Just when you think the England Cricket Team has turned a corner, they take two massive steps backwards. Yes, we’re talking about the two crushing defeats England have suffered at the hands of Sri Lanka in the current One Day Series (which now stands at 2-1 with two more to play). If Friday’s performance wasn’t bad enough, CricketChicks were actually at Lords yesterday and witnessed first hand England’s ineptness in the One Day format. Lacklustre, unimaginative, limp - these are all words which could appropriately sum up what we saw from England yesterday. An excellent wicket for batting, a par score would probably have been in the region of 280 - 300, if not more. Yet, England’s batsmen were stuttering and doddering as though they were playing on a minefield. The result, a miserly score of just over 240 (thanks in no small part to a late impetus from Graeme Swann who hit a six and a four off Lasith Malinga’s last over), which never looked competitive.
So what exactly went so wrong?
Many have laid the blame with Alastair Cook, the new ODI Captain. Firstly, on winning the toss, he should have elected to bowl first and secondly, his scoring rate was far too slow. Personally, I don’t agree with either of these criticisms. Yes, England have a better winning record when they are chasing down a score (the notion being that they prefer to know exactly what is they have to get so as they can plan and pace their innings accordingly) - the idea of setting a target has always sat uneasily with England. They get nervous, flounder, panic and then ultimately lose. Yet, I believe that a decent squad (as on paper at least, England surely are) should be able to bat sufficiently well first off (assessing conditions, over rate etc.), setting a decent and competitive total. Having won the toss yesterday, there was absolutely no reason why England shouldn’t have made at least three hundred runs. With a decent number of runs on the board, not only would England have had their tail up but all the pressure would have been on Sri Lanka.
One of the reasons, however, according to many, why England failed to do so, was Cook’s scoring rate. I strongly disagree with this. In my opinion, Cook’s role within the team is the ‘accumulator’ - the one who bats out nearly all fifty over’s, takes the singles, rotates the strike and puts away any bad deliveries. 119 off 126 balls, at a strike-rate of 83, doesn’t sound too bad for me. Of course, it could be argued that Cooks plodding nature puts pressure on the person at the other end to score more quickly, thus causing errors. Yet, batsman such as Craig Kiswetter, Kevin Pietersen, Eoin Morgan and Ian Bell should be able to comfortably switch gears once established. What we saw yesterday, however, was Kiswetter scratch around for a number of delivers before getting out (isn’t his role to provide the impetus at the top?), KP throw his wicket away once well set and Morgan doing the complete opposite by trying to be aggressive too early. The result was the regular loss of wickets and the stalling of momentum. As Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara showed brilliantly on Friday, partnerships are key. Certain English batsmen need to actually think while they are in the middle and take some responsibility. Without Cook, England’s total would have been even more abysmal.
The bowling department is not, however, completely blameless. Though I would argue this is more the selectors fault than the players themselves. While Jade Dernbach looks a fine player, is he really better than either Steven Finn or Chris Tremlett? Indeed, it was ironic yesterday, that with England attempting to remove Dinesh Chandimal with short pitch bowling, Dernbach was asked to bang the ball in. I thought his skill was the slower ball? And what’s more if one thinks this type of bowling may be effective against the Sri Lankans, why not have one of the two aforementioned men who can more naturally bowl such balls? England are too focused on slow ball variation. Just because that method worked in the Twenty20 World Cup it doesn’t mean it will work now and in English conditions. As Malinga expertly demonstrates, a well bowled Yorker will undo even the best batsmen.
The game of cricket (particularly the shorter format) is constantly evolving and England are proving slow to adapt. If they don’t do something before Wednesday, this series will be dead and buried.
No comments:
Post a Comment