No Choke This Time? Well batted Australia

So that was the international summer that was. It wasn’t perfect by any means but we should probably be grateful that we saw any live action at all. Massive thanks go to the West Indies, Pakistan and Australia too. We’ve actually seen some pretty good cricket at times even if the atmosphere was a tad surreal.

Yesterday’s third and final ODI was a case in point. It oscillated like a classic, records were broken, and the Aussies produced something special to win the game. Kudos to both Maxwell and Carey for making England rue their missed chances. It just goes to show that if you stick in there long enough then the game can change.

After they notched their centuries I half expected the Aussies to build an unassailable position before throwing it away again. However, the choke never materialised this time. Although Maxwell did his best by throwing his wicket away when the finishing line was in sight. Carey couldn’t quite see it through either but the damage was already done.

It’s hard to know what to make of England’s performance. To score 302 after losing both Roy and Root in the first over (the first two balls of the game!) was excellent. Jonny Bairstow was dominant, Sam Billings continued his good form, and Chris Woakes continues to prove his worth with both bat and ball.

The negatives, however, are that Jason Roy has looked in poor touch throughout the series and poor Joe Root looks a shadow of the players he once was.

One wonders whether Roy’s experiences as an opener in last years Ashes impacted his performances in this series? He never expected to be a Test opener and he certainly never wanted to be one either. I know this because he said it directly in a webinar I was invited to a couple of months back. He sounded quite pissed off at the whole situation to be honest.

It’s clear that the Aussie seamers have got the wood over Roy these days. This puts him at a psychological disadvantage before he’s even started. The effects have now seeped into white ball cricket. I feel a bit sorry for him really. The Australian seam attack is top class and they’re excellent at exploiting a less than perfect technique.

As for Root I find his current form really sad. He looks a mess from start to finish. His batting used to look beautifully simple and natural. Now he looks ugly. His balance looks off, his feet look laboured, and I still have issues with the face of his bat. It’s too open for my liking.

Root has been a massive disappointment for the last three years. Between 2014 and 2017 he averaged 97, 60, 50, and 51 in Test cricket. He was genuinely world class. One would normally expect a player in his late twenties to kick on and achieve even more but tragically we’ve seen the exact opposite. He’s averaged 41, 37, and 42 in his last three years. And we shouldn’t forget that his recent figures were inflated by that double hundred in Hamilton which was made on the most benign surface imaginable. Benign surfaces can hide underlying problems.

I’m very worried about Joe at this point. He’s currently an average international batsman when he’s capable of so much more. He’s just as talented as Smith, Kohli and Williamson but they’re miles ahead of him at the moment. Is he overthinking his batting? Probably. Is it the Test captaincy? Possibly. Should he consider hiring a new batting coach? Definitely. He’s worked incredibly hard on his technique but it’s just not working.

England also let Australia off in the field yesterday. They reduced the opposition 73-5 but let the game slip. Carey was caught off a no-ball and Jos Buttler dropped Maxwell. If either chance was taken then England would’ve won the game comfortably.

Although Woakes and Wood bowled well, and Archer came good at the end, the other bowlers didn’t really perform. Eoin Morgan’s captaincy was also a mixed bag for once. His decision to bowl Joe Root paid off big time. But his decision to trust Rashid with the final over seemed naive. Tom Curran would’ve been the safer bet, as Morgan himself has praised his death-bowling abilities in the past.

After impressing with ball in the T20s this summer, there was talk of Rashid being rushed back into the Test team. His legion of fans (he does seem to have quite a few) also started claiming that he’d matured as a cricketer and developed his skills. I’m afraid I saw zero of evidence of this in the last two ODIs.

Basically we all know (or should know) what Adil is at this point. He’s a decent leg-spinner. No more. No less. His value lies in bringing variety to any attack. But he’s not world class. And he’ll never be entirely reliable.

Rashid averages 40 in Tests, 32 in ODIs, 25 in T20s (which is probably his best format), and 35 in first class cricket. His list A average is 31. These are all respectable numbers and he’s a valuable member of the side. But I don’t quite understand the adoration. He’s not a protected species and should be praised and criticised according to his performances like any other player.

But perhaps I’ve been a bit too negative above. As I’ve said many times before I doubt anyone will even remember these games in a few months’ time. It’s disappointing to lose our first home ODI series for 5 years. And it’s also disappointing to lose our first home series against major opposition (sorry Ireland) since winning the World Cup. In fact, the South African cricket betting sites now think the Proteas stand a chance when we play them in a few weeks’ time. Hmmm.

However, the aim of the game in white ball cricket is to provide entertainment. And we’ve seen plenty of that this year. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed this international summer. I hope you did too.

