Ashes 2nd Test: A Starc reminder for England

Living in the UK, during the weeks leading up to the Ashes, I could have been forgiven for believing that England’s 5-0 whitewash was in the bag. The Aussies were no-hopers, their pace attack either crocked or simply past it. Just hand over the urn now, knighthoods and bonuses all round. Cheers! 

Who needs practice? Just turn up, let the batters whack it around the boundary and the bowlers reduce Steve Smith et al to nervous wrecks. It doesn’t matter whether the ball is white, red or pink; Bazball rules, ok? 

Then came the Perth debacle. In truth, both sides struggled with the pitch. After the first day, the ‘papers and websites lauded the pace of Carse, Archer and Stokes. Crawley, Root and Smith would come good on day two and the tourists would be celebrating three days early. 

Oops! Crawley bagged a pair, Brook lasted only three deliveries and his Yorkshire brother-in-arm played on to Mitchell Starc for eight. Top score was Gus Atkinson’s 37. Never mind. Unleash the speedsters! Khawaja’s injury brought more optimism, but the promoted Travis Head was having none of it. Ably supported by Marnus Labuschagne, he made a mockery of this relentless marketing maelstrom by slamming an 83-ball 123. No bowlers were spared the Head treatment. Inside two days, it was 1-0 to Australia. 

On to Brisbane, where history isn’t kind to England. But – hey! – we have the fastest pace attack in Ashes history! Well, at least the Second Test lasted four days but the result was the same: an eight-wicket triumph for the hosts. Despite a plethora of runs, there was only one century and, Ironically, it flowed from the bat of Joe Root whose lack of a ton Down Under had been an over-stressed stain on his fantastic Test record. He was left unbeaten on 138, proving that class is permanent. 

When Australia batted, nobody could get close to three figures but, in a Test rarity, everyone reached double-figures. Five passed fifty, and on day two they compiled runs at a rate which would have had Brendon McCullum purring were it his own batters at work. The bowlers wilted, simple catches were spilled all over the place. The England second innings saw Michael Neser grabbing the headlines with two caught-and-bowleds, and a succession of poor strokes edging behind to Carey and Smith. 

England’s woes were epitomised yesterday by the chirping of Archer toward Steve Smith. Even that pathetic sledging failed, as the stand-in skipper was motivated to hook another bouncer for six and clinch victory with a controlled pull from Atkinson for another. 

So what next? I am no fan of England’s cricket but even I am surprised by their embarrassing performances so far. As for the coach’s suggestion that his squad practised too much, it’s laughable. Of course, England could fire on all cylinders at Adelaide. Root, Brook, Pope, Smith and Duggett have made big scores before, and Aussie pitches can aid our bowlers. However, the Bazball strategy can only take you so far. Selecting batters based on their Hundred strike rates and bowlers purely based on their speed gun stats is, in my opinion, ridiculous. 

I know I’m old-fashioned, and fume at the proliferation of T20 and the shortening of boundaries, but you need a Plan B, C or even D, depending on the players available, the conditions and the opposition. For too long, England have relied on sledging, bouncers, Root’s runs and Stokes’ big-stage heroics. Skills can still be honed, but there are many other sub-90mph bowlers and experienced spinners available on the county circuit ready and willing. 

As for Australia, they have performed admirably, uniting the nation against the Barmy Army. Aged 31, Weatherald has enjoyed a solid start to his Test career, Alex Carey has been as brilliant behind the stumps as Smith has been poor, while Boland, Doggett and Neser have compensated for the absence of Cummins and Hazelwood. Then there is ‘past-it’ Mitchell Starc. A six-fer in three successive Tests, a trio of Player of the Match awards and a top score of 77 at Brisbane. His career wicket tally has eclipsed Wasim Akram’s to make him the most prolific left-arm seamer in history. Smith collects records for runs and catches but the tall Sydney man deserves more credit than he receives. Tests, ODIs, T20, he excels in all formats. A glut of Aussie retirements cannot be far away but it is Starc who will be missed the most.

South Africa true World Champions at last

Congratulations, South Africa! Three long decades after being welcomed back into the international sporting fold, the World Test Championship ha as it did for New Zealand a few years ago, provided the opportunity to break their duck in major ICC global trophies. Temba Bavuma’s joy at holding the WTC prize aloft was reflected in cricket fans not only in South Africa but in many other nations, too. 

The Apartheid era has unfortunately tainted the way I regard that country but the reborn ‘Rainbow Nation’, for all it faults, deserves some success on the cricket field. The reputation as ‘chokers’ has also weighed heavy on the shoulders of every team since 1999, as unfair as it is cruel. Nonetheless, only one previous cup final appearance in eighteen ODI and T20 tournaments is scant reward for their undoubted talent. Even England have won more semi-finals in that time. 

I think of all those great sides, both in white and red ball who tried and failed to take that extra step or two to claim the silverware. The WTC came too late for the likes of Allan Donald, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, Shaun Pollock, Hashim Amla, Dale Steyn, AB De Villiers, Morne Morkel, Makhaya Ntini, Jonty Rhodes, Daryll Cullinan, Lance Klusener et al. 

Many of those names competed in that infamous tied semi-final at Edgbaston almost exactly 26 years ago. So horribly close… But look at Australia’s players they faced that day: Gilchrist, both Waughs, Ponting, Lehmann, Warne, McGrath, Moody, Bevan,…. Some of the best one-day cricketers of a generation were in that line-up. yet Pollock and Donald took nine wickets to restrict the Aussies to 213.  In response, Shane Warne took 4-29 and it was only big hitting by the maligned Klusener which kept them in the hunt until the disastrous run-outs at the end. 

Who would have thought that a side featuring names like Mulder, Stubbs, Bedingham, Jansen and Ngidi would be the one to end all those years of hurt? It’s not as if South Africa play many Test matches. Money talks loudest, of course. England, Australia and India regularly play three- or five-game series which make enough cash to justify halting the conveyor belt of meaningless but fan-friendly T20 thrashes. Nobody else has the luxury of playing so much proper cricket, but the format of qualifying for the final over a two-year cycle gives others a chance. 

The all-powerful India didn’t make it, while England’s Bazball-blinkered set-up hasn’t lived up to the local media hype. SA had a dodgy start, losing 2-0 to New Zealand and the two-day Cape Town drubbing by India, leaving them needing to win their final six Tests to stand chance. This they achieved, whitewashing both Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Bavuma has nine wins in his first ten as captain, and he earned his place as an excellent batsman. Indeed, his 144-run partnership with centurion Aiden Markram in the second innings at Lord’s was decisive at calming the nerves after two and a half days of tumbling wickets. 

David Bedingham and Kyle Verreynne have caught my eye in the county game in recent years and they were at the wicket as the latter’s driven single off Starc carried them over the line. Not forgetting their world-class paceman Kagiso Rabada who had match figures of 9-110 to maintain an excellent record over the past two years. Just past his thirtieth birthday, he is bowling better than ever. 

It is a pity South Africa cannot immediately build upon this Test success. However, visits to Zimbabwe (1 Test) and India (only two) will launch their attempt to retain the WTC in 2027. Australia still lead the ICC Test rankings, with England and India not far behind. There’s still a fair way to go but, surviving relentless Aussie sledging at Lord’s suggests South Africa have little to fear. The Aussie fast bowlers are getting on a bit and England cannot rely on Ben Stokes, Joe Root and Harry Brook for ever. Kohli and Rohit have gone, so Test cricket is entering a new phase. Give South Africa a chance to be at its forefront.

My World Cricket Team of 2024

It has been a strange year for men’s cricket. No side truly dominated, although that has to be considered a plus. India began the year by demolishing England 4-1 at home, yet were unexpectedly turned over 3-0 by New Zealand’s spinners. The Black Caps also dismissed South Africa yet were themselves turned over by spin against Sri Lanka and, last month, by England’s pace attack, although they had the last laugh at Hamilton. 

In the summer, England predictably cruised to a whitewash of West Indies but again showed vulnerability in the final Test against Sri Lanka. This continued in Pakistan where, following the record-breaking scoring by Joe Root and Harry Brook at Multan, the home nation recalled veteran left-arm spinner Noman Ali, who responded by taking twenty wickets in the two remaining games! 

