It's Australia's day on Australia Day

With only a few end-of-term slog-and-hopes to come, England's proper tour of Australia has finally concluded with yet another defeat. At least the ODIs have seen some closer contests than the Tests, and Alastair Cook can also cling to the Perth victory for some comfort. That, and the bowling performance which almost clinched another consolation triumph today in Adelaide.

Even Darren Lehmann voiced the opinion that it looked a 240-250 run pitch, crediting both sides' bowlers for making it such a hard-fought encounter of a 220 target. Broad, Jordan and Stokes put the brakes on the home team, forcing several batsmen to throw away their wickets in an attempt to escalate the scoring rate. George Bailey was the only man to pass 50 although some late blows from Faulkner gave him and his fellow seamers something to aim at.

Following Shane Watson, Ben Stokes became the second number three to fall for a duck. Bell made little impression, Cook scraped 39 but the dependable Eoin Morgan and Joe Root shared a valuable fourth wicket stand of 64 to keep hopes strong. Both departed in quick succession but when Buttler and Bresnan failed to stick around it was left to Ravi Bopara to steer England to the 24 runs needed at only a run a ball. That he was eventually declared to have been stumped by a Matthew Wade fumble may add to the conspiracy theories but it may not have cost England the game. Even in ultra-slow motion, the comparative positions of Bopara's toe and the temporarily-dislodged bail are so difficult to assess. Almost certainly the verdict would have gone the batsman's way in England but he was unlucky not to get the benefit of the doubt in Adelaide. Unfortunate but not 'robbed'!

So it's a 4-1 result, but had Ravi or any of the tail-enders struck a couple of boundaries today and James Faulkner found a fielder in the deep during his Brisbane blitz, England could well have been celebrating a series win, deflecting a lot of the criticism of Cook's captaincy and of the overall administration. As it happened, neither came to pass. On such ifs and buts can whole series depend, and that's what makes 50-over matches so entertaining. India and Australia may lead the ODI rankings but neither will have an easy ride in next year's World Cup. Remember, too, that Australia could afford to rotate their squad; only Finch, Bailey, Faulkner and Coulter-Nile played in all five.

So what have England learned about their players? Eoin Morgan and Stuart Broad may have emerged with reputations enhanced while Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler did enough to keep their places. Root, Bell and captain Cook were so-so and can probably just look forward to a rest without the axe hovering. As for Tim Bresnan, Ravi Bopara, Boyd Rankin and Chris Jordan, they need to produce some consistent performances if they are to be World Cup squad members. Jordan has some fans in the media but I'm yet to be convinced. The aforementioned quartet are in the T20 squad but a few good T20 sessions in the next week won't be enough for me, I'm afraid.

Australia have named a few unknown (to me) faces in their T20 XIV. It'll be interesting to see whether the names of Ben Cutting, Chris Lynn and James Muirhead can appear in bright lights alongside those of Faulkner, Clarke, Johnson, Haddin, Harris and Finch from the previous two months.

2013 One-day Players of the Year

With just a few days to go in 2013, here's the first of my reviews of the past calendar year. South Africa are firmly esconced as the leading Test nation in the ICC rankings, while India's dominance in the Champions Trophy helped them to top spot in the ODI table, albeit closely followed by Australia, England and the Proteas. The West Indies have looked sadly meek and Sri Lanka have a tired reliance on Sangakkara, Dilshan and Jayawardene, even if it were Chandimal and Malinga who helped them to a consolation victory over Pakistan today. But who would make my ODI Team of 2013?

This was the year which brought two very different opening batsmen to global attention. Shikhar Dhawan announced himself on the Test scene with a blistering 187 on debut, very different from the two-ball duck he suffered on his first ODI appearance three years earlier. In 2013, he built on that record-breaking innnigs against the Aussies by outscoring every other batsman in the 50-over format and all bar four in ODIs, notching five centuries in the process. I watched his silky hundred in that Champions Trophy opener at Cardiff with particular pleasure. Accompanying him at the crease should be South Africa's new kid on the block, Quinton de Kock. As well as relieving AB of some of the 'keeping pressure, he has produced some superb innings, highlighted by three successive three-figure scores in the recent series against India. He keeps out Dhawan's usual partner Rohit Sharma from the team, but only just.

