Bloody fantastic! It feels great to write about something positive for a change. The team has been heavily criticised over the last few months, and rightly so, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the performance at the Ageas Bowl. It was the perfect team effort. Congratulations all round.
It’s important not to go over the top – we all know this side is capable of mindless cricket as well as the inspired variety – but let’s just enjoy this victory without worrying too much about the future.
At the very least, this win shows that our new England side are a determined bunch, full of vibrant young cricketers, who don’t let their heads drop. They’ve bounced back incredibly well. Perhaps all the attention on Alastair Cook has enabled the others to play with more freedom?
Every single player, with the possible exception of Sam Robson (let’s say he fielded well), can be pleased with his performance. Even Woakes and Jordan played their part: they didn’t pick up the wickets Stokes and Plunkett might have done, but they still bowled tidily. Meanwhile, Jordan’s catch to dismiss Pujara off Moeen was a bit special. Test matches hinge on moments like that.
Obviously the fact that England’s senior players turned up was crucial. Cook and Bell finally lived up to the hype, Anderson was immaculate, and Broad contributed useful spells too. As for the young players, they just keep on impressing.
Let’s just make this absolutely clear. Kevin Pietersen and Jonathan Trott are not being missed. Ballance and Root have been revelations. I doubt the old guard would have scored more. England problems this summer have been tactical, strategic, and exacerbated by a lack of confidence and leadership. The young guys have rarely been at fault.
The performance of Moeen Ali in this match is a prime example. Once he had earned Cook’s trust, he bowled with good flight and guile. I have been telling anyone prepared to listen (and quite a few who weren’t) that England won’t pick a so called specialist spinner because guys like Kerrigan aren’t much better than Ali with the ball anyway. I now feel vindicated.
Thus far in his short test career, Moeen averages 37 with the bat and 32 with the ball. If the mark of a genuine all rounder is a guy who averages less with the ball than he does with the bat, then The Beard to be Feared (or Revered!) is doing pretty well. His career stats are already better than Flintoff’s (strange but true). Yes, Moeen has room for improvement, but he’s on the right track – unlike the Israeli / Palestinian peace talks (ahem).
We should also give Cook the captain his due. Critics might point out that it’s easy to captain a side with a huge score on the board (Ricky Ponting won so many tests for a reason), but Alastair also got all the major decisions right: he won the toss and batted, got two declarations spot on (in my opinion), and made some good bowling changes – the decision to introduce Moeen after just 13 overs of India’s second innings is the kind of thing Michael Clarke would do – and he even scored some runs too!
The key for England now is consistency. As Maxie pointed out yesterday with more than a hint of sarcasm, this is just one win out of ten. What’s more, we shouldn’t forget it has come against a young India team that’s notoriously inconsistent and missing their two best bowlers.
Don’t get me wrong, Cook’s runs are extremely welcome, but until he has led from the front against genuine top class seam bowling – the kind Australia will surely bring next summer – the jury should remain out. Can the skipper finally deliver signature innings against fast bowlers on spicier pitches?
The fact remains that Cook has only made runs against top class fast bowling twice in his career: at Perth in 2006 (an aberration in what was otherwise a chastening series) and at Durban in 2009. He also scored one other hundred against South Africa at the Oval in 2012, but it came on an absolute featherbed (South Africa racked up 637-2!). His technique will therefore need to improve before the Ashes. Although his driving down the ground suggested things are beginning to click again, India’s bowling was too indisciplined (not to mention medium-paced) to push the ball across him, on a full length, with regularity and potency.
One really hopes this is a turning point for Cook and England, but the truth is nobody knows. Only time will tell. Turning point or aberration? Much will depend, in the short term, on the outcome of the Jimmy Anderson hearing.
If India manage to get Anderson banned – although I personally fail to see how an international sportsman wearing a helmet and wielding a 3lb bat could possibly be intimidated by a relatively skinny bloke with boy band looks (and no bat) – then England’s revival could prove short lived.
The whole affair, in my view, draws parallels with football (where players routinely try to get each other banned). Having said that, rules are rules, and if Jimmy is found guilty then he must pay the penalty.
