England vs. Australia – 5 ODI’s

When you have a one off series in the middle of a summer with no test matches and just five one day internationals many people may be asking what the point is and whether or not we should be playing them when there is an Ashes series next year followed by one back in Australia just a few months after.

Pros:

-         If we win the series comfortably then it will be a success and a 5-0 whitewash could end up with us becoming the number one ranked one day team in the world.

-         It keeps the international players fresh and in form with a huge series against South Africa coming up.

-         It gives us a chance to look at players that could potentially bat at number 6 in the test matches; Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara.

Cons:

-         The players will have less rest periods before the big test match series against South Africa.

-         The younger Australians will get a chance to get used to England conditions before the ashes next year.

-         If we were to lose our confidence could take a huge hammering especially as we are 2-0 up already.

All of these seem to be a matter of opinion though as I personally would want to play as much cricket as possible whereas I’m sure some of them would like to have a lot more of a rest. Aside from this it should be a good series and with England 2-0 up I’m looking forward to the next three games.

Friends Life T20 Competition 2012

So it’s that time of the year again in County Cricket circles when the County Championship is pushed to the background and the crowds take cover as the counties biggest tournament gets under way. In this post I’m going to look at 4 teams that I think have a fantastic chance of going on to big things in this competition and could definitely be there come finals day.

Somerset

Always the bridesmaids and never the brides they seem to spend most of the last few seasons doing really well and getting to the big final occasions and then losing repeatedly. They have a fantastic team (even without injured skipper Marcus Trescothick) and will look to players such as Jos Buttler and the spin duo of Max Waller and George Dockrell to lead the charge. They have such a fantastic team and so much raw talent that I honestly think that they will win it this year.

Surrey

Another team that has a young squad that is full of talent and they should do very well. Obviously they have been the victim of a terrible tragedy in the last few days and without a doubt they will want to make sure that this season they do their utmost to wind something so they can dedicate the victory to Tom Maynard. Unfortunately I think they will need another year or two before they become the side that everyone else is trying to beat.

Essex

A brilliant one day team that is ridiculously hard to beat at Fortress Chelmsford as they know the angles of the ground so well for both the batting and fielding aspects and play fantastic cricket there. The biggest problem Essex seems to have is when they go away from home they seem to struggle a lot more. When you consider that they have a fantastic team and they are so good at one day cricket you wonder how they haven’t won more but for me I think they will lose in the Semi-Finals this year.

Nottinghamshire

Another fantastic team with the likes of Alex Hales and James Taylor (two young players that have played for the England team and are very highly rated for the future). When you add in to this team people like Michael Lumb and Samit Patel you have a fantastic team that should do very well. As long as the groups work out and the next round draw I think that they will lose in the final to Somerset.

England say goodbye to easy Test Matches and Hello South Africa

Well apart from the weathers interference the test match series went exactly as most people thought that it would with a comfortable win for England and a few good performances from West Indian players that were good but on their own were never likely to challenge this England side.

Steven Finn and Graeme Onions were added to the test match players in the final match of the series and it seemed as if everyone was either for it or against it. I personally was very much for it but not for the reason of resting the other two players but so that if the worst was to happen and James Anderson or Stuart Broad were injured then the player coming in would have recent test match experience.

We now have the One day series and not a lot has changed apart from Kevin Pietersen’s retirement from the shorter forms of the game and Ian Bell being recalled to the team. I think again that we will win all the games that are played as I can only see us being stopped if Chris Gayle (recently returned from the IPL) bats most of his sides 50 overs to get them a big score.

The biggest test is when South Africa arrives here on our shores later this summer. They are the number 2 in the world at test match cricket (behind us) and they will want to make a big statement. They have a fantastic batting line up including Graeme Smith, AB De Villiers and Jacques Kallis and a bowling attack which includes Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel which is definitely not something to be taken lightly.

That series should provide some of the best test match play since the ashes series of 2005 and hopefully we will finally get some good summertime weather and we can play all the sessions of all the test matches and finally find out for real just who is the best test match team in the world South Africa or England.

