Oh the Ashes, the Ashes..

I love the Ashes. I've been watching the India-New Zealand series for the past three weeks and tuning into day one of the Ashes at the Gabba the other day felt like walking out of the desert and into some sort of oasis where quality cricket thrives.

Sure, NZ competed well in India but I hadn't realised how much I'd missed seeing really GOOD cricket. And there really is nothing like a 120 year old sibling rivalry to draw the best out of a sport - as Peter Siddle quickly discovered.

By chance, I dropped by mum's on Thursday to drop some stuff off and decided to stay for a few quick minutes and watch some of the game. What a treat! Only four English wickets had fallen in the day to that point, but in the 20 odd minutes I was watching, Siddle had Cook caught at slip, Prior clean bowled for a golden duck and Broad (who I always think looks a bit like Draco Malfoy) out LBW for the same. It was the first test hatrick I've ever witnessed. And just for good measure he took the wicket of Graeme Swann just as I was getting up to leave. The line and length he was bowling (ie. full and straight) is so far removed from the innocuous stuff dished up by India and NZ as to seem almost like revelation.

Good to see a pitch with at least a little life in it too.

Also, loved watching Hussey and Haddin bat today. I never really saw Hussey playing during his purple patch a few years ago but if it was anything like the way he batted in this innings, it must have been something to see.

Hopefully Aussie can push on for a win and first blood!

Bowling update #1

So, my plan to post on this blog very day of the test series between India v New Zealand has so far been a big fail. Honestly, I've had a busy couple of weeks. I think I'll just review the whole series after the third and final test in Nagpur.

Now, to the topic at hand.

I mentioned in my introductory post that I'm a budding leg spinner. I only took it up at the start of the year and already I think I'm making really good progress. Most weeks I have a bowl in the nets with my friend Tony, but last night we got a few mates together and had a bit of a hit around on an actual pitch. When I saw the footmarks at the batsman's end, my eyes lit up. It was a veritable dust bowl, perfect for leg spin. My first wee spell bowling to Tony, I don't think he got a single shot out of the middle as the ball was turning pretty sharply. Later on, I bowled to another guy who used to play as a top order batsman. I quickly learned the dangers of straying on to his legs, as every time I did he whipped me away square. After one such ball, I decided to try and set a bit of a trap for him. I bowled one fullish on off-stump which turned away fairly dramatically. The next ball I bowled a googly which pitched on the same line but went straight on, maybe even turned the other way a little. It caught him playing all around his pads and eventually hit him in line with middle and leg. I was pretty stoked with that one because I'd come up with a plan and not only had I managed to execute it in terms of line and length, but it actually worked!

It was really encouraging to see that I can get plenty of turn on an actual pitch. Much more so than what I'm used to getting in the nets.

Wish List..

I'm super excited about the first test between New Zealand and India starting tomorrow. I love test cricket - even the games where my team has little to no chance of winning. Seeing as I've already written off any chance of a Black Caps victory, I have compiled a short personal wish list for this series.It reads something like this:

1. Kane Williamson to make his debut, and perhaps Hamish Bennett
2. Centuries to Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder and Williamson (if he debuts)
3. Brendon McCullum to open the batting and play a few innings in the Sehwag mold
4. To run India close in at least one match

If a few of those wishes are fulfilled I'll be reasonably happy with how the series has gone.

Over the course of the series, I'm going to attempt to update this blog daily.We'll see how we go.

Ever the optimist..

Last week a workmate posed me a challenge: to pick New Zealand Cricket’s all-time worst XI. At first I thought this an impossible task. I mean, how could you possibly pinpoint the Black Cap’s least reliable batsman EVER? And even if you managed to sift through all the Rutherfords and the Sinclairs, how to approach the seemingly endless junkyard of discarded seamers; the Su’as, the Drums, the Masons, the Kuggeleijns. Then what of the mediocre mediums? The terrible twirlers? The abysmal openers? Or the thoroughly average all-rounders? Being faced with such an extensive pool of wasted potential and forcing oneself to whittle it down to just eleven is an uphill battle, to say the least. 

Last week’s 4-0 drubbing by Bangladesh has surely gone some way to settling the issue. You want to know our worst side ever? Just take a look at the team sheet for the fifth one dayer. 

A bit of an exaggeration perhaps but, all jokes aside, New Zealand were woeful in this series. 

