For the past week or so I have been watching the under 19 cricket on Sky and it's been a really good tournament and if we take it as a sign of things to come then it looks like there are going to be some good players coming through the ranks into the full international sides. I've been watching some of the games that included England, Pakistan, West Indies, India and Australia and they all have people that are going to be big talents in the coming years.
I have been most impressed by the West Indies, Pakistan and of course the Australians as I think that over the course of the tournament they have played the best cricket and in the case of the West Indies it is definitely a good thing for the future as through all the turmoil that they have been through lately it will be a big confidence booster to know that they have good young players ready to step up to the full international side.
The final takes place this week with Australia and Pakistan facing each other for the trophy and on the performances of the teams so far it seems as if this will be a win for Australia which is not that surprising really as it seems that whatever level they compete at they always have a strong team and definitely have strength in depth and will continue to be a driving force in world cricket for a long time to come.
Elsewhere the Australian national side have been playing One Day Internationals against Pakistan and despite the fact that Pakistan do seemingly have a good side it has been a one sided series with Australia outplaying their opponents in every game so far with people like Cameron White, Shane Watson and Shaun Marsh all getting in the runs and Ryan Harris and Nathan Hauritz regularly taking wickets.
This week has also seen the Test Series between Bangladesh and India end in a 2-0 win for the Indians and without a doubt it has shown that Bangladesh have the talent within their ranks to play some good Test Match Cricket but they still seem to be overawed at times and their batting line up has the tendency to collapse at an even greater rate than the English one does. So with India hosting South Africa next week and England's tour to Bangladesh getting ever closer the world of cricket is a busy one to be involved in.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
A draw in South Africa and the Squad to Bangladesh
So with the series out in South Africa having finished in a draw England can be proud of what they have accomplished out there because it is not an easy place to go and play test cricket. It was just a shame that the first bad game we played in the series was the final one and after being destroyed by South Africa in the final test match we walked away with a drawn series, which in itself is not that bad of a result.
It was just a shame that certain people such as Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott didn't turn up for the last test and without a doubt KP didn't turn up for the entire series and he will definitely have to improve when the team flies out to their next tour series in Bangladesh, although some of the others will be under pressure to get big runs out there as well.
After a good series in South Africa and with captain Andrew Strauss mentioning that the team were behind where they needed to be in preparation for the ashes at the end of the year it was a surprise to see the touring squad to Bangladesh be announced with Andrew Strauss and James Anderson being rested and Alistair Cook taking the captaincy, a move which some have said is not good enough for the whole squad to gel.
Without a doubt the squad that will be sent their should be good enough to win but it is also an ample opportunity for the batsmen to get runs especially Cook, Matt Prior and KP. Although both Bell and Collingwood had good series out in South Africa without a doubt they will both want to try and rack up some runs of their own in the 2 match test series in Bangladesh.
Elsewhere the bidding for the Indian Premier League is underway with Graeme Swann, Shahid Afridi and Brad Haddin being the highest priced cricketers entered. There are only a few of the England players that are entered into the auction but one of the early ones that has been picked up by a team is Eoin Morgan.
It was just a shame that certain people such as Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott didn't turn up for the last test and without a doubt KP didn't turn up for the entire series and he will definitely have to improve when the team flies out to their next tour series in Bangladesh, although some of the others will be under pressure to get big runs out there as well.
After a good series in South Africa and with captain Andrew Strauss mentioning that the team were behind where they needed to be in preparation for the ashes at the end of the year it was a surprise to see the touring squad to Bangladesh be announced with Andrew Strauss and James Anderson being rested and Alistair Cook taking the captaincy, a move which some have said is not good enough for the whole squad to gel.
Without a doubt the squad that will be sent their should be good enough to win but it is also an ample opportunity for the batsmen to get runs especially Cook, Matt Prior and KP. Although both Bell and Collingwood had good series out in South Africa without a doubt they will both want to try and rack up some runs of their own in the 2 match test series in Bangladesh.
Elsewhere the bidding for the Indian Premier League is underway with Graeme Swann, Shahid Afridi and Brad Haddin being the highest priced cricketers entered. There are only a few of the England players that are entered into the auction but one of the early ones that has been picked up by a team is Eoin Morgan.
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
England ahead in South Africa
I don't know what is going on with the England Cricket Team at the moment but it seems that whatever we do seems to come out well in the end, even if we do wait until the last moment to save the test match with our last batsmen.
3 times in the last few months we have drawn a test match where we are 9 wickets down in our second innings and every single time it has looked like we will get the draw quite comfortably before a late collapse has let the opposition in with a chance to win the test match and bowl England out, however all 3 times we have managed to bat out the matches with people such as Monty Panesar and Graham Onions doing the business.
The only problem with this is that it always seems as if our batsmen have it comfortably sewn up and then there is always a collapse. Last match Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood batted for between 4 and 5 hours each but then fell with about an hour to go leaving the rest to try and save the match. With Matt Prior and Stuart Broad both falling quite cheaply it was eventually left to Graham Onions and Graeme Swann to bat out the final part of the game and keep England 1-0 up in the series.
