A cut above

There’s life in the old dog yet. The surfeit of mediocrity that cricket fans are force fed by the Twenty20 format has made some nostalgic for the relative sobriety of an old-fashioned One Day International. The 11th Cricket World Cup has its problems but in the land where the IPL is the cricketing equivalent of the Emperor’s New Clothes the 40,000 people that packed the Chinnaswamy stadium got full value for money. The contest between India and England ebbed and flowed all the way to a breathless finish. It was super-charged cricket for 100 overs in a white-hot atmosphere.

The record books will show that England tied the match scoring 338-8 but at 281-2 in the 43rd over the most improbable of run chases was within touching distance of an England team that had previously looked a pale imitation of the disciplined unit that humiliated Australia only last month. That England didn’t make it over the finish line was due to some inspired clutch bowling from Zaheer Khan. That England was even in with a chance was due to an innings of rare brilliance from captain Andrew Strauss with 158 from 145 deliveries.

Test cricket has shown Strauss as a calm, resolute leader of men – able to motivate them to achieve feats beyond their predecessors. Whereas the challenge of captaincy sent Flintoff off the rails in Australia and saw Pietersen spontaneously combust in the West Indies it has seen Strauss remodel his batting first in the Test arena and then in the 50 over format. Strauss exemplifies a man at ease with his game. He knows his limitations and ensures that he plays to his strengths. England has not seen a more adept, if not as brutal, cutter of the ball since Robin Smith. It takes a rare performance to snatch a man of the match award from the grasp of a Sachin Tendulkar century in India but that was one contest in which there was no tie.

That the result will ultimately not mean much in the course of this lengthy competition does not matter as much as the fact that the World Cup had a contest to match its status as the pinnacle of the One Day game. For those that watched enthralled around the world it will be infinitely more memorable than the plethora of Twenty20 games or mis-matched ODIs involving minnows. For both England and India there are plenty of areas of improvement, not least the fielding. For the other nations there is the knowledge that, India, the red-hot favourites will give you a chance with their bowling – no matter how many runs they score.

Take the Urn Home

Watching England play cricket in Australia is traditionally a harrowing experience. The walk to the SCG for the final day of the Ashes with 3 wickets needed to secure a first away triumph for 24 years was as pleasurable as a stroll in the English countryside. The best decision that an Australian made during the tour was to let people enter the SCG free to witness the coup de grace. Around 18,000 England supporters turned up to help Andrew Strauss’ team take the urn home. Flags of St George hung from the railings of the Ladies Pavilion. Australians, save for the baggy greens in the middle of the pitch, were in short supply. English dominance on and off the pitch was total.

Despite a morning of showers that threatened to delay the win until after lunch it was just before mid-day when the mighty Chris Tremlett ripped one through what masqueraded as Michael Beer’s defence to rearrange his timbers. Cue delirium amongst the England supporters. The Barmy Army have been singing since 1994 when it was routine to see England routed, frequently in the manner of a whale in the path of a Japanese whaling ship. To support England at cricket and spend hard-earned cash travelling to long-haul destinations to see sporting humiliation on a grand scale epitomised the addiction of the sports fan to their team. There are few more loyal sports fans in the world than those of the England cricket team, certainly no one disputes the lyrics of their song that they are the most loyal cricket supporters the world has ever seen.

At times it has been hard to sing in such unequivocal support of the teams that have worn the England shirt. The last tour of Australia was a particular low point. Duncan Fletcher had vowed to heed the lessons of the 4-1 defeat that he masterminded in 2002/03 and ensure no repetition. He was right, the 5-0 capitulation set a new benchmark. Players were off the pace and the body language in the field betrayed a beaten team. Experienced players like Flintoff could not set the right example from the front. Rookies like Mahmood floundered as if they had gone to play in the Bondi surf without learning to swim. No amount of lifeguards could save that England team. It was a tough posting for the Barmy Army. These are sweet times for the high ranking amongst them.

Wisden will record this Ashes campaign as a 3-1 victory for England. No Australian that you meet will tell you that it felt that close. Every defeat for the home side was by an innings – an achievement  to rank alongside the precedent set by Bangladesh. By the end of the tour there was an uneasy sense of confidence in the performance of the England team. The batsmen made runs. The bowlers took wickets. The fielding was tight. This must be what it’s like to watch a winning team we thought. No longer did you need to restrict yourself to the intervals for a run to the bar.