It all seems so unnecessary though. My best guess is that it’s a clash of two contrasting cultures. Had this incident happened in an England versus Australia game, the players probably would have sorted things out over a beer at the end of play. After all, when Warner punched Joe Root last year England decided not to press charges.
Unfortunately however, I get the feeling that pushing someone in India is a kind of big deal. Dhoni obviously believes that a line has been crossed, no matter how trivial it all seems to us.
James Morgan
Culture certainly has something to do with it. Sub continent teams have long been pissed off as to why abuse of players is greeted lightly by officials, but over appealing is penalised. (Chris Broad is not a favourite match referee) But I think it is wrong to just keep saying its banter as some ex players claim.. There is banter and then there is abuse. Ian Chappell has been saying for a while it is only a matter of time before a player gets fed up being abused and punches some one on the jaw. I think some teams are just fedup being abused by Anderson. He should never have been anywhere near the Indian batsman as they left the field. I don’t know what went on afterwards but you can’t lay a finger on another player. And if India can prove that (a big if) then Jimmy could be in trouble. My guess is they can’t, and Jinmmy will not get a ban.
ICC have to take part of the blame for not cracking down on the worst aspects of abuse by players. We can all just imagine the out cry if an Indian player had decided to smack Anderson over the head with his bat. Is that what it’s going to take?
Great points, Mark. Anderson has sailed very close to the wind for some time now, and maybe a flashpoint was always going to occur (by which I don’t mean to imply he’s guilty of what he’s accused of).
It will be very interesting to see what pans out. What is the standard of proof required? How much of the evidence will be disclosed afterwards?
The stakes are very high – the BCCI and ECB have invested so much in each other now. Would Duncan Fletcher risk this unless he was very confident of the outcome? Would England risk a denial unless they were equally confident?
Positives from this test;
Cook leading from the front, do not underestimate that toss call. An under pressure captain faced with what the experts felt was a 50/50 call (I couldn’t see that) could have easily threw the ball to Jimmy and said over to you. He didn’t and this paid off.
Buttler, I thought it was too soon. it may well be but an exemplary debut.
Bell, only a minor positive. He needs to do it when no-one else does (been said a million times before)
Ballance, what a player.
Mo, a free thinker who plays with no stress. A fixture for a long time to come, could he open?
Negatives;
On the opening day I was aghast at the plunkett omission, but maybe with the Jimmy ban looming that was the right call.
No spinner; you may say why? I was bellowing for a spinner to play this game, the rose bowl turns. if they have one in mind this was the venue. Ali bowled lots, not because Cook had a change of heart but because he was his only option.
conclusion;
The young lads have performed all summer, in this test the established players stood up. add the two together and guess what…. you win games.
long may it continue.
@njhcricket
“Bell, only a minor positive. He needs to do it when no-one else does (been said a million times before)”
Wow. It’s like the 2013 Ashes never happened. Never in all my born days have I come across such an under-appreciated Test cricketer. What you don’t hear from all those who dutifully trot out this stuff about how he “only scores centuries when others do”, is that his career has overlapped with those of Cook (most Test centuries for England), Pietersen (second most) and Strauss (joint fourth by number, joint sixth by individual), as well as Trott (nine hundreds in a short time). And all four of them were usually batting ahead of Ian Bell in a period of sustained success for the team. I shouldn’t need to say it, but doesn’t this make it almost inevitable that he will rarely be the only century-maker? No-one, to my knowledge, has ever laid the same accusation at Matt Prior, even though 3 of his 7 Test centuries came in team innings where a cumulative total of seven hundreds had already been scored (debut, Port of Spain 2009 and Sydney 2011). Presumably not many people went round saying it about Richie Richardson or Damien Martyn either.
What more could Bell have done than average 45 over his career? Or, uniquely amongst that England top five, just over 50 since The Oval 2009? Even some of his most important sub-100 innings (Oval 2009, Cape Town 2009/10, Auckland 2012/13) are routinely overlooked by people who just want to praise (respectively) Trott, Collingwood and Prior.
I can only conclude that the confirmation bias faced by Ian Bell is insurmountable.
PS For those familiar with Guardian BTL, I am not Thepoetseye, though I know how he feels sometimes.
Yes it’s funny how people completely forget Bells 3 hundreds last year in the Ashes. Without them England may have lost that series. And yet the likes of the weasel Newman is always putting pressure on him. Funny stories seem to appear in the Mail attacking him.