Virat Kohli and Misbah-ul-Haq each represented their contries 34 times during 2013. The Pakistani captain may be, at 39, nearing the end of his career but nobody in world cricket was more consistent at scoring valuable half-centuries. Incredibly, he has never reached three figures in ODIs but this year alone he reached 50 fifteen times! Not a big hitter he has carefully kept the scoreboard ticking over while others have gone for their strokes. At 1,373 runs, nobody scored more in ODIs. Not even Kohli who, aged 25, may not yet be in his prime, an ominous thought for opposing bowlers. Scoring at almost a run a ball, and also a brilliant fielder, Kohli is an obvious choice for my middle-order.

So is AB De Villiers, who edges out Sangakkara from my team this year. Topping both Test and ODI rankings, he is simply the best batsman in world cricket right now, despite his wicketkeeping duties in most games. Mohammad Hafeez's late burst of runs for Pakistan and Shahid Afridi's occasional all-round fireworks have pushed for selection but I've gone for Australia's promoted captain George Bailey as another specialist batsman. In 22 matches, he produced more than a thousand runs at exactly a run a ball, including some impressive scores in India a few months ago. Somehow I can't find room for MS Dhoni. Maybe next year....

Hafeez and Sharma offer the option of fill-in spin bowling but India's Ravindra Jadeja was the outstanding ODI all-rounder of 2013. 52 wickets at 25 and almost 500 runs at a respectable lick bring him in to my side as left-armer. Topping the ICC ODI rankings as well as the wicket table for 2013 is Saeed Ajmal, once again the most successful off-spinner in world cricket.

Junaid Khan of Pakistan has developed in to a very useful one-day swing and seam merchant and his 52 victims and average of 21 propel him into my XI of the year, if not yet the ICC top ten. Aged 24, he has the young legs which Umar Gul no longer possesses, and hopefully he has a long future ahead of him. England's Finn and Anderson both sit in the official top ten but that relies on past glories. Two Mitchells, McClenaghan and Johnson each enjoyed great years but the sheer brilliance of Dale Steyn makes him a definite new-ball man. He played only 13 ODIs yet took 27 wickets at just 16 apiece, conceding fewer than four an over. End of argument. My final choice is another Pakistani late developer, Mohammad Irfan. Not just a giant fast bowler, he took cheap wickets all around the world throughout 2013.

Therefore, at risk of being a batsman short (make Rohit Sharma or Afridi the twelfth man), my ODI XI is as follows:-

Shikhar Dhawan (Ind), Quinton de Kock (SA), Virat Kohli (Ind), George Bailey (Aust), AB De Villiers (SA +), Misbah-ul-Haq (Pak*), Ravi Jadeja (Ind), Dale Steyn (SA), Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Mohammed Irfan (all Pak).

So what about Twenty20 in 2013? Best summarised thus: Brisbane Heat, Mumbai Indians, Northamptonshire and Chris Gayle. Special mentions to veterans Azhar Mahmood (top wicket-taker), Brad Hodge and Alfonso Thomas, Sunil Narine (whose 54 wickets came while conceding barely five an over) and Aaron Finch, who plundered that world record 156, including 14 sixes, for Australia against England last summer.

Time to redress the ODI bat v ball balance?

Indian cricket must have been a bit bewildered today. They managed to bowl out the opposition twice for under 400. Yes, that's 20 wickets in 132 overs. Although the hapless West Indies may beg to differ, welcome back to REAL cricket!

The recent ODI series against Australia reached new heights in terms of consistent run-scoring but new depths when it comes to allowing bowlers a chance to demonstrate their art on a level playing field. Scrub that. One of the problems was that the playing field was too level. The pitch, anyway. The rest of the playing field could have resembled the Himalaya foothills for all it came into play in some of the matches. Nearly 3,600 runs in 11 innings makes for an average of around 330, incorporating an IPL-like 107 sixes.

