Eng 294 (50 overs). Shane Watson 297 (49.1 overs)
A couple of days ago we asked if the ODIs mattered. After our loss to the Aussies on Sunday I think we can safely say ‘of course not, it’s just a bit of hit and giggle’. Had we won, however, we might have given you a different answer – but we won’t tell our antipodean friends that, will we.
Seriously though, we shouldn’t be too disappointed with the result. We were missing our two best seam bowlers (Anderson and Broad), both of whom will be back in time for the World Cup, and it could have been oh so different had we had the rub of the green.
Shane Watson batted well – it would be churlish to claim otherwise – but he could have been caught on several occasions. I lost count of the number of times an aerial shot fell agonisingly short of the fielders, or drifted just beyond a fielder’s outstretched hand. On another day, Watson wouldn’t have made a century and England would have won. Besides, he was bound to make a ton one day, right?
It was the same in the second T20 game. Had Morgan’s slog to midwicket fallen a couple of meters to the left, rather than landing in a Canary Yellow breadbasket, and had KP’s fluent drive been placed a foot further to the right, again England would have won.
Instead, we’ve lost two games by the slimmest of margins. The difference was just bad luck, as opposed to Aussie good fortune. With the World Cup still a few weeks away, the performance is probably more important than the result. Oh and who won the Ashes anyway? We can always fall back on that one.
I think we all knew this CB series was going to be tough. Australia are still the number one ranked team in limited overs cricket – an amazing feat considering that they play with nine men (Mitchell Johnson and Steve Smith surely don’t count) – and the Aussies were always going to play hard in the ODIs in the pretence that winning them might be some form of compensation for their Ashes thrashing (which of course, it isn’t).
We ask you this, my friends. If the ghost of WG Grace had appeared to you in a dream eight weeks ago and offered you a 3-1 Ashes win, with all three victories coming by an innings, you’d have snapped his hand off. And if he’d said ‘the price of winning the urn is a 0-7 whitewash in the subsequent CB series’, you’d have probably said ‘no worries beardy, give me the Ashes and sod the ODI bashes’.
Consequently, we encourage everyone to think of this unnecessarily long CB series as an extended run of practice matches. Trial runs if you like. With the World Cup around the corner, we need to figure out whether Shahzad and Tremlett have a role to play. We also need to find out whether Steve Davies can be the pinch hitter at the top of the order (we’ll need to get off to a flyer on the subcontinent).
The other bloke under the spotlight is Mike Yardy. Is he a skilful enough bowler for the longer form of limited overs cricket? He’s effective in T20, but you have to ask whether Paul Collingwood, with his effective off-cutters, would be a better all round package for the World Cup – especially as Yardy is the nearest thing we’ve had to a wheelie bin in the field since Ashley Giles retired.
What do you think?
James Morgan
Um – all valid comments – but when it comes to Australia – yes… they all matter!
I’m glad to read that others haven’t written Paul Collingwood off; he has a huge amount of experience, is a terrific fielder, has some very useful bowling in him …. and has a ODI batting average of over 35 (coughs).
If you’d had the rub of the green??? If the Aussies had a keeper who had any idea how to stand up to slow bowlers, you might not have had the rub of the green quite so much as you did.
Half of the Aus fans are so busy wanting to thrash Haddin to within an inch of his life, I’m not even sure they know they won.
Rub of the green??? But there were shots that fell in spaces for England as well.
And what about Haddin misses 5 chances next match? Will that make up for him only missing 3 stumpings and a catch in this one?
He’ll have to make a stumping at some time this summer though. He’s only missed 6 so far without managing one.
Sorry my Aussie friends. The incompetence of the opposition doesn’t count as luck. It counts as incompetence!
We’re talking about aimless slogs that just happened to fall safe. That’s real lottery stuff. Nothing to do with skill. The intangibles.