Unlike a certain batsman from Essex who has not scored a 100 for quite a while.
Superb points, Arron, as always. I completely agree – Bell is perennially under-rated, and derided by virtue of a lazy mythology which bears only slight relation to the facts.
This seems to happen so often in English cricket culture – a seductive paradigm emerges, and then people cling to anything which chimes with it, and ignore anything which doesn’t.
Cook himself is actually an example of this – he may have been a public schoolboy but he’s not from the upper class, bank-at-Coutts, Debretts background people sometimes think. His father was a BT engineer, not a stockbroker.
With Bell, his three centuries last summer are an achievement in the same bracket as Cook’s 766. They were at home, not away, but all against Ryan Harris, and in a series when few other English batsmen played particularly well. Cook had Trott to bat with, and at Brisbane, Strauss. But Bell’s feat is never thought of in quite the same way as Cook’s.
It’s logical, really, that if you bat at six, it will be harder to be the first person in the innings to make a century.
The attitude towards Bell is funny. The australians actually rate him quite highly, although his record against them is quite good so that probably explains why.
Mo, a free thinker who plays with no stress. A fixture for a long time to come, could he open?
Not unless he sorts out his weakness against the short ball.
A very classy player, nonetheless.
James – good post, but the game was at the Ageas Bowl … :-)
Pleased to see a positive story on TFT for a change, and about the team rather than banging on about certain journalists and their perceived agendas etc. Not pretending in any way that all of England’s problems are suddenly solved, but definitely a step in the right direction.
Good for Cook’s confidence, but you’re right that we should judge him against a proper Test-class attack on a pitch that gives the bowlers something. Equally, great for Moeen, but the real test of his quality will be against top order batsmen on unhelpful pitches rather than tailenders on day 5.
Err yeah, the Ageas bowl. Shows what a celebratory beer can do! Oooops. Moeen took his share of top order wickets too.
Feels like we turned a corner in this match.
Finally enough of the Old guard have departed to let the new breathe – youth and enthusiasm is taking over. England are regenerating into an interesting and more pleasing side.
Buttler was a very big step in the right direction.
Cook won’t become a brilliant captain overnight. I’m still sore at him for failing to recognise the failings of the old guard and call them on it. However, a captain that can score runs and show faith in young guns may have enough to ensure a smooth succession over the next couple of years.
Yes I should’ve mentioned Jos. his keeping was tidier than I expected. All good signs!
The new players have in general done very well – even Robson’s made a century – but from a bowling point of view, this match would not have been won without James Anderson. Put simply, when Anderson is good, England is good, and the biggest difference about this test from the previous four is that Anderson was at his best.
If he does get banned, can England take twenty wickets without him? Woakes and Jordan (and don’t get me wrong, Woakes bowled well, and I really like Jordan) didn’t take even one between them in this match.
I share this concern and top cricketers really shouldn’t be getting banned in the first place especially given his value to the team.
I don’t see Plunkett bowling 25-30 overs an innings in long spells similarly with Jordan. Woakes looked very encouraging but it’s too soon to consider him a new ball bowler.
Onions has always be considered the natural replacement but I’m not sure his form and fitness for Durham has been that great??
On Sky verdict tonight they say that it is being reported on the internet that the ICC have now found some footage of the incident. Very strange. If true, where has the film come from? Because ECB had claimed cameras were switched off. Have they suddenly found some film that proves Jimmy innocent?
On the other hand if it proves him guilty has it come from an Indian camera footage? The plot thickens.
Does it really matter where it comes from ? Surely as long as it shows what actually happened and the decision is based on this then it should stop all the , he did -you did comments.
Can I just add. I love watching Ian Bell bat.
Post Vaughan he has been my favourite out of all of our batsman.
And yes the Ashes 13 belonged to him.
But this series for me has summed up his whole England career.
Bell gets a bit of a raw deal IMHO. The criticism he used to get for failing to deliver unless the team was doing well was justified at the time, but last summers Ashes put that one to bed. It’s just disappointing that he’s been inconsistent since. He’s possibly the most elegant batsman in world cricket, and it’s infuriating to see him get out to flakey shots.
