England in South Africa

Well after the Christmas period was over all attention turned to South Africa vs England and Australia vs Pakistan with the traditional Boxing Day test matches. With England holding on to a draw in the first test just about everyone was waiting to see how they would react and what sort of team they would play when the 2 teams took to the pitch at Durban for the second test.

Graeme Smith won the toss and decided to have a bat and scored a decent 343 all out although when you win the toss and bat first then you should be expecting to make a few more than that although good bowling by Graeme Swann, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad (who shared 8 wickets between them) ensured that England stood a good chance of getting a first innings lead.

Coming in to the game many people were wary of the form of Alistair Cook and Ian Bell and as of writing this they have both scored hundreds in our first innings and we are getting ever closer to a lead of 150. However if you look back at the history of test matches in Durban then you will see that generally on the 4th or 5th day the pitch is a batting pitch and therefore many people are already saying that a draw is on the cards here and without a doubt even with a lead of 200 it probably isn't going to favour England too much.

However saying that there are signs that the pitch is turning and without a doubt Graeme Swann will have a good chance to rip through the South Africans on the 5th day of the test match and maybe just maybe if we can get 250-300 ahead then maybe we could use Graeme Swann from one end and rotating the seamers from the other then possibly they could try and get a win on the last day.

Australia on the other hand have Shane Watson to thank because in their test match against Pakistan he has scored over 200 runs in his 2 innings and this has put Australia firmly on top and looking as though they are going to win that game, however there is a young 19 year old Pakistani batsman called Umar Akmal who looks a very good player and without a doubt is a talent to look out for in the future.

It has not been all good news in the world of cricket though as there was some bad scenes in the final One Day International between India and Sri Lanka when the game had to be abandoned after quite a few of the Sri Lankan batsmen were hit by balls that bounced sharply from nowhere and it was definitely a dangerous proposition playing against an Indian attack like that on a pitch that was trying to take your head off.

So with 5 sessions left in the England test match all eyes will be waiting to see if we can get a lead and then bowl them out before the time runs out.

Another First Test Saved

With the first test finally starting last Wednesday everyone was keen to see just how England (after a fantastic ashes series win this summer) would shape up against a good South Africa team out in South Africa. It was much the same as ever unfortunately with England struggling for large periods of the test and then collapsing when it looked like we would get a draw easily before the final pair combined to see out the last few overs.

It started well getting by winning the toss and asking them to bat first and things were looking up when Stuart Broad got Graeme Smith early but thanks to a Jacques Kallis century they managed to reach a decent score of 418 all out (definitely not what you want when you've won the toss and asked them to bat first). The only good bit of note was 5 wickets for Graeme Swann and 3 for Graham Onions.

Then came the first collapse with which we have long associated English batting and at 242-8 things were looking very good for the hosts and it seemed that it would only be a matter of time before South Africa wrapped up the innings. Enter Graeme Swann and Jimmy Anderson who shared a 9th wicket stand of 106 and thanks to a brilliant innings of 85 from 81 balls meant that England could get up to 356 all out.

After a fine start for England in the South African second innings where they were 46-4 a century from Hashim Amla allowed them to get up to 301-7 declared meaning that England had just over a full day to bat out and a target of just over 350 needed if they were to win the game and in the penultimate over of day 4 horror struck when captain Andrew Strauss was caught behind meaning that England then only had 9 wickets left with which to bat out the final day of the test match.

Things were going well though with a large century stand between Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen meant that at one point England were coasting to a draw and were 172-3 but as per usual England batsmen collapsed and they went from 172-3 to 218-9 in the space of about an hour. This meant that the final pair of Paul Collingwood and Graham Onions had to bat out the last few overs to save the match when in fact they should have easily made it to a draw but thankfully Graham Onions managed to keep out all 6 balls of the last over and a draw was salvaged.

The worrying thing is that with the next test starting on Boxing Day there are a few worries throughout the team with both Alistair Cook and Ian Bell short of runs and Stuart Broad still looking like he is unsure of what type of bowler he is. So as we head off to Durban for the next game we can only hope that they get the balance of the team right on what is going to be a tough match because generally they are very flat pitches in Durban.

Test Match starts tomorrow and India hit 400

With the first test match starting tomorrow there has only been limited opportunities for the boys to get match practise but what little play they have been able to get has shown some good signs with 6 out of the top 7 batsmen making at least 40, and the 2 who didn't reach 50 were both retired out meaning that they couldn't get there half century.

The best thing was that the bowlers also got some good time out in the middle honing their skills as in the first warm up match Graeme Swann took an incredible 6-55 and then the forgotten hero of 18 months ago Ryan Sidebottom took 5-42 in the second match, both of which comfortably ended in draws, and as they were only 2 days long you have to wonder why they didn't merge the 2 to at least make a warm up match that was 4 days long.