As a Black Caps supporter you get used to the idea of humility and good sportsmanship. Very rarely, however, am I embarrassed – nay, ashamed – by their efforts. Given that these are the eleven best players in New Zealand at this point in time (and I would mostly agree with the selectors that they are), you have to ask yourself, what went wrong?

Much of the blame must go to the top order batsmen. We failed on three occasions to chase small-ish totals against (and I mean no disrespect to the Bangladeshis) fairly benign bowling. Narrowing it down a little further, I think that Brendon McCullum in particular needs to do some serious soul-searching. On all but one occasion (when he was out caught behind off his fourth ball), he fell looking to play super-aggressively, when all that was needed was patience and someone to rotate the strike. As our senior-most batsmen, he needs to take more responsibility for New Zealand’s fortunes with the bat and play according to the situation at hand. Also, he needs to make a conscious effort to eliminate these brain explosions he seems to experience at the crease. His dismissal in the first game against Bangladesh offers a fairly vivid insight into his mindset. He was well-set, having reached his fifty off 35 balls, when he chose to shimmy down the track to Shakib Al Hasan (far and away their best bowler), was beaten in the flight and ended up with his off stump flattened. This left the Black Caps in serious trouble and we eventually came up short in our chase by 28 runs. He needs to realize that there is a time for aggression and a time to play sensibly. It concerns me a little that he wants to play higher up the order in tests, now that he has relinquished the keeping duties. Hopefully, he can temper his aggression and play some meaningful innings in test cricket in the near future.

The other main contributor to our dismal showing is the fact that two of our key batsmen have recently recovered from injuries and been propelled straight back into the national side. Jesse Ryder and Grant Elliot, two of our top performers of 2009, have been out injured for some time and were short on match time coming into this series. It’s fair to say that this showed in their performances against Bangladesh.

Three bright points came out of our ill-fated expedition to Dhaka. The most obvious of which was Kane Williamson’s maiden international hundred in the fourth ODI. After his first three outings ended in failures, it was reassuring to see him play with the poise and level-headedness that has marked him out as a future star for several years now. Perhaps more remarkably though is that he made his runs while the Black Caps’ backs were firmly up against the wall and with his more experienced team mates falling like ten pins at the other end. I have to say I’m pleased to see him in the squad for the test series in India, and I certainly hope he makes his five-day debut at some point during the tour. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve day-dreamed of a New Zealand middle-order comprised of Taylor (3 – he is our best and most reliable batsman and should rightly be coming in first drop), Ryder (4), and Williamson (5) steering our test team to momentous victories. Based on potential I think these three could function as a batting triumvirate in the Indian mould of Dravid, Tendulkar and Laxman – perhaps I am overly optimistic. 

The other big plus was the emergence of Hamish Bennett, the left-arm fast bowler from Canterbury. I was reasonably impressed with his showing in his first couple of games. He seems as though he could be genuinely quick, though in my very humble opinion, his action needs some attention. The exciting thing is that, despite his rawness, there is something of Shane Bond about him, and if he could match even half of Bond’s success it would bode very well for the future of New Zealand cricket.

On a slightly smug I-told-you-so note, it was great to see BJ Watling operating as McCullum’s understudy with the gloves. A couple of months ago I wrote a piece (29.08.10 - He's a keeper..) where I said that I hoped the New Zealand selectors would use Watling as a potential keeping option over the likes of Gareth Hopkins. It is nice to see that I am at least on a similar wavelength to the powers that be.

Despite the hiding we received in Bangladesh, I remain optimistic about the Indian tour, if only to see some key individuals perform. I think New Zealand cricket is at an interesting juncture right now and I look forward to seeing how they shape up in the near future.

A team for the ages..

I think every cricket fan has fantasized about their ideal All-Time XI at some point or another, and now Cricinfo is giving readers the chance to pick their ideal side from a shortlist of the best eleven players from each of the Test playing nations.

http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/magazine/world_alltime.html

Naturally, I jumped at the chance.

Some of the players in my XI required almost no thought at all. Bradman, Tendulkar and Warne were all obvious inclusions, while Gilchrist was the only wicketkeeper on the list to catch my attention. The openers, all-rounders and fast bowlers required a little more consideration.

