GOOGLIES & CHINAMEN
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 156
December 2015
Recent Matters
So at last the clean out of the old unsuccessful ODI/T20 gang seems complete. Gone are Cook, Trott, Bell, Prior, Swann, Anderson, Broad and, of course, KP. I should have added Bopara to this bunch and I think that he has had a raw deal. He remains one of the best batsmen in the country and is a more than useful bowler in these formats. Wright also seems to have disappeared without a trace which is also odd as he was the lynchpin of the T20 side not so long ago.
All of the heralded batsmen from the last five years seem to have now got recognition of their talents: Hales, Roy, Vince, Buttler, Billings, Root, Taylor, and whilst there is competition between them for the five or so batting places there doesn’t seem to be new challengers. Bairstow, at least for the present, seems to be considered for test matches only which is odd considering the big hitting of his earlier years.
I missed the first three ODIs in the UAE but found myself seated in front the Sky transmission for the fourth. It was one of those occasions when it crept up on you that you were watching something special as it happened. The England innings was meandering along when Buttler came in at number four ahead of Morgan. I should say that the crash bang wallop at the top of the order has now been modified as Roy and Hales have realised that in this format they can afford to get themselves in and go onto to make big scores. Indeed they both scored hundreds in this series.
But back to Buttler. I first started raving about his batting over five years ago when he batted in Somerset’s middle order with Kieron Pollard. If these two were together any total was in reach and they would often take their time to get started, by which I mean an over or so. After that they would target the boundary every ball often with outrageous shots and more often than not reach it. And this is what happened in Sharjah. He used up a couple of overs getting himself in and then played a quite extraordinary innings on a wicket which had been described as slow. He played all of his outrageous shots as well as some very powerful clubs over the ropes.
Here is an extract from cricinfo of the records he achieved:
46 - Number of balls Jos Buttler took to complete his third ODI century - the fastest for England. His previous two centuries were completed in 61 balls against New Zealand at Edgbaston and 66 balls against Sri Lanka at Lord's, which are also the next two fastest ODI centuries for England. Buttler's century is also the fastest by any batsman against Pakistan, eclipsing Sanath Jayasuriya's 48-ball hundred in Singapore in 1995-96, and the fastest in UAE, going past Basit Ali's 67-ball effort at Sharjah in 1993-94.
2 - Number of ODI centuries completed by Buttler after coming in to bat after the 25th over of the innings. He came in to bat in the 36th over in this match scoring unbeaten 116 in 52 balls and he had come to bat in the 29th over at Lord's making 121 in 74 balls. Only AB de Villiers has scored more ODI hundreds coming in to bat after the 25th over - five such centuries for him. Virat Kohli is the only other batsman to score two such centuries. This was also the second latest a batsman has come in to bat to hit a hundred in an ODI. De Villiers came to the crease at 38.4 overs in his innings of 149 off 44 balls against West Indies in January this year.
223.07 - Buttler's strike rate in this innings - the highest for any England batsman in an innings of 50 or more runs. It is also the only 50-plus innings of 200-plus strike rate by an England batsman; second best is Eoin Morgan's 197.05 in his innings of 67 in 34 against South Africa at Centurion in 2009-10. It was also the highest by any No. 4 in an innings of 100 or more runs, better than Mark Boucher's 216.17 in his unbeaten knock of 147 off 68 balls against Zimbabwe in Potchefstroom in 2006-07 and De Villiers' 195.08 in 119 off 61 balls against India at Wankhede last month.
8 - Number of sixes by Buttler, the most by an England batsman in an ODI innings. The previous highest was seven sixes by Andrew Flintoff against West Indies at Lord's in 2004.
These statistics also bear noting:
355-5 England's total in this match - their highest outside England. Their previous highest was 340 for 6 against New Zealand at Napier in 2007-08. This is also the second-highest total in the UAE behind Pakistan's 364 for 7 against New Zealand at Sharjah in 2014-15.
129 Runs added by England batsmen in the last ten overs of the innings. This was their highest since 2001, beating 121 runs added against West Indies at Lord's in 2004 and against Bangladesh at Trent Bride in 2005. Only two teams have added more than 129 runs in the last ten overs against Pakistan - 146 by South Africa in Centurion in 2006-07 and 139 by New Zealand in Pallekele at the 2011 World Cup.
19 - Number of ODI totals of 350 or more in this calendar year – already ten more than the next best in a calendar year. There were nine such totals in 2007, which is second highest.
So all this seemed to sort out the Buttler issue at least with the bat. Yesterday I sat down for the first T20 and, of course, it can only happen in an England set up, Buttler was dropped or rather rested, although being rested after this performance must have felt mighty like being dropped. But this brought a new fly to muddy up the ointment. After being 18 for 3, Vince and Morgan did a pretty good repair job until Vince was bowled slogging. This brought Billings to the crease. I have not seen much of him but have noted some extraordinary strike rates in big innings for Kent. In this innings Billings got after it from the start, playing a number of Buttleresque shots, and he was soon making Morgan seem decidedly pedestrian. He was run out off the last ball of the innings having scored 53 from 25 deliveries. Rob Key was back in the studio and commented that by his Kent standards Billings had played relatively conservatively!