James Morgan

16 comments

  • Yes, looking forward to watching the highlights. It seems to me that Roy, Butler and perhaps even Root are surplus to requirements. Roy has been on poor form all “season” . Ok he had a flawed technique but one in five innings he can play a blinder. Not now it seems. Butler is post 30 and despite his obvious talent isn’t making the big ODI scores. Maybe he’s concentrated on his Test techniques too much. And his keeping is just bad. As James says above Root is but a shadow of his former self for all many of debatable reasons, not the least the burden of captaincy.
    Banton is a more organised player than Roy and surely Malan deserves a place? Billings is a better keeper than Butler, but then almost anyone is. Rashid I’ve never been a great fan of, but he does add variety in one day cricket. Too expensive for Tests though.
    And yes Curran should have bowled the last over, but the damage was done by then. Morgan made an uncharacteristic error of judgment. It happens.

    • Re`Buttler’s batting: that very much depends how far back you go. Since about halfway through the WC he’s struggled, but in his previous 26 innings to that he’d scored five hundreds at an average of over 60. That’s up there with the best in the world.

      I wonder if his poor returns this series were more than anything a result of being in the bubble for so long–maybe he was subconsciously a bit demob happy. One thing this points to for me is that the players who played in the test series and the one-dayers against Australia and are in the IPL (that’s Buttler, Archer and Sam Curran) really need to be rested from the SA series if it goes ahead in December.

  • Enjoyed the game and actually did mind Australia winning on this occasion!

    Some odd calls – leaving Rashid until Maxwell and Carey were well set and then keeping him on when he was getting tonked. Meanwhile, Archer, Wood and Curran had overs to bowl.

    Bringing back Rashid near the end was a reasonable throw of the dice and Maxwell was an idiot for trying to win it with four more hoiks than just nudge it for a run a ball. Having got his wicket and then Carey a tremendous catch from Wood, bringing Rashid on for the final over was seriously risky with only two hits needed to win the game.

    At least they won fair and square.

  • Great partnership to win a great game to end what has been a thrilling summer. A lot of people deserve a lot of credit for getting it on. Hard to criticise Morgan, who is one of the best ever one-day captains in my view, but I bet Starc couldn’t believe his luck after walking out expecting to face a 93 mph over from Wood with 10 still needed!
    Couple of other thoughts: a Buttler drop has again cost England the match yet again – his batting overall has been excellent this summer, but it’s still being more than cancelled out by his keeping. Secondly, Archer has been good and very quick in the T20s and ODIs, but he seems to have been a bit sloppy this summer too – more wides than usual and no-balls, which are criminal in this format.
    Root, I agree, is sad to watch.

  • Watched the ECB-edited highlights – thanks for mentioning that Buttler dropped a catch because they didn’t bother including it (although they did include the no-ball wicket).

    I’m struggling to explain why I had no interest in watching. The lack of a crowd and of a context didn’t help but I’ve watched games where both applied before. The root problem is that I don’t have any belief left in the integrity of what’s going on out there. Matches (and especially if they are series deciders between two desperate boards) that go down to the last over are as suspicious to me as any involving M.S. Dhoni. I had doubts about the integrity of the WC and no doubts at all about the Headingley Test, it wasn’t genuine. The next Test, if anyone needs reminding, just happened to make record profits which wouldn’t have been the case with England 2-0 down.

    The captaincy is a mess. Everyone else is either too old (Anderson and Broad), not sure enough of their place in the team (Burns, Woakes and Ali) or already carrying too much of a load (Stokes and Buttler).

    Meanhwile, the ECB are sacking about 20% of their staff. Not keeping 100% of their staff on 80% pay but sacking 20% of their staff. “All in this together”? It appears some are more in it than others. The ECB rushed out a story that the counties aren’t going to have cuts when they realised how awful it was sounding – but look carefully and that “commitment” is so hedged in caveats as to be worthless. The plan to create three divisions is obviously to isolate the bottom six counties and leave them exposed a little down the road.

  • How the he’ll did we lose that! Is the cry.
    You can’t let decent sides off the hook like that. All front line batsmen’s out with less than 20 overs gone. Should have been 87-6 but for Archer’s no ball, which would have finished them. Well though Maxwell and Carey batted they rode their luck a bit, especially against Rashid, Buttler dropping another crucial catch, though I am with others on this blog dismayed when Rashid bowled the last over, having conceded getting on for twice Wood’s tally at the time and he having an over left. Surely it’s more difficult for tail Enders to hit 90mph deliveries. Just bowl straight and make sure you have your third man and long leg on the fence for edges.
    A big thank you to Ireland, West Indies, Pakistan and Australia for providing such good entertainment under such trying conditions. It’s helped a lot to mitigate the dirth of live sporting action and along with the Bob Willis trophy, which allowed a lot of promising youngsters an opportunity, it’s brought a small measure of normality to all cricket fans this summer.