So with the team not being announced until tomorrow many people have been speculating on how they are going to go in to this test match as in whether they will play 6 batsmen and the wicketkeeper or if they will play Matt Prior as the 6th batsmen meaning that they can then play 4 seamers and a spinner. The obvious thing that this means is that Stuart Broad will have to bat at number 7 and there are lots of people that are unsure whether or not he is ready for this.

The one other option that they have is to have Matt Prior bat at number 6 and use Luke Wright to bat at number 7 as he is a better batsmen than Stuart Broad and can also bowl some good medium pace seam bowling at around 85mph. This could be the option that they choose to go because obviously this will strengthen the batting whilst also maintaining that we have 5 bowlers that can be used.

Back to the here and now though and I was most surprised to turn on the TV this morning and see that in the One Day International series the Indians had batted first and made a fantastic 414-7 off their 50 overs with Sehwag, Dhoni and Tendulkar all making good runs and despite the fact that this is almost always good enough to be a winning score with 29 overs gone the Sri Lankans are 233-1 and well on course to chase down this large total.

So until next week when my blog will be about the first test and also whether or not Sri Lanka manage to chase down that mammoth total.

Indians become the number 1 team in the world

So with the first test between South Africa and England not starting until the 16th December and the last One Day International being rained off, giving England a 2-1 Series win, all eyes turned to the games between India and Sri Lanka and Australia vs West Indies.

If India won then they would become the top rated team in the world at Test Cricket and thanks to an innings of absolute brilliance from Sehwag where he scored an amazing 293 from just 254 balls (including 40 boundaries and 7 maximums). Combine that with a score of 100 not out from captain MS Dhoni and India posted a formidable first innings score of 726 for 9 declared in response to Sri Lankas first innings of 393.

So with Sri Lanka having to get 334 to make India bat again the odds were heavily stacked in the home teams favour and despite a battling 137 from Kumar Sangakarra they fell all out for 309 and lost by an innings and 24 runs. This means that India should end 2009 sitting on top of the rest as the number one team in the world, although that could all change after South Africa and England have played with a good win for South Africa will surely propel them back to the top of the rankings.

Elsewhere in Australia the West Indies were trying to prove that they were still a team to be reckoned with after losing the first test. It seemed to be going their way after a brilliant 104 from Dwayne Bravo and 92 from Brendan Nash meant they posted a competitive 451 but after an opening stand of 174 Australia fought back and ended their first innings just 12 runs behind on 439 all out, so it was over to the second innings to see if one team could strike a telling blow into the other.

Enter Chris Gayle who batted all the way through day 4 and by scoring a magnificent 165 not out set the Australians a target of 330 to win on the last day. They never looked likely to chase that down as they slipped to 139-5 but Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin added an unbeaten 73 to see the Australians safely to a draw. It was good to see that the West Indies weren't blown away as they were in the first test and hopefully they may be able to put forward a good team in the near future that can challenge the top teams out there.

England 2-1 Up and Indians on Fire

Over in South Africa the tour continues and after a heavy loss last Friday England bounced back in top fashion with a comfortable win in the 4th One Day International to lead the series 2-1 (1 game having been rained out) and now they cannot lose the series and only have to avoid defeat in the final game this Friday to ensure a series win in South Africa which will be very good especially as we won on home soil last time we played them as well.

The hero of the piece this time was James Anderson who took a fantastic 5-23 off his 10 overs and still insisted that he had bowled better before, but whether or not that was true England seemed to take heart in losing the toss and being asked to bowl on what was definitely a flat pitch and one where a good total should have been 240 or 260 runs whereas South Africa could only manage a pitiful 119, although credit must go to Alvaro Petersen who made his third half century in a row and was the only batsmen in green that could deal with the conditions.

Elsewhere out in India the hosts showed just how good test cricket should be played by racking up a score of 642 and then bowling Sri Lanka out for 229 and 269 to win by an innings and 144 runs, in an extraordinary match where the Indians were in total control with hundreds from Ghambir, Sehwag and Dravid added to with half centuries from Laxman and Yuvraj before a brilliant spell of 5-75 from Sreesanth really forced home the advantage before the Indian spinners came into their own on a pitch that was taking quite a bit of turn by the end of it and finished it off.

Out in Australia the hosts easily won their first test match against the West Indies where a team effort and 5 half centuries saw the team claw their way up to 480-8 declared including a maiden half century for spinner Nathan Hauritz before they bowled out their opponents for just 228 and 187 to win the test with an innings and 2 days to spare. The only good note for the West Indies was the emergence of opening batsmen Adrian Barath who at the age of 19 and on his debut managed to score 104 of his teams 187 runs and definitely offers hope for the future for the West Indies a team that is still trying to get back to their best after a strange few years.