Australia are looking set to face South Africa in next summer’s World Test Championship Final after series victories against Pakistan, New Zealand and, while still incomplete, India. Their only Test hiccup came in last January’s day-nighter at Brisbane where Shamar Joseph’s pace saw the Aussies capitulate on the final afternoon and hand the West Indies a rare victory by just eight runs. 

In limited-overs formats, India eased to the T20 World Cup final, having pricked England’s balloon of bragging in the semis. Afghanistan were amazing, reaching the same stage thanks to shock wins against the Aussies and NZ. Despite his side being blown away by South Africa, Rahmanullah Gurbaz ended the tournament as top scorer, but it was India who lifted the trophy courtesy of fine bowling and a man-of-the-match-winning 76 by Virat Kohli. 

However, the Indian legend was less successful in Tests. Astonishingly, he ended the year averaging less than 25, although this was superior to that of Pakistan star Babar Azam. At least the latter had his T20 performances to redeem his year. Kane Williamson looked back to his best after injury but Australia’s batting looked lacklustre in the wake of David Warner’s retirement. Their Test successes were achieved on the shoulders of veteran bowlers like Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. 

South Africa played few Tests, but David Bedingham top-scored for them, building upon his prolific season for Durham in the County Championship. Nobody notched more first-class runs than Joe Root, who overtook Alastair Cook as England’s top Test run-scorer, yet even he was eclipsed by fellow Yorkshireman Harry Brook. Fully embracing the principles pf Bazball, he has raced past 2,000 runs at an average of 58 and strike rate of a phenomenal 88.

In that first Test in Pakistan, he amassed 317 at almost a run a ball, sharing a new England record partnership with Root of 454. Brook is now 25, but England seem keen to blood a raft of players with no real track record in the domestic game. Shoaib Bashir must have bowled more balls for England than Somerset, with mixed results and now Jacob Bethell has been encouraged to take his one-day county form into the Test arena with not a single first-class century to his name. James Anderson may have been dragged kicking and screaming into retirement at 41 but Gus Atkinson looked a useful replacement, taking 52 wickets in 11 Tests. 

Travis Head was the outstanding Aussie across all formats, especially with the white ball, and West Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Nic Pooran accumulated more than 2,300 Twenty20 runs around the globe. Participating in just about every franchise competition in existence, the 29-year-old must have racked up the highest hotel bills, too. Wanindu Hasaranga also has little Test pedigree but, of the top-ranked nations, proved one of the most consistent spinners in the 50- and 20-over game, surpassing the likes of Rashid Khan and Adam Zampa. 

Fellow Sri Lankan Kamindu Mendis bounced back onto the Test scene with some splendid batting, topping 1,000 runs in a mere nine appearances, while the ropey form of Sharma and Kohli was eased by the assured top-order strokeplay of Yashavsi Jaiswal. He was absolutely rampant against England at the start of the year, thumping not one but two double-centuries. 

However, star ma of the year must be Jasprit Bumrah. He is just irrepressible and, whilst not bewildering batsmen with his pace, movement and unique action, actually makes playing cricket look fun. It’s not just his 71 Test wickets at a ludicrously low average of under 15. He has also brilliant in defeat to Australia and weas a commanding presence for India in the T20 World Cup. In the final, Kohli may have scooped the MOTM prize but it was Bumrah’s 2-18 from four overs in the face of South Africa’s run chase which probably deserved the award. He is 31 now, so won’t take as many career wickets as his retiring team-mate Ashwin but I hope he is around for many seasons to come. 

So here is my 2024 Team of the Year:

Jaiswal (Ind), Head (Aus), Root (Eng), Brook (Eng), K Mendis (SL), Poonan (WI +), Jadeja (Ind), Atkinson (Eng), Hasaranga (SL), Cummins (Aus), Bumrah (Ind)

David Warner - the Cricketer with Rizz

At the end of 2023, Oxford University Press announced the winner of the public ballot on the Word of the Year, and it was ‘rizz’. Obviously, I had never heard of it. I am 62 and apparently it is short for ‘charisma’ which is too long for anyone under 25 to type on their mobiles. 

So who has rizz? Well, David Warner, for starters. I would suggest that few modern-day sportsmen and women possess an abundance of rizz. Most footballers, tennis players, cricketers and so on seem to be schooled in being as boring as possible. Anything else is deemed ‘unprofessional’. Well, I love seeing a sports professional with a smile on his or her face; it proves they are human with a personality, perhaps human frailties, just like the rest of us.

Maybe that’s why I quite like David Warner. He may be a pantomime villain in the eyes of the English fans and media but he is always watchable. Don’t get me wrong; his cheating at Newlands was disgraceful. However, England can hardly sit comfortably on the moral high ground given the past behaviour of Hussain, Atherton, Pietersen, Stokes et al, although I admit the latter two did also have plenty of rizz! 

This week saw Warner’s retirement from Test cricket, bowing out at his Sydney home ground with a half-century and an Australian 3-0 series victory against Pakistan. Only Cook, Gavaskar and Graeme Smith scored more runs as openers, while 8,786 runs at almost 45 is world-class in anyone’s book. 

It is strange to recall that first-class cricket wasn’t to his liking at all. I first saw him play at Lord’s in June 2010, thanks to my friend Dipesh, then a Middlesex Member, acquiring a ticket to see the county’s T20 clash with Essex. The great Adam Gilchrist was then Middlesex captain for the Blast but I had heard of this exciting young gun from New South Wales, if only because he was renowned for representing Australia in ODIs and T20 internationals without playing a single first-class match. Not one! 

By 2010, he had played a handful in the Sheffield Shield, his debut coming the previous year, batting at six. He made a 48-ball 42 while at the other end, a certain Usman Khawaja compiled a steadier 172 not out. A teenage Mitchell Starc also featured in that drawn fixture, and the two also accompanied Warner in his final Test, and presumably first-class fixture. As for that Friends Provident tie at Lord’s. the pink-clad future legend biffed 25 in 15 balls, although the innings was overshadowed by the opposition’s Ryan Ten Doeschate’s superlative century. 

It was to be another eighteen months before he accepted the call to wear the ‘baggy green’ against New Zealand. He stroked three boundaries in four deliveries to clinch victory, again batting with Khawaja. It was a match boasting a phenomenal line-up of Noughties cricket stars on both sides, including Ponting, Clarke, Hussey, Vettori, Taylor and Brendan McCullum. I think it’s fair to say that David Warner brought ‘Bazball’ to the Test scene long before McCullum the coach did so with England. His cavalier approach to batting didn’t always pay off. Stuart Broad, for one, seemed to have his measure, goading him into rash hooks or pulls. 

In the recent World Cup, Warner again contributed to a triumphant Aussie campaign. He top-scored for his country, yet was eclipsed by two awesome innings by Glen Maxwell and Travis Head. In addition to his runs, there was no ignoring Dave’s energetic scampering around the outfield with an enthusiasm belying his 37 years. He hasn’t quit all cricket, of course. I daresay in future T20 franchises we’ll witness plenty more belligerent batting, attempted run-outs, rueful smiles – washed down with lashings of rizz. 

Australia win India's World Cup!

In 2019, the ICC World Cup Final delivered as close a contest as you could possibly imagine, and it was the home nation, England, which managed to come out on top. Four years on, and it was the hosts who again were hot favourites. However, the Bollywood scriptwriters were absent and, instead of the predicted coronation of Rohit Sharma’s men as champions, the 120,000-odd spectators at Ahmedabad were stunned by a determined Australia, and the outstanding performance of Travis Head. 

On paper, this tournament was the property of the ICC but in practice it felt like it was owned by Narendra Modi, the autocratic Prime Minister of India, after whom the final’s magnificent stadium is named. As India cruised through the group stages unbeaten, he must have been convinced that the trophy was in his hands, too. 

India undoubtedly looked the most complete team. From skipper Rohit Sharma’s blistering starts down to Jasprit Bumrah’s ideosyncratic pace bowling, they had all bases covered. And they had Virat Kohli. 2023 hasn’t been a vintage year for the former captain but he retains the faith of a billion cricket fans, and with good reason. He was by far the leading scorer and when he was dismissed in the final for a mere 54, the silence was deafening. The ovation for his record-breaking fiftieth career ODI century, against New Zealand in the Mumbai semi-final reverberated around the globe, as befits such an imperious batter. 