So with just the 1 Test match left, which starts this Thursday, the opportunity is there for England to win the series in South Africa if they can avoid defeat in the last match something that will be a huge achievement to this England side because at the start of the tour England where given very slim hopes of actually getting a positive result against a South Africa side that includes Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and AB De Villiers.
Elsewhere there has been a Tri-Nations Series between India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and without a doubt the 2 best teams have made the final as Sri Lanka will face India in the end of series contest tomorrow. It has been a good close tournament though especially as quite a lot of times Bangladesh have managed to match the other 2 teams right to the wire even if they couldn't get a win out of it. This only shows that the state of cricket is getting better and the more competitions that we have where fringe teams are allowed to play against the top teams then they are only going to improve.
So with a week of cricket ahead of us we will finally see if England can get the series win out in South Africa, we will see who is the better One Day International Team out of Sri Lanka and India and there is also the 3rd test between Australia and Pakistan to look forward to as well.
3 times in the last few months we have drawn a test match where we are 9 wickets down in our second innings and every single time it has looked like we will get the draw quite comfortably before a late collapse has let the opposition in with a chance to win the test match and bowl England out, however all 3 times we have managed to bat out the matches with people such as Monty Panesar and Graham Onions doing the business.
The only problem with this is that it always seems as if our batsmen have it comfortably sewn up and then there is always a collapse. Last match Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood batted for between 4 and 5 hours each but then fell with about an hour to go leaving the rest to try and save the match. With Matt Prior and Stuart Broad both falling quite cheaply it was eventually left to Graham Onions and Graeme Swann to bat out the final part of the game and keep England 1-0 up in the series.
So with just the 1 Test match left, which starts this Thursday, the opportunity is there for England to win the series in South Africa if they can avoid defeat in the last match something that will be a huge achievement to this England side because at the start of the tour England where given very slim hopes of actually getting a positive result against a South Africa side that includes Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and AB De Villiers.
Elsewhere there has been a Tri-Nations Series between India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and without a doubt the 2 best teams have made the final as Sri Lanka will face India in the end of series contest tomorrow. It has been a good close tournament though especially as quite a lot of times Bangladesh have managed to match the other 2 teams right to the wire even if they couldn't get a win out of it. This only shows that the state of cricket is getting better and the more competitions that we have where fringe teams are allowed to play against the top teams then they are only going to improve.
So with a week of cricket ahead of us we will finally see if England can get the series win out in South Africa, we will see who is the better One Day International Team out of Sri Lanka and India and there is also the 3rd test between Australia and Pakistan to look forward to as well.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Reviews in Test Match Cricket
The one thing that has been talked about a lot lately is whether or not the review system in Test Match Cricket is working or not. If you have watched any of the Test Matches going on at the moment then you may have seen a player make a T-sign with their arms to signal that they would like to have a closer look at whether the umpire made the correct call or not.
Any occasion where someone has been given out can be challenged such as instances where there is a catch behind that the umpire thinks he hasn't hit it or there is an LBW that is close then the captain of the fielding team or the batsmen that has been given out has a choice at using a review. However you only have 2 Reviews and everytime you review an incident and get it wrong then you lose a Review.
We've seen it used lately in both the South Africa vs England and Australia vs Pakistan series and it seems to be working. There aren't any mistakes being made now and even though it holds the game up for 90 seconds or a couple of minutes it does seem to be eradicating the mistakes that have creeped into the game lately and without a doubt the umpires now have the back up to make sure that no mistakes are made.
The only drawback as of late is the fact that in Australia they have had full use of technology including "snicko" and "hotspot" meaning that they have the best technology for dealing with catches that are unsure and can be clarified using this technology whereas the series in South Africa has not got that technology so it has been pointless using reviews for any instance of a catch.
This is still being trialled and will eventually be rolled out to every test match playing nation throughout the sport. I believe that as we progress through the next couple of years we should be able to get rid of most mistakes that happen in the game and hopefully get a game where the major blunders and bad decisions are got rid of.
Any occasion where someone has been given out can be challenged such as instances where there is a catch behind that the umpire thinks he hasn't hit it or there is an LBW that is close then the captain of the fielding team or the batsmen that has been given out has a choice at using a review. However you only have 2 Reviews and everytime you review an incident and get it wrong then you lose a Review.
We've seen it used lately in both the South Africa vs England and Australia vs Pakistan series and it seems to be working. There aren't any mistakes being made now and even though it holds the game up for 90 seconds or a couple of minutes it does seem to be eradicating the mistakes that have creeped into the game lately and without a doubt the umpires now have the back up to make sure that no mistakes are made.
The only drawback as of late is the fact that in Australia they have had full use of technology including "snicko" and "hotspot" meaning that they have the best technology for dealing with catches that are unsure and can be clarified using this technology whereas the series in South Africa has not got that technology so it has been pointless using reviews for any instance of a catch.
This is still being trialled and will eventually be rolled out to every test match playing nation throughout the sport. I believe that as we progress through the next couple of years we should be able to get rid of most mistakes that happen in the game and hopefully get a game where the major blunders and bad decisions are got rid of.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