Perhaps more importantly he then kept wicket and looked decidedly better than Buttler normally does. This has various consequences. Billings is not going to go away. When I first watched Buttler he was not keeping wicket and no mention was made that he even owned a pair of gloves. Kieswetter was doing the job for Somerset at the time and to get a game with the gloves Buttler moved to Lancashire. Did anyone rate Kieswetter with the gloves? Buttler must play in the best side as a batsman. It follows that they will both get into this eleven. Buttler might even relish the prospect of shedding the gloves. But what of Bairstow? If England persist with picking non wicket keepers any of these three could keep in any of the sides. If they all get into form all three could be picked as batsmen in all three formats. It would start to feel like a Surrey side.
I didn’t see any of the first or second tests between India and South Africa, although there was precious little to see in the second because of rain. I did see the highlights of all three days play in the third test from Nagpur and the game was lucky to last that long since the ball was turning square on the first morning and breaking up the surface with puffs of dust when it pitched. India managed a respectable 215 in the conditions and it was the highest total to date in the series mainly due to South Africa’s weird use of spinners where Harmer was preferred as lead spinner over Imran Tahir. Harmer bowled loose balls every over and returned figures of 4 for 78. In reply Ashwin showed him how to do it and South Africa were rolled over for just 79 and only got this many courtesy of missed chances. In the second innings Harmer was again given precedence over Tahir and managed just 1 for 64. When Tahir was eventually given a bowl he finished off the innings with 5 for 38. South Africa were set 310 to win and it was always a case of how many India would win by. For many of his 29.5 overs Ashwin was totally unplayable and even Jadeda was turning the ball prodigiously. But South Africa hung in there for nearly 90 overs before being all out for 185. Ashwin finished with 7 for 66 and match figures of 12 for 104. The wicket was a disgrace and the Indians have clearly devised a strategy for winning at home.
It was odd not to have referrals in this match and I welcome the umpires position being upheld. On both day one and day two Tahir appeared as nightwatchman, played extravagant shots and got out. One for the statisticians.
Out and About with the Professor
The Professor confesses to having been abroad again
Why has Wales made so little impact on cricket in this country? We all know about the famous rugby tradition and the (inevitable) prominence of football but cricket appears to be the only major summer sport (notwithstanding the odd athlete like Lynn the Leap) but the record is very modest. Wales has a population of three times that of Durham but has only ever (as far as I know) had one first class county…and the record of Glamorgan, at least in recent times, is anything but stunning. Indeed I think they have only won the County Championship three times in over 120 years of history and seem to have been at or near the bottom of the county heap for a decade or more. There have, of course, been some great players: Wooller, Jones (father and son), Lewis, the Welsh Wizard (so beloved by the Sharp household) and several others (add your own favourite here) who happen to be Welsh; but overall it does not seem to be more than a modest record. Why? You can hardly blame the climate: it does indeed rain a lot but then so does it in Manchester and I have never been to Ireland when it hasn’t rained. Wales is well known to be mountainous but there are enough flat bits for numerous cricket grounds. So why is the record so modest?
I was pondering all this when I was in Monmouth last week. The town has an intriguing history, it is the birthplace of Henry V and, among other things, the last place in Britain where someone was sentenced to be “hanged, drawn and quartered”. It also has a cricket club. A very nice cricket club and a very old cricket club - dating back to the 1830s. From what I could see it looked like a very smart set up with excellent facilities. I was told that the club has sponsorship from Wetherspoons (which sounds appropriate) and they have regular meetings in the Kings Head pub - a nice rambling old boozer in the middle of town with cricket memorabilia on the walls. For a number of years Monmouth played in English leagues and that, I suppose, might be part of the issue about Welsh cricket…namely the merging with England. I didn’t know that there had been a Welsh team at various times but the England and Wales Cricket Board perhaps displays titularly one of the difficulties. It must be all the more galling that the national team plays as “England” - and we won’t even venture into Irish, Scottish, South African, (and on and on) connections. I’m not sure about how strong the clubs in the Welsh leagues are, although St Fagans is a famous name. Monmouth, apparently, play in Division Three of the Glamorgan league which doesn’t sound too high a level but I’m told they play very competitive cricket, have a thriving junior section and look forward to continued promotion. Let’s hope so.
Still I think there is a puzzle about cricket in Wales. Why, for example, has no first class team emerged from the north of Wales? Perhaps there has been, but I’ve not heard of it and it can only have been transient. Googlies readers may have a view. I see that Stephen Chalke is due to give a talk on the history of county cricket at the SWALEC next week, so perhaps he knows.
I suppose there could be a similar discussion about Scotland and Ireland and perhaps if the county structured was being reconsidered (again) some way of bringing more of a United Kingdom feel to the Championship might be achieved. Indeed it might soon be that cricket is the only uniting feature in the entire nation.