Looking back, New Zealand were quickest out of the traps. They achieved some sort of revenge for the 2019 defeat by destroying England emphatically. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra each made tons and shared what was to prove the highest partnership of the tournament, an unbeaten 273. For the losers, it created an unwanted foundation for a disastrous defence of the trophy. However, Jos Buttler tried to spin it, there were no positives whatsoever, but more on that another time. 

The Black Caps eased to four successive wins against relatively unfancied opposition, while Australia fell to both India and South Africa. However, when the Aussies withstood a late Neesham onslaught to beat their neighbours thrillingly by five runs at Dharamsala, the tables were turning. Meanwhile, South Africa were also looking ominous. In his final World Cup, Quinton de Kock was scoring centuries for fun, and their 428-5 against Sri Lanka, featuring a trio of tons, was awe-inspiring. 

However, as the weeks passed, the top four seemed to be separating themselves from the rest. Going into the final few rounds, Kane Williamson’s side started to look vulnerable to a possible late charge from Pakistan and even Afghanistan, who won a lot of friends in this competition. Had it not been for Glenn Maxwell’s phenomenal one-legged slogfest, they would have finished the group with five victories and a slender chance of breaking into the knockouts. 

It didn’t happen, of course, and the perennial bridesmaids NZ and SA almost inevitably fell victims to India and Australia, respectively. They are not – repeat NOT – chokers. It’s just that they are never quite the best in the business. History has nowt to do with it. If it did, the West Indies would still be whupping everyone’s arses at the World Cup instead of sitting on their own arses in the Caribbean. 

Fans of T20 and the horrible Hundred have criticised the 50-over format for producing too few close contests in this World Cup. Yes, there have been some one-sided affairs but that happens in all tournaments in all sports. It’s just that many people have attention spans too short to appreciate a proper game of cricket. If I have a beef with the World Cup, it is the ten-team, all-plays-all group format, leaving only two knockout fixtures plus the final. Why not have twelve teams, two groups of six and a quarter-final stage? I know the answer, of course: money. Had this been adopted in 2023, India would have played a minimum of six games, not ten (assuming they qualified from their group), with the resulting reduction in revenue. Furthermore, the uncertainty of knockout cricket has the potential of an early upset. 

For fans like me, it would have the advantage of springing surprises, disrupting the status quo, which is anathema to the bodies who effectively run world cricket. Past tourneys have been memorable for the triumphs of Kenya, Ireland and the Netherlands. I love it when the likes of Bas de Leede and Ibrahim Zadran can demonstrate their talents on the highest stage. 

I have no idea what the ICC will do next time. However, I suspect that the 2027 affair will see a new batch of stars. Will the current cabal of mid-thirty-somethings still be around? Surely, the Aussies will need a new group of quicks to replace Pat Cummins and co. David Warner was leaping around the field like a spring chicken but he will be pushing forty. So will, for heaven’s sake, Virat Kohli! Somehow, I fancy that he will postpone his retirement, as did Tendulkar, for one last hurrah and a chance to hold this still significant trophy. I hope so. 

Mike’s Team of the Tournament:  De Kock (SA, +), Sharma (Ind), Ravindra (NZ), Kohli (Ind), Mitchell (NZ), Maxwell (Aus), Jadeja (Ind), Zampa (Aus), Shami (Ind), Bumrah (Ind), Coetzee (SA).

 

Honourable mentions: Warner (Aus), Ibrahim Zadran (Afg), Iyer (ind), Madushanka (SL) 

Stunning start to the 2023 Ashes!

I must confess that all Bazball hype had left this Test cricket fan rather subdues and less than enthusiastic about the home Ashes series. For starters, I cringe at the way so many so-called England fans believe that cricket revolves solely around the occasional battles with Australia and possibly a World Cup so long as the nation is winning. I cling desperately to the association of TV cricket with the ‘Soul Limbo’ tune and am old-fashioned enough to detest the shift to drunken football-style crowds. 

And yet if Test cricket is to survive the flood of Twenty20 and Hundred, who am I to complain about any connection felt between young English blokes and the traditional summer sport (at least, while the footie season is in abeyance)? Whether it’s the cider bar at Taunton or the Hollies Stand at Edgbaston, if people are enjoying themselves and perhaps enjoying some cricket then it must be a good thing. I only hope that that those who attended the First Test, especially on the final day, appreciated what was happening on the pitch because it was quite extraordinary. 

I confess I rarely watch the game on TV these days, with little inclination to sacrifice whole weeks to Sky’s coverage. Thanks, BBC, for your website coverage and evening highlights show. There were certainly plenty of highlights on offer this week. 

It was billed as the clash between Bazball and the old-fashioned Aussies. How things have changed! The tourists were crowned world Test champions only the other week so Ben Stokes was unlikely to have everything his own way. 

On Friday morning, he did. From Zak Crawley’s courageous crunching cover drive from Pat Cummins’ opening half-volley to the bravado of Brooks and Bairstow and another imperious century from Joe Root, England were stroking their way to a total well into the 400s. Then the skipper declared on 393-8 to leave Broad and Robinson a few overs hopefully to dismiss Usman Khawaja and perennial cartoon villain David Warner. 

Tipping convention on its head has been a hallmark in England’s astonishing transformation last year. This decision, along with some novel field placings, were well to the fore at Edgbaston but the declaration was unsuccessful in its prime aim. Nonetheless, it served as an appetiser for some superb Test cricket over the next four days. Broad got Warner (of course he did!) and Labuschagne, then Stokes pinned the other hate figure, Steve Smith, for 16 but Khawaja played an excellent restrained innings lasting eight hours. Head and Carey were bolder, and Cummins joined in with the six-hits off poor Moeen Ali, whose raw spinning finger must have been awfully painful. 

With a slender lead of seven, England sallied forth to set the Aussies a tough target and unleash a pumped-up Broad, Anderson and Robinson. This time, Cummins and Nathan Lyon never allowed the batsmen the same freedom and nobody passed fifty. Alex Carey took another three catches and added a third stumping, illustrating England’s penchant for taking risks to the spinner. They scored at ‘only’ four an over but were all out for 273. So to a dramatic climax full of twists and turns. 

The raucous crowd must have helped England’s bowlers and put the fear of God into the Aussies. At 143-5 and four dismissals to Bairstow’s name, all looked rosy for Stokes and co. But that man Khawaja was still there. When Green played on, Robinson looked set to explode, and even Stokes looked quite calm when his ultra-slow delivery fooled the Aussie opener. 209-7, 82 short. A fabulous caught-and-bowled by Joe Root ended Carey’s resistance and surely the tailenders wouldn’t survive the pressure and score the required 54 to win? 

Statistics were against them. During the morning rain delay, commentators were keen to remind us that Australia always lose tight matches. Not since a young debutant Cummins struck the winning runs to beat South Africa by two wickets in 2011 had they edges such a close finish, but against all odds he repeated the feat. Khawaja also played in that match in Johannesburg, and his second innings score of 65 was identical to his corresponding total at Edgbaston. Statistics, eh? 

I wouldn’t begrudge the Aussies their victory. Stokes seemed to take the defeat stoically but in good heart. England came oh-so-close, four Tests to come, blah-blah-blah. I think another England victory could have killed the series as a sporting spectacle. Now we have something really special to look forward to. Test cricket is back, folks!

Warne and Marsh - Two Lost Legends

Normally when a great cricketer dies or retires, I celebrate their careers with a review of their statistics. So many wickets, runs in X Tests or Y one-dayers, and so on. Today, the double blow to not just Australian but world cricket goes way beyond pure numbers and are facts.

I read a few days ago about Rod Marsh’s heart attack and that the prognosis wasn’t good. Therefore, when a perusal of the BBC Sport website revealed news of his passing, it came as little surprise. When I looked just an hour or so later to find the face of Shane Warne, I just couldn’t believe it. Surely a mistake, a joke, a malicious troll. But, no. He was gone at 52.

It’s rare for a sportsman to transcend his game and his own country’s borders in the way both Marsh and Warne did. Cricket fans in England are supposed to hate Aussies, like Real Madrid and Barcelona FC or Germany and Holland, but it was hard to dislike these two.