England vs West Indies first test Review

So the first test of the summer is over and it very much turned out the way most people thought with an England win and despite a fight back for most of the 4^th day and the first hour of day 5. After that though Alistair Cook and Ian Bell put together a valuable hundred partnership and the rest as they say is history.

The one thing that every team knows about when they go to play at Lords is that it is a very difficult place to take 20 wickets and so it proved again. During the final couple of hours of the test match it was day 5 and the pitch (apart from the areas where the bowlers had run on to the pitch) was absolutely perfect for batting still which is not something that happens at most venues.

With the second test just a few days away it will be interesting to see how the West Indies are going to change their team up and how they are going to begin to fight back. The pitch at Trent Bridge definitely will not be as good as the Lords one and you should see some spin there definitely on days 4 or 5 so Graeme Swann should be able to play a bigger role than this test match.

With 2 more test matches against the West Indies coming up and a bout of good weather heading our way it should definitely be some fun times ahead and there will be good opportunities for the rest of the England team that haven’t done great on my marks out of 10 (see below) to get some good scores before the South Africans arrive here later this summer.

Marks out of 10

A. Strauss – 8

A. Cook – 7

J. Trott – 6

K. Pietersen – 6

I. Bell – 9

J. Bairstow – 6

M. Prior – 6

T. Bresnan – 6

S. Broad – 9

G. Swann – 5

J. Anderson – 7

England vs West Indies

Squad in full and 10 things about the series:

 

Andrew Strauss (Middlesex, capt), James Anderson (Lancashire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Tim Bresnan (Yorkshire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Alastair Cook (Essex), Steven Finn (Middlesex), Graham Onions (Durham), Kevin Pietersen (Surrey), Matt Prior (Sussex, wk), Graeme Swann (Nottinghamshire), Jonathan Trott (Warwickshire)

1)      Jonny Bairstow, who maybe not a lot of people have heard of, is a brilliant young talent and someone who’s probably going to be in and around the international teams for a long time to come.

2)      It will probably come down to four out of six of the picked bowlers, and for my money the two left out will be Graham Onions and Tim Bresnan.

3)      Bairstow and Prior are both going for the number six position that would have been Ravi Bopara’s if he had been fit. Although based on previous I would say Prior will bat 6 and Bairstow 7 in the line-up on Thursday.

4)      Kevin Pietersen has been playing and scoring runs for the Delhi Daredevils but it’s a much bigger ask to go out on a swinging pitch in England in May and hit the ball as well as he has been doing.

5)      Andrew Strauss needs runs! This one cannot be said enough as if he fails again in another series he may struggle to hold on to his place especially with a winter ahead in the sub-continent.

6)      Ian Bell needs runs. Not in such a bad position as Strauss as Ian Bell scored a lot during the last year but he had a bad winter against Pakistan and Sri Lanka and could do with at least one maybe two centuries in the three match series.

7)      With three tests at Lords, Trent Bridge and Edgbaston and the last few weeks being full of rain will we even get enough play?

8)      Shivnarine Chanderpaul, well any cricketer or serious follower should know this person’s name. He is a fantastic batsman who very rarely looks in trouble and it’s going to be a big task for our bowlers to try and get him as early as possible in each innings.

9)      The West Indies have two good spinners and if we get some turning tracks they may be able to get their team into the games, although if we do get a turning wicket we have Graeme Swann so still feeling confident.

10)   Despite everything I’m going for a comfortable England win probably 3-0 and the only thing that I see stopping that is the weather.

The Start of the County Season

The start of the county season is a time for every cricket fan to rejoice and look ahead to a feast of county and international cricket over the next few months, well at least that's what we were thinking of when the weather was nice in the early part of April then came the constant downpours of the last few weeks and the cricket that we've actually had has been a very small amount.

The County Championship is on it's third game of the season so far but there is not a team out there at the moment that has not lost some time to the weather. I come from Essex and as such am a huge fan and follow them whenever I can, so with our second game being against Yorkshire who are also chasing promotion back into the top division we thought that it would give a good indication of the way things would go and see if we were correct in thinking that the top 2 places would be between those two teams. A lot of rain later and we still don't have a clue.

