs.
somehow, last night of t20 and essex were still in contention for a place in the quarters, with a little bit of help from the other games played in the week. surrey, sussex, kent and of course, essex all still needed to qualify. there was only a very small chance of essex winning and not qualifying, so they knew one good performance could see them through. a 69 from denly and a controversial 41 from stevens put more runs on the board than essex were expecting after quite a slow start from the spitfires.
even after a lot of suspect fielding from kent, essex failed to reach the 184 required and the uncharacteristically quiet county ground was filled with the celebrations of the kent players. stevens rightly winning man of the match after taking a wicket in each of his four overs. they deserved it and essex didn't bat well enough - simple as.
Tuesday 21 June 2011
how wonderful life is, now you're in the world.
england wrapped a 1-0 series win against sri lanka early monday evening after yet more rain in southampton - the match was abandoned after a lack lustre fifth day at the rose bowl. persistent downpours ensured rain was the true winner of the three match test series but it gave england batsmen valuable time at the crease and more opportunties for the bowling attack to shine. these matches were always going to be considered a prelude to india's summer visit but some players had to put in quality performances to sustain their place in the team and then replicate them in a month or so's time.
cardiff was the setting for the first test - still with its doubters questioning why a test match should be played in wales, a place known rather for love of rugby not cricket. after a rainy first day, early friday evening england were put into bat with a target of 401. alastair cook and jonathan trott frustrated the sri lankan bowlers for hours and showed they intended to carry on their winter form, scoring 133 and 203 respectively. a fantastic century from bell, meant england declared on 496-5. however, due to the weather england had incredibly little time on the last day to bowl sri lanka out. the sensational last day at sophia garden was most definitely the hightlight of the series and will forever live in the memory. traditional welsh weather had meant england had just over a session to complete mission-almost-impossible. james anderson had been ruled out of bowling after suffering from a grade one side strain, leaving england a bowler short amd an even higher mountain to climb. luckily the three remaining bowlers stepped up and achieved the unthinkable - sri lanka were bowled out for 82, graeme swann and chris tremlett taking four wickets each. with only three days between the first and second test, it was important that andrew strauss' men did not get carried away with the victory and concentrated on securing the test series win to move england up the world rankings.
sadly, the lords test did not live up to the drama at cardiff, although two factors remained: the good old british weather and sadly, another low score from captain strauss. the batsmen recovered well from the early losses of strauss and trott, the middle order looking particularly impressive. cook was four shy of yet another test century before being caught out, after a risky shot - untypical of cook's usual patience. bell, morgan, prior and broad all scoring strongly and quickly. bell, a consistent performer for england, showed real class with morgan putting england in a favourable position. an entertaining century from wicketkeeper prior plus bonus runs from broad, put 486 on the board. england's huge bowling attack were expected to take quick wickets in reply but a lively innings of 193 from dilshan proved the bowlers were in for a tough ride before a lengthy rain delay. a collapse by the sri lankan batsmen and an upturn in england's fortunes on day four, made for an exciting end to the match. sadly too many overs were lost to rain and the main event from day five was 'windowgate' - less said about that the better.
with the series at 1-0 england, many began to call for changes to the bowling attack - one in particular. after steven finn's four wickets at lords and jimmy anderson's return to fitness, someone had to go. stuart broad had disappointed in both previous tests and england's new t20 captain's place in the side seem to be under threat. i do not believe the ecb would put so much faith in broad over three yeats and then drop him after two average games. broad has the passion and agression which makes him a fantastic team player, alongside the hatful of wickets he's taken in all forms of the game. his contribution with the bat at lords showed yet another reason to keep him in the side.
credit to steven finn, who made the most of his opportunity in the side and earned the plaudits of many, including myself. within two years, he will be an england regular - mark my words.he just has to be patient and keep impressing for middlesex. his time will come and not many were expecting the dramatic upturn in chris tremlett's internation career over the last twelve months.
this brings me swiftly on to the third test where the previously mentioned tremlett, grabbed all the headlines after taking career best figures of 6-48. after dismissing sri lanka for 184, england knew the constant rain delays meant they had to score a lot of runs in a short amount of time, made alot harder by the early wickets of strauss and trott. luckily england had an inform kevin pietersen at the crease scoring 85 off 115 deliveries, adding to his half century at the home of cricket in the previous test. an aggressive pietersen was a welcome sight for england fans and his problems against left arm spin, was temporarily forgotten. yet another entertaining innings from bell kept a rain soaked crowd at the rose bowl happy after more rain and a rather peculiar decision by the umpires on the timing of tea. nightwatchman anderson had contributed 27 earlier on in the day including five fours before being caught by wicketkeeper jayawardene. eoin morgan scored 71 before a flurry of wickets fell - morgan, prior and broad were all dismissied trying to increase the run rate. strauss declared on 377-8, giving england four sessions (weather permitting) to bowl sri lanka out cheaply. stand in captain sangakkara and samaraweera looked in good nick and finally managed to score big runs in england, something previously lacking from their glittering careers. the much forecasted day five rain set in at tea and just before five, the match was abandoned and it was confirmed that england had won the series.
although it wasn't the most exciting of test series, england have much to treasure from these three games, before the real test of the summer - india, number one in the world rankings and world cup winners.