The 1970s was the decade when I first developed an interest in cricket. Swashbuckling Caribbean batsmen like Lloyd, Richards and Greenidge were my first heroes but powerful personalities were few and far between, especially in the UK, pre- Botham. Dennis Lillee possessed the most menace: all swaying necklace, bristling moustache and never-ending run-up. However, Rod Marsh’s ‘tache was just as famous and he, too, wore his heart on his sleeve. I recall once seeing him on the TV take a catch off a Lillee lifter which wasn’t given out. He clearly turned behind him and no expert was needed to see his lips form an “Aw, F*CK!” You couldn’t imagine Alan Knott saying that!

Like most of his countrymen, Marsh didn’t play county cricket so I only got to watch him on the box during Ashes series or in the 1975 World Cup. He wasn’t the smoothest of run scorers, nor the most elegant of wicketkeepers. Far from it. But he was a fantastic gloveman and always held your attention.

I don’t think Shane Warne ever kept wicket but he, too was a magnificent showman. He famously never quite managed a Test century (Marsh made three) but then that’s not what he was in the side to do. That was to take wickets, bamboozle the opposition and if he couldn’t get them out, then at least befuddle them so much that Glenn McGrath would finish the job. Although he spent several fine seasons in the 2000s at Hampshire, I only witnessed at first-hand two pre-interval overs from Shane, delivered during the 1997 Lord’s Test when McGrath was busy collecting 8-38. I felt cheated that I didn’t see more.

I was never a fan of his booze ’n’ fags lifestyle, the bleach-blond surfer dude persona, but I came to appreciate his increasing contribution to the sport. The drugs ban, poker and Liz Hurley didn’t endear him to me but he was clearly well liked on the circuit. Off the field, he seemed to people like me that he acted dumb and yet, for all the ‘couldn’t give a shit’ attitude, he obviously cared passionately about cricket and was an extremely clever bowler. He may have taken a spanking at times but he pretty much single-handedly reinvented the art of leg-spin. With the establishment of Twenty20 cricket, we have taken leggies for granted but before burly spiky-haired Shane burst onto the scene in the early ‘90s, there were perhaps only one or two plying their trade in the county game. After two decades of pacemen being the coolest breed in the game, Warne made slow bowling sexy again.

Of course, the Ball of the Century made a difference, and I will always treasure it not only for the prodigious movement off the pitch but also for the bemused expression on Mike Gatting’s face as he trudged off the pitch. I never did like him! I saw the former England captain speaking on Zoom this morning, giving a warm, emotional eulogy for the ordinary bloke from Victoria who had been such an on-field enemy but off-field mate.

That seems to be the gist of all the obituaries and tweets from the other giants of the sport, from Viv to Virat, Lara to Tendulkar. As Warne admitted many times in interviews, what you saw is what you got. He had his flaws but that’s why people liked him. He may not have been the most gifted bowler of all time, nor the greatest all-rounder but as a passionate cricketer who encouraged maybe millions to share his love of the game, Rod Marsh’s former Academy pupil was second to none. I still can’t believe he’s gone.

Ashes 2021-22 Disaster – What Next for England?

Oh, dear. In the aftermath of a 4-0 mauling at the hands of Australia – and let’s not forget it was just one wicket from being a 5-0 whitewash – everyone connected to England seems to be in agreement: Something Must Be Done. Never mind that the Aussies were able to field some of the best seam bowlers in the world, and that Boland and Khawaja showed how to channel home advantage and pitch knowledge to devastating effect. One poor month and we have to Rip It Up and Start Again.

Sack the captain? Restructure the management and coaching team? Shift then focus from ODIs to Tests? Abolish the County Championship? Restrict England’s opponents to Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Ireland? Yeah, the last one should boost the confidence of the ECB by improving the win:loss ratio but perhaps the cracks in quality require a little more than a layer of crepe paper. 

So, should Joe Root go? If we learn anything from the past twelve months it is that Root is by a million miles England’s best batter. In fifteen matches during 2021 he accumulated over 1,700 runs, more than three times the second highest. Only one other player, Rory Burns, made a century, to which we can now add Jonny Bairstow. So the batting line-up has to be constructed around him. He may not be the most astute captain in history but even the likes of Steve Waugh, Clive Lloyd, MS Dhoni and Stephen Fleming would struggle to turn the current England squad into contenders for the ICC World Test title. 

Tinker with the backroom set-up? I confess I can’t keep up with the intricacies of coaching different formats and skills, let alone all the physios, analysis and managers. Cricket is a different sport from England. Strategies and selection for matches scheduled to last five days are necessarily different for those taking barely five minutes, so I appreciate the need to expand the resources accordingly if the budget allows. England can claim considerable success. They are world 50-over champions and stand top of the ICC T20 rankings, after all. It wasn’t that long ago that they were the cream of the Test format, too, but I feel that it is no coincidence that the rise in white-ball performance has come at the expense of red-ball results. 

I know I’m an old fogey but I do despair that most of our best cricketers are pigeon-holed into the two formats. Joe Root could be our best run-scorer on all three fronts; he is that good. Fellow Yorkshireman Bairstow and, potentially, Joe Clarke, are similar all-rounders, albeit not in the same league. Ben Stokes has also demonstrated how to successfully take a one-day mindset and strokeplay into the five-day game, but he is not always in the right mental state. Archer, Robinson, Woakes, Craig Overton and Wood each have the skills to take wickets and keep the scoring rate down as required by the respective formats, and James Anderson is proving remarkably resilient to the ravages of time, wrapped up on cotton wool for the Tests. Did Stuart Broad need the same treatment Down Under, rested (or dropped?) for the Brisbane opener? Probably not, but it’s easy to be wise after the event. After all, his 2021 bowling average was only just below 40, and 12 wickets in 13 innings isn’t a world-class return. 

Jonathan Agnew is also leading the movement to abolish the County Championship, cut the number of teams and slash the amount of red-ball domestic cricket in order to arrest the decline in Tests, and in Ashes series, in particular. I have considerable respect for Agnew but I do wonder how reducing the available gene pool and re-introducing three-day matches is the best way of preparing for five-day fixtures. You may as well load the batting with Twenty20 specialists like Billings, Buttler, Livingstone, Crane, the Currans et al. At least, you’ll get a Test result, but I wouldn’t book a ticket for days 3, 4 or 5! 

Pundits have been quick to excuse The Hundred as a factor in England’s poor 2021 Test record. Er, why? I know one summer tournament cannot be held entirely responsible. However, if the ECB is determined to push ahead with a format nobody else in the world is doing, relegating first-class and 50-over cricket to the margins of the summer season, how on earth can they expect young fans to embrace the more traditional formats and become the Ashes series performers of the future? It’s ludicrous! Then there is the myopic obsession with the Ashes. Yes, it’s the most enduring rivalry in the sport, which should be celebrated. However, if we had beaten NZ, India and Pakistan but lost 2-3 in Australia the critics would have been almost as vociferous. 

Ultimately, countries go through peaks and troughs. In the past few decades, when the same county structure was producing or developing the likes of Cook, Root, Pietersen, Flintoff, Anderson, Buttler, Swann, Bell and Taylor, everything in the garden was rosy. In the domestic summer, all three formats were respected, however much I slag off T20. We also had a quality line-up in all three, challenging for global silverware and the Ashes, at least on home turf. No fast bowler would tremble at the sight of Burns, Hameed, Malan, Crawley, Billings and Pope taking guard, but is the answer really to deprive them of competitive red-ball practice sacrificed at the altar of Friday night hit-and-hope stuff? 

I don’t have the answers. However, if the ECB insists on putting finances ahead of developing true cricketing skills, then go ahead. Just please stop moaning when results in matches requiring such skills don’t go their way.

Azeem Rafiq, Race, Root and Roses

Like most sports, cricket needs to make its headlines on the pitch. While England threatened to win the World T20 in Dubai, the UK media seemed happy to oblige. As long as Jos Buttler was racking up the runs, and Chris Woakes and Mark Wood taking wickets, all seemed well. Then came Jimmy Neesham and Tim Southee and it all fell apart. 

By the time Australia were crowned champions and New Zealand came to terms with another defeat in a final, the Press had moved on to more serious matters away from the wicket. And they don’t come much more serious than Azeem Rafiq’s allegations of racism against Yorkshire. 