In the top division it seems as if it might be a race between Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire who lead the way after the early few games although there are a lot of other teams that might have a say in that such as Durham, Somerset or last years winners Lancashire. Still with at least 12 games to until the end of the County Championship season there is plenty of time for another team to make it up there or one of the before mentioned teams breaking away from the rest.

Moving across to the international scene and we are welcoming the West Indies here very soon and the first test match will begin on the 17th May. Growing up I heard a lot about the great West Indian sides of the past with people like Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner but when you compare that to the current day side you see how far backwards they have gone. Chanderpaul is a wonderful player but apart from that I just cannot see anyone else troubling our bowling attack and I think we will win comfortably in all forms.

Still as long as the weather controls itself and we get a bit more like the sunshine we hoped that we would have then we could be in for a cracking few months both domestically and internationally.

England vs Bangladesh....1 Day to Go

OK, so we all know that a test series against Bangladesh doesn't actually matter much in the grand scheme of things, they are by far the worst test team around and despite the fact that they have a number of good spinners and a few good batsmen they are not likely to pose too many problems to England especially not if like they are suggesting there are overcast conditions which means that the ball will nip around and swing a bit which should lead to some good wickets for the England Seamers.

All eyes will not be on the consistent test match players but on the younger guys that are being given a chance especially with Steven Finn and Eoin Morgan both looking to start the test match tomorrow. Morgan especially gets a chance after impressing over the last 12 months in the 20 and 50 over formats of the game.

Many eyes will be on the middle order batsmen especially to see if he has the temperament to bat for a long period of time if needed and the only problem will be if he gets out trying to play a big shot that would be more at home either during a twenty20 or a fifty over match. He is definitely a talent for the future and with his career in test matches starting off against Bangladesh he should be able to get some runs under his belt and hopefully begin a long and succesful career in test match cricket.

Steve Finn got a chance out in Bangladesh but the conditions and pitches out there really weren't the best for his type of bowling and pitches in England in May should definitely be more the surface that he enjoys bowling on. With the changeable weather, the helpful pitches and his 6ft 8 inch frame he should provide a lot of good balls and I would be surprised if he didn't pick up a 5 wicket haul at some point during the 2 test match series.

But with Bangladesh coming over here I guess that we can count on a 2-0 series win if the weather stays away long enough and hopefully some of the boys will get both runs and wickets under their belts which can only come in handy when we play Pakistan later in the summer.

The IPL is over....enter the World Twenty20

The Indian Premier League is finally over after the Chennai Super Kings beat the favourites Mumbai Indians in the final by 22 runs. It seems weird though that the Mumbai Indians were the better team over the course of 14 games for every club yet they still have to play against the other top 3 in a mini knockout competition at the end despite the fact they won the league by 4 points.

Suresh Raina was the hero with an unbeaten 57 which meant that the Chennai Super Kings were able to get up to 167 and despite Sachin Tendulkars 48 they were restricted to 146-9, although they did let Suresh Raina get away with a few chances early on, and if they had taken his wicket then it could have been a totally different game. All this came after a good opening stand between Murali Vijay and Matthew Hayden who were probably the best opening pair in the competition.

Fear not if you are a fan of Twenty20 cricket though as this Friday the world 20/20 tournament begins out in the Caribbean. Although if you are like me then you are probably bored with the crash, bang and wallop version of cricket and are eagerly looking forward to the start of the test matches next month.

With the top teams on the international stage all fighting it out for the world championships though it will be interesting to see how Afghanistan go in the competition as they are relatively new to the world stage and it will be good to see how well they cope with the pressure. It will also be interesting to see if someone other than India and Pakistan will be able to dominate the competition for a change.

Although as the Indian Premier League has a lot of the Indian youth players and a lot of the senior side as well playing it is easy to see just why the likes of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka do well at the world events. So with the competition kicking off this Friday at 5pm (England time) all attention will be on the teams battling it out for supremacy.

IPL Reaches the Semis

The Indian Premier League has finally reached the Semi Final stages and after a lot of games, ending with the most boring game (well it was a dead rubber) and we have the final four teams that are battling it out for the two places in the final. It has finally come down to Mumbai Indians, Chennai SuperKings, Deccan Chargers and Bangalore Royal Challengers.