England Matters
The Great Jack Morgan shares his diary notes
I was shocked that Samit was picked for the Test. It is true that he had been mentioned as a possible, but nearly all the pundits that I have read and heard had been saying "stick with the pace bowlers, in fact, bring in an extra one" and this advice is supported by the excellent figures returned by Anderson and Broad: 28.1-15-30-6. It is true that Samit and Moeen both picked up a couple of wickets, but the combined figures of the spinners were 46-7-175-4 and why did Patel suddenly become the main spinner (23 overs compared to 23 shared between Moeen and Rashid) when he has always been primarily a batsman? Plunkett would have been a better choice in my view instead of either Patel or Rashid. The ludicrous selection has now been compounded by the news that Stokes is injured and might not be able to bowl (or bat even) in the match: instead of four (or five) seamers, we are down to two!
J Taylor's 74* was the best of several useful contributions on day 2 in Sharjah as England reached a fairly healthy 222-4, though it sounded like a dull old day, 218 runs in a full 90 over day; Bell made 16 between lunch and tea. I hear that B Stokes will not bowl in the Test, so presumably that means that he is fit to bat even though he did not come in at 6? P Moores joining Notts in mid-season is being quoted as the reason for J Taylor's return to form in the second half of the season after a dismal first half.
Day 3 was rather disappointing, neither Taylor (76) nor Bairstow (43) going on and though Samit made 42, it was doubly disappointing to slump to 306 a/o from 285-6. Broady got another not out and now averages 75. Pakistan are looking dangerous on 146-3 at the close, but they were 101-0.
England got them out for 355 (Hafeez 151, no one else got to 50). Anderson and Broad did OK, but the daft spin trio took 3-248. Eng are struggling on 46-2 needing 284 to win. Unlikely.
England have been dire in Sharjah and collapsed from 34-0 to 59-6 on the last day. Cooky did OK with 63 and got some support from the tail, but the total of 156 saw them lose by 127. The combined match figures of Broad and Anderson were 77.1-29-126-11, while the spinners went for 7-423. Selve is still saying they should have gone for the 5 pacemen, I tend to agree. The 8 runs contributed by nos 3-7 was the lowest contribution by an England middle order for 120 years. Wood has not recovered from his ankle problem (why do not they just operate and get it over?) and is coming home, Plunkett will now be retained for the ODIs. With very few exceptions, the series averages look dire, batting: Cook 90, Root 57.4, Broad 47.5, Taylor 39, Bell 31.6, Bairstow 22.3, Patel 21, Rashid 20.6, Stokes 14.7, Moeen 14, Wood 11, Buttler 8.5, Anderson 7; bowling: Anderson 15.6, Broad 27.3, Wood 28.3, Stokes 39.6, Moeen 48.7, Patel 54.7, Rashid 69.5.
Someone called David Clough (another freelancer, I suppose) is reporting from Abu Dhabi in the G. I have not seen anyone criticising the England team for tomorrow's ODI, but it does not look convincing to me: England's two mediocre spinners are even less likely to win an ODI than a Test aren't they?
Now V Marks has turned up in time for the 1st ODI. England started dismally (14-3), before Eoin (76) and LJT (60) shared 133 for the 4th wicket. England lost 5 wkts for 33, then Woakes made 33 at the end, but that means the other eight contributed precious little to the unimpressive 216 a/o. R Topley (3-17) put England back in it, but at the time of writing Hafeez is leading a recovery. And he led them all the way to an easy win by 6 wkts and finished on 102* off 130; Topley ended with 3-26, Rashid with 0-60.
I do not think I would have stuck with the same team, but credit to England because at the time of writing, they are in a surprisingly strong position in the 2nd ODI with Hales (109), Root (63) and Roy (54) taking them up to 283-5: how good a score is that these days? It is hard to know without being there, but Pakistan soon made it look brilliant by collapsing to 80-6 (Woakes 3-24, Willey 2-7). England duly won by 95, Woakes 4-33, Willey 3-25 and Rashid did much better with 10-2-32-1.
In Sharjah, England seemed to have done well to get Pak out for 208 (C Woakes 4-40), but are now struggling themselves on 109-4, although there are plenty of overs left. Yes and they did not need anywhere near as many as were available as LJT (67*) and Buttler (49*) strolled to victory by 6 wkts with 9 overs in hand. Taylor has been in decent form, but it was a pleasant surprise to see Jos get some runs for the first time in goodness knows how long.
S Finn and M Wood are not fit for the SA tour, Bell has been axed, as has Plunkett (he obviously did not get enough wickets in UAE!). In come Compton, Ballance, Woakes and Footitt, all of whom I approve of to a certain extent, but none have nailed down regular places in the past and Footitt, of course, has not had an opportunity. Neither Compton nor Ballance has looked as good recently as they did a year or two ago (I would probably not have picked either of them) and there seems to be a feeling that they are both competing for the same place (possibly no 3 if Hales is to open), but if they want to get five bowlers in, it is possible that neither might play and that Taylor (who bats 3 for Notts) might get the no 3 slot.