His county cricket career over, he has been brave to stick his head above the parapet and tell it as it is. Yorkshire’s attempted cover-up, Gary Ballance’s unacceptable ‘banter’ and Joe Root’s ‘hear no evil, see no evil, let’s talk about the Ashes instead’ attitude have done cricket no favours whatsoever and now former players at other counties have also felt emboldened to blow the whistle on racist comments made by county executives. It’s no longer just a White Rose problem. 

The ECB and Yorkshire’s sponsors have hit the county where it hurts but where will it end? Azeem Rafiq’s comments about “institutionalised racism” seem increasingly justified, which makes me angry given we’re in the 2020s, not the 1970s. In the Nineties, black cricketers seemed to be consigning ancient attitudes towards race to history, with the likes of Small, Lewis, Butcher, Cowans, Malcolm , Lawrence et al breaking into the elite. English Asians took a bit longer but Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Monty Panesar, Samit Patel, Ravi Bopara and others have since made their mark. And yet they have been sometimes badly treated, too. 

Azeem Rafiq’s appearance before the Parliamentary committee yesterday promoted the issue of racism in cricket to the main story on the Six o’Clock News and things are now getting brutally ugly and personal. Ballance, Michael Vaughan and Tim Bresnan have all been forced to deny making derogatory comments to players of Asian descent. Someone is lying. Does Rafiq have an alternative agenda, aiming lethal barbs at former Yorkshire colleagues out of sheer spite? It seems unlikely. Which means those colleagues are lying to save their skins, reputations and lucrative contracts. Ouch! Nasty business. 

I daresay many people will just get on the anti-Woke bandwagon and lump Rafiq’s allegations in with statue-toppling and knee-taking but they need to be heard, and acted upon, if casual racism is to be eradicated and treated as wrong instead of normal practice. Let the guilty be punished before the ex-spinner is forgotten. If the ECB wants the headlines to concern the Ashes, the momentum must not be lost.

Women's Cricket goes from strength to strength

It was pleasing to read about the success of the Women’s T20 World Cup in the last few weeks. It culminated in a final played at the MCG in front of 86,000 spectators, and they hadn’t turned up just to see Katy Perry perform. The tournament had  already served up plenty of ‘Fireworks’ across Australia.

In some ways it was a shame that the conclusion was such a damp squib, with the home side and reigning champions Australia destroying India by 85 runs. However, Meg Lanning’s side had opened the competition in Sydney with defeat to Kaur, Mandhana, Sharma et al, so such a one-sided finale was unexpected.

It could have been England in their place, of course, had their semi-final not been washed out, sending India through courtesy of a faultless group stage and England’s loss to South Africa, and the latter were only narrowly beaten by Australia on D/L in their own semi last week.. It bodes well that, barring that joyous West Indies success a few years ago, the Australia-England duopoly has been broken. As in the men’s game, most top nations must feel they are in with a shout, especially in the shortest, more unpredictable formats. OK, so Thailand were the inevitable fall-guys but they earned their right to be on the main stage and did rack up 150-3 in the abandoned fixture against Pakistan. 

Gender equality in sport is also becoming reality, not merely fanciful words made by ICC politicians. Credit to the Aussie men for insisting on the women taking equal pay, and this summer’s Hundred tournament will also see parity in the men’s and women’s prize money. I’m no fan of such ludicrous innovations but I applaud the headlines accorded the signing of women stars like Beth Mooney as much as those for Steve Smith.

One problem remains UK media. Women’s tennis has enjoyed extensive coverage all my life, with champions from King to Graf, Navratilova to the Williams sisters on the same pedestal as Borg Becker and Nadal. It has never really mattered whether Britain had any chance of winning Wimbledon. However, like football, rugby and golf, this country’s editors and broadcasters have yet to demonstrate a genuine appetite for women’s cricket unless England are doing well. Mind you, the same could be said for men’s cricket, which only makes the TV sports news if England win the Ashes or are in World Cup contention.

After England unluckily slipped out of the T20 in Australia, you’d have thought the tournament had turned out the lights and gone into self-isolation in the company of two million toilet rolls. The final received not a mention. I suspect India was less insular, and they featured some of the tournament’s biggest stars, especially the sensationally fearless 16 year-old opening batter, Shafali Verma. Unfortunately, like most of her team-mates, she froze on the big occasion, while Mooney, Alyssa Healy and Megan Schutt used their experience to the max. Healy’s innings of 75 included one six of 83 metres, which would have pleased the biggest hitters of the men’s game. Perhaps it won’t be long before her partner Mitchell Starc will be labelled Healy’s other half, rather than the other way around. 

To summarise, cricket has the means to propel women’s sport further into the global mainstream, and not as some mere adjunct to an arbitrary construct like International Women’s Day. The more nations take part, the wider the coverage will be. In Britain, Knight, Shrubsole, Ecclestone and co need to narrow the gap with the Aussies but elsewhere everything’s heading in the right direction. When Australia finds young blood to step into the shoes of Lanning, Perry, Jonassen and their immensely successful colleagues, England may shudder, it won't be just Katy Perry but the women’s game generally giving a 'Roar' of approval.

2019 Review - My Team of the Year

As most years, 2019 experienced a range of cricket-related emotions. David Warner and Steve Smith returned from their bans to mixed reviews. Warner enjoyed some success in the IPLwhile his former Test captain swapped tears for a deaf ear to barracking England fans and almost single-handedly retained the Ashes for Australia. However, possibly the world’s only genuine world-class all-rounder, Shakib al-Hasan, ended this year in disgrace, suspended for at least a year for ‘failing to report corrupt approaches’. He really ought to have known better. 

Ben Stokes escaped a jail sentence and the dial on his luck-ometer remained fixed at eleven throughout the summer. His diving deflection and strokeplay carried England to an extraordinary World Cup Final triumph at Lord’s against a desperately unfortunate New Zealand, followed by a heroic unbeaten century of eight sixes and strike-farming to save the Headingley Test. India consolidated their number one Test ranking by winning all four Test series, including rubbers in Australia and the West Indies. After losing their inaugural Test in 2018, Afghanistan claimed their first wins, against Ireland and, more significantly, Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka struggled again and, despite retaining their T20 top-rank status, Pakistan had a nightmare year in all formats. Their only series success came against Sri Lanka in 50-over cricket in their long-awaited return to home-territory internationals. Let’s hope bringing internationals home after a decade will be the springboard to a change in fortunes.

South Africa were another side in transition. The Test team was slaughtered in India, but whitewashed Sri Lanka in ODIs before a lacklustre World Cup. They also suffered a whole host of international retirements, including Amla, Steyn, Duminy and Imran Tahir. At least they ended the calendar year with a first-class victory over England. Veterans Lasith Malinga and Shoaib Malik also bade farewell to ODIs this year, and Yuvraj Singh won’t be playing at the top level again. I wouldn’t mind betting, though, that they will continue to rake in the dollars and rupees in Twenty 20.

So who makes my team of the year? 

David Warner’s return to the fold reaped immediate rewards. Whilst not playing much 50-over cricket, he nonetheless accumulated more than 2,500 runs in all formats. KL Rahul was in superb white-ball form, nobody scored more List A runs than Aaron Finch and Mayank Agarwal struck some huge scores for India, but my other opener is Rohit Sharma. Outscoring even Virat Kohli in ODIs, he also scored three centuries in six Test innings, including two in the First Test against South Africa. 

His captain Virat Kohli’s place in my end-of-year Eleven is almost guaranteed. Will he ever suffer a loss of form? Skippering the world’s undisputed top Test nation hasn’t hurt him as a batsman, averaging 68 in eight Tests and achieving strike rates of 96 and 145 in ODI and T20 cricket, respectively. However, someone scored more than four times as many first-class runs as the Indian master in 2019. Not Smith, not Root, not Williamson. No, I’m talking about Marnus Labuschagne. I confess to being ignorant of him prior to his string of hundreds for Glamorgan in the early summer, but he proved to be no mere bully of Second Division county attacks. At first deputising for Steve Smith, he went on to out-score him, ending the year with three big Test hundreds in succession against Pakistan and New Zealand advancing him to four in the ICC rankings. Including his performances for Queensland he amassed 2,703 first-class runs in 2019, way ahead of anyone else, and his leg-spin gives him an extra dimension, too.

