England had a pretty mixed day yesterday. To get bowled out for 399, against an attack that isn’t the best, was extremely disappointing.
In the last year or so of Andy Flower’s regime, we developed an exasperating tendency to throw away strong positions because we weren’t ruthless enough with the bat. We failed to score 400 for a long stretch of matches, despite often being 250 odd with just a few wickets down. I was hoping this habit had gone away.
Having said that, the Windies bowled very well – so hats off to them. A few choice words from their bowling coach, a certain C.E.L. Ambrose, did the trick.
You wouldn’t exactly mess with the big guy, would you. He took 405 wickets at an extraordinary average of 20.99, and he’s over two metres tall. Respect, man.
Fortunately, England’s bowlers delivered the goods in the final two sessions and we’re actually in a strong position – despite making a slightly below par total.
Jimmy bowled very well – the dismissal of Devon Smith was an Anderson masterclass – and Broad looked somewhere close to his old self.
Broady’s pace was a little better than it was at the World Cup. I was quite relieved about this. Injuries can take their toll on a fast bowler, and Broad is nowhere near as effective when he’s operating at 80-82mph.
Although the wicket he picked up was actually something of a slower ball – he ran his fingers over the ball expertly to produce a fine leg cutter – it was encouraging to see Broad running in with a little more rhythm.
The performance of England’s support bowlers was particularly encouraging. Jordan bowled with more control than he’s shown for a while – he also showed a little more acceleration in his delivery stride – while Stokes was actually something of a revelation.
It’s no secret I’m a signed up member of the Stokes fan club. I like his aggression, and I like his batting, so it was great to see him bowling at 88mph on a consistent basis. What a shame about the wicket he took off a no-ball. Duh!
I don’t think many thought Stokes would be England’s fastest bowler in this match. I certainly didn’t. Perhaps he’s finding that all important extra yard of pace as his body matures. It’s this extra yard of pace that turned Andrew Flintoff into a world class all-rounder. Boy could we do with another of those.
I should also give James Tredwell a mention. Although I disagreed with the decision to pick Tredders for this tour – if they were going to take an off-spinner from Kent it should have been Adam Riley – the old sausage dog bowled really, really well.
I particularly liked the attacking off-stump line he bowled. Tredwell varied his pace very well and bowled with decent loop. The conditions suited him (the pitch is dry) and the Windies batsmen aren’t exactly awe inspiring, but he still performed his role admirably.
I just have one question, or rather observation, to make. It was well documented that Mooen Ali’s struggled in his first couple of test matches because he was bowling too slowly. The story goes that Ian Bell and Umpire Kumar Dharmasena told him to speed up if he wanted to be successful at the highest level. Thereafter Mo bowled at a fraction under 60mph and looked a different proposition altogether.
My question is therefore this: why was Tredwell often bowling at less than 50mph? I appreciate Mo and Tredders are different bowlers, but can you see better test players using Tredwell’s extra loop as an invitation to smack him back over this head with impunity? It’s an interesting talking point.
As always, feel free to add your comments about yesterday’s play, and the developing storylines on Wednesday, as play progresses.
James Morgan
@DoctorCopy
Unfortunately – and I’ve always been lousy at taking the positives even out of a disaster – nothing I have seen since Monday suggests we will do better this summer at home than previously predicted. Bell does his early season trick of a big score that will keep his place until September allowing him to follow up with some pretty 30s; Root can’t play off the back foot; Stokes can’t bowl much, which is fine as long as the management see him as a no 6 and 5th bowler….: Broad bowled a bit quicker; Jordan and Tredwell didn’t bowl rubbish and there might be a bit of life left in Jimmy after all.
England will score more runs that a limited WI batting line up; they will most likely win the series. It will not improve their chances this summer, Lyth will not get a game, but Cook and Moores will be harder to sack, with, sadly, justifiable reason
Broad bowled well, but the way he approaches his batting these days makes me spitting mad – he comes in and either ducks or swings at it. Yesterday, England needed him to stick around and try and get England up to 450 – at least make the Windies work for their wickets. A few years ago, I thought that he might make a fist of batting 7 for England, at the very least be an exceptionally good 8, but he doesn’t seem to bother his arse.
He and Cook are the main beneficiaries of the comfort of being a centrally contracted player. Whatever we think of Cook’s form and his merits as an opener, at least I know that he is working his butt off to try and put it right, and as a supporter, that’s fine by me. Broad approaches batting like it’s somebody else’s job, and seems to have used his smack in the face grill as an excuse to back away and swing at anything. Pathetic.
Yes, he’s certainly a walking wicket at the moment… I will say though especially with regards to his bowling, he does have this ongoing cycle, where he looks painfully innocuous and then remembers how to bowl and wins the next match.
Broad hasn’t been the same batsman since that horrendous smack in the face, and I, for one, can’t blame him. However Jimmy should now be batting above him – Jimmy’s on-drive for 4 was the shot of the day.
The problem with Tredwell is (and this is by no means his fault) he doesn’t ‘look’ like a top class cricketer, more a safe ‘pair of hands’ ‘solid county pro’ type, perhaps this is unfair and a little superficial but I don’t see many top sides being intimidated by his gentle off breaks.
He seems like a good bloke though and good luck to him, I hope he proves me wrong and gets a 5for later on :-)
It is of course short term with Mo returning in the summer, which makes it all the stranger for not throwing Rashid in – great point re:speed btw James
The crucial moment in yesterday’s play may well turn out to be Chanderpaul’s first ball. WI were 89/3 so England had a mere 310 runs in credit. Chanderpaul edged it in the air through third slip – for four because there was no third slip.
Everything wrong with Cook’s captaincy in a nutshell there. He doesn’t sense the moment to attack. Does anyone think Clarke or McCullum wouldn’t have had a third slip at that moment? It wasn’t even really that attacking and certainly not funky – just bog standard Test captaincy.