As always, time will tell but this England team has a glint in it's eye. It means business. The sprinkler dance was a one-off in Melbourne. The team refocused and kept their foot on the Australian throat. One away Ashes win does not a dynasty make but the pieces are in place for Andy Flower's team to reach the top. The batsmen have matured, the bowlers are disciplined, there are no shirkers in the field. With Strauss our captain we'll take the urn home and it may not leave for a while.

Sprinkle Sprinkle

It wasn’t meant to be like this. It was my third trip to the MCG and on the two previous occasions I’d arrived with England already three nil down and would leave for Sydney a few days later with us down by four. But yesterday I saw England retain the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 24 years with victory by an innings and 157 runs to take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the series.

If Carlsberg made a perfect day of cricket then for the English cricket fan Boxing Day was it. Over 84,000 people were left stunned as Australia were routed for 98 only to see England surge to lead by 59 at stumps, with all ten wickets intact. The Australian fans were silenced whilst the long-suffering but eternally optimistic Barmy Army were pinching themselves in disbelief not just at the cost of the watered down mid-strength Victoria Bitter that passed for refreshment, but at the scoreboard. That England rammed home their advantage without taking their foot off the Australian throat indicates a team that is learning to seize the moment – there are still relapses and remember that the best two Test teams in the world are currently playing elsewhere in the southern hemisphere.

Australia avoided the ignominy of losing the Boxing Day Test before the conclusion of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race but it was a close race for line honours. When Ben Hilfenhaus edged Tim Bresnan to Matt Prior before lunch on Day 4 the celebrations could start. Rarely did an England team play with such verve and focus but it is becoming an increasingly common sight. To do it against Australia in their own backyard is as rewarding as it gets. 

It has been curious to observe the reaction of Australian cricket fans from the old Bay 13. Volubly critical of their own team, especially the performance and leadership of Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, yet there is a lack of consensus of how the team should proceed. It is clearly time for change but to what? There are few obvious contenders waiting in the wings. No batsman, other than Michael Hussey, was up to the mark and he was on the verge of being dropped before the Ashes started. Despite fielding more bowling options than England there has been an absence of control and lack of penetration. The attack leader, Mitchell Johnson, was missing in action for three of the four tests and he was marmalised by both the English batsmen and the Barmy Army for hours on end at the MCG.

England have embodied a squad united by a sense of purpose, discipline and a common goal. Chris Tremlett and Tim Bresnan, who were not in the starting line-up in Brisbane emerged as game changing bowlers in their own right. The Australian replacements were not up to the mark: Philip Hughes and Steve Smith will go back to finishing school. The much vaunted Australian Cricket Academy that produced a seemingly endless conveyor belt of talent, for so long the envy of English cricket, has evidently been left unattended for too long. The Sheffield Shield, the toughest of first class finishing schools, has been reduced to a beauty pageant where any glimpse of promising talent is fast-tracked through to the national side after a handful of games.

There is much to enjoy in England’s cricket. They bowl with guile and discipline, in tandem to build pressure on batsmen by denying them width. In 2009 Justin Langer attached the label of “pussy” to James Anderson. Little did we know that Anderson would return to haunt the now current Australian batting coach in his guise as the premiere swing bowler in the world. Runs have been scored by batsmen prepared to see off the new ball and build an innings. Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott have prized their wickets in a fashion that the great accumulator, Sir Geoffrey of Boycott, would be proud to call his own. It has been the grafters rather than the dashers who have battered the Australian attack in to submission. Andrew Strauss’ captaincy has become more astute as he has grown in to the role since his appointment in January 2009. Great credit too must go to Andy Flower, a coach who has instilled a work ethic previously unseen in an England team.

For England, whilst the celebratory sprinkler dance was performed to the delight of the Barmy Army there is still work to be done. When the hangovers subside this England team will get back to work in Sydney. The management and players wouldn’t have it any other way. There is still a series to win.

Grand Ole Oprah

The Oprah Winfrey farewell roadshow was playing out east in Sydney this week. With government funding of £2.5m the aim was to boost Australian tourism but it’s a moot point, in these austere times, whether the money would have been more prudently invested in restoring the fortune of the iconic baggy green.

Out west in Perth today it was the touring Englishman that dominated another three sessions of Ashes cricket on the first day of the 3^rd Test. A display of insipid batting from the Australian top-order was compounded by the now customary display of inspired English fielding.

If everything that Andrew Strauss touches turns to gold then the opposite is true for Ricky Ponting. In came Steve Smith and the recalled Phil Hughes to bring some “humour” to the entrenched squad. It can be assumed that Ponting was also hoping for an improvement on a combined total of 9 runs. Mitchell Johnson, supposedly rested from the 2^nd Test, did show fight with the bat to top score but it will be his bowling that determines whether he is worthy of a place in the team. Sledging Strauss at the end of the day was not done from a position of strength.