Faf du Plessis, Ross Taylor and even Dawid Malan had a commendable twelve-month period but for my final middle-order slot I’ve leaned towards Pakistan. Last year I narrowly plumped for Babar Azam in my XI. This time there can be no doubt he deserves his spot. In an under-performing Pakistan outfit he shone strong and bright. Not only was Azam the world’s top scorer in senior T20 cricket (1,607 runs) but he also completed 2019 in a red-ball purple patch, striking three tons and a 97 in four consecutive Tests. Aged just 25, he is young enough to develop into a truly world-class all-round batsman.

My wicketkeeper-batsman is an absolute shoo-in: Quinton de Kock. Carey, Paine, Hope and Buttler each had their moments but the South African left-hander was imperious in all forms of the game. He compiled more than 2,400 runs and 80 dismissals, boasting a three-figure strike rate in ODIs. AB De Villiers may have been missed in the World Cup but De Kock  maturing nicely into a formidable member of the Proteas and T20 gun for hire.

With Shakib al-Hasan in disgrace, genuine all-rounders were in short supply. Jason Holder is a big fish in a desperately diminished Caribbean pond where he contributes a few wickets and the occasional astonishing innings; more than half his 2019 Test runs were scored in that 202 not out against England at Bridgetown. With better team-mates around him, he would be in my team of the year but for sheer personality and big-match temperament I’ve plumped for Ben Stokes. His seam bowling may not have been world-class, and he didn’t really earn his millions for the Rajasthan Royals, but for promoting cricket to the UK front pages for the first time in yonks (probably since Stokes was up in court!) the Durham man gets the nod.

No bowlers were truly outstanding. Even in his mid-thirties, Peter Siddle remained one of the world’s most skilled seamers in the four-day game, Stuart Broad and Jofra Archer led the England attack with brio, India’s Mohammed Shami was a deceptively swift and prolific swing bowler in ODIs and Kabiso Rabada was a consistent paceman for South Africa. The New Zealand seam attack of Boult, Southee, Wagner, Ferguson and Henry were always impressive as a unit, though not necessarily as individuals.

In their place I have selected the Aussie pair of Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. At 26, the former is finally fit enough to fire on all cylinders on a regular basis, combining sheer pace with control. He’s not yet Glenn McGrath but he took 59 Test wickets at just over 20 apiece, which is world-class. The left-armer Starc is supposedly weaker in the Test arena but statistically he wasn’t far behind Cummins.

Spin bowling made less impact in 2019 so there were relatively few names in contention. Simon Harmer’s 99 first-class wickets, helping Essex to another County Championship, make him impossible to ignore. Naturally Rashid Khan entered my thinking, bowling Afghanistan to an historic Test victory over Bangladesh and doing his usual thing with the white ball. However, even he took fewer T20 wickets than Imran Tahir. The South African may be almost twice the age of Rashid but his 79 victims, allied to 30 in List A fixtures, established his place at cricket’s top table. And his joyful wheeling sprint celebrations after taking wickets at the World Cup always lifted the spirits. If sport can’t do that, what’s the point?!

In conclusion, here is my 2019 Team of the Year:-

Warner (Aus), R Sharma (Ind), Babar Azam (Pak), Kohli (Ind), Labuschagne (Aus), De Kock (SA +), Stokes (Eng), Starc (Aus), Harmer (SA), Imran Tahir (SA), Cummins (Aus)

My ‘squad replacements’ would be Rahul (Ind), Buttler (Eng), Rabada (SA), Mohammed Shami (Ind)

2019 – England’s Rollercoaster Year

For ages we had been bludgeoned by articles and interviews detailing how England were focussing on the World Cup and how we would convert number one ranking status into silverware. Even while we were being thumped by the West Indies Test team last winter, it was written off as an aberration, a mere blip en route for the inevitable 50-over success in July.

Remarkably, it proved correct. That amazing evening of July 19^th, it wasn’t just Jofra Archer’s pace, Eoin Morgan’s captaincy, Jos Buttler’s cool head or Ben Stokes’ hot head which overcame Kane Williamson’s Black Caps after a tied match and tied Super Over; it was slice after slice of astonishing good fortune.

That luck kept on coming during the Ashes series. OK, so Jimmy Anderson’s injury ruled him out and the Aussies depended heavily on runs from the brilliant Steve Smith. But the entire series swung on that glaring run-out failure by Nathan Lyon at Headingley and Jack Leach’s glasses, the assiduous wiping of which wasted so much time that England survived for a draw.  The Ashes could not be prised from the Aussies’ grasp but the victory at The Oval in September did at least tie the series 2-2.

Across the year, England won 14 out of 20 completed ODIs and 6 out of 9 T20 internationals, along with yet another tied contest with New Zealand. However, it was in Tests that we struggled. Excluding the inaugural one-off against Ireland, which England so nearly contrived to lose, we failed to win a single series, defeated in the Caribbean, New Zealand and, this week in the First Test, South Africa.  

Almost inevitably the focus on the World Cup was to the detriment of the Test squad, of whom only Joe Root, Stuart Broad and, arguably, because of his advancing years, Jimmy Anderson are world class. The fast-tracked Bajan Jeffrey – sorry - Jofra Archer proved to be first among equals not only in the five-day arena but also at the global 50-over tourney, where judicious use of the fast bouncer proved decisive in a host of fixtures. 

Ben Stokes’ bowling remains fierce if expensive, but when the spotlight shins brightest he’s a match-winner (or saver) with the bat. Jos Buttler has tried to tone down his T20-style strokeplay with limited success and Jonny Bairstow also has his moments. Elsewhere, consistency is somewhat lacking. Chris Woakes is under-used, Mark Wood is injury-prone, the Curran brothers too up themselves and Moeen Ali desperately short of form. At least his T20 Blast heroics for Worcestershire must have restored some self-confidence.

Popular as he is down in Somerset, Jack Leach isn’t quite the finished article while colleague Dom Bess can’t even hold down a county place. Surrey’s Rory Burns is doing his darnedest to replace Alastair Cook, but Joe Denly still looks like a so-so stopgap until either Crawley, Pope, Sibley or even Malan consistently step up to the plate. Nevertheless this set of players gave Australia a good run for their money last summer and may yet turn the tables on South Africa in the New Year.

However, 2020 sees the return of the Men’s Twenty 20 World Cup and launch of the accursed Hundred so I fear the ECB will be encouraging hoiks over cow corner and hordes of young leggies. Great in the biff-bang formats but a rapid 30 and bowling figures of 4-0-29-0 don’t hold much sway in Test cricket. India may be well ahead in the ICC rankings and favourites for the World Test Championship yet England could advance to second place by defeating Pakistan and West Indies, ranked seven and eight, respectively next summer. Pakistan’s strength is in the T20s and the Windies are currently dreadful in any format. Whoever England field I wouldn’t risk booking an advance ticket for days four or five…

I sincerely hope there is a World Cup ‘bounce’ to entice more youngsters into the sport but I fear that once the Ashes were over, the big-money inducements of Liverpool, Man City and Chelsea were always going to send the pendulum swinging back to football. Ben Stokes may have won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award but how many boys today know that previous winner Andrew Flintoff was a cricketer, rather than a bloke who prats around with cars or on comedy quiz shows? England need to get off the rollercoaster, dispense with the lows and reach consistently.

Next on the agenda is my review of the best players of 2019 but for now I wish you all a very happy New Year and a happy, healthy and exciting 2020!

Ashes 2019 – England’s luck finally runs out

Last week I wrote that England looked set to build on that incredible Stokes-led fightback  at Headingley and surely seize the Ashes as they did in 2005. Well, how wrong I was. Yet England’s new-found back-to-the-wall resilience produced a second Test classic in succession even if they had evidently exhausted their huge reserves of good fortune in the previous match.

As in the 3^rd Test, Australia bossed much of the game. Or should I say Steve Smith did. Apart from Marnus Labuschagne and Tim Paine, the visitors’ batting has been abysmal. At Old Trafford, Stuart Broad’s opening spells twice accounted for openers Harris and Warner for the total of just 19 runs, the latter bagging a pair. 

Twice, Smith has strode onto the pitch with the innings under eighth overs old and twice he has flummoxed England’s attack with his mix of quirky mannerisms, mutterings and manic walkabouts, interspersed with coruscating cricket shots, piercing the field brilliantly. In the first innings he punctured Stokes’ puffed-up chest superbly, and Jofra Archer went wicketless for 97 as the former Aussie captain executed his third Ashes double-century.