cardiff was the setting for the first test - still with its doubters questioning why a test match should be played in wales, a place known rather for love of rugby not cricket. after a rainy first day, early friday evening england were put into bat with a target of 401. alastair cook and jonathan trott frustrated the sri lankan bowlers for hours and showed they intended to carry on their winter form, scoring 133 and 203 respectively. a fantastic century from bell, meant england declared on 496-5. however, due to the weather england had incredibly little time on the last day to bowl sri lanka out. the sensational last day at sophia garden was most definitely the hightlight of the series and will forever live in the memory. traditional welsh weather had meant england had just over a session to complete mission-almost-impossible. james anderson had been ruled out of bowling after suffering from a grade one side strain, leaving england a bowler short amd an even higher mountain to climb. luckily the three remaining bowlers stepped up and achieved the unthinkable - sri lanka were bowled out for 82, graeme swann and chris tremlett taking four wickets each. with only three days between the first and second test, it was important that andrew strauss' men did not get carried away with the victory and concentrated on securing the test series win to move england up the world rankings.
sadly, the lords test did not live up to the drama at cardiff, although two factors remained: the good old british weather and sadly, another low score from captain strauss. the batsmen recovered well from the early losses of strauss and trott, the middle order looking particularly impressive. cook was four shy of yet another test century before being caught out, after a risky shot - untypical of cook's usual patience. bell, morgan, prior and broad all scoring strongly and quickly. bell, a consistent performer for england, showed real class with morgan putting england in a favourable position. an entertaining century from wicketkeeper prior plus bonus runs from broad, put 486 on the board. england's huge bowling attack were expected to take quick wickets in reply but a lively innings of 193 from dilshan proved the bowlers were in for a tough ride before a lengthy rain delay. a collapse by the sri lankan batsmen and an upturn in england's fortunes on day four, made for an exciting end to the match. sadly too many overs were lost to rain and the main event from day five was 'windowgate' - less said about that the better.
with the series at 1-0 england, many began to call for changes to the bowling attack - one in particular. after steven finn's four wickets at lords and jimmy anderson's return to fitness, someone had to go. stuart broad had disappointed in both previous tests and england's new t20 captain's place in the side seem to be under threat. i do not believe the ecb would put so much faith in broad over three yeats and then drop him after two average games. broad has the passion and agression which makes him a fantastic team player, alongside the hatful of wickets he's taken in all forms of the game. his contribution with the bat at lords showed yet another reason to keep him in the side.
credit to steven finn, who made the most of his opportunity in the side and earned the plaudits of many, including myself. within two years, he will be an england regular - mark my words.he just has to be patient and keep impressing for middlesex. his time will come and not many were expecting the dramatic upturn in chris tremlett's internation career over the last twelve months.
this brings me swiftly on to the third test where the previously mentioned tremlett, grabbed all the headlines after taking career best figures of 6-48. after dismissing sri lanka for 184, england knew the constant rain delays meant they had to score a lot of runs in a short amount of time, made alot harder by the early wickets of strauss and trott. luckily england had an inform kevin pietersen at the crease scoring 85 off 115 deliveries, adding to his half century at the home of cricket in the previous test. an aggressive pietersen was a welcome sight for england fans and his problems against left arm spin, was temporarily forgotten. yet another entertaining innings from bell kept a rain soaked crowd at the rose bowl happy after more rain and a rather peculiar decision by the umpires on the timing of tea. nightwatchman anderson had contributed 27 earlier on in the day including five fours before being caught by wicketkeeper jayawardene. eoin morgan scored 71 before a flurry of wickets fell - morgan, prior and broad were all dismissied trying to increase the run rate. strauss declared on 377-8, giving england four sessions (weather permitting) to bowl sri lanka out cheaply. stand in captain sangakkara and samaraweera looked in good nick and finally managed to score big runs in england, something previously lacking from their glittering careers. the much forecasted day five rain set in at tea and just before five, the match was abandoned and it was confirmed that england had won the series.
although it wasn't the most exciting of test series, england have much to treasure from these three games, before the real test of the summer - india, number one in the world rankings and world cup winners.
Wednesday 15 June 2011
crazy little thing called love.
the newspapers love it, sky sports news are full of it and its all over social networking sites. what is this 'it' i hear you ask. well of course, its the annual 'arsenal are in crisis' stories. we get them around the same time every year when journalists are bored with transfer gossip. 'trouble at the emirates' read the daily mirror, with reference to the 'unrest' concerning arsenal fans. i wouldn't expect it to be anything but dramatised & senstationalised, however the daily mirror failed to focus on the majority of arsenal fans: those who believe in arsene wenger and have faith in him to deliver. this summer, without a ball even being kicked, is an incredibly important summer for the club. time to ditch the deadwood holding us back and invest in quality players, who have the talent it takes to play 'the arsenal way', and have the passion to endear themselves to the emirates crowd.
as a seventeen year old life long arsenal fan, i have no first hand experience of arsenal without arsene. the thought of getting rid of wenger would not even cross my mind. i trust wenger completley. i understand fans' frustration, as am one myself but you must have faith. a fans revolt would fill tabloids and give journalists a field day - that is not the arsenal way, we don't believe in PR stunts and airing our dirty linen in public. its apparent wenger has full support of the players, its about time a certain minority of fans see how important he is, instead of trying to line up his replacement.