Next day's G gave us four articles on cricket (in the off-season!), 2 by Ali Martin (on C Cairns and B Stokes), 1 by MWWS ( a long and tedious one on red, white and pink balls: he doesn't favour pink) and an interesting one from VM on England's seamers. He is very sorry for Plunkett, he repeats a nice joke about Jordan's catch as an ODI sub from the G's website "Sarfraz tried to hit the ball into Yemen, but could only reach Jordan" (though expert geographers (like us) would have preferred Syria, say, (just north of Jordan) to replace Yemen in the joke because Yemen is way too far south and closer to UAE than Jordan is!), complements the left armers Topley and Willey and tells us that "at least two" of the Overton and Curran brothers could soon disturb the England pecking order... but he is not saying which two. My guess is that he thinks that Craig O and Tom C are ahead at the moment and he might be right, but all four claim to be able to bat and bowl and the youngest, Sam C, might be the best longer term prospect; here are their 2015 Championship averages:
bat bowl
CO 29.1 21.7
JO 20.9 38.2
TC 18.6 23.1
SC 47.8 26.1.
In Dubai, England made 160-5 (S Billings 53* off 25) in the first T20. Buttler and Root were omitted. Pakistan made 146 and lost by 14; it was nice to see L Plunkett (3-21) having some joy. I was interested to read that the Imran Khan playing in this match is not the same one that played in the Tests!
King Cricket Matters 1
Following Ansari’s selection for the England party Alex Bowden wrote this
We’ve always had a theory that Surrey England players are, in general, worse than those provided by other counties. The thinking is that you don’t have to do quite as much to get noticed if you play for Surrey. Surrey is a big club and the ground seems to be a regular haunt of many cricket journos. If you play well, there’s usually someone there to see it. Equally, if you’re the one going down to report on a game, there’ll always be someone to write about.
It’s basically the flipside of that timeless philosophical question: ‘If a wicket falls at the County Ground in Derby and there’s no-one there to live blog it, does it really count?’
So that’s our preamble to Zafar Ansari’s England Test selection and our entirely reflexive, not-at-all-based-in-fact sense that he maybe isn’t ‘all that’.
That’s a tough and entirely unfair thing to say about a young player. As with most 23-year-olds, there’s more to come than’s been with Ansari. It’s just that in previous years we’ve read reams and reams about how great and fantastic and exciting the likes of Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker were and then when it actually came down to it, they weren’t particularly good. They often became newsworthy simply because someone had spent the day in front of a laptop at The Oval and didn’t feel they could file a blank page.
So column inches are not directly proportional to quality, which is why we reserve the right to be cautious now that Ansari is getting more and more of them.
Our views on the second division of the County Championship are fairly straightforward. This season, playing at that level, Ansari has averaged 36 with the bat and 31 with the ball. That’s okay, but it only makes him six runs better than fellow Surrey spinner Gareth Batty for the former and six runs worse for the latter.
But maybe this already pointless umming and ahhing is redundant anyway. We’ve just noticed that Ansari’s gone to hospital with some sort of thumb knack. “Fingers crossed for him,” said Alec Stewart – which seems an unnecessarily cruel turn of phrase to use in reference to someone who’s just bust a digit.
We hope he’s okay and we hope he turns into an excellent cricketer. Cynicism and hope cohabit within us like Patrick Stewart and Brian Blessed in the gay domestic sitcom a friend of ours once envisioned.
Reverse Sweep Matters
Although in my playing days the sweep was one of my few run scoring shots I, of course, never played a reverse sweep and have always considered it, at best, to be a risky option for the modern player. However, the commentators seem to expect it from all batsmen these days and never criticise its use which is odd because it seems to so often be the cause of a dismissal. Even the great exponents of it, such as Glenn Maxwell, are undone by it. I have no statistics but many exponents of this stroke are caught or bowled trying to play it. The safety factor maybe LBW in that the umpires have to add the alternative stance into their judgement of any appeal.
Foreman Matters
Frank Foreman sent me this anecdote after meeting up with Andy Roberts
Look who I found on our recent trip to Antigua.
He was very pessimistic about the future of WI cricket. None of the new blood wanted to play five day cricket nor had the stamina to do it. Youngsters were only interested in the game if they could conclude it in one day. Also thought that the current bunch were obsessed with building upper body strength when what was needed for the five day game was the stamina to compete over all five days. When I asked him if there was any new exciting prospects coming through he simply said 'none'.
King Cricket Matters 2
Ged writes:
Two days after my last-minute-dot-ticket-office, cocktail-avoiding day at the Lord’s Test with Charley the Gent Malloy, I returned for my long arranged Sunday visit with Daisy. The weather forecast had been dreadful, but we woke up and indeed arrived at the ground on a beautiful sunny Sunday.