On Friday, I watched incredulously as Rory Burns somehow avoided not only getting an edge to the pacemen but also dislocating every joint in his body as part of his peculiar batting stance, but he and Joe Root put on a stubborn 141 for the third wicket to keep the match very much alive. When Josh Hazlewood’s seamers did for both men in successive overs, England’s white-ball specialists couldn’t keep it going and only a belligerent extra-cover drive by Buttler prevented the follow-on.

Broad and Archer did give the Lancashire crowd something to roar about on Saturday afternoon but that man Smith steadied the ship, reaching 82 – his lowest score so far! – before skying Leach into the hands of Stokes. The declaration wasn’t long in coming, and Paine set the home nation the challenge of scoring 383 or surviving three-and-a-bit sessions for a draw.

England did neither, but it was mighty close. It didn’t look that way at stumps, Pat Cummins’ third ball inducing a Burns leading edge followed by the perfect delivery to bowl Root. And so the fifth day was all about the Dunkirk spirit. Wickets fell regularly and, apart from Joe Denly, nobody got anywhere near 50. That didn’t matter. It was all about eating up the overs and, once Somerset heroes Overton and Leach found themselves together in the middle, wasting as much time as possible. They must have used every spare pair of gloves in Manchester and Leach’s lenses were wiped so often that the glass would have been wafer thin. The boozed-up spectators cheered each defensive stroke, every lengthy pause, but the frustrating tactics proved insufficient in the face of superb bowling by Cummins and Hazlewood especially. When the latter finally trapped Overton lbw to end his near-three-hour resistance for 21, the review was purely cosmetic. It was plumb, and Australia had not only won the match but also ensured England could not wrest the Ashes back from their clutches. 

You have to say the Aussies have deserved it. England have shown faith in their World Cup-winning stars but, apart from Stokes and Archer, they haven’t really demonstrated their red-ball credentials. The winners also clearly have their own problems. Sooner or later, Smith will be out cheaply, leaving the weight on someone else’s shoulders. He only lost his wicket in this match to an audacious reverse sweep off Root and a mistimed slog when well set. David Warner finds himself in an uncharacteristic slump and neither Bancroft, Harris or Khawaja have fared much better. 

Will The Oval witness wholesale changes? In the week when the cricket world bade farewell to the Pakistani pioneer of 1990s leg-spin, Abdul Qadir, perhaps Joe Denly will open the bowling. As the home side, England could call up a whole raft of young replacements. I just hope they leave Somerset players alone and draft half of the Essex team so we have a chance of success in the County Championship! Whatever. Another exciting Test match  finish would do very nicely.

Ben Stokes creates Ashes history

Well, who needs Twenty20? England and Australia dished up one of the greatest sporting dramas since, oh, last month’s World Cup Final, demonstrating yet again why Test cricket must be savoured and protested for future generations of fans.

As a turnabout in fortunes it didn’t quite match the Headingley Test of 1981 – Botham, Willis and all that – but for overcoming home supporters’ low expectations in adversity, Headingley 2019 was just as remarkable. 38 years ago, it was a revitalised Ian Botham who, after a terrible start to his Ashes summer, rediscovered his mojo to drag England back from the brink. This time it’s Ben Stokes, although his rehabilitation from drunken thug to cricketing hero began in spectacular style at Lord’s when his innings and Super Over striking did so much to end the nation’s long wait for World Cup success.

I’m no fan of Stokes the person but there’s no denying his bravura talent on the biggest stages, at least with a bat in his hand. And yet, that unbeaten 135 notwithstanding, the Durham all-rounder was not the only man responsible for England’s victory. In the post-match euphoria amid the Stokes-centric headlines, it is easy to forget Jofra Archer’s first innings 6-45 and Saturday afternoon’s heroic resistance of the two Joes, Root and Denly.

On Friday, England were swatted away inside 28 overs for a paltry 67. Hazlewood and Cummins had bowled intelligently but the home team seemed to be batting in T20 self-destruct mode, nicking everything to Warner or Paine behind the stumps. They’d come close to winning the previous week at a rain-affected Lord’s but this dismal performance brought back the usual comments about the lost art of grinding out a score, knowing when to leave alone, when to defend and when to launch an offensive. 

Australia weren’t a whole heap better. Steve Smith’s injury replacement, Marnus Labuschagne, was the only one in a green helmet looking comfortable against the opposition attack. But when he and Lyon were last men out, England’s target of 359 looked challenging enough.

Normally such a fourth innings total would be beyond any side, but England had two and a half days in which to make them. Easy, huh? The portents were not good, especially when Roy and Burns succumbed meekly to the new ball. Root and Denly sensibly saw the side to stumps on Saturday evening but there was still plenty to do. A draw was out of the question; this was all about eight more wickets versus an additional 203 runs.

At 245-4, England looked to be cruising in the Bank Holiday heat but five wickets for 41 run left Australia in the driving seat. Ben Stokes and Jack Leach were on the rack. The Somerset spinner is no mug with the bat, as his 92 against Ireland demonstrated, but Stokes knew he’d have to play to his strength, and that’s to whack the ball as hard as he could. With 73 still required, he had nothing to lose.

Up to that point, he’d played with impressive restraint. Now was the time to display the Stokes of old. The sixes flew, but it was every dot ball faced by Leach which received cheers just as hearty from the Leeds crowd. Stokes was obviously pumped up, unable to even watch as his partner faced the fifth or sixth deliveries of overs by Cummins or Lyon. There was no intention of running quick singles; he merely squatted on his haunches, bat in both hands like a war-weary medieval knight clutching his sword, eyes focussed on his boots.

When on strike, my, how Stokes rode his luck. Aiming for the stands, three times he narrowly avoided outstretched hands, with a few very difficult diving catches spilled. The desperate LBW review for a ball clearly pitching and striking  outside leg stump cost the Aussies the match when a few overs later the umpire failed to spot a blatant leg-before; the ball would have hit middle. Justin Langer’s expression told the story. My thoughts strayed to Edgbaston, 2005 when the Aussies, featuring Langer, had been in a similar position yet were robbed just three runs from victory. With it, went that amazing series.

Nevertheless, in August 2019, all Stokes’ heroic hitting looked in vain when, with 2 needed, Stokes reverse swept to backward point then turned his back on Leach. His windmilling arms indicated that his partner had to run back to the crease. It wasn’t the greatest throw but all Nathan Lyon needed to do was catch the ball and calmly whip off the bails. With Leach stranded metres from safety, the bowler had plenty of time. He fumbled it, the chance had gone and with it the match and, in all likelihood, the Ashes.

The coup-de-grace followed shortly and one of the greatest of all Ashes Test matches was over. Just a few days after registering their lowest home Ashes total, England had achieved their highest ever fourth innings run chase. The series score reads 1-1 but I have no doubt that England will now proceed to build on their amazing good fortune and Stokes’ inspirational innings and regain the Ashes which, as the ball was lobbed to Lyon, looked certain to be Australia’s. I don’t think even the return of Steve Smith will prevent England’s sensational summer script becoming fact.

Ashes 2019 – Smith back on song as Aussies win a rollercoaster

Well, I didn’t see that coming! On the eve of the 2019 Ashes series, or indeed by lunch on the first day, none of the probable scripts would have told the story of what actually prevailed at Edgbaston. This was supposed to be the summer of England, buoyed by an historic World Cup success, carrying their confidence through to smash an Australia side only just welcoming back their banned trio of batsmen. Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft would surely wilt under the pressure and Joe Root would follow Eoin Morgan to Buckingham Palace for his knighthood. On the basis of the First Test I suggest PM Johnson and the Queen had better hold fire for the moment.

The final day collapse and consequent drubbing should not come as a complete surprise. At Headingley thirty years ago, the Aussies arrived without a strong reputation, yet bowled out David Gower’s men on the last day for a 211-run victory which laid the foundation not only for a series win but also a whole decade of world domination. Two years ago in Brisbane, the then-captain Steve Smith scored 141 not out in the first innings en route to a ten-wicket victory. Six months later he was cast into the wilderness for his role in the sandpaper controversy in Cape Town, the last time he played first-class cricket until this week.