the situation at aston villa is a prime example of a 'troubled club' - the story dominating the electronic and print media: arsenal do not need this kind of press attention and we should be thankful that we have a good manager, good board (well usually)and good fans. the trophies will come. we need to remain positive: our hopes have been cruelly dashed every season for six years but we have the quality to change this.
as a seventeen year old life long arsenal fan, i have no first hand experience of arsenal without arsene. the thought of getting rid of wenger would not even cross my mind. i trust wenger completley. i understand fans' frustration, as am one myself but you must have faith. a fans revolt would fill tabloids and give journalists a field day - that is not the arsenal way, we don't believe in PR stunts and airing our dirty linen in public. its apparent wenger has full support of the players, its about time a certain minority of fans see how important he is, instead of trying to line up his replacement.
the situation at aston villa is a prime example of a 'troubled club' - the story dominating the electronic and print media: arsenal do not need this kind of press attention and we should be thankful that we have a good manager, good board (well usually)and good fans. the trophies will come. we need to remain positive: our hopes have been cruelly dashed every season for six years but we have the quality to change this.
Friday 13 May 2011
Saturday 7 May 2011
v glamorgan dragons, 6th may.
essex won the toss and james foster put glamorgan into bat. glamorgan's forty overs was completed with scoring 222 for seven wickets. sadly, hours of driving rain in cardiff meant the match had to be abandoned.
the main talking point of the match was the sensational hattrick from graham napier, recently returning from eleven months out of the game, dismissing rees, allenby and walters in quick sucession.
captain petersen made a slow 88 before coming napier's fourth victim. masters picked up the wicket of the impressive wagg and the last two wickets were chaotic run outs, argubably caused by petersen.
all eyes were on new england one day captain, alastair cook but it was napier who grabbed all the headlines. hopefully on sunday, we'll get to see cook scoring some runs at bury st edmunds, against the unicorns.
the main talking point of the match was the sensational hattrick from graham napier, recently returning from eleven months out of the game, dismissing rees, allenby and walters in quick sucession.
captain petersen made a slow 88 before coming napier's fourth victim. masters picked up the wicket of the impressive wagg and the last two wickets were chaotic run outs, argubably caused by petersen.
all eyes were on new england one day captain, alastair cook but it was napier who grabbed all the headlines. hopefully on sunday, we'll get to see cook scoring some runs at bury st edmunds, against the unicorns.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
v lancashire lightning, 2nd may
even the most optmisitic essex fan probably didn't predict the nature of monday's game against lancs. yet another division one side which batting performance paled in comparison to the eagles'. after bowling lancashire out for 190, with tsotsobe taking four wickets: victory seemed likely but one thing essex are known for is being predictably unpredictable - remembering lancashire have a good bowling attack which should not be underestimated. however even lancashire's star bowlers could not halt another wonderful essex batting performance. after cook being dismissed for a not so impressive seventeen, there was a lot of pressure on ravi bopara to come in and score runs: he did not disappoint. 32-2 wasnt the most promising position but bopara and foster ensured essex won without ever breaking sweat. bopara adding 75 not out to his three wickets taken earlier on that afternoon.
i previously stated that i do not think bopara should make the england test side against sri lanka in late may, due to his poor batting performances. ever since then, he has scored a century against glamorgan in the county championship and two half centuries in the forty over format of the game, with the added bonus of wickets! do i think this should change my mind about whether he plays for england on the 26th may? i still prefer to watch morgan bat, i find him more consistent: bopara is in and out the team constantly, for a variety of reasons. however, this proves what a hard task the england selectors have. bopara and morgan obviously arent the only players who are in contention for a place but i believe these are the two that wll divide the selectors.
Monday 2 May 2011
v nottinghamshire outlaws, 1st may.
a fantastic start by essex to their 2011 campaign, which saw them beat division one champions notts by seven wickets. thanks to both sides, it was a wonderfully entertaining game that delighted the crowd at the county ground. england hopeful alex hales top scored for notts with 116 from 101 balls, which helped set a competitive target of 288 for essex, thanks to a valuable contribution from samit patel also.
alastair cook was four away from his century when bowled out by luke fletcher but a lot of the damage had already been done as his partnership with england team-mate ravi bopara was littered with boundaries, carrying on from cook's opening wicket partnership with pettini. after bopara was dismissed for fifty, there was a slight worry that further wickets could fall quickly but a fantastic innings from walker and captain, foster saw essex safely home, with an over to spare. towards the end of the game, the essex innings turned into a t20 game - boundaries galore, scoring 103 runs in 10 overs.
after a relatively disappointing start to the season (excluding the recent win over glamorgan at chelmsford) in the county championship, this was the perfect way to inject excitement and optimism back into the essex fans.
