frustration.

despite the game scheduled to finish tomorrow, i can write with some confidence that essex's LVCC championship match against northants will end in a draw. i spent two hours sitting in the cold and raafter in at the ford county ground before i saw sense and gave up. at the time this blog was written, there was only one session to speak of and one that the essex batsmen will be keen to erase from their memories. unsurprisingly ater winning the toss, the visitors put essex in to bat. the northants seamers reaped the benefits of the great bowling conditions, reducing essex to 54-6 after twenty seven overs. mark pettini the only eagles batsman to reach double figures ending day two on 16*. jack brooks, who was recently called into the england lions' side to face the west indies, bowled beautifully and took four wickets out of the six northants wickets. maybe the rain did essex a favour after all. there's been a lot of arguments this week surrounding the timing of the county championship - claiming it started too early (although most of the critics are ex-batsmen, hardly a coincidence you feel!) but at the end of the day, it's not the ecb's fault that british weather is as unpredictable as what it has been this year. many seem to forget the fantastic, sunny april we all experienced then. after all what do people want - shall we move domestic cricket over to australia or south africa?

yorkshire (a) 19th-22nd april, yorkshire vs essex, headingley.

as to be expected, the weather will play a huge role in many games played in april and at a wet and miserable headingley, it was definitely game, set and match to the rain. not one ball was bowled on day one, already signficantly damaging the chances of a positive result from the game. start of day two,yorkshire won the toss and chose to bat; a fantastic century from jaques putting yorkshire in a great position before a batting collapse of epic proportions - losing six wickets for just 21 runs. young left-armer mills picking up four wickets and the ever impressive masters with figures of 3-65. unsurprisingly for those who watch essex on a regular basis, it was same old, same old: great work by the bowlers quickly undone by the essex batsmen. ravi bopara, back from england's tour of sri lanka, kept the eagles in the game with a fantastic 117*. the second highest contribution was just 25 from captain james foster. the same problem never resolved despite an impressive batting line up (on paper at least). take nothing away from the yorkshire bowlers; sidebottom and patterson took eight wickets between them and bowled majestically. yorkshire started their second innings well and with the rain seemingly nowhere to be seen, fancied their chances of winning the game. root and sayers putting on 106 before root was caught behind off the bowling of all-rounder greg smith for 67. sayers and gale added crucial runs as yorkshire declared on 212-4, setting the visitors 262 to win. openers petersen and godleman both falling lbw to shazhad quickly, with the game slowly slipping away from essex. luckily the rain dance worked and no more play was possible on day four. the match was abandoned and essex somehow escaped with a draw.

gloucestershire (h)

5-7th april, essex vs gloucestershire, chelmsford.

essex win by an innings & 38 runs

what a way to start the season! promotion hopefuls essex were inevitably favourites for their opening competitive match of 2012 and pulled off an emphatic victory in just two and a half days. last season was particularly disappointing for essex fans but the opposition enjoyed a much better 2011, in the county champhionship at least, finishing above the eagles - many believed they had massively overachieved.

so much for the start of summer, the coats and blankets were out at a very cold and cloudy chelmsford on day one. gloucs won the toss and as expected elected to field in seemingly great bowling conditions. despite the early loss of petersen, a new addition to the essex squad, his opening partner billy godleman made a solid century - putting the eagles in a fantastic position. with valuable contributions from smith, wheater and foster; essex posted a great score of 364 all out.

essex, with arguably one of, if not the best bowling attack in division two, knew the task ahead. they needed to bowl gloucs out twice, with not much time to play with. the weather forecast did not look good - traditional english april weather!'

the bowlers did the business again for essex. in fact, they did it twice! gloucs were bowled out for 180 and 146 as the game drew to a rapid conclusion after just two and a half days. the visitors were bowled twice in four sessions as fast bowlers napier and masters shone - each taking a 5fer in each innings.

at last; second test, colombo

yes, this is a week late and i have no excuses.

a long, hard international winter meant england had to win in colombo to draw the series or drop down the rankings, losing their status as number one in the world. all winter the bowlers had performed fantastically, only to be let down by a poor showing from the batsmen, particularly against spin. going into the second test, england had only passed the 300 mark once all winter long; very disappointing for the best side in the world with a team full of world class batsmen.