Chris Tremlett deputised for the injured Stuart Broad and was England’s standout performer marrying 3 wickets to a miserly economy rate. The jet-lagged Jimmy Anderson, fresh from attending the birth of his daughter in England, only required a stretch after taking a catch and 3 wickets. For all the pre-match fighting talk the Australian batting performance was again well below par. In these run-drunk days of Twenty20 and flat pitches the Australian batsmen have forgotten the discipline of making tough runs and putting a prize on their wicket. Ponting’s dismissal at least will again be attributed to a stunning piece of fielding at a time when the captain needed to post a score. This was not Gary Pratt or Andrew Flintoff with a run out but Paul Collingwood MBE leaping and twisting to take a one-handed catch when the ball was well past fielding mortals.

Not since the days of Allan Border will an Australian captain’s legacy be defined by the Ashes as much as Ponting’s will be. To lose three series to England would be considered worthy by many sages of deportation to Van Diemen’s Land. Fortunately for Ponting he already has his home there.

England have the upper hand in the series. For Duncan Fletcher though it seems that the memory of coaching England to defeat in 9 of the last 10 Tests that England played in Australia is no longer raw. “My feelings on the third Test are split. As an ex-coach of the team I want to see England retain the Ashes. But a draw would surely be the better result for the sport. It is crucial for the health of Test cricket that this series holds the interest of the public.” I’ve not been able to find any England cricket fans that invested their hard earned money following the tours of 2002 and 2006 hoping for a draw in this Test. With 24 years since the last English series success on Australian soil the public is very much aware of the story bubbling down under.

The host broadcaster, Channel 9, are running their traditional classic catch competition and whilst the producers scrape around for Australian catches to feature – just 8 after 2 Tests – it is more concerning for the state of the game that the prize is a year of free Kentucky Fried Chicken. Whilst Oprah gives with one hand Colonel Sanders takes with the other.

Run-out of town

Down amongst the dust of The Oval under a deep blue sky and in front of a partisan crowd England regained the Ashes from a chastened Australia with a 197 run win to take the series 2-1. Don’t let the hyperbole of the television commentary team fool you; this wasn’t vintage cricket in terms of sustained quality but it was predictable only in its unpredictability. Momentum counted for little as both teams struggled to run with the hounds throughout the course of the series. That won’t matter to Andrew Strauss or his team, “when we were bad we were very bad and when we were good we managed to be good enough.” All that matters is that the little urn is back in English hands.

Strauss deserves great credit for leading an erratic England team to an Ashes win. He cajoled and inspired his side to win the key contests throughout the series, topped the list of overall run-scorers and ensured that the intensity of captaining the side didn’t affect his game. Occasional accusations of conservatism are levelled at Strauss but it may be because when he sees his team in the dressing room he doesn’t know if it will be Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde that takes to the pitch. If a composite side of the two teams was to be compiled then it is only Strauss that would make the top five.

It is safe assumption to make that Ricky Ponting has had enough of The Oval. Now the scene of two chastening series defeats as captain he ended with a bloodied mouth, a bruised ego and provided the great national hero with a last highlight for his show-reel. Ponting batted with intense determination, great application and produced a technically brilliant innings as he found a strong ally in building a 127 run partnership with Mike Hussey.

Creaking in the outfield, WD40 can no longer sustain Andrew Flintoff and the big unit finally looked like he was playing his last Test match. Ponting, caught ball-watching slightly as Hussey tipped and ran, was aghast as Flintoff hurled the 5.5 ounces of red leather towards the stumps with brute force. Ponting was a foot short by the time the missile located its target. Wide brimmed white floppy hat on his head, arms aloft, motionless save for chewing gum Flintoff stood admiring the destruction of the stumps and Australia’s dreams. Ponting remained, head bowed, unable to comprehend that he had been dismissed in such a fashion, again. If being run-out once at a pivotal moment is foolish then to do it twice is careless. Unlike the Fourth Test in 2005 this time there were no recriminatory gestures to the England balcony as Ponting returned to the dressing room to applause from the crowd. If Trent Bridge was Gary Pratt’s finest hour then this was just another career-defining moment for Andrew Flintoff. If a certain lager company made cricketers then they’d make them like big Fred.