Overall I like to think I picked an aggressive side that would take the attack to the opposition, with both bat and ball. My bowling attack was picked for variety. Marshall for his pace, Wasim for the left-arm factor and - with Imran - his ability to reverse swing the ball, and Warne for his many and varied tricks. A couple of players were not necessarily picked because of their superior stats or because they are unquestionably the best in their particular position, but because of their immense stature within the game. For instance, Richards’ average of 51 is not all that overwhelming, but the fear he struck in opposition bowlers both as an aggressive middle-order batsman and as a symbol of West Indian dominance, makes him a must-have. 

There are a few notable omissions. I favoured Sobers and Imran as all-rounders over the likes of Hadlee, Botham and Kallis for a number of reasons. Sobers fits into this side as perhaps the most over-qualified number six in the history of the game. His batting average is colossal (second in this side only to Bradman’s) and his variety with the ball makes him an ideal fifth bowler. Imran makes the cut – narrowly pipping Hadlee – because of the aura that surrounds him, even now, and also for his ability to forge a champion side out of a group of wayward individuals. For this reason, he would also be my captain. Brian Lara also narrowly misses out. In my mind, the 1990’s battle for dominance between Lara and Tendulkar has all but been decided by the latter’s current renaissance. 

Gilchrist makes the side for the way in which he changed the role of the wicketkeeper in Test cricket, and Sehwag for the similar effect he is currently having on openers. The second opening spot was perhaps the hardest the pick. My eventual choice, Sir Len Hutton, basically sneaks in on the strength of his incredible stats (both in tests and first class cricket.) Sadly, New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka are not represented in my final XI, rather it reflects the sustained dominance of Australia and West Indies at different points.

My All-Time World XI:

Sir Len Hutton (England)
Virender Sehwag (India)
Sir Don Bradman (Australia)
Sachin Tendulkar (India)
Sir Viv Richards (West Indies)
Sir Gary Sobers (West Indies)
Adam Gilchrist†(Australia)
Imran Khan* (Pakistan)
Wasim Akram (Pakistan)
Shane Warne (Australia)
Malcom Marshall (West Indies)

A champion of sorts.. (part 2)

I had great intentions of writing a follow up to my Champions League post. I originally intended it to be about Chennai Super Kings and how I thought they were shoe-ins to take out this year's tournament. Unfortunately, it doesn't come across as quite such a revelation when that same team has already swept all before them and won the aforementioned tournament. My second idea was to write a piece stating all the reasons why the Super Kings were the deserving victors, however Cricinfo beat me to the punch with their fantastic statistical analysis:

http://www.cricinfo.com/t20champions2010/content/current/story/478867.html

So, I am reduced to my plan C, which is simply to say that despite my earlier observations about luck and Twenty20, Chennai have all the makings of a champion team in this format.

A champion of sorts.. (part 1)

The Champions League Twenty20 seems a strange tournament to me. Actually, the idea of crowning any one team in the game's shortest format at all seems slightly bizarre. My reason for saying this is that when cricket is boiled down to only twenty overs a side, fortune, as much as skill, plays a big part in deciding the outcome. It is a big assertion, I know, but I get the feeling that on his day, any batsman could score runs in Twenty20. It becomes a Law of Averages situation where even the most modest of cricketers is bound to strike it lucky at some point or other. And, as they say, fortune favours the brave (something T20 batsmen generally have in spades.) 

I think this rule applies to teams as well as individuals. Given relatively equal talent on both sides, a T20 match does not necessarily come down to which team is the more skillful, but to which team has the most assistance from Lady Luck. This is why the IPL in its three seasons so far has seen three different names engraved on the trophy. This is also why Deccan Chargers and Royal Challenge Bangalore eventually played out the final in 2009, despite the fact that Chennai Superkings and Delhi Daredevils were the more dominant teams over the course of the tournament. It is also why last years Champions League finalists, New South Wales and Trinidad and Tobago are not back competing in the tournament this year. Both sides, as talented as they are, could not even win their respective domestic competitions this time around. In fact, this year’s edition sees only Bangalore and Sri Lanka’s Wayamba backing up from 2009. 

T20, as you can see, is a fickle beast. The same side that scored 200-plus one week can be bowled out for less than a hundred the next. Of course, this can occur in all forms of cricket, but hardly to such an extreme and rarely with such frequency. This is why the Champions League title is slightly ridiculous. Is the title-holder the best domestic side on the planet? No. Is it the luckiest? Quite probably. 

(to be continued…)