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.
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
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.
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.
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