Daisy and I had an event-free circuit walk during lunch, but when we attempted similar at tea, we ran into Mr Johnny Friendly, walking the other way.
“Hello you two,” said Mr Friendly, stopping to chat with us. “Are you enjoying the cricket?”
“Oh yes indeed, Mr Friendly, very much so,” said Daisy politely, before enquiring: “Have you been watching the cricket or playing your beloved real tennis?”
“Mostly the latter,” replied Mr Friendly. “I can’t get enough of it these days.”
“I saw a television broadcast about real tennis only yesterday,” said Daisy. “The rules sound fiendishly complicated.”
“Not at all, young Daisy,” said Mr Friendly with his kindly voice. “The rules can be set out on a couple of pages; indeed there is an MCC leaflet that explains it all. Would you like a copy?”
“Nothing in the world should give me quite so much pleasure,” blurted Daisy, slightly exaggerating her Jane Austen-style manners.
Unfortunately, you see, Daisy comes from almost the right kind of family, which, after making a modest fortune through trade, then packed Daisy and her sisters off to almost the right kind of school. You should not scorn or reproach such people, dear reader. Daisy is a very good sort of girl; you should wish her extremely well and be happy to see her respectably settled. No doubt, there are men who might not object to her.
“Then you shall have a copy of that MCC leaflet,” said Mr Friendly with his benevolent voice.
“Ey up, tha’s reet gradeley,” said Daisy, getting so excited and confused that she muddled Jane Austen, the great early 19th Century novelist of manners, with Jane Austin, sister of the mighty Ian Austin, the greatest all-round cricketer that Haslingden, nay, even the whole of Rossendale, has ever produced.
“Hello you three,” said Mr Friendly, turning away from us. He was greeting some friends or acquaintances, no doubt far more important folk than us. Soon Mr Friendly was in deep conversation with those people.
We wandered on, thinking that Daisy’s real tennis rule leaflet hopes had been thwarted. But two days later, by means of that magnificent institution, The Royal Mail, a personally autographed copy of the MCC Real Tennis Rules, together with warm wishes from the Friendly family, arrived at our humble little hovel on the western fringes of London. Now that’s class for you.
Old Danes Matters
Shepherds Bush CC has agreed to host another Old Danes Gathering in 2016. The date is likely to be Friday 29 July, but this yet to be confirmed.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]
www.googliesandchinamen.com
le='text-align:justify'>Late in the day, Charley offered to open the Chianti, but we both agreed that it would be a waste, as neither of us really wanted to drink any more. We got some quizzical looks – perhaps they were looks of pity – from our newfound, cocktail-sodden friends. Still, Chas and I agreed that the bottle of Chianti should live to fight another day. Indeed, our planned trip to see Essex v The Australians in a few weeks’ time should be ideal for it.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]
www.googliesandchinamen.com
An Occasional Cricketing Journal
Edition 156
December 2015
Recent Matters
So at last the clean out of the old unsuccessful ODI/T20 gang seems complete. Gone are Cook, Trott, Bell, Prior, Swann, Anderson, Broad and, of course, KP. I should have added Bopara to this bunch and I think that he has had a raw deal. He remains one of the best batsmen in the country and is a more than useful bowler in these formats. Wright also seems to have disappeared without a trace which is also odd as he was the lynchpin of the T20 side not so long ago.
All of the heralded batsmen from the last five years seem to have now got recognition of their talents: Hales, Roy, Vince, Buttler, Billings, Root, Taylor, and whilst there is competition between them for the five or so batting places there doesn’t seem to be new challengers. Bairstow, at least for the present, seems to be considered for test matches only which is odd considering the big hitting of his earlier years.
I missed the first three ODIs in the UAE but found myself seated in front the Sky transmission for the fourth. It was one of those occasions when it crept up on you that you were watching something special as it happened. The England innings was meandering along when Buttler came in at number four ahead of Morgan. I should say that the crash bang wallop at the top of the order has now been modified as Roy and Hales have realised that in this format they can afford to get themselves in and go onto to make big scores. Indeed they both scored hundreds in this series.
But back to Buttler. I first started raving about his batting over five years ago when he batted in Somerset’s middle order with Kieron Pollard. If these two were together any total was in reach and they would often take their time to get started, by which I mean an over or so. After that they would target the boundary every ball often with outrageous shots and more often than not reach it. And this is what happened in Sharjah. He used up a couple of overs getting himself in and then played a quite extraordinary innings on a wicket which had been described as slow. He played all of his outrageous shots as well as some very powerful clubs over the ropes.
Here is an extract from cricinfo of the records he achieved:
46 - Number of balls Jos Buttler took to complete his third ODI century - the fastest for England. His previous two centuries were completed in 61 balls against New Zealand at Edgbaston and 66 balls against Sri Lanka at Lord's, which are also the next two fastest ODI centuries for England. Buttler's century is also the fastest by any batsman against Pakistan, eclipsing Sanath Jayasuriya's 48-ball hundred in Singapore in 1995-96, and the fastest in UAE, going past Basit Ali's 67-ball effort at Sharjah in 1993-94.