It was quite a surprise that the Delhi Daredevils, who were in a fantastic position going into their last 3 games, didn't make it. Boasting a squad that included Warner, Sehwag, Gambhir, Collingwood and Karthik they lost a large portion of their later games which saw them fall out of the running of the semi finals on the net run rate.

So with Mumbai Indians Vs Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers Vs Chennai SuperKings all happening within the next couple of days one would assume that the final would be won by the winners of the Mumbai Bangalore game but whoever gets through in the other semi final will have a chance to upset the odds and walk away with the trophy.

With the Mumbai Indians looking so good when they have their full squad out they are the overwhelming favourites with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo and Harbajhan Singh they have been the front runners all the way through and won 10 out of their 14 games to finish 4 points clear of anyone else at the end of the group stage.

However with the players having to fly almost straight out to the Caribbean to play in the world twenty20 which starts at the end of this month, there is a lot of panic as the flights are still not working 100% and people like Paul Collingwood are unable to fly back to England to meet up with the squad before we fly out to the West Indies.

Indian Premier League

With the English county season just beginning and the fact that the England team are currently on an off period before the world Twenty20 starts I've been forced to get my cricket fix from the Indian Premier League and it's been a good watch lately especially as it seems as if any team no matter where they are positioned in the table can beat anyone else.

The Mumbai Indians seem to be the team to beat especially with the fact that there captain Sachin Tendulkar has been in such fantastic form and with him being backed up by quality bowlers such as Harbajhan Singh it's easy to see why they are at the top of the table and are probably going to be one half of the finalists.

My personal favourites and the ones that I am tipping to meet the Mumbai Indians in the final is the Delhi Daredevils who boast a fantastic team including David Warner, Paul Collingwood, Virinder Sehwag and their captain Gautam Gambhir. The only problem with these is it seems as if at times both Warner and Sehwag fail then they seem to be stuck for runs, however they are still in a good position coming into the final stages of the competition.

The Deccan Chargers are the defending champions and with a batting line up boasting captain Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Herschelle Gibbs they should be doing a lot better than they have been so far. It seems that their bowling just is not up to the same standards as some of the others and despite some good wins at times they've lost far too many games that they should have won and therefore are languishing in mid table.

One of my favourites before the tournament started were the Kings XI Punjab which includes the likes of Ravi Bopara, Kumar Sangakarra, Mahela Jayawardena and Yuvraj Singh but unfortunately despite probably one of the best batting line ups in the competition they are still near the bottom of the table as they just haven't fired at all.

So as we move into the final few games of the league competition before the top 4 play off for the semi-finals and final it's definitely all to play for and the winner of any Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils game will probably end up being the winners.

England 2-0 Bangladesh

Well it wasn't overly surprising that England left the test match series against Bangladesh with a 2-0 series win and I am going to rate each of the 12 players that played on how I thought they performed over the course of the series.

Alastair Cook - Had a good series with the bat and without a doubt will be the next captain of the team when Andrew Strauss is out of the way. Scored a brilliant hundred on the final day to help England win the second test. (Rating: 8/10)

Michael Carberry - Only played in the first test and unfortunately for him he couldn't get the big hundred that would stop the selectors dropping him after this test. Probably a one test wonder. (Rating: 4/10)

Jonathan Trott - Had a pretty poor run with the bat scores wise, but was also unfortunately prone to weird dismissals, not to mention he was given out caught off his helmet, will hopefully get more runs this summer when Bangladesh visit here. (Rating: 6/10)

Kevin Pietersen - Played a good innings to help in the final run chase to finish it off with captain Cook also scored a composed 99. Shame he didn't get the hundred he was looking for but some good signs for ahead. (Rating: 7/10)

Paul Collingwood - Had a rarity of a thing, a bad series. It is not often that he gets either no runs or wickets but he batted quite ordinarily at most times and he wasn't available to bowl. Expecting more from him this Summer. (Rating: 4/10)