but finally it happened - a good performance with the bat from england! after bowling sri lanka out for a modest 275, this match was surely just waiting for a traditional english batting collapse.
again like the first test, jayawardene was the shining star for the hosts and yet again, jimmy anderson dismissed sangakkara first ball. on a more positive note for sri lanka, the captain this time had teammates to build decent partnerships with, both samaraweera & mathews passed fifty. swann and anderson picking up seven wickets between them.

for the first time all winter, england's opening partnership of strauss and cook looked comfortable at the crease despite the early introduction of spin. the pair put on 122 before strauss fell to dilshan on 61. cook and trott both scored big runs, scoring 94 and 64 respectively. but there was only one name on everybody's lip at the end of england's first innings: a certain mr. kevin pietersen. his superb, yet controversial 151 off 165 balls (including sixteen fours and six sixes) put england in a fantastic position. the controversy occured with the infamous switch-hit, which did not impress former sri lankan dilshan who was obviously furious with pietersen. as long as no rule was broken, which it wasn't, the argumentative dilshan has very little to complain about. england were all out for 460 and finally, the batsmen backed up the great work by the bowlers.

graeme swann was the pick of the england's bowlers with six wickets as sri lanka failed to post a big score and force the draw in colombo. only one player (guess who?) passed fifty for the hosts and england's target was just 94: despite being bowled out for less in the UAE, england's improved batting in the first innings here meant england were confident of knocking off the runs, and doing so quickly. even after strauss departing last ball of the first over and trott following him back to the dressing room soon after, england's victory was never in doubt: cook and pietersen seeing england home. the winnings runs were scored with a six from pietersen off dilshan: typical eccentric, flamboyant pietersen.

now for england, a six week break before a crucial summer: west indies the visitors playing three test matches, three odis and a twenty20 match. next, five one day internationals with the old enemy, australia before the BIG one - a three test match series with south africa (followed by five odis and three twenty20 matches in preparation for the t20 world cup in sri lanka) which is likely to decide who will end the summer top of the world.

the tale of mario balotelli and why he needs to be shown the door.

why always you mario?






as tempting as it is to write about a fantastic victory for arsenal, i am slightly disappointed that our win has effectively handed manchester united a 20th premier league trophy: as born and bred united hater, i had to pray for the impossibility of qpr winning at old trafford so if arsenal were to beat city, it wouldn't affect the title race. but a comfortable 2-0 victory for manchester united meant city had to take all three points from their match at the emirates.

controversy has been a constant through manchester city's campaign and with the carlos tevez affair, city could have been excused for a bad run in october and november but first half of the season, they played some truly brilliant football and were the envy of the rest of the premier league, including their manchester rivals who they thumped 6-1 away from home. and at the start of the new year, it looked as if big spending manchester city would win the premier league comfortably and at this time, they deserved to. kompany was immense, david silva was in terrific form and aguero looked unplayable at times.
2012 was a complete different story. it's not so much the football that we've all been focusing on but instead the behaviour of a troublesome striker from italy. the young man that mancini has put all faith in could have lost his manager his job. balotelli has an enormous amount of talent but his petulance has cost his side too many points and eventually, fans will grow tired of 'super mario'. his performance against arsenal earlier on today may have singalled the end of his manchester city career. lucky to escape an automatic red for a dangerous challenge on alex song early on, the referee booked balotelli mid way through the first half for persistent fouls: the striker was lucky the referee didn't have better views of the previous challenges or he could have been off for an early shower, A LOT earlier.
his manager had already admitted this week that he cannot trust balotelli and today, this was proved yet again. another reckless tackle, this time on sagna, towards the end of the match meant balotelli had to go. whether it be selfishness or just pure naivety, balotelli couldn't put the needs of his team above himself and this is why he needs to be sold, preferably as soon as the transfer window opens. as entertaining as he's been at times, mario is a disruptive influence in the manchester city side.

it's such a shame that balotelli will probably never reach his potential because of his attitude and behaviour. anybody taking on the challenge of mario will know it's a huge gamble, one that hasn't paid off for city or mancini.