So England have arrived in South Africa – a nation of biltong, wildlife, beautiful scenery, guns, macho men, and foreigners spouting generalised clichés. South Africa is also home to the world’s best test team – or so we’re repeatedly told. Most of us realise this is a bit of a fib though. The Proteas might be ranked number one (by a whisker) but there’s no dominant team in test cricket right now. The world is awash with teams in transition – teams with some strengths but also glaring...
Buttler Pops the Corks
This new England ODI side never ceases to amaze me. Every time I try to lower expectations, and keep things in perspective, they pull their pants down and give me the big moon. How on earth is a cynical supporter, who has become accustomed to false dawns over the years, expected to interpret all this? It doesn’t compute. England batted brilliantly today. The bowlers weren’t quite so hot, but they did enough. That’s all that matters. We’ve won another series and done it playing really...
Slow batting, runs outs and chucking – the 5th ODI
It’s a shame nobody could be bothered to go to yesterday’s deciding ODI at Edgbaston. They missed a game with plenty of talking points, not least Senanayake’s controversial run out of Jos Buttler. It was rather a shrewd move by the Sri Lankan spinner: it means nobody will be talking about his suspicious bowling action now. I am, of course, being facetious. Senanayake was perfectly entitled to do what he did. For me, the key fact is that Buttler was warned twice beforehand, and had received...
Worrying signs as Moores makes abject start
On the face of it, a nine run loss to the World T20 champions doesn’t sound too bad. England made a game of it, at least. I should stress, therefore, that my headline refers to the performance of the England head coach yesterday, rather than the players’ efforts. Let’s not beat around the bush here. England lost this game because of poor selection, a poor batting strategy, and a catastrophic dropped catch by a player that should not have been playing (so again, a mistake arising from poor...
And so the “new era” begins
Peter Moores’ second stint in charge of the England team begins in earnest on Tuesday night with a T20 match at The Oval. The Full Toss will be in attendance, of course, to sample the atmosphere and gauge enthusiasm for the new regime. Although we won’t be able to read too much into the crowd’s response to Moores’ England, as T20’s at The Oval tend to attract a lot of casual fans who are more familiar with Paul Dowton’s career in The City than his past life as a wicket-keeper, it will be...
A hard slog ahead
Another day, another T20 defeat for Ashley Giles’ beleaguered squad. The days when Britannia ruled the T20 waves seem a long, long, bloody long, time ago. When I look at England’s side on paper, we have a few useful cricketers, but we just can’t seem to get our strategy right. We’re also clearly lacking confidence, and it’s hard to know how a bland character like Giles can turn things around. Having said that, the best team doesn’t always win T20 contests. There’s little ebb and flow during...
