Eng 247-2 stumps
After being a right royal pain in the bum at Lord’s, Ravi Jadeja finally gave England something to smile about today. He shelled a straightforward chance at slip, gave our beleaguered skipper a second life, and potentially breathed new life into an England team that barely has a pulse these days.
The relief around the Ageas Bowl was palpable. Maybe Cook’s luck was finally turning? He could have been out to the very first ball of the match: he felt for the ball outside off-stump, nicked it in all too familiar fashion, but it dropped short of slip.
After making India’s pedestrian attack look rather more potent than they actually are for an hour or so, Cook finally started to move his feet more convincingly. He even played an off-drive. A rare sight indeed.
As his innings progressed, Cook looked nailed on for a ton. He’s made a career of scoring big runs against modest attacks on slow, true batting surfaces – applying himself and minimising mistakes is easily his best quality as a batsman – but alas, it wasn’t meant to be this time.
The skipper rode his luck early on, but his good fortune finally ran out. How frustrating to fall to a leg-side strangle when a well deserved hundred was in sight. When Cook gets his eye in, he usually goes big. This time there was just big disappointment for a supportive crowd.
Although Cook was the big story of the day, the real star was Gary Ballance. The young Yorkie showed just how easy batting was today. He now has three hundreds in his first six tests, a tremendous effort.
As for India’s bowlers, the least said the better. The accuracy they showed at Lord’s was badly missing.
England actually made a massive mistake by preparing a green top at Lord’s. When pitches assist the seamers, it actually brings the two attacks closer together.
In the dark days of the mid-1990s, England’s consolation wins always occurred at Headingley, where the likes of Neil Mallender proved unplayable. It didn’t matter how fast or skilful bowlers were because the pitch did all the work.
At the Ageas Bowl today, on a flat pitch, India’s attack was exposed for what it really is: one paced and about as threatening as a cat whose claws have been removed. I simply do not understand why Ashwin, their one truly world class bowler, isn’t playing.
Unfortunately, England’s attack isn’t exactly in great shape either these days. Our bowlers are taller and a bit quicker, but it won’t be easy to take twenty wickets on this.
The key is how Broad bowls. When Broady is fully fit, he’s pretty fast and nasty. However, the Broad we’ve seen in this series is a replica of the Broad who played at home against South Africa in 2012: injured and medium pace.
In my opinion Broad should not be playing. His knee condition needs managing. The decision to retain Broad (one imagines he insisted on playing, despite his dubious fitness) while dropping Plunkett and Stokes was extremely weak management from Moores.
India rested Ishant Sharma in this match because he had a slight niggle. It was disappointing for Dhoni that his match-winner was missing (another huge break for Cook!) but India will benefit in the long run.
Meanwhile, England continue to flog their opening bowlers like carthorses – irrespective of fitness, exhaustion, or indeed performances.
At Lord’s it was Anderson and Broad, the new ball bowlers, who blew it for England. How typical that the management responded by dropping the change bowlers instead.
James Morgan
Finally, Cook has something to smile about. He deserved a hundred for his graft even against a limited attack. Dhoni’s tactics were desperately negative from mid afternoon onwards – Jadeja bowling flat at leg stump to a 7-2 legside field, the seamers going wide to a 7-2 offside one – but on such a flat pitch without his best quick bowler you can’t blame him. Off the field, the Rose Bowl were greatly improved from the shambles of their last Test – good weather obviously helped but showed they’ve learnt from the mistakes of 2011. Access much easier and they didn’t shut the bar this time!
It was pleasing to see Cook score some runs (though it was hardly entertaining to watch), likewise Balance batted well. But at 247-2 England meandered through the day hardly taking the initiative and whilst you can’t blame Cook for taking his time England will need to get a move on tomorrow if they are to score enough runs and leave time to bowl India out twice.
Indeed, whilst Dohni’s tactic appeared negative there was some sense to his fields. Jadeja’s 2-7 field only had one man on the boundary stifling the easy pushed singles and offered England the chance to hit it through or over the 3 close catchers and 3 in the ring. England declined and the game didn’t rush away from India, and they may yet still be in the game. Dohni could hardly have done more.
Finally, and disappointingly, they haven’t sorted out their transport issues. Coming from Christchurch it took 30 mins to get closeto J5 on the M3 but then took around 75mins to get to the park and ride due to volume of traffic. We arrive some 30 mins after the start. Thankfully we didn’t miss much, but hardly sorted!
Now come on….. The official line is that Plunkett is being rested for OT :-)
“REJOICE, REJOICE” seems to be the tone of the media coverage following Cooks innings yesterday. BBC test match special was cringe worthy in its eulogising of Cook. The usual brain dead former players, turned pundits could hardly control themselves. An innings of bravery, character, technique. Everything in England’s green and pleasant land is back to normal.
But as Jarrod Kimber points out on cricket info, Cook was applauded for “not failing” What Cook did yesterday was Classic Cook. A Flat track bully against a very week bowling attack. If you think Mitchell Johnson or Ryan Harris will allow Cook to push forward on his front foot next summer then good luck.
What is even more weird is apparently this innings turns Cook into a great captain again. HELLO? You are kidding me? Having 500-600 on the board will demonstrate Cooks greatness as a captain, so the experts claim. Well if you can’t captain with 600 to defend you never will.
There is something deeply weird about the cult of Cook loving. Does he have a hereditary line back to Jesus? As I speak TMS on BBC has Agnew interviewing another Cook lover, and another ex Bedford school pupil Al Murray. All critics of Cook are idiots is the party line.. These people are like the Moonies.
I find it incredibly odd. Cook’s career record is no better than Bell’s and marginally worse than Trott and Pietersen. Yet he’s always been the special one, despite a terrible record in the series which matter most: the ashes. In my opinion he will always be a decent / good test opener but nothing special due to his glaring technical failures. It’s great he scored runs, but his innings really wasn’t that impressive next to the efforts of Buttler, Ballance and Bell. The media love affair with him is just bizarre. It started when he played for Eng u19. After hearing all the hype I was quite underwhelmed when I saw him play for the first time
[…] test. Alastair Cook is nearly out to the first ball of the match and is dropped on 15 plays the finest innings in the history of test cricket. When a few spectators applaud the captain’s half century, Mike Selvey has an orgasm. England […]