Ian Bell - Finally showed us exactly what he could do and got the monkey off his back by making a hundred in trying conditions and without any of his teammates making one. Hopefully he will keep it up this year and into the Ashes. (Rating: 8/10)

Matt Prior - Good with the gloves in the first test but lost it a bit in the second test. Definitely still a good batsmen and without a doubt a team player, as even when he is going well he thinks about the team before his own situation. (Rating: 6/10)

Tim Bresnan - Had a fantastic series and some good runs and wickets and should have had his first test match hundred if it was not for a rush of blood to the head. A fantastic prospect and there is no doubt that if we want to play 5 bowlers he can easily bat at number 7. (Rating: 8/10)

Graeme Swann - Man of the series without a doubt. 10 Wickets in the first game and some good bowling in the second means that Swann (who is ranked the number 2 bowler in the world) gets my man of the series award and he was brilliant throughout both test matches and bowled a lot of overs. (Rating: 9/10)

Stuart Broad - Had a quiet series, unfortunately he is going through a bad patch with the bat but his bowling is still good its just unfortunate that the pitches really didn't offer a lot of assistance but he still bowled well and got some key wickets. (Rating: 5/10)

Steven Finn - Wrong place to try and play him, he should never have been given a debut on pitches that would have no bounce or movement. Definitely one for the future though he might want to forget about this tour for now. (Rating: 3/10)

James Tredwell - Took a stunning catch after coming on as sub in the first test before he got his chance in the second. Bowled well in both innings and took some key wickets. He should have played in the first test instead of Finn. (Rating: 6/10)

England put under Pressure and Australia beat New Zealand

The second test match between Bangladesh and England has finally shown us that Bangladesh can play good test match cricket and compete against some of the top teams in the world at this format of the game. It was nice to see them get big runs in the first innings, although that wasn't helped by the fact that England allowed their tail to keep piling on the runs.

After a good innings Bangladesh walked away with a very competitive 419 and things were going well for them when England collapsed to 174-4 before Ian Bell proved that he can score runs when the team needs them the most as he compiled a composed 138 and with good knocks from both Matt Prior and Tim Bresnan ensured that England finished on 496 all out.

Without a doubt England are now back on top but it will be a good test of Bangladesh to see if they can get a draw here and bat ou the last 4 sessions without allowing England a chance at a small total then it will show the progress that they are making and even though it won't be a win it will still be a good test match performance.

On the bowling front it's been a poor tour for Steven Finn but it must be said that neither of the test match pitches have been condusive for his type of bowling, however the other bowlers have made a good go of it with Stuart Broad and James Tredwell bowling well. The two outstanding bowlers have been quite easily Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan and between the 2 of them they will be hoping to give England at least a chance of snatching victory in the rest of this test.

Elsewhere there was the first test match between Australia and New Zealand and after a Michael Clarke hundred in the first innings the Australians posted 459-5 and after a good bowling performance saw New Zealand bowled out for just 157 there was surely only ever one winner in this match.

The follow on was enforced and it was only thanks to Brendon McCullums 104 and good innings from Vettori and McIntosh that New Zealand posted 407 leaving australia need just over 100 to win the match. 23 overs later and the match was over with the score of Australias last innings standing at 106-0 with opener Hughes making 86 off 75 balls to ensure an easy win in the test match.

Elsewhere the IPL is now in full swing and it is the batsmen that are dominating it at the moment with good knocks coming from the old pros such as Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden, Andrew Symonds and in particular from the master Sachin Tendulkar. It has also been good to see Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan getting good scores for their teams as well.

England win the first test

So the first test between England and Bangladesh ended up the way that everyone thought it would, with a comprehensive England victory but it was a game that seemed to be marred by bad decisions, although in this case it was not the umpires with the bad decisions but the players and the captains in particular.

The first two mistakes were made before the game even began and it was a mistake for each captain, firstly England Captain Cook chose to go in to the game with 3 seamers and just one spinner which would eventually mean Graeme Swann having to bowl around 80 overs himself. Then Bangladesh won the toss and their skipper chose to bowl on what was a fantastic batting pitch, 599 runs later and he may have realised he made a mistake.