2 - Number of ODI centuries completed by Buttler after coming in to bat after the 25th over of the innings. He came in to bat in the 36th over in this match scoring unbeaten 116 in 52 balls and he had come to bat in the 29th over at Lord's making 121 in 74 balls. Only AB de Villiers has scored more ODI hundreds coming in to bat after the 25th over - five such centuries for him. Virat Kohli is the only other batsman to score two such centuries. This was also the second latest a batsman has come in to bat to hit a hundred in an ODI. De Villiers came to the crease at 38.4 overs in his innings of 149 off 44 balls against West Indies in January this year.
223.07 - Buttler's strike rate in this innings - the highest for any England batsman in an innings of 50 or more runs. It is also the only 50-plus innings of 200-plus strike rate by an England batsman; second best is Eoin Morgan's 197.05 in his innings of 67 in 34 against South Africa at Centurion in 2009-10. It was also the highest by any No. 4 in an innings of 100 or more runs, better than Mark Boucher's 216.17 in his unbeaten knock of 147 off 68 balls against Zimbabwe in Potchefstroom in 2006-07 and De Villiers' 195.08 in 119 off 61 balls against India at Wankhede last month.
8 - Number of sixes by Buttler, the most by an England batsman in an ODI innings. The previous highest was seven sixes by Andrew Flintoff against West Indies at Lord's in 2004.
These statistics also bear noting:
355-5 England's total in this match - their highest outside England. Their previous highest was 340 for 6 against New Zealand at Napier in 2007-08. This is also the second-highest total in the UAE behind Pakistan's 364 for 7 against New Zealand at Sharjah in 2014-15.
129 Runs added by England batsmen in the last ten overs of the innings. This was their highest since 2001, beating 121 runs added against West Indies at Lord's in 2004 and against Bangladesh at Trent Bride in 2005. Only two teams have added more than 129 runs in the last ten overs against Pakistan - 146 by South Africa in Centurion in 2006-07 and 139 by New Zealand in Pallekele at the 2011 World Cup.
19 - Number of ODI totals of 350 or more in this calendar year – already ten more than the next best in a calendar year. There were nine such totals in 2007, which is second highest.
So all this seemed to sort out the Buttler issue at least with the bat. Yesterday I sat down for the first T20 and, of course, it can only happen in an England set up, Buttler was dropped or rather rested, although being rested after this performance must have felt mighty like being dropped. But this brought a new fly to muddy up the ointment. After being 18 for 3, Vince and Morgan did a pretty good repair job until Vince was bowled slogging. This brought Billings to the crease. I have not seen much of him but have noted some extraordinary strike rates in big innings for Kent. In this innings Billings got after it from the start, playing a number of Buttleresque shots, and he was soon making Morgan seem decidedly pedestrian. He was run out off the last ball of the innings having scored 53 from 25 deliveries. Rob Key was back in the studio and commented that by his Kent standards Billings had played relatively conservatively!
Perhaps more importantly he then kept wicket and looked decidedly better than Buttler normally does. This has various consequences. Billings is not going to go away. When I first watched Buttler he was not keeping wicket and no mention was made that he even owned a pair of gloves. Kieswetter was doing the job for Somerset at the time and to get a game with the gloves Buttler moved to Lancashire. Did anyone rate Kieswetter with the gloves? Buttler must play in the best side as a batsman. It follows that they will both get into this eleven. Buttler might even relish the prospect of shedding the gloves. But what of Bairstow? If England persist with picking non wicket keepers any of these three could keep in any of the sides. If they all get into form all three could be picked as batsmen in all three formats. It would start to feel like a Surrey side.
I didn’t see any of the first or second tests between India and South Africa, although there was precious little to see in the second because of rain. I did see the highlights of all three days play in the third test from Nagpur and the game was lucky to last that long since the ball was turning square on the first morning and breaking up the surface with puffs of dust when it pitched. India managed a respectable 215 in the conditions and it was the highest total to date in the series mainly due to South Africa’s weird use of spinners where Harmer was preferred as lead spinner over Imran Tahir. Harmer bowled loose balls every over and returned figures of 4 for 78. In reply Ashwin showed him how to do it and South Africa were rolled over for just 79 and only got this many courtesy of missed chances. In the second innings Harmer was again given precedence over Tahir and managed just 1 for 64. When Tahir was eventually given a bowl he finished off the innings with 5 for 38. South Africa were set 310 to win and it was always a case of how many India would win by. For many of his 29.5 overs Ashwin was totally unplayable and even Jadeda was turning the ball prodigiously. But South Africa hung in there for nearly 90 overs before being all out for 185. Ashwin finished with 7 for 66 and match figures of 12 for 104. The wicket was a disgrace and the Indians have clearly devised a strategy for winning at home.
It was odd not to have referrals in this match and I welcome the umpires position being upheld. On both day one and day two Tahir appeared as nightwatchman, played extravagant shots and got out. One for the statisticians.