As Michael Clarke quickly became Australia’s second run-out victim of the summer the stage was left to Hussey to try and save not just his country but potentially his career too. Overcoming a nervous start and a hitherto disastrous tour Hussey compiled his first century in 29 innings and like Matthew Hayden in 2005 and Mark Taylor in 1997 it is likely that a battling Ashes century will have saved his career. Only when Hussey prodded forward and popped a catch up to Alistair Cook at short-leg to become the twentieth Australian wicket of the match could England supporters and players breathe a sigh of relief. This time there will be no parade through the streets of London or drunken shenanigans in Downing Street but a sigh of relief at a job well done as the Australians have been run-out of town.

Viva Espana

And so we arrive at the denouement. From reading the cricket press in the aftermath of the red rose capitulation at Headingley one would not realise that honours stand even in this Ashes series. Of course England need to win at the Oval to regain the little urn but given this scenario before a ball had been bowled they would no doubt have seized the opportunity quicker than Usain Bolt in a hurry. If you’re an England player it’s a rare thing to arrive at the Fifth Test with something other than ‘honour’ to play for.

In terms of the quality of the cricket no valid comparison can be made between this series and ‘that one’ four years that entered the 75th scheduled session of play with both teams still tussling for supremacy. That this series could climax in the same way owes more to the unerring ability of both teams to stumble in sight of the finishing line rather than pummel each other to a standstill.

On that 5th day at the Oval in 2005 it was Kevin Pietersen, playing his fifth Test, who seized the moment aided and abetted by Ashley Giles. Nothing could stop them recording their highest Test scores but time stops for no man and this time around Pietersen is recuperating following an operation on his Achilles heel whilst the ‘King of Spain’ now meddles in selectorial affairs. As with every final Test of a series it is time to pay tribute to those touring players participating in their last matches in England. Retrospectively we add Brett Lee to the ranks of Warne and McGrath, Langer and Hayden, Martyn and Gilchrist who made the Oval in 2005 their last English Ashes Test.

A fit Brett Lee in cahoots with a rejuvenated Mitchell Johnson would have enjoyed putting the wind up a rickety England but Lee’s series has been holed below the waterline by injury. Ricky Ponting is nearing 35 and it is realistic to assume that he will not be captaining the side on these shores on the next visit, having most likely, passed the baton on to Michael Clarke. Ponting has been cast as a pantomime villain by the English press but it is to be hoped that the crowd at the Oval give him the respectful send off that he deserves as one of the true greats of the game.

In case you’d forgotten Andrew Flintoff will be making his last test appearance not just here but anywhere before he retires to the land of curry, quick runs and four over bowling spells. You can be sure that he will be straining whatever ligaments are left in his body to cast himself as the main act in his final script. You don’t need to be a bookmaker lurking around a hotel bar full of cricket players to know that the fortunes of both Flintoff and Ponting will be instrumental in determining the fate of their respective teams.

Four years ago Andrew Strauss was an England centurion in the first innings at the Oval. This series he is captain and England’s sole centurion in four matches. Without the company of Vaughan, Trescothick and Pietersen there is an absence of quality and experience to support him but Strauss has coped manfully with the captaincy and also managed to successfully overhaul his batting technique since his disastrous series down-under in 2006/07. Strauss has come of age.

It isn’t just inside the boundary ropes that we see the passing of time and Richie Benaud will be appearing on English television for the last time in his spot on Channel Five’s highlights show. He will step down from all commentary commitments later this year. Old father time will catch up with all of us, even Richie. Let us look forward to five days of memorable competition that we hope will produce a climax to live in the memory for four years and hopefully longer.

Pokerface

In the Sky commentary box on Day Three there was a frisson of excitement as Andrew Strauss elected not to enforce the follow-on after Australia were bowled out for a first innings score of 215. The buzz was coming from Shane Warne who was in no doubt that Ricky Ponting and his beleaguered team would be sitting in the dressing room re-energised that they had been offered an olive branch by Strauss and an escape route from a probable defeat. It wouldn’t be the first time that Warne had used some cod psychology where the Poms were concerned.

Granted, the Australian bowling attack again did their best to coax the England middle order back in to form but Australia knew that batting last at Lords would hold no demons if the lessons of history were to repeat and the pitch flatten out. In 2008 England could only take three wickets as South Africa followed on and ran up 393 in 167 overs to see out the draw. This coupled with Australia’s inability to gift England Ashes wins and the Poms tendency to freeze at the prospect of winning a live match will ensure more than the odd butterfly in the stomachs of England fans as they wake up this Monday morning. Australia need an improbable but not entirely out of the question 209 further runs to win with five wickets in hand.

In a judicious PR move by the England management they sent Graeme Swann out to do the media rounds at the end of the fourth day. An ebullient character he sent out a confident message, “We still have a new ball with Andrew Flintoff roaring in at 90mph and James Anderson swinging it at the other end." He’s right, as so many times before much will depend on Flintoff, in possibly his last Test, pounding in with a ball only six overs old.