Wednesday 27 April 2011
29 days to go.
i'm about four weeks early i will admit but i'm incredibly excited and optismistic about england's summer. to become the best, you have to beat the best and sri lanka and india are argubably two of the world's 'form sides'.
on twitter, i've seen former professionals and other journalists offer their views about team selection, so i thought i'd share mine. england are in a fortunate position that the majority of our team, picks it self, on form alone. we are lucky to have a number of world class players and players who are at the peak of their careeers. in my opinion, nine out of the eleven are pretty much secured but there are quite a few other players who are fully deserving of an england call up. 2010 was the most succesful year for english cricket and we need to keep improving, i fully expect this team to be number one in the world sooner rather than later.
this is the england team i believe should play in cardiff on 26th may:
andrew strauss:
captain fantastic, captained us to back to back ashes victories and played such an important role down under. strauss and flower are obviously the perfect team, england are a lot more settled now and this has obviously resulted in a dramatic improvement to the team. strauss, a world class batsman and fielder, certainly has respect of all the players whilst still maintaining the friendly atmosphere around the england camp.
alastair cook:
his ashes statistics speak for themselves. its hard to believe that only a few months ago, his place in the team was questioned and he was under an enormous amount of pressure to prove he was still worthy of opening the batting in brisbane. two months and 766 runs later, he was named man of the series. this has restored his own confidence and everyone else's faith in him. he needs to continue this fantastic form into the summer and challenge himself against both world cup finalists.
jonathan trott:
england's ever consistent number three. yet another player who had an incredible ashes series, he spent hours at the crease frustrating the aussie bowlers. he often adds stability to nervous situations but being stable isnt his only quality though, his batting was superb throughout the winter and his 168 not out in melbourne was an ashes highlight.
kevin pietersen:
the showman, 'mr ego' himself. the wicket every opposition bowler loves to pick up. with his eccentric and entertaining style of batting, he's always going to attract attention and with attracting attention, it means not everyone is going to be your biggest fan. pietersen often comes in for a lot of criticism, one bad game for him and everybody jumps on the 'drop pietersen' bandwagon. he's world class and loves the chance to prove himself in the biggest games. i believe he will have a successful summer.
ian bell:
i never used to understand the hype around ian bell. around this time last year, the sky team were discussing who they'd select for their ashes squad and every single one of them were singing bell's praises. it wasnt until the ashes series started that i finally began to see what a fantastic player bell really is. a fantastic player of spin and now a regular in the test team, it is hard to imagine anybody could replace him at the moment.
eoin morgan:
the obvious replacement for collingwood in my mind. with his unique and idiosyncratic style, he caught the england selectors eye immediately whilst playing for ireland. morgan is a constant fixture in the one day format of the game and the next logical step, would be to make him a regular in the test side. he's a good fielder (like collingwood) and i think he is a better player than ravi bopara, who quite a few people have argued should be playing a lot for england in the summer. as an essex fan, i can tell you that ravi has been hopelessly out of form with the bat this season and the only highlight of his season so far has been his bowling. i believe morgan to be more consistent and therefore, a better player in test cricket.
matthew prior:
pretty obvious who i'd choose for wicketkeeper. in my head, hes the best english wicketkeeper around at the moment. craig kieswetter, steven davies and james foster are all good players but thanks to matt's batting progress and fantastic ashes performance, i don't believe his test place is under any great threat.
tim bresnan:
this is the position which caused me and a lot of other cricket fans the most trouble on deciding. steven finn, chris tremlett and chris woakes all fully deserve a place on the team in my eyes but bresnan took a number of key wickets in melbourne and sydney, with the added bonus he's quite handy with the bat too. i expect the three other seamers i mentioned to play some part this summer but if i was choosing the team for cardiff, i think bresnan would just get the nod from me.
graeme swann:
who else? the number one ranked spinner in the world and although i may have rose tinted glasses on, i believe swann is the best bowler in the world, above steyn. despite the conditions not being in his favour, over in australia, he still had a good series - this time with the seamers taking centre stage.
stuart broad:
the future of england cricket, who's been particularly unforunate with injuries over the last few months but now is fit and ready for an important summer in his career. he gets more mature every game and has been lined up as a future england captain, which would only improve his temper and overall game in my opinion. his batting is the only part of his game which does need to improve. after the 2009 ashes, he was tipped to bat at six or seven but as yet, has not shown his true batting ability.
james anderson:
the man who tore the aussie batting line up to pieces on many occasions is england's most important fast bowler. we hope an indifferent world cup will not affect his recent outstanding test performances. in english conditions, he is expected to flourish.
on twitter, i've seen former professionals and other journalists offer their views about team selection, so i thought i'd share mine. england are in a fortunate position that the majority of our team, picks it self, on form alone. we are lucky to have a number of world class players and players who are at the peak of their careeers. in my opinion, nine out of the eleven are pretty much secured but there are quite a few other players who are fully deserving of an england call up. 2010 was the most succesful year for english cricket and we need to keep improving, i fully expect this team to be number one in the world sooner rather than later.
this is the england team i believe should play in cardiff on 26th may:
andrew strauss:
captain fantastic, captained us to back to back ashes victories and played such an important role down under. strauss and flower are obviously the perfect team, england are a lot more settled now and this has obviously resulted in a dramatic improvement to the team. strauss, a world class batsman and fielder, certainly has respect of all the players whilst still maintaining the friendly atmosphere around the england camp.
alastair cook:
his ashes statistics speak for themselves. its hard to believe that only a few months ago, his place in the team was questioned and he was under an enormous amount of pressure to prove he was still worthy of opening the batting in brisbane. two months and 766 runs later, he was named man of the series. this has restored his own confidence and everyone else's faith in him. he needs to continue this fantastic form into the summer and challenge himself against both world cup finalists.