However, for 330 to become the new 250 so quickly must go beyond specially prepared strips and bringing in the boundary rope. The men who excelled in the series were not surprising. Virat Kohli and George Bailey were magnificent, while Shikhar Dhawan, Glenn Maxwell and MS Dhoni also showed their class on more than one occasion. Then, of course there was Rohit Sharma's Bangalore masterclass and one-off century cameos from Shane Watson and James Faulkner. These are players who have sharpened their batting skills in the T20 era and, of these, only Dhoni has a lasting reputation in the Test format. Mind you, Sharma and Dhawan each have three-figure averages from their three matches between them!

Who remembers the bowlers from the ODI series? The only names that springs to mind are Mitch Johnson (for one good spell at Mohali) and Ishant Sharma (for his shocker in the same game). Nobody took ten wickets across the entire series; Ravi Ashwin's nine topped the table, albeit at 37 apiece while leaking a run a ball. Only this week's debut hero, Mohammed Shami, averaged under 30 of the main bowlers. Bhuvi Kumar and Xavier Doherty took a mere two wickets apiece and in terms of economy, Watson, Vinay Kumar and Faulkner each suffered a long-lasting pasting.

Following any other series, their places would be under serious threat. However, all you can do in the wake of such a run-fest is shrug your shoulders and hope that the next series will offer a fairer contest between bat and ball. I fear the worst, particularly in India. After all, when you have a limited-over batting order like that, the selectors and Dhoni can pretty much rely on hunting down every target set them and, if they lose the toss, put the game beyond most opponents.

Also, the series made fifty-over cricket major news around the world. Big scores make big headlines and these days big money, too. South Africa's victory over Pakistan today went way below the radar as the two sides could muster just seven sixes between them. Never mind the 43 fours which probably took more skill to achieve. The India-Aussie competition was certainly exciting, helped by circumstances leaving the final match as a winner-takes-all decider. Australia were no pushovers and will be genuine contenders come the next World Cup but I look forward more to ODIs in the MCG than Mohali and Newlands rather than Nagpur.

Should or could cricket's law-makers rewrite the books? All the tinkering with field restrictions and Powerplays have helped make mid-innings periods more lively but do they really help when the dice is loaded so much in the batsman's favour? Why not abolish such regulations altogether? Bowl to a 9-0 leg field? Then Kohli can just step inside and aim for the covers. If he misses, that's his problem! Place everyone on the boundary? Then nudge the ones and twos and score ten and over that way instead, with little chance of being caught!

It won't happen, of course. Modern innovations shouldn't be dispensed with on the evidence of five games in a single country. However, if ODIs continue to evolve into Fifty50 slugfests, then I will finally be convinced that the format has no future. And that really will be a shame.

Forget Ishant, relish the positives!

With Pakistan's victory over South Africa, Bangladesh anticipating a first Test win against New Zealand and India's superb run chase at Jaipur, there are lots of reasons to be cheerful for Asian cricket fans at the moment.

However, Indian fans being Indian fans, you'd be forgiven for thinking that their side had just been mauled by a Mauritius XI rather than a determined Aussie side showing more defiance than they have sometimes done in recent years. True, it has been a high-scoring series so far, the Aussies reaching 300 in each of the three matches. Their stand-in skipper George Bailey has plundered 200 runs already, but Virat Kohli has gone 29 better and, with Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 141 and Shikhar Dhawan's 95 in Jaipur, alongside MS Dhoni's wonderful century yesterday, there's not a lot wrong with the home side's batting line-up.

Indeed, had it not been for James Faulkner's 48th over blitz, India would surely have won the match and we would all have been raving about Dhoni's brutal late-innings hitting, Jadeja's mean bowling and Bhuv Kumar's steady seamers. Nevertheless, Ishant Sharma's failure to restrain Faulkner's do-or-die six-fest ultimately cost his side the match. His skipper's admission that death bowling is a bit of a problem at the moment definitely rings true. With all their one-day and T20 cricket, India can hardly blame lack of experience. Sharma has 68 ODIs under his belt, and Vinay Kumar has 29, and Dhoni has skippered the side in 145 games.

