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.
wannabe journalist - true football & cricket geek with a lifetime of failure fastly approaching. arsenal fc, england, the english cricket team, essex ccc + the beatles♥
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
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
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