jonathan trott:
england's ever consistent number three. yet another player who had an incredible ashes series, he spent hours at the crease frustrating the aussie bowlers. he often adds stability to nervous situations but being stable isnt his only quality though, his batting was superb throughout the winter and his 168 not out in melbourne was an ashes highlight.
kevin pietersen:
the showman, 'mr ego' himself. the wicket every opposition bowler loves to pick up. with his eccentric and entertaining style of batting, he's always going to attract attention and with attracting attention, it means not everyone is going to be your biggest fan. pietersen often comes in for a lot of criticism, one bad game for him and everybody jumps on the 'drop pietersen' bandwagon. he's world class and loves the chance to prove himself in the biggest games. i believe he will have a successful summer.
ian bell:
i never used to understand the hype around ian bell. around this time last year, the sky team were discussing who they'd select for their ashes squad and every single one of them were singing bell's praises. it wasnt until the ashes series started that i finally began to see what a fantastic player bell really is. a fantastic player of spin and now a regular in the test team, it is hard to imagine anybody could replace him at the moment.
eoin morgan:
the obvious replacement for collingwood in my mind. with his unique and idiosyncratic style, he caught the england selectors eye immediately whilst playing for ireland. morgan is a constant fixture in the one day format of the game and the next logical step, would be to make him a regular in the test side. he's a good fielder (like collingwood) and i think he is a better player than ravi bopara, who quite a few people have argued should be playing a lot for england in the summer. as an essex fan, i can tell you that ravi has been hopelessly out of form with the bat this season and the only highlight of his season so far has been his bowling. i believe morgan to be more consistent and therefore, a better player in test cricket.
matthew prior:
pretty obvious who i'd choose for wicketkeeper. in my head, hes the best english wicketkeeper around at the moment. craig kieswetter, steven davies and james foster are all good players but thanks to matt's batting progress and fantastic ashes performance, i don't believe his test place is under any great threat.
tim bresnan:
this is the position which caused me and a lot of other cricket fans the most trouble on deciding. steven finn, chris tremlett and chris woakes all fully deserve a place on the team in my eyes but bresnan took a number of key wickets in melbourne and sydney, with the added bonus he's quite handy with the bat too. i expect the three other seamers i mentioned to play some part this summer but if i was choosing the team for cardiff, i think bresnan would just get the nod from me.
graeme swann:
who else? the number one ranked spinner in the world and although i may have rose tinted glasses on, i believe swann is the best bowler in the world, above steyn. despite the conditions not being in his favour, over in australia, he still had a good series - this time with the seamers taking centre stage.
stuart broad:
the future of england cricket, who's been particularly unforunate with injuries over the last few months but now is fit and ready for an important summer in his career. he gets more mature every game and has been lined up as a future england captain, which would only improve his temper and overall game in my opinion. his batting is the only part of his game which does need to improve. after the 2009 ashes, he was tipped to bat at six or seven but as yet, has not shown his true batting ability.
james anderson:
the man who tore the aussie batting line up to pieces on many occasions is england's most important fast bowler. we hope an indifferent world cup will not affect his recent outstanding test performances. in english conditions, he is expected to flourish.
Friday 22 April 2011
money, money, money.
twenty20 cricket: entertainment or signalling the death of interest in test games? at international and county level, one of the main incomes of money is through the t20 format of the game. the crowds are driven to the game through their desire to see hatfuls of sixs and slogging the ball a hundred metres. under the floodlights, the upbeat music, the dancers, the cheering crowds: sounds fun? people are flocking to see this kind of cricket but forgetting all about the true form of the game, the form which shows the most skill and concentration, the form every cricketer wants to be the best in the world in: test cricket.
90 overs a day, usually not as loud and half the amount of runs but still the most satisfying. in t20 cricket, a player can score 25 in two overs by slogging shots and taking ridiculous risks but in test circket, it could take an hour for a player to score that amount of runs. however, i would rather see a player build an innings and work hard for their score. thinking about to score those well-taken singles off the bowlers, the boundaries are less frequent but mean an awful lot more. exposing a bowler in t20 doesn't take a lot. an example of this is shane watson batting against graeme swann in the t20 down under, if my memory serves me correctly watson scored almost 30 runs off one over, off the best spinner in the world. they weren't the poorest of deliveries but thanks to the nature of the game, swann was hit all over the park.
this sort of attitude is rubbing off on the fifty over format of the game, batsmen taking risks for runs when they have a lot more time to settle down and build decent partnerships: sometimes it works, other occasions they're walking back to the dressing room, cursing themselves for trying such a thing.
the rewards of test cricket are so much greater as well. yes, england won the t20 world cup and we were all ecstatic to finally be world champions at something! but after two months out in australia and after five gruelling test matches, we returned home with the ashes, the greatest prize in world cricket. and what a series, the beauty of test cricket being defined in all five tests. the true cricket geek within me loves to see a bowler bowl a maiden, six stunning deliveries, really giving the batsman something to think about.
t20 is entertaining for some but we need to rememeber the true origin of cricket and why we all fell in love with it. nothing should ever replace test cricket. it might not bring in the same money and provide the non cricketing public with some interest in the game but at the end of the day, cricket shouldnt be about money. it's about 22 passionate players each game putting in their all.