On paper, it was always going to be a series decided by the contest between Indian bowlers and Aussie batsmen rather than the other way around. We already knew about the class of Kohli et al as well as Johnson, McKay and their colleagues. However, after three games, Bailey's consistency and that fierce Faulkner finale have made the difference. It's still only 2-1 and there are four fixtures remaining. It could be a classic confrontation, and all is not lost for the world champs.

Buttler comes of age!

I had a very enjoyable day at the SWALEC to enjoy a game of fluctuating fortunes before England nicked it in the final over. The sunshine and temperatures were autumnal but at least the 4th ODI took place on the day in between two very wet ones and a near- full house enjoyed almost 100 hours of intriguing cricket which left the series poised at one-all with one to play.

Few of those I'd seen at Oval Test last month were playing in Cardiff, but it didn't matter, especially when England's three survivors were part of an uwanted piece of history. ANyway, back to the beginning when a wild opener from Steven Finn was followed by a full in-swinger which trapped Aarn Finch plumb LBW for 0. Shane Watson made only six before Michael Clarke and Shaun Marsh steadied the ship. It wasn't an easy ride because Finn and his almost equally tall partner Boyd Rankin were constantly beating the bat. So, too, was Ben Stokes, consistently bowling at 85mph+.

It was clear that Australia would need to target the spinner(s) when Eoin Morgan deigned to risk Tredwell and Root, and that's what happened. George Bailey had played himself in and, when joined by Matthew Wade, they took the opportunity to up the tempo somewhat. with a 250+ score now possible, Wade fell to a miscued hook, and the innings disintegrated. Bailey struck three towering straight sixes on his way to 87 when he feathered a catch to Buttler. From 209-5, Australia slumped to 227 all out and England looked the more likely winners.

When Pietersen flicked a leg-side boundary in the first over, it looked as if Morgan's side would take charge and I'd be home by 5 o'clock! Then came the third over. Clint McKay's first ball was missed by KP and the LBW decision was an easy one. In came Jonathan Trott who inexplicably followed a wide one and edged to Finch at second slip. On a hat-trick, McKay then induced another edge off a tentative drive by Joe Root. It just about carried to Watson at slip. Cue great jubilations from the men in yellow, and the crowd went silent.

Morgan came down the steps in his usual calm fashion but he and Carberry were given a real tough time by the five-strong seam attack, which looked a good decision by the selectors. McKay bowled another two maidens while Mitch Johnson delivered a number of very quick deliveries, one timed at 94.4mph. Even from square-on in the stands, I could pick the exceptional balls but when he bowled short, Carberry in particular looked extremely vulnerable. After 20 overs, England were floundering at just 51-3 yet in this T20 era, six an over to win is not as difficult as it once may have been. This batting line-up also packs a powerful punch down to eight and that made the difference at the end. Morgan and Carberry reached their 50s in quick succession, notchnig a century stand in the process before the skipper chopped on to his stumps on 53.

The Hampshire man followed three overs later. An unconvincing innings at times but he lasted to make a decent 63. Ravi Bopara never looked comfortable and Jos Buttler was fortunate to win his DRS appeal when the big screen showing the ball missig he off stump by a fraction. However, that reprieve, together with the arrival of Ben Stokes, changed England's fortunes dramatically. Needing more than 7 an over from the last 11 overs, some crunching shots were called for and these two were more than capable. Forty came from overs 40 to 43 as the Somerset 'keeper took control. Stokes' departure with nine still needed brought jitters to the crowd as Tredwell survived some dot-balls from McKay. Seven from the last over and Buttler on strike. The first ball from Johnson was despatched out of the ground and suddenly it was all over. A dispirited-looking Clarke brought his field shuffling in close but Buttler simply crashed it stight ov erthem for the winning boundary.

Not as many runs as his ODI best last week, but this time he took the responsibility for a run chase and it was successful. Rankin had an excellent game, but Jos took the Man of the Match award and his future possibly moving further away from his home county. That would be a severe blow to Somerset but he is looking the real deal as a number six or seven in England's 50-over squad.