There was good runs for Cook who got a test highest score of 173 and Collingwood who got a breezy 145 and they were well supported by Kevin Pietersen getting 99 and Ian Bell a quick 84. After that it was over to Bangladesh and a respectable batting performance saw them get to 296 with Graeme Swann taking 5-90 on a pitch that wasn't actually spinning as far as some people thought it might.

So next question was would England enforce the follow on or not, the answer was not and out they came for a bat to put the game way out of reach of Bangladesh and a quick 209-7 off 50 overs saw that Bangladesh would need to bat out 5 sessions or score a mammoth 512 to avoid a test defeat.

Most pundits where of the opinion that Bangladesh would go down easily on the last day and a half and that it might as well have been called an England win there but Bangladesh seemed to have a different opinion. A fine innings of 106 from Siddique and 95 from Rahim held England up until just before tea on the final day but the runs were just too many for them to chase down as there final innings finished on 331 all out with Graeme Swann taking his second 5 wicket haul of the match to finish with 10-217 and Bangladesh lost the test by 181 runs.

So with the second one starting on Saturday morning it will interesting to see if it will be as one sided as this one was, and also it will be interesting to see if England maintain their one spinner team as surely Swann must be tired after bowling almost 50 overs himself on the final day and a half.

The lack of form of KP

So with England out in Bangladesh everyone thought that it would be a good time for England and more importantly Kevin Pietersen to get some runs under his belt both in the One Day and Test forms of the game, something which he has struggled with of late.

After the One Day Internationals however this does not seem to be a plan that is going well with him getting a highest score of 22 in the 3 games and generally showing for some reason that he cannot play left arm spin very well something which was highlighted when he repeatedly got out to Yuvraj Singh last time we played India and the fact that whenever KP was at the crease they brought him on to bowl.

There is hope however with a 2 game test series coming up that he will be able to get in and get some runs at some point throughout the 4 innings (potentially) although they do have a lot of spinners and he will have to work on his technique against the left handed spinners in particular. The warm up game saw Michael Carberry opening the batting with Captain Cook and it looks as if that is the way they will go for this tour with Andrew Strauss having a well deserved rest before the summer tests back in England.

The bowlers however are not having a good time with injuries to both Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad meaning that they may not make the test matches, however there is more hope for Stuart Broad to play in both. It will be most interesting to see the composition of the side as many people believe that we will go in with 2 spinners which means that Graeme Swann will probably be partnered by James Tredwell.

Even with playing two spinners I presume that they will go in to the first test with 6 batsmen, the keeper then two spinners and two seamers probably using Paul collingwood as the fifth bowler should they need one. So with the first test starting Friday it will be a good chance to see just where England are at and if they can keep up their 100%.

England draw the Twenty20's

Friday and Saturday saw the first action of England touring Dubai where they played Pakistan and will also play Bangladesh starting this week.

The first game saw England take the win away from Pakistan with a brilliant batting performance from the ever improving Morgan (especially when he ended the game with 4, 4, 6) and a good return to runs for Kevin Pietersen, apart from his suicide single to get off the mark. It was also a good fielding performance with Stuart Broad in particular taking both wickets and some very good catches.

The second game went the same way with England batting first and thanks to a good team effort and some big hitting from some of the lower order they got up to a good total of just shy of 150 but this time (despite some more excellent fielding and catching) Pakistan had the batting talent to knock the runs off and finish the short series with a win per team in what was a fairly even contest over the 2 games.

Elsewhere it's unfortunate to see that the West Indies have been blown away by Australia who are looking more and more like the side that they used to be when they could beat anyone in the world. Australia seem to be pulling together as a squad and especially Shane Watson seems to be digging in to get both runs and wickets and with Doug Bollinger bowling well and Shaun Tait bowling at a fantastic speed it seems that they will match most teams that are out there.

There was a fantastic game of One Day cricket over the weekend as well with India playing South Africa. In what should have been a game that India won easily after they posted almost 300 and it was going swimmingly when the South Africans were 7 down with a lot to get but Wayne Parnell and Dale Steyn both hit more than 30 and should have won the game for them before India won by 1 run.