90 overs a day, usually not as loud and half the amount of runs but still the most satisfying. in t20 cricket, a player can score 25 in two overs by slogging shots and taking ridiculous risks but in test circket, it could take an hour for a player to score that amount of runs. however, i would rather see a player build an innings and work hard for their score. thinking about to score those well-taken singles off the bowlers, the boundaries are less frequent but mean an awful lot more. exposing a bowler in t20 doesn't take a lot. an example of this is shane watson batting against graeme swann in the t20 down under, if my memory serves me correctly watson scored almost 30 runs off one over, off the best spinner in the world. they weren't the poorest of deliveries but thanks to the nature of the game, swann was hit all over the park.
this sort of attitude is rubbing off on the fifty over format of the game, batsmen taking risks for runs when they have a lot more time to settle down and build decent partnerships: sometimes it works, other occasions they're walking back to the dressing room, cursing themselves for trying such a thing.
the rewards of test cricket are so much greater as well. yes, england won the t20 world cup and we were all ecstatic to finally be world champions at something! but after two months out in australia and after five gruelling test matches, we returned home with the ashes, the greatest prize in world cricket. and what a series, the beauty of test cricket being defined in all five tests. the true cricket geek within me loves to see a bowler bowl a maiden, six stunning deliveries, really giving the batsman something to think about.
t20 is entertaining for some but we need to rememeber the true origin of cricket and why we all fell in love with it. nothing should ever replace test cricket. it might not bring in the same money and provide the non cricketing public with some interest in the game but at the end of the day, cricket shouldnt be about money. it's about 22 passionate players each game putting in their all.
Thursday 21 April 2011
you've probably heard this before, i'll try to say it differently.
all i seem to be blogging about at the moment is arsenal, our inability to defend a lead and how its quite likely that this 'quality' of our game could rule us out of winning of the premier league.
last night, a three all draw at tottenham defined why we're not bookmakers favourites anymore. i've been told last night was a 'fantastic game' and for the neutrals, i'm sure it was. however, trying to enjoy a game where your team have let a two goal slip is rather difficult. the spurs defence is nothing to be feared but yet after half time, we did not test them enough. again though, it was our defensive frailties that made the headlines. if it happened once or twice, i could understand. but now its almost becoming a physiological barrier with arsenal. even with a two goal lead, we're still not comfortable and cant contain those nerves. hell, a four goal lead isnt enough sometimes: i struggle to think of another team who would throw away such an advantage at st james park.
at home to tottenham this season, we lost 3-2. going into the dressing room at half time we were 2-0. many other top teams would have come out after the interval and got an early goal and then easied to victory. why not arsenal? after every example of this, i have a debate with myself over why this is. i cannot come up with a definitive reason. when you come back from being a goal down, it is said to 'show spirit' so does conceding late goals constantly show a lack of said spirit? it is all well and good to come out with good quotations after games but its what happens on the pitch that really matters. only results will quieten your critics.
someone said on twitter the other day 'arsenal are to football, what south africa are to cricket: chokers' - sadly, i cannot argue with that too much at the moment.
since early february, we've won three premier league games. - wolves & stoke (h)and blackpool (a) too many stuttering draws and defensive cock ups, yet we're still in the title race. manchester united and chelsea have also both been poor this season but one difference with manchester united - theyre turning these 'stuttering draws' into wins. if they do end up being crowned champions: its not due to their outstanding play, its thanks to their rivals not applying the pressure - a crime arsenal are certainly guilty of. we can still win the league from this position but i can't help but feel that we've gifted manchester united too many opportunities. its been nice to be involved in a title race going down to the wire because over the last few seasons, we've really faded into air when the going got tough.
conventionally this is the time where i'd offer an optimistic message to the lads, i very much doubt another of those is needed. they know what they've got to do and all we can do now is concentrate on our games & pick up as many points as we can. you never know what can happen, manchester united could drop points. the beauty in the premier league is its 'predictably unpredictable'.
last night, a three all draw at tottenham defined why we're not bookmakers favourites anymore. i've been told last night was a 'fantastic game' and for the neutrals, i'm sure it was. however, trying to enjoy a game where your team have let a two goal slip is rather difficult. the spurs defence is nothing to be feared but yet after half time, we did not test them enough. again though, it was our defensive frailties that made the headlines. if it happened once or twice, i could understand. but now its almost becoming a physiological barrier with arsenal. even with a two goal lead, we're still not comfortable and cant contain those nerves. hell, a four goal lead isnt enough sometimes: i struggle to think of another team who would throw away such an advantage at st james park.
at home to tottenham this season, we lost 3-2. going into the dressing room at half time we were 2-0. many other top teams would have come out after the interval and got an early goal and then easied to victory. why not arsenal? after every example of this, i have a debate with myself over why this is. i cannot come up with a definitive reason. when you come back from being a goal down, it is said to 'show spirit' so does conceding late goals constantly show a lack of said spirit? it is all well and good to come out with good quotations after games but its what happens on the pitch that really matters. only results will quieten your critics.
someone said on twitter the other day 'arsenal are to football, what south africa are to cricket: chokers' - sadly, i cannot argue with that too much at the moment.
since early february, we've won three premier league games. - wolves & stoke (h)and blackpool (a) too many stuttering draws and defensive cock ups, yet we're still in the title race. manchester united and chelsea have also both been poor this season but one difference with manchester united - theyre turning these 'stuttering draws' into wins. if they do end up being crowned champions: its not due to their outstanding play, its thanks to their rivals not applying the pressure - a crime arsenal are certainly guilty of. we can still win the league from this position but i can't help but feel that we've gifted manchester united too many opportunities. its been nice to be involved in a title race going down to the wire because over the last few seasons, we've really faded into air when the going got tough.
conventionally this is the time where i'd offer an optimistic message to the lads, i very much doubt another of those is needed. they know what they've got to do and all we can do now is concentrate on our games & pick up as many points as we can. you never know what can happen, manchester united could drop points. the beauty in the premier league is its 'predictably unpredictable'.