Didn’t he have a couple of players catching at short mid and short cover, which was a legitimate tactic given the pace of the pitch? Although it’s not a legitimate tactic if your bowler then fires one in short……
If Broad continues to take wickets and apply pressure then he should continue to be in the team, but should be shunted down the batting order until he is able to overcome his demons.
I though we did alright yesterday. The bowling was pretty good. Stokes was unlucky and at the same time a bit daft. Quality player though
The issue of the pace spin bowlers bowl at is an intriguing one for me. If it is now the view that spinners have to bowl at a certain pace to be successful why is this not coached at county level? And why do selectors not take this into consideration when picking them?
If you are going to pick someone for Test level surely you want them to come in and play their natural game. If they are not able to do what you want in the first place, is the Test arena the best place to start messing about with their techniques?
Wouldn’t it be better for England selectors to talk to county coaches, and the player himself to see if he can try this at the county level first? Maybe speed of delivery is not seen as something that is difficult to adjust to.
I have only one observation. Which is that Cook, the “greatest English batsman ever,” failed to perform. For a batsman at the top end of the order, his total was inadequate.
Now this is only the first innings of the first test, and there are more to come. But this is just a continuation of the poor form Cook has had for 2 years. Unless he is adding a LOT through his captaincy, one wonders just why he is in the squad. I’m certainly wondering what he’s doing at the top of the batting order.
Right now the rest of the team looks to be propping up an out-of-form captain who just isn’t pulling his weight. Perhaps he’ll show a return to form on this tour. For his sake I hope so. But if he continues the way he has been going, it’ll put pressure on Graves to make good on his threats and get rid of the dead weight.
Which raises two questions: who replaces him as captain, and who replaces him at the top of the order.
Listening to Swann on 5 Live he said that at the beginning of his spell he was bowling too quick. To get the most out of the crosswind, he needed to slow it down – giving the chance to get more loop and turn.
Broad has just got a wicket bowling at 79mph. What has happened to his pace?
Also if we get 399 on a flat track against Wi but are the Mitchells going to do to us this summer?
Second innings: Cook out for 13.
That has GOT to be the end of Alastair Cook’s England career.
Also – how does Trotty stay in the side, unless he comes in at 3 in preference to a guy who averages 56 in Tests?
You just know it won’t be though, England will scrape the series win and Cook will score a scratchy 50 or 2 and that will be enough for him to be walking out to bat against NZ.
wrong my friend – what they will do is move Trott to no.3 and bring in Lyth to open with Cook – balllance will lose his place not Cook – every little bit helps
On the other hand, we should remember that Graves becomes chairman in a few weeks’ time. I doubt he’ll tolerate failure for very long.
Prima Facia…Cook cant bat, Trott can’t bat, Broad cant bat…thats an 8 man team for starters! Even if we win the series against a side, which at best, is “mediocre” there should still be an enquiry!! Anyone else think that the NZ and Aus attack are quaking in their boots about the quality of the English openers to snuff them out??
IB Mc cos I can’t be arsed signing in on every comment!!
Now hold on a minute there ANOther, the journos who tell us that Cook is letting his bat do the talking? Well I never did. I expect they will also try and tell us that Cook is still a good captain! Blige me you couldn’t make up this stuff.
England are a disaster against this “mediocre” team, so called. I have seen a lot that impresses me about the Windies. England should be walking all over the Windies team but they are not. Some disastrous batting and bowling! If this is all we can come up with then there won’t be a sofa large enough to hide behind this summer.
and the bat said…”FFS!!”
LOL!
“England should be walking over this West Indies team and they are not”.
I’d dispute both of those statements.
West Indies recent home test record shows that they’re tough to beat. And 220 runs on with only 4 wickets down is, if not a walkover, certainly a very strong position.
Of course the team has problems, we all know that. But the scoreboard tells you that England are far from a disaster in this game, up to now.
Tongue in cheek my Anonymous friend. It is what the usual journo suspects expected. England were expected to walk all over the West Indies but they are not. Indeed in some departments they are floundering. As said I am impressed by a lot of the play by this Windies team. Again it just shows clearly just how bad this England team has become under the ECB management of the past 14 months. There are some good signs for England but big changes needed to be made.
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Now there’s this too:
James Anderson. An Inconvenient Truth http://t.co/DweVkRX0AC
Anderson a “very good” bowler rather than a great one? Fair enough. I’d agree with that.
And you know what? That’s good enough for me.
We spend too much time criticising players for what they’re not, rather than enjoying what they are. For what they can’t do rather than what they can. So he’s not as good as McGrath or Steyn? They’re 2 of the best to have ever played the game. But if you’re in the bracket below that (which Anderson is) then that still makes you pretty bloody good. Certainly a lot better than “average”.
Anderson at his best is one of the greatest bowlers England have produced. It’s the nature of swing bowling that when conditions don’t suit, his effectiveness is reduced. Botham was the same. But even then he’s managed to have outstanding series in 2 of England’s defining overseas wins – in Australia in 2010/11 and in India in 2012. Not bad for a bloke who can’t bowl overseas.
Jimmy might not be the very best. But he’s better than most. And he’s played a part in almost all of England’s great moments since he came back into the side. I’ll miss him when he’s gone – so I’m going to celebrate him while he’s here.
You don’t judge a bowler by the total number of wickets he takes; you judge him by his average and his strike-rate.
Neither Anderson’s average or strike-rate are anything to write home about. Having said that, he’s by far the best of a bad crop of recent English bowlers.
Tredwell’s slower bowling is particularly intriguing because the constant knock on Rashid (relayed to us by Mike Selvey) is that he bowls too slowly – at around the pace Tredders was bowling today…