Out and About with the Professor
The Professor confesses to having been abroad again
Why has Wales made so little impact on cricket in this country? We all know about the famous rugby tradition and the (inevitable) prominence of football but cricket appears to be the only major summer sport (notwithstanding the odd athlete like Lynn the Leap) but the record is very modest. Wales has a population of three times that of Durham but has only ever (as far as I know) had one first class county…and the record of Glamorgan, at least in recent times, is anything but stunning. Indeed I think they have only won the County Championship three times in over 120 years of history and seem to have been at or near the bottom of the county heap for a decade or more. There have, of course, been some great players: Wooller, Jones (father and son), Lewis, the Welsh Wizard (so beloved by the Sharp household) and several others (add your own favourite here) who happen to be Welsh; but overall it does not seem to be more than a modest record. Why? You can hardly blame the climate: it does indeed rain a lot but then so does it in Manchester and I have never been to Ireland when it hasn’t rained. Wales is well known to be mountainous but there are enough flat bits for numerous cricket grounds. So why is the record so modest?
I was pondering all this when I was in Monmouth last week. The town has an intriguing history, it is the birthplace of Henry V and, among other things, the last place in Britain where someone was sentenced to be “hanged, drawn and quartered”. It also has a cricket club. A very nice cricket club and a very old cricket club - dating back to the 1830s. From what I could see it looked like a very smart set up with excellent facilities. I was told that the club has sponsorship from Wetherspoons (which sounds appropriate) and they have regular meetings in the Kings Head pub - a nice rambling old boozer in the middle of town with cricket memorabilia on the walls. For a number of years Monmouth played in English leagues and that, I suppose, might be part of the issue about Welsh cricket…namely the merging with England. I didn’t know that there had been a Welsh team at various times but the England and Wales Cricket Board perhaps displays titularly one of the difficulties. It must be all the more galling that the national team plays as “England” - and we won’t even venture into Irish, Scottish, South African, (and on and on) connections. I’m not sure about how strong the clubs in the Welsh leagues are, although St Fagans is a famous name. Monmouth, apparently, play in Division Three of the Glamorgan league which doesn’t sound too high a level but I’m told they play very competitive cricket, have a thriving junior section and look forward to continued promotion. Let’s hope so.
Still I think there is a puzzle about cricket in Wales. Why, for example, has no first class team emerged from the north of Wales? Perhaps there has been, but I’ve not heard of it and it can only have been transient. Googlies readers may have a view. I see that Stephen Chalke is due to give a talk on the history of county cricket at the SWALEC next week, so perhaps he knows.
I suppose there could be a similar discussion about Scotland and Ireland and perhaps if the county structured was being reconsidered (again) some way of bringing more of a United Kingdom feel to the Championship might be achieved. Indeed it might soon be that cricket is the only uniting feature in the entire nation.
England Matters
The Great Jack Morgan shares his diary notes
I was shocked that Samit was picked for the Test. It is true that he had been mentioned as a possible, but nearly all the pundits that I have read and heard had been saying "stick with the pace bowlers, in fact, bring in an extra one" and this advice is supported by the excellent figures returned by Anderson and Broad: 28.1-15-30-6. It is true that Samit and Moeen both picked up a couple of wickets, but the combined figures of the spinners were 46-7-175-4 and why did Patel suddenly become the main spinner (23 overs compared to 23 shared between Moeen and Rashid) when he has always been primarily a batsman? Plunkett would have been a better choice in my view instead of either Patel or Rashid. The ludicrous selection has now been compounded by the news that Stokes is injured and might not be able to bowl (or bat even) in the match: instead of four (or five) seamers, we are down to two!
J Taylor's 74* was the best of several useful contributions on day 2 in Sharjah as England reached a fairly healthy 222-4, though it sounded like a dull old day, 218 runs in a full 90 over day; Bell made 16 between lunch and tea. I hear that B Stokes will not bowl in the Test, so presumably that means that he is fit to bat even though he did not come in at 6? P Moores joining Notts in mid-season is being quoted as the reason for J Taylor's return to form in the second half of the season after a dismal first half.
Day 3 was rather disappointing, neither Taylor (76) nor Bairstow (43) going on and though Samit made 42, it was doubly disappointing to slump to 306 a/o from 285-6. Broady got another not out and now averages 75. Pakistan are looking dangerous on 146-3 at the close, but they were 101-0.
England got them out for 355 (Hafeez 151, no one else got to 50). Anderson and Broad did OK, but the daft spin trio took 3-248. Eng are struggling on 46-2 needing 284 to win. Unlikely.