I don’t want to keeping banging on about Cook, but it’s interesting to compare perceptions of the two. The skipper is frequently portrayed as an all time great, a run machine etc, whereas Bell is seen as something of a luxury player who goes missing in tough situations. It’s totally unfair. Cook has gone missing in 4 of 5 Ashes series, goes through huge periods of poor form, has glaring technical weaknesses, yet is seen as a colossus. Their test match averages are basically the same.Cook has more test centuries, but that’s because he opens whereas Bell has been at 5&6 for much of his career. Personally, I rate Cook, Trott, Pietersen and Bell in a similar bracket. What irks me about Cook is that he’s put on a pedestal as some kind of batting deity, when nothing could be further from the truth if you look carefully at his career record rather than lazily citing the number of tons he’s scored (most of which were easy runs in benign conditions). I believe the opposite is true of Bell, who is a little underrated rather than overrated.
My only criticism of Bell has been not making more of his talent and not looking like shouldering responsibility as the premier batsmen in the team consistently.
He is head and shoulders above other English players and among the worlds best in terms of technique, he never looks out of form, that’s what makes his “30 and out” innings all the more frustrating. In his defence he has had to bat on the back of 30-3 on more than one occasion in recent history.
Getting a run in the team at 4 should suit him (I get the feeling he never fancied batting at 3) if the openers start to consistently get good starts and Ballance anchors the innings it will certainly let him play freely and build a total for our considerably threatening lower order to accelerate.
Totally agree with that. And in that context, some of the responses to each man’s return to form have been revealing, and – not to put too fine a point on it – bloody typical. The Ashes stat is never used by cricket correspondents and broadcasters to damn Cook in the same way the “only does it when others do” is used against Bell.
I used to be a sceptic: my turning point was SA 2009/10, when Bell was deservedly slated for the Harris ball, but scored a century in the next match, and yet still received less than half the praise Collingwood did for Cape Town, even though he stayed in longer and scored almost twice as many.
I think Bell has struggled to shake off the slightly ‘flakey’ image he had after his first few seasons, whereas Cook started with all guns blazing and his purple patches have been as spectacular as his lean spells have been. I think it’s a little harsh to dismiss Cook’s efforts though as easy runs.
It’s funny how difficult it is to shake off a perception though – KP was regarded as the England’s key batsman, yet since 2009, Bell’s numbers are significantly better – I think he averages half a dozen more and has hit almost twice as many tons.
He does make me smile though, with the puffed out chest and strut that he adopted about 5 or 6 years ago to make himself and others believe he ‘belonged’. You can tell it’s just not him at all.
Interesting piece by Dobell
http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-india-2014/content/story/766295.html
Thanks for the link Neil. Moores says a few interesting things, but all the stuff about getting players to reconnect with the things they’ve done well in the past would be the first point in any coaching manual. I would like to know exactly what Moores plan is to rebuild the team.
I’m currently reading Steve Waugh’s latest book, and as soon as he was made captain he sat down with John Bucannan and wrote a ten point plan to dominate the world. Some of these were broad, but some were very specific things that could be implemented immediately: things like body language, attitude etc. The goals were simple, so all the players understood them and bought into them.
Waugh believed that as captain he must embody these characteristics more than any other player. Once he did this, the rest of the team would see how serious he was and would follow him. Goals, and the means to achieve them, were therefore unambiguous and everyone knew what the plan was.
What struck me is how single minded, ruthless and determined Waugh was, and what kind of cricketers he wanted. I’m not sure Moores really knows what he wants. All I’ve heard is generalised statements about building a team ethic. But what kind of ethic? That’s my question. It all seems a bit clichéd and non specific to me at the moment. What is England’s ten point plan (or equivalent).
Steve Waugh was a fantastic captain, who’s ruthlessness and single mindedness shone through and was refelected in the way his team played (hell he even dropped Warne once)
He did however start with a team that had already become used to winning and had a few stars.
Moores is frustrating in the way that he speaks (hiding behind all the modern management speak) – but hopefully the change in tone not only in statements but also the way we played at the Rose Bowl is a sign of things to come.
Who remembers the ECB pledge, as a means of ‘reconnecting’ with the fans, that the players would be released for T20 games?? – hasn’t happened yet again – well done ECB for being useless