Monday 18 April 2011
we are the generation, can't keep us underground.
we'd won it. 98 minutes on the clock, robin van persie takes his shirt off as he celebrates the scored penalty and the crowd breathe a collective sigh of relief. not even arsenal could cock this up surely? yet when the final whistle was blown by andre marriner, a different sigh echoed around the emirates. one of frustration this time as in the 101st minute, a rash and foolish challenge by eboue in the penalty area meant liverpool equalised with the last kick of the game. i believe both penalties were the correct decisions and instead of spending our energy on questioning the officials, we need to learn how to defend a lead. argubably a fair result overall but losing out on two points has damaged our challenge for the title. its mathematically possible of course but if manchester united win at st james park on tuesday, it's incredibly difficult to imagine arsenal would pose any great threat. the game against united on the first of may will only be important if we win both our away games before then, against tottenham and bolton. anything less and i fear the game at the emirates on mayday would be relatively meaningless.
if this means playing a different style of football, then so be it. points have been dropped this season through our tendency to try and walk in the ball into the net, with a reluctancy to shoot in good positions. arsenal need a 'plan b' because that isnt always going to work. after such a disappointment, i can understand fans' anger but non-constructive criticism won't change anything and calling for wenger to resign won't help at all. everyone needs to get behind the team - we might not get such a good chance for a while and its still possible. come on lads!
if this means playing a different style of football, then so be it. points have been dropped this season through our tendency to try and walk in the ball into the net, with a reluctancy to shoot in good positions. arsenal need a 'plan b' because that isnt always going to work. after such a disappointment, i can understand fans' anger but non-constructive criticism won't change anything and calling for wenger to resign won't help at all. everyone needs to get behind the team - we might not get such a good chance for a while and its still possible. come on lads!
Sunday 10 April 2011
too much of anything is too much.
it is well documented that out of all the world's sportstars, cricketers aren't as well paid as others. maybe this is why the IPL was born and although it may appeal to millions, it also has just as many critics. a competition which is based around money usually attracts the world's biggest stars but apart from the obvious, why are they there, why are they playing? unless you're an indian cricketer, it's unlikely you'll have any real connection to your chosen team. players are bought for millions and swap teams every year, no loyalty to a team. obviously, you want to play your best cricket but at the end of the day, there can't be much to motivate the players.
this year, eoin morgan is the only england regular taking part. kevin pietersen was meant to but thanks to a hernia operation, he had to miss out. although it meant him missing a part of england's world cup 'failings', it could mean that it benefits england's summer, with test series, ODI series and two twenty20 games all coming up. pietersen a key part of england's ashes tour down under meant he had little rest between the ashes, the ODI series and then the world cup. the ipl may pay well but out of all the england cricketers, kevin pietersen is probably the one least in need of extra cash.
the ipl is broadcasted all around the world, therefore allowing players to play on the 'world stage' but competitions like this are having a massive impact on county cricket. take for example my county essex, one of our best players, ryan ten doeschate. he impressed in the world cup but instead of bringing this good form back to essex, he was bought by the 'kolkata knight riders'. it is quite likely that he won't return for essex until the middle of may; missing key games in the county championship and CB4O competitions.
it's not a nice thought to think that a money-fuelled competition such as the IPL could be damaging the world famous county season, an english tradition with over a hundred years history behind it.
this year, eoin morgan is the only england regular taking part. kevin pietersen was meant to but thanks to a hernia operation, he had to miss out. although it meant him missing a part of england's world cup 'failings', it could mean that it benefits england's summer, with test series, ODI series and two twenty20 games all coming up. pietersen a key part of england's ashes tour down under meant he had little rest between the ashes, the ODI series and then the world cup. the ipl may pay well but out of all the england cricketers, kevin pietersen is probably the one least in need of extra cash.
the ipl is broadcasted all around the world, therefore allowing players to play on the 'world stage' but competitions like this are having a massive impact on county cricket. take for example my county essex, one of our best players, ryan ten doeschate. he impressed in the world cup but instead of bringing this good form back to essex, he was bought by the 'kolkata knight riders'. it is quite likely that he won't return for essex until the middle of may; missing key games in the county championship and CB4O competitions.
it's not a nice thought to think that a money-fuelled competition such as the IPL could be damaging the world famous county season, an english tradition with over a hundred years history behind it.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
goodbye to the tag 'chokers' or 'bottlers' please.