It’s not just in the Sky commentary box that Warne has been getting excited. In their effort to bring you the very best live sport from around the world - or rather that which they have bought the rights to - Sky now fill their late night schedules with poker and what more imaginative idea during the Ashes than to broadcast ‘Poker Ashes’. I know little about poker but I do know that Shane Warne, famed for sowing more than a few seeds of doubt in to the minds of batsmen, was also fond of chatting to bookmakers about cricket and indulging in a spot of extra-marital poke-her. He sounded like an inspired choice to be team captain.

Accompanying Warne were fellow legends Dean Jones and Jeff Thomson. Jones was taking this particularly seriously. You could tell because he was wearing sunglasses and the same zinc cream over his lips that I saw him wearing as he raced round the boundary for Derbyshire against Middlesex on an overcast day in Uxbridge many moons ago. At least Thomson wouldn’t start his run up from by the slot machines, or would he?

It’s not immediately obvious who was on the selection committee for the England Poker Ashes team – possibly the same selectors who were responsible for calling up 28 players during the 1990’s who made less than 5 appearances for England. Sure enough if watching Min Patel take one wicket in his two test career was enthralling then I hoped that he’d been saving himself for this moment. England’s team was captained by that man for all gimmicky programs, Darren Gough. Whether it’s splashing about in a pool of water wearing lycra or dancing the American Smooth then Gough’s your man. Shoring up the middle order was Rob Key, the current Kent captain, who clearly sees more of a future for himself in poker rather than cricket.

As it turned out the Poms were predictably dispatched faster than a Mitchell Johnson long-hop to the cover boundary as the Australians established an unassailable 3-1 lead. Warne, relishing the chance to captain an Australian team for once in his career, was delighted, ‘The boys played really well. I’m really happy with it.’ We’ll see if Warne can keep that pokerface on as he returns to the commentary box to witness what will be another day of high stakes Ashes cricket.

England: another opportunity missed

To paraphrase an eminent politician; ‘The England cricket team never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity’. In the aftermath of the First Ashes Test in Cardiff and after England snatched a draw from the jaws of a sixth consecutive defeat to Australia, the England coach Andy Flower had tried to put a positive spin on events and spoke of the lessons learnt and the positives that his side would take forward to Lords.

Few listened to Flower’s comments because of the storm in a tea-cup inspired by England’s naive choice of delaying tactics as the First Test came to the boil. The post-match debate raged around the ‘spirit of the game’, mystifyingly championed by Ricky Ponting who in an online poll in the Sydney based Daily Telegraph in January 2008 inspired 83% of the respondents to say that the brawler from Tasmania was not a good ambassador for the game and that 79% felt that the Australian team did not play in the ‘true spirit of the game’.

Let’s not kid ourselves here; the reality was that there were no positives to take from Cardiff for this England team. Out-bowled and out-batted England made first use of a flat track and mustered a first innings score that was soon put in to perspective by Australia against a toothless attack unable to build any pressure. Yes, it might be what passes for management speak in these days of media sound bites but for Andy Flower to talk of positives to be taken from the game was disingenuous and insulted the intelligence of the cricket supporting public. Furthermore The Ashes is not the place to learn lessons; it remains the pinnacle of cricket in both England and Australia and not the place to dot the i’s and cross the t’s in your game.

Fast forward to the first day at Lords and it’s clear that few of England’s batsmen have heeded Flower’s call to arms. Winning the toss and batting first Australia’s attack can rarely have been made to look so porous. To concede over 300 runs on the first day in successive Tests is no fluke; 364/6 coming off the back of 336/7 in Cardiff. This Australian attack is threadbare.

Reduced to two performing front line bowlers in the resilient Siddle and the impressive Hilfenhaus there were overthrows, byes, long-hops and half-volleys galore. Ricky Ponting’s gimlet eyes narrowed yet further and one wondered if he would shut them completely and cast his mind back to the days when he could throw the ball to the living legends of Warne and McGrath. Only Punter didn’t need to worry too much because he knows that this England side are incapable of learning on the job. Time and again the middle order have disintegrated and as at Cardiff there was a lack of basic technique and application required in the five day format.

Andrew Strauss must despair that after carrying his bat for a magnificent 161 his partners have again let him down. Whilst he may have been diplomatic to the press let us hope that he did not mince his words in the dressing room. Of course, you should never judge a Test match until both sides have batted but on a placid pitch against this attack it’s another opportunity missed by England to put an imposing score on the board and put Australia out of the game.