England 267-3
That was easy. In fact, today couldn’t have gone much better. We won a crucial toss (the surface is very dry and will surely help Graeme Swann in the fourth innings), Alastair Cook scored yet another patient hundred, and KP and Trott made some runs too. The only negative was the early dismissal of the skipper. Well, you can’t have everything.
The most pleasing aspect of the day, however, was that we made South Africa’s much vaunted pace attack look toothless and average. Ok, the pitch was good for batting, but what surprised me was their lack of aggression. There were few short balls – and plenty of puzzled looks and shrugged shoulders instead. I didn’t understand their tactics.
The best of the Cricketbok’s attack was Morne Morkel, who had one of his good days. Steyn also bowled reasonably well, but we played him well.
But what about Vernon Philander, the guy who averages an astonishing 15 with the ball in his short test career; the guy South Africans have been saying is the best thing since sliced break and bottled beer. Well, I’m happy to report that our predictions proved accurate. He looked like a bog standard county seamer. In fact, he reminded me somewhat of Praveen Kumar, but without the personality and aggression.
In the run up to this series I’ve been telling anyone prepared to listen that Philander isn’t someone to be feared. He has taken a lot of wickets for sure, but I saw most of them on TV. They came on pitches akin to the Riverside in May. The kind of pitches that make John Lewis look unplayable.
Given that the Oval is a flat wicket, Philander was shown up for what he is: an honest, accurate seamer, but someone who wouldn’t get near the England Lions side, let alone the full England team. His lack of pace (he often struggled to reach 80mph) is a problem, and unless the ball swings he does not have the skills to take wickets on all surfaces at the highest level. There, I said it. Now watch him destroy us in the remaining games (ahem).
It was also interesting watching Imran Tahir bowl. He’s another bowler who splits opinion. I actually think he’s a decent spinner. He’s had more success in county cricket than Philander over the years, and I expect he’ll cause us problems in the second innings. Having said that, for every person that rates Tahir, there are plenty of others who think he’s the second coming of Chris Schofield or Beau Casson. I think I’ll reserve judgement.
With the score on 267-3 England have a great opportunity to establish a commanding position tomorrow. If we can push on towards 500 – which won’t be easy, as Steyn and Morkel are bound to come good at some point – we’ll be in great shape; especially if the pitch deteriorates as much as the experts seem to think.
So after day one we’re in a pretty buoyant mood really. The only annoyance is that this test clashes with The Open golf. Try as I might, I haven’t yet devised a way to watch two channels at once with just one pair of eyes.
James Morgan
Personally I found the KP dismissal very frustrating. Coming when it did, it could easily have resulted in us being 250-5 at close. We’ve all seen Bell and Bopara come and go quickly in the past…
Still, the great thing about KP is that he can do amazing things at any moment. Alas, this includes getting out to medium pace leg-side bouncers.
One bad day against the greatest team of his era doesn’t make Philander a poor bowler, no more than Steyn.
As for the county stats, there seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about this – County averages are not a great indicator of how players perform in tests. People often remark that Gower didn’t do so well. However, the Gower point adds nothing. When there’s nothing else to go on (selecting new players) they are naturally the best evidence. Gower’s first class average wasn’t used as an argument that he was a poor test player, and Philander’s is likewise irrelevant. Donald had a worse average in first class cricket than tests, despite having to face the mighty Australians in the latter. Of course, Philander isn’t going to continue to average 15 in test cricket, but I predict he will continue to show that he is top class, if injury premits.
On Imran Tahir, he’s no world beater, but he might be the best spinner SA have had since re-introduction (excepting a brief flash of Paul Adams). He’s also a decent bat for a number 11, good enough to turn a match one day with a few runs, or by hanging around.
This is a low bar: Symcox, Eksteen, Boje, Henderson, Peterson, Botha, Harris.. yuck! Symcox was a decent cricketer. A strong challenger to Swann for the title of most fearsome no.10. Harris was a competitor. But SA have fallen consistently far short of the mark in the search for a world-class spinner. Boje must be a contender for the most modest player to have played 40+ test matches for a major cricketing nation, if we exclude hopeless England test sides of the 90s (when England dipped below the standard of “major nation”). How many did Vasbert Drakes play?
I raise you Kamran Akmal who played 53 Tests for Pakistan.
Too many bowled dismissals in this England innings.
kamran akmal had some very poor matches with the gloves. however, he also had some marvellous performances with the bat, and may have been the best of the akmals with the bat. (although the youngest may have started better).
the effort to replace Ambrose and Walsh didn’t go so well for a while. but Vasbert Drakes only played 12! Damn.. he was my banker. it could be, in my view, that Boje’s replacement, Harris, has the next worst non-English games-to-merit ratio. But he was a bit better than Boje and he played fewer games. i’m sure there’s someone i’ve forgotten. I’m sure that the saffers have had a middle order batsman or two who seems to have had far too many chances.