1. Man Utd P31 Points 66
2. Arsenal P30 Points 59
3. Man City P31 Points 56
4. Chelsea P30 Points 55
win the game in hand against tottenham and beat manchester united at home & we're in a pretty comfortable position to say the least. yet everyone seems to be ruling us out of the title, critics and fans a-like. an away draw at west brom and a home draw against blackburn has seemed to signal the end of the world and the end of arsenal's season. without causing offence to these teams, on paper both should've been arsenal victories but remember we've taken points from games this season that not many people expected us to. two examples of this are manchester city away and chelsea at home, in the end both convincing wins for the arsenal.
every team goes through bad patches and after being knocked out of three competitions in thirteen days, it was almost inevitable that our bad run would come off the back of that.
a summer clearout is needed and arsene wenger will have to buy some decent back-ups for the players & start playing the talented stars of the youth team instead of persisiting with poor players such as denilson, bendtner and squillaci.
staying with this season however, the key is obviously to remain unbeaten and hope united drop points, which is incredibly likely seeing as they have a few tough games coming up in the league and of course, the two champions league games against chelsea.
c'mon afc♥
2. Arsenal P30 Points 59
3. Man City P31 Points 56
4. Chelsea P30 Points 55
win the game in hand against tottenham and beat manchester united at home & we're in a pretty comfortable position to say the least. yet everyone seems to be ruling us out of the title, critics and fans a-like. an away draw at west brom and a home draw against blackburn has seemed to signal the end of the world and the end of arsenal's season. without causing offence to these teams, on paper both should've been arsenal victories but remember we've taken points from games this season that not many people expected us to. two examples of this are manchester city away and chelsea at home, in the end both convincing wins for the arsenal.
every team goes through bad patches and after being knocked out of three competitions in thirteen days, it was almost inevitable that our bad run would come off the back of that.
a summer clearout is needed and arsene wenger will have to buy some decent back-ups for the players & start playing the talented stars of the youth team instead of persisiting with poor players such as denilson, bendtner and squillaci.
staying with this season however, the key is obviously to remain unbeaten and hope united drop points, which is incredibly likely seeing as they have a few tough games coming up in the league and of course, the two champions league games against chelsea.
c'mon afc♥
Sunday 27 March 2011
one tournament doesnt make a bad captain.
i had two choices of topic today for my blog. england's win over wales in the euro 2012 qualifier or england's crushing, ten wickets defeat in the cricket world cup quarter finals. however, i decided not to particularly discuss either, as the real story being talked about this morning is whether andrew strauss should keep england ODI captaincy.
when we were buzzing from the ashes in early february, i cant imagine anybody was calling for strauss to give up the captaincy. in fact, i'm sure everyone thought he was some sort of god. him and andy flower had master-minded the team to a victory down under, something that no england team had achieved in 24 years. yes the ODI series after didn't go to plan. my interpretation of the 6-1 series defeat was that the players were mentally and physically drained. how can you motivate a group of players who are playing a series simply, in the words of graeme swann, 'playing fairly meaningless matches scheduled purely to put silver in the coffers of some cricket board'. i'm not saying the lads didn't try but the ashes had already been won. their main mission was complete.
regarding the debate over strauss, england coach andy flower said 'i don't think making snap judgements at the end of five months of solid cricket, is the right time to be doing it'.
and after all, when looking back at the world cup campaign, is there evidence to suggest that strauss was a weak link? absolutely not.
an eighty eight in the opening match against the netherlands and a memorable century against india are just two examples of the quality of strauss in one day cricket.
he leads by example on and off the pitch and at the age of 34, still has alot more to give as one day captain. i am struggling to believe the rumours that alastair cook replacing andrew strauss as ODI captain are one, true and secondly that it would benefit the team. cook, a man who hasn't played ODI cricket for england for a while, cannot be the solution to england's 'failing' in the fifty over format of the game. cook is a fantastic test batsman and will captain the test team to glory in a few years. now is not the time to promote him to ODI captain.
one of the best winter's in english cricket should be not overshadowed by an inconsistent world cup and media pressure on strauss.
when we were buzzing from the ashes in early february, i cant imagine anybody was calling for strauss to give up the captaincy. in fact, i'm sure everyone thought he was some sort of god. him and andy flower had master-minded the team to a victory down under, something that no england team had achieved in 24 years. yes the ODI series after didn't go to plan. my interpretation of the 6-1 series defeat was that the players were mentally and physically drained. how can you motivate a group of players who are playing a series simply, in the words of graeme swann, 'playing fairly meaningless matches scheduled purely to put silver in the coffers of some cricket board'. i'm not saying the lads didn't try but the ashes had already been won. their main mission was complete.
regarding the debate over strauss, england coach andy flower said 'i don't think making snap judgements at the end of five months of solid cricket, is the right time to be doing it'.
and after all, when looking back at the world cup campaign, is there evidence to suggest that strauss was a weak link? absolutely not.
an eighty eight in the opening match against the netherlands and a memorable century against india are just two examples of the quality of strauss in one day cricket.
he leads by example on and off the pitch and at the age of 34, still has alot more to give as one day captain. i am struggling to believe the rumours that alastair cook replacing andrew strauss as ODI captain are one, true and secondly that it would benefit the team. cook, a man who hasn't played ODI cricket for england for a while, cannot be the solution to england's 'failing' in the fifty over format of the game. cook is a fantastic test batsman and will captain the test team to glory in a few years. now is not the time to promote him to ODI captain.
one of the best winter's in english cricket should be not overshadowed by an inconsistent world cup and media pressure on strauss.
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