Saturday, January 15, 2011
Saturday, January 08, 2011
Top 10 Moments of the Ashes (for England)
1. Cook's double hundred at Brisbane, set a psychological platform for Cook and the other batters
2. Anderson reducing Australia to 2/3 at Adelaide, devastating start from which their top order never recovered
3. KP's double hundred at Adelaide, skillful and dominant
4. KP bowling Clarke at Adelaide, completely out of the blue halting Clarke's recover of form
5. Collingwood's catch of Ponting off Jimmy at Perth, spectacular and epitomised England's fielding
6. Trott not realising he'd run out of partners in Melbourne, that man just plays in his own bubble, just what England need at 3
7. Jimmy getting Hussey in the first innings at Melbourne, ended Hussey's run-fest which was another key nail in the Aussie coffin
8. Ricky losing his cool at Melbourne over the referral, poor old fella, he may never play Test cricket again
9. Bresnan bowling Pointing in the second innings, every England bowler got Ponting out in one way or another and even our support bowlers managed it
10. Winning the series 3-1 - nuf said!
Session by Session
OK, here's a breakdown of the series by day, showing the number of sessions won and lost, using the normal margin of 90/3 being halved (unless extenuating circumstances). England's score first.
Brisbane (draw)
------------------------
Day 1: 2.5/0.5
Day 2: 1.5/1.5
Day 3: 1/2
Day 4: 3/0
Day 5: 2/1
Total: 10/5
Adelaide (Eng win)
-------------------
Day 1: 2/1
Day 2: 3/0
Day 3: 1/2
Day 4: 1/0
Day 5: -
Total: 7/3
Perth (Aus win)
-------------------
Day 1: 2/1
Day 2: 0/3
Day 3: 1/2
Day 4: 0/1
Day 5: -
Total: 3/7
Melbourne (Eng win)
-------------------
Day 1: 3/0
Day 2: 0.5/2.5
Day 3: 1/2
Day 4: 1/0
Day 5: -
Total: 5.5/4.5
Sydney (Eng win)
-------------------
Day 1: 2/0
Day 2: 2.5/0.5
Day 3: 3/0
Day 4: 2.5/0.5
Day 5: 1/0
Total: 11/1
Series Total: 36.5 / 20.5
That's pretty emphatic and the signs were there in Brisbane in the first test that England had the mettle to go on and win the series with their wining draw after batting brilliantly in the second innings. The nature of the win in Sydney by dominating nearly every session really shows how far England came this Winter.
Thursday, January 06, 2011
Collingwood's successor
Paul Collingwood announced his retirement from Test cricket today, to no-one's surprise, it was always unlikely that England's management would tolerate another dip in his form having supported him through them on several occasions before. But they know how valuable his overall contribution is to the team and they will struggle to find a like-for-like replacement.
Morgan seems to be the "next cab off the rank" in terms of batting and it's almost become a shoe-in that he will play but that would be a mistake. Morgan is a pretty one dimensional cricketer in Test terms where his bravado with the bat wont always be appropriate as KP has discovered. James Hildreth has been mentioned a lot and is obviously in the selector's plans for the future, he has a great at Somerset but for me we need to be looking for someone who can bring a bit more to the party, my candidates would be:
Ian Bell: the bottom line is that no-one new should be coming in above Bell in the order so he will actually be the direct replacement at number 5, the question then becomes who replaces Ian Bell at 6
Ravi Bopara: slight bias as he is an Essex man, but he would be a natural fit to replace Collingwood's all round talent and batting at 6 would suit him perfectly
Tim Bresnan: we know he can bat, has a decent technique, and we definitely know he can bowl so why not take the opportunity to strengthen the bowling line up, promote Prior to 6 and play Bresnan at 7
Stuart Broad: effectively Broad is the player who is coming back into the side that played at Sydney so technically he could be Collingwood's replacement if there were no changes to the current side, keeping Bresnan.
Playing Broad and Bresnan means you have two guys to replace Collingwood's runs, as his bowling would be well covered, batting stats are as follows:
Collingwood's average: 40
Bresnan's average: 32
Broad's average: 27
So that's the batting sorted, the only thing missing is Collingwood's exceptional fielding, which may be the thing that he is most remembered for. Someone needs to come in and catch well off Swanny both sides of the wicket. The likely candidates are Bell, who is a specialist close-in fielder, Anderson who appears to be an excellent all-round fielder or Trott who fields at slip for his county.
Whichever way you look at it Collingwood will leave a strange shaped hole in the England team and it will take some filling, I just hope England selectors take the opportunity to explore all the options.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Innings Averages
Australia's scores in the series so far (excluding second innings at Brisbane):
481/10
245/10
304/10
268/10
309/10
98/10
258/10
280/10
281/10
--------------
Average for completed innings: 280 (28 per wicket)
Average total score for top 5 wickets: 154
England (all innings):
513/10
187/10
123/10
620/5
260/10
517/1
644/10
------------
Average for completed innings: 409 (51 per wicket)
Average total score for top 5 wickets: 289
So to put it simply England's top 5 were twice as good as Australia's
Eng 50s: 11 (6 players)
Aus 50s: 16 (8 players)
Eng 100s: 9 (6 players)
Aus 100s: 3 (2 players)
Australia scored a lot more 50s but only went on to convert 15% of them into 100s, 8 of their squad scored a 50 in the series, with Johnson adding two from the lower order, only Hughes from the top order didn't manage to register one.
England converted their 50s into 100s at a rate of 45% which is outstanding with 6 of their regular top 7 batters scoring a 100. This consistency and ultimately the form every one found themselves in was the real difference. The only disappointment for England would be that their tail did not wag much in the series but I dont think they'll be losing sleep on that one. Australia got some useful contributions from Johnson and Siddle in the series, but probably too little too late in most cases.
Hat's off to Australia...
They've unearthed yet another completely ineffective spin bowler, where do they find all these unusually mediocre players? It's almost become a skill. Nathan Hauritz must be absolutely gutted, he's easily the most average of all of them and he cant get in the team! Has he been shagging Ricky's missus or something?
England's Player Review
I've ranked these in order based on their contribution to the series:
Cook: record breaking stats fest wherever he batted this winter - outstanding, and sweat-free!
Anderson: led the bowling attack with maturity and skill, his economy rate was a session winner on a number of occasions
Trott: the answer to England's problem position with a really solid series
Strauss: slightly patchy with the bat, but very positive, implemented the tactical plans superbly
Swann: patient and still threatening in not very friendly conditions, bit more with the bat would have been nice
Bell: looked excellent but missed a couple of opportunities to shine in difficult circumstances
Pietersen: lots of runs and 1 major innings, cant help thinking one more hundred would have added to his credibility
Prior: kept wicket really well, taking lots of key catches, weighed in with runs at the end of the series
Finn: could have been the weakest link and was targetted by the Aussies but kept his head and got a lot of wickets early in the series, fitness let him down but a great start to his ashes career
Tremlett: came in and showed his physical prowess to make some telling contributions which may well take him into the Summer
Bresnan: came in and kicked the Aussies when they were down, they had been softened up a bit by then but still useful, shows our strength in depth in the bowling department
Collingwood: can you be in the England team for your catching? Probably not.
Broad: very unlucky to get injured when he did, he bowled tight with intelligence for not much reward
Alistair Cook: Man of the Series
I'd just like to draw your attention to a post I put up some weeks ago now
Not to say I told you so but...
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