England vs Pakistan starts this week

This Friday starts the long anticipated tour of England being in the United Arab Emirates to play both Pakistan and then Bangladesh. The first game between the senior sides is this Friday with the first 20/20 international between Pakistan and England although the England Lions and Pakistan A team have already played a few games and have a couple more this week.

So far the England lions have been firmly on top beating Pakistan A in both of their 20/20 matches relatively comfortable and it has been very good to see some of the lads doing really well and pushing for either a call up or a return to the full side. People such as Ian Bell who has yet to get a bad score on the tour, Craig Kieswetter has been in good form and should earn a place in the squad for the Twenty/20 World Cup, Adil Rashid has been bowling well and Peter Trego has been batting and bowling consistently.

Elsewhere the Test Match Series between India and South Africa is still going on and the second test was noticeable for a batting collapse that could rival any that England have done previously when they went from 251-3 to collapse to 296 all out in the space of 25 overs after tea on the first day after centuries by Petersen (on debut) and Amla had them going well. In reply India started strongly and never looked back with no fewer than 4 players making hundreds (Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dhoni and Laxman).

There was also a fantastic game of One Day International Cricket between Australia and West Indies the other day where both sides showed exactly what they are capable of. Batting first Australia made a good score of 324 and for a while it looked as if West Indies were going to get nowhere near the total but some good hitting managed to get them to a respectable total of 274 which is an improvement on the rest of the series so far.

So with cricket being played almost all around the world at the moment there's so much action it really is brilliant and gives me more to watch and write about.

Australia vs West Indies and India vs South Africa

This week there has been quite a lot of action around the world with the One Day International Series kicking off between Australia and West Indies and already they have shown that this current Australian team is too good for a West Indies team that is in transition and is in dire need of strengthening their squads so that they can compete with some of the top teams around.

I think the funniest thing was in the Twenty20 Internationals against Pakistan at the end of last week when Shaun Tait was bowling at around 160 kph which is about 99.86 mph and without a doubt it was some seriously good quick bowling and Brad Haddin was talking to the commentators and saying that without a doubt it was the quickest he had ever kept to and that even though he was halfway back to the boundary it was still hurting his hands.

Elsewhere it is the battle of the top 2 in the test arena with the first test between India and South Africa taking place. After South Africa batted first and slipped for 6-2 Hashim Amla and Jacques Kallis then proceeded to put on 340 runs with Hashim Amla making a good double century and Kallis making a good score of just under a double century and they posted a good score of 558 declared.

The Indian reply got off to a good start and when Sehwag was finally out they had reached 192-4 but enter Dale Steyn and just a short while later they were all out for 233 and Dale Steyn had finished with figures of 7-51 and the follow on was enforced. India are currently 242-6 in their second innings and are still trailing by 83 runs and without a doubt are looking at a heavy defeat be it by an innings or by South Africa knocking off a small amount of runs.

So with England starting their tour of the United Arab Emirates to play against Bangladesh then there is more cricket coming up including the Australia and West Indies tour and the rest of India vs South Africa.

Cricket this week

This week has seen a break from most of the major action that has been taking place on the cricket field this week with the exception of Australia wrapping up a 5-0 win over Pakistan in their One Day International Series, however there have been plenty of stories off the pitch that have been just as important.

Firstly Ottis Gibson has left the England coaching set up (he was their bowling coach) and has taken the head coach job for the West Indies. It was quite a shock when the news was first announced, as just a few years ago he was still a player with Hampshire and he hasn't had much experience with coaching especially when it comes to being the head coach.

Elsewhere the series between Australia and Pakistan ended on a bit of a sour note when Shahid Afridi was given a 2 game ban for biting the ball, which was a bit pointless as they were already 4-0 down in the series and its not as if he could make the ball that different just by biting on it although maybe he just thought it tasted good.

Elsewhere there were wins for Kenya over Scotland and Ireland over Afghanistan in a 20/20 Quadrangular Series. That is all for this week but there is more cricket coming up soon.

The Under 19 One Day Tournament and the rest of the Week

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.

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.