England have been dire in Sharjah and collapsed from 34-0 to 59-6 on the last day. Cooky did OK with 63 and got some support from the tail, but the total of 156 saw them lose by 127. The combined match figures of Broad and Anderson were 77.1-29-126-11, while the spinners went for 7-423. Selve is still saying they should have gone for the 5 pacemen, I tend to agree. The 8 runs contributed by nos 3-7 was the lowest contribution by an England middle order for 120 years. Wood has not recovered from his ankle problem (why do not they just operate and get it over?) and is coming home, Plunkett will now be retained for the ODIs. With very few exceptions, the series averages look dire, batting: Cook 90, Root 57.4, Broad 47.5, Taylor 39, Bell 31.6, Bairstow 22.3, Patel 21, Rashid 20.6, Stokes 14.7, Moeen 14, Wood 11, Buttler 8.5, Anderson 7; bowling: Anderson 15.6, Broad 27.3, Wood 28.3, Stokes 39.6, Moeen 48.7, Patel 54.7, Rashid 69.5.
Someone called David Clough (another freelancer, I suppose) is reporting from Abu Dhabi in the G. I have not seen anyone criticising the England team for tomorrow's ODI, but it does not look convincing to me: England's two mediocre spinners are even less likely to win an ODI than a Test aren't they?
Now V Marks has turned up in time for the 1st ODI. England started dismally (14-3), before Eoin (76) and LJT (60) shared 133 for the 4th wicket. England lost 5 wkts for 33, then Woakes made 33 at the end, but that means the other eight contributed precious little to the unimpressive 216 a/o. R Topley (3-17) put England back in it, but at the time of writing Hafeez is leading a recovery. And he led them all the way to an easy win by 6 wkts and finished on 102* off 130; Topley ended with 3-26, Rashid with 0-60.
I do not think I would have stuck with the same team, but credit to England because at the time of writing, they are in a surprisingly strong position in the 2nd ODI with Hales (109), Root (63) and Roy (54) taking them up to 283-5: how good a score is that these days? It is hard to know without being there, but Pakistan soon made it look brilliant by collapsing to 80-6 (Woakes 3-24, Willey 2-7). England duly won by 95, Woakes 4-33, Willey 3-25 and Rashid did much better with 10-2-32-1.
In Sharjah, England seemed to have done well to get Pak out for 208 (C Woakes 4-40), but are now struggling themselves on 109-4, although there are plenty of overs left. Yes and they did not need anywhere near as many as were available as LJT (67*) and Buttler (49*) strolled to victory by 6 wkts with 9 overs in hand. Taylor has been in decent form, but it was a pleasant surprise to see Jos get some runs for the first time in goodness knows how long.
S Finn and M Wood are not fit for the SA tour, Bell has been axed, as has Plunkett (he obviously did not get enough wickets in UAE!). In come Compton, Ballance, Woakes and Footitt, all of whom I approve of to a certain extent, but none have nailed down regular places in the past and Footitt, of course, has not had an opportunity. Neither Compton nor Ballance has looked as good recently as they did a year or two ago (I would probably not have picked either of them) and there seems to be a feeling that they are both competing for the same place (possibly no 3 if Hales is to open), but if they want to get five bowlers in, it is possible that neither might play and that Taylor (who bats 3 for Notts) might get the no 3 slot.
Next day's G gave us four articles on cricket (in the off-season!), 2 by Ali Martin (on C Cairns and B Stokes), 1 by MWWS ( a long and tedious one on red, white and pink balls: he doesn't favour pink) and an interesting one from VM on England's seamers. He is very sorry for Plunkett, he repeats a nice joke about Jordan's catch as an ODI sub from the G's website "Sarfraz tried to hit the ball into Yemen, but could only reach Jordan" (though expert geographers (like us) would have preferred Syria, say, (just north of Jordan) to replace Yemen in the joke because Yemen is way too far south and closer to UAE than Jordan is!), complements the left armers Topley and Willey and tells us that "at least two" of the Overton and Curran brothers could soon disturb the England pecking order... but he is not saying which two. My guess is that he thinks that Craig O and Tom C are ahead at the moment and he might be right, but all four claim to be able to bat and bowl and the youngest, Sam C, might be the best longer term prospect; here are their 2015 Championship averages:
bat bowl
CO 29.1 21.7
JO 20.9 38.2
TC 18.6 23.1
SC 47.8 26.1.
In Dubai, England made 160-5 (S Billings 53* off 25) in the first T20. Buttler and Root were omitted. Pakistan made 146 and lost by 14; it was nice to see L Plunkett (3-21) having some joy. I was interested to read that the Imran Khan playing in this match is not the same one that played in the Tests!
King Cricket Matters 1
Following Ansari’s selection for the England party Alex Bowden wrote this
We’ve always had a theory that Surrey England players are, in general, worse than those provided by other counties. The thinking is that you don’t have to do quite as much to get noticed if you play for Surrey. Surrey is a big club and the ground seems to be a regular haunt of many cricket journos. If you play well, there’s usually someone there to see it. Equally, if you’re the one going down to report on a game, there’ll always be someone to write about.
It’s basically the flipside of that timeless philosophical question: ‘If a wicket falls at the County Ground in Derby and there’s no-one there to live blog it, does it really count?’
So that’s our preamble to Zafar Ansari’s England Test selection and our entirely reflexive, not-at-all-based-in-