  • Don’t think the problem was the choice of Rashid, but the fact that he bowled a rank bad ball – with 10 to get, the last thing you want is a boundary ball 1st up – don’t understand the thinking of tossing one up. If he’d chosen Curran, he could have just as easily bowled one in the slot as well and had the same result.

    • True, but the question is who was more likely to bowl a bad ball?

      Wood or Curran may have bowled a wide when aiming for a wideish yorker but I think Rashid bowls more bad balls than either of those two.

      We will never know.

      Still, it was an exciting finish. Australia rode their luck but were deserved winners.

  • I agree with all those who wondered what on earth Morgan was thinking of when he gave the final over to Rashid instead of Wood. What No 9 batsman would rather face a 93+ bowler under lights with 10 to win than a wrist spinner? Morgan is probably the best ODI captain in world cricket but how on earth did he miscalculate his bowlers so that the 2 fastest men both bowled one less than their 10 over quota? I also disagree with the criticism of Roy. His first dismissal ,( c and b Hazlewood) had more than an element of bad luck about it. You can train for most types of catch but it is impossible to replicate a fiercely hit return catch when you are off balance.How many times do you see that sort of catch go to ground or missed, even sometimes injuring the poor bowler. He was more likely to have run out the other batsman! In the second game, he had scored 21 runs until Root called for a suicidal run. The pity was that the fielder chose to run out Roy! The last game Roy did what he is trained to do and was unlucky enough to hit it straight to a fielder in an unusual position.

    No. Australia didn’t choke this time. We took our eye off the situation because we thought it game over when we had them 5 down.

    Finally, when are we going to learn that fielding a county standard wicket keeper, however good he is a batter, will lose more tight games than it will win. Foakes for England in both test and ODI internationals.

  • I’m not sure that Roy’s run is much different from the trough he had in 2017 or the shorter but equally intense one in 2018. It’s what he does. He’s capable of playing amazing, match-changing innings quite often, and going through slumps where it looks like he doesn’t know where his next run is coming from quite often. For that reason, I don’t think he’s in quite the same league as Bairstow as a ODI opener–although at his best he’s magnificent.

    It’s crossed my mind that it might be worth swapping Buttler and Roy in the batting order. Given that ODIs are frequently breakneck from the start these days, I’m not sure I still see the logic of having an explosive finisher: it seems more effective to have your most reliably explosive batsmen able to face 150 balls rather than 60 or 70.

  • Well one day cricket is all about if’s and but’s isn’t it. That’s often what makes a good game with a great finish. I’d rather have that than one side bowled out for 150 and the game effectively dead half way thru, which often happens. Trouble is people analyse one day far too deeply, especially the hit and giggle which is no more than a bit of fun for the drinkers. Morgan cocked up and should have bowled Curran, the best one day finisher in the business. It happens, but he’s also the best ODI captain around.
    I would hope that the WC Final and Headingley test were not err.. manufactured. My gripe with the WC Final was and still is, that it was an incorrect result

  • At the risk of over-analysing…!

    IS Tom Curran the best one-day finisher around? He rather has that reputation, but I seem to remember a piece just before the WC suggesting, based on his death-over figures, that it was pretty unwarranted. I’d be interested to see a comparison between Curran and Rashid as death bowlers.

    Out of interest, why was the WC final an incorrect result? I can see that it was based on a stupid rule, but incorrect?

    • As I understand it, prior to the super over, when Stokes dived in to make his ground and deflected the ball to the boundary it was given as 6, but as the 2nd run hadn’t been technically completed when the ball hit the bat, it should have been given as 5.

    • That might make it an incorrect decision, but it doesn’t make it an incorrect result, any more than having a batsman who’s batting really well wrongly given out LBW invalidates the whole result. That’s because–unless it happens off literally the last ball of the game–you don’t know how the teams would have reacted to a different decision.

      • Quite so, but equally at the time we were struggling to make their total and it would certainly have altered something if we were to win. Stokes would have had to do something differently.
        Most critics aren’t saying we would have lost, just it would have changed the way the last couple of overs played out where we were hardly certainties to win. Equally as you say you could go back to earlier in the game and point to a couple of controversial decisions, but you expect the officials to get the rules right on such a big occasion.
        It’s another case of how technology with its numerous slow motion camera angles changes so much. How many great innings and matches of the past would be no more than a footnote and replaced with others where the inclusion of techno-assessment changes umpiring decisions.

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