At 112-8 last Thursday, Australia looked dead and buried. However, despite the chorus of boos and predictable beer-fuelled taunts with sandpaper and Smith-in-tears masks, the restored Smith was resolute. Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon kept him company through the afternoon as their side more than doubled their score. Until he was bowled by Broad, Smith had demonstrated the art of a Test batsman to perfection. And yet 284 all out was hardly a match-winning score. 

At stumps on day two, it was Rory Burns soaking up the adulation and some well-meaning handshakes from the opposition after his battling maiden Test century. Even on Saturday evening, England were still on top but Sunday was no day of rest for England’s fielders. They were run ragged by Steve Smith (again), fellow centurion Matthew Wade and then James Pattinson’s six-hit salvo. The final day saw England echo Australia’s woes on the first but this time there was no Steve Smith to salvage the situation. Roy, Denly, Buttler and Bairstow are hardly the types to knuckle down, and Nathan Lyon was extracting formidable turn from the pitch. Cummins’ short-pitched deliveries did the rest. Game over.

Love him or loathe him, you have to admire Steve Smith. His batting style looked more unorthodox than ever but he played superbly, punching cover drives to pile on the runs or shuffle outside off stump to frustrate Ben Stokes with a nudge behind square. In one of those freaky statistics I love about cricket, Smith became the first man in Test history to be dismissed twice in the 140s. Yes, England were a bowler light after Jimmy Anderson’s early breakdown but even with a fully-fit Anderson or Jofra Archer firing them in, I’m not sure the outcome would have been any different. 

It was an extraordinary Test match. I doubt that Tim Paine’s side will emulate Allan Border’s Class of ‘89 nor that England will resort to picking four different captains as they did that year. However, as with Steve Waugh three decades ago, the home nation has to work out how to dismiss Steve Smith, and hope that Warner, Khawaja and co don’t also find their form. Otherwise it could be a long hot summer and the World Cup fever will feel like a distant memory.

Six slide out, now it's Top Four Time!

Thank goodness the World Cup did come alive in the end, but the organisers pretty much have the semi-finalists the format was designed to deliver. I appreciate the efforts of England to keep us on tenterhooks by contriving those defeats to Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Australia only to blaze back into the competition with comfortable victories over India and New Zealand, but on home soil they were never not going to qualify.

It will be said to bid farewell to the other nations. Like many neutrals, I was willing Afghanistan to register their first World Cup victory but they were well beaten by all except Pakistan and, improbably, India who for much of their match at Southampton looked in danger of losing. South Africa delivered too little too late and I was at Cardiff to see them make heavy weather of overcoming Rashid Khan and co despite all their star names. Imran Tahir’s joyful wicket celebrations were amusing but AB was sorely missed!

West Indies may have bounced and bludgeoned their way to beating Pakistan but the short ball was something of a one-trick pony. For all the Cottrell salutes and enormous six-hitting, they demonstrated why they needed to qualify for a place in the tournament itself. Improved fielding would be a start. Gibson and Gayle were a joke and when The Boss knelt in instalments to catch Rahmat Shah we all laughed out of surprise. Pakistan never really recovered from that early reverse at Trent Bridge but it was a pleasure to watch Babar Azam and Mohammad Amir at their best. Sri Lanka gave us a few smiles along the way and Bangladesh had the excellent Shakib al Hasan to thank for keeping them in the hunt for a top-four position with just a few matches to play.

Generally speaking most of the global superstars have fulfilled expectations. Bumrah, Sharma, Warner, Starc, Shakib, Williamson, Archer and Root have all done well while Roy, Morgan, Finch and du Plessis have produced a few big innings. However, only some of the above are still participating in the competition. Who will make it all the way to the final?

Watching the Aussies desperately chasing the challenging South African total of 325, they were clearly concerned at the prospect of facing England again, this time in the semi-final. A few weeks ago, Aaron Finch struck 100 and the strike partnership of Starc and Behrendorff blunted the substantial threat of the English engine room (Ben Stokes excepted), but Eoin Morgan’s men are unlikely to roll over as easily this week. For starters, Jason Roy will be back in the side and there surely there won’t be as many silly shots played by those further down the order.

Nevertheless, Australia possess potential matchwinners themselves in the form of Finch, David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, with Steve Smith in the Joe Root role of steady accumulator, but will this be enough? I still feel that England have greater strength all the way from one to eleven which should take them to next weekend’s showdown.

Despite winning seven of their nine, India still don’t look like world-beaters. Jasprit Bumrah may be a shoo-in for a place in any fantasy XI, Rohit Sharma has struck five centuries and, well, Kohli is Kohli, but that’s where the list of world-class performers ends.  Their semi-final opponents New Zealand probably have only one: Kane Williamson. However, their team of canny swing bowlers, seasoned batsmen and competent all-rounders always looks dangerous and took them to the final last time of asking. They just look even  more in need of runs than India at the moment and that could be their undoing at Old Trafford. So for me it has to be that dream final of England v India.

World Cup woes for South Africa

The 2019 Cricket World Cup has been an inevitable slow-burner. With all ten nations playing each other, it has taken three weeks to reach the stage where big names are facing the certainty of an early plane home, or even possibly an unexpected short-term contract with a county.

It hasn’t helped that so many fixtures have been so one-sided. My three live experiences at Cardiff have been enjoyable but really could have been enhanced by much closer encounters of a cricketing kind. New Zealand made short work of Sri Lanka, Roy, Buttler et al plastered the Bangladesh spinners for an array of sixes then Afghanistan predictably succumbed to South Africa.

Thank goodness for some surprises elsewhere. The West Indians’ pace dealt Pakistan an early blow, Bangladesh creamed an unassailable 330-6 off South Africa then even England’s cruise towards the semis hit a rock as Pakistan bounced back but still an exciting finale was lacking.

Rain caused some disappointing washouts and abandonments, particularly at Bristol, and robbed us of the intriguing India v New Zealand contest. The much-anticipated India-Pakistan fixture was also affected by the wet stuff, as well as the latter’s inability to shackle Rohit Sharma. However, when the British weather improved, so did the tournament, even if the big four threatened to run away with it. In just two days we had some crackers.

On the longest day at Headingley, England’s seemingly infallibility when batting second was severely dented by Sri Lanka. Nice to see Lasith Malinga finding some of his old magic as they triumphed by 20 runs. At Southampton the following day, Afghanistan’s spinners choked India so hard that their target was a distinctly manageable 225. They didn’t quite manage it, of course, thanks largely to the nous of Bumrah and Shami’s final over hat-trick, but we neutrals revelled in the excitement of a near-shock. Meanwhile, some lusty blows by Chris Gayle and an extraordinary century by Carlos Brathwaite so nearly rescued the Windies against the Black Caps, for whom Kane Williamson batted so beautifully.

With teams having just two or three matches left to play, the top four placings are not yet decided. As in the last World Cup, New Zealand have demonstrated their undoubted class slightly beneath the radar. At the time of writing they are unbeaten, as are Virat Kohli’s India and each muct surely reach the semi-finals. I wasn’t sure how Australia would fare in the aftermath of the Warner-Smith bans. However, they have been almost England-esque in their run accumulations, with David Warner and Aaron Finch striking some stunning scores, and are almost home and dry.

So what about England? With the exception of the Sri Lanka debacle, they have been passing 300 with impressive regularity. Sixes have come right down the order, and Eoin Morgan’s blitz against Afghanistan was particularly brutal. Intriguingly their final three games come against their three closest rivals, beginning with the Aussies, followed by India at Edgbaston and then NZ. I reckon they’ll win at least two of them but even so I can’t see the planets aligning so perfectly that one of the other pretenders such as Pakistan or even Bangladesh could disturb the status quo.

What have I learnt so far? Well, batsmen were always likely to be on top, but who would have predicted Shakib al-Hasan would have been top of the run charts? Jofra Archer and Mark Wood have been the most devastating bowling partnership as the short ball has proved the most effective bowling weapon of the tournament. Imran Tahir, Rashid Khan and co may yet have a say in proceedings but for certain neither SA nor Afghanistan will be raising the trophy this year. Faf du Plessis’ men have been out of sorts in most areas. Their batting line-up was already weaker than it’s been for a long time and their one true global star Hashim Amla, has scratched around for runs, even against the Afghans.

I’m sure there’ll be more twists and turns in the coming weeks but it looks likely that the ICC will get the top four it wanted, and that India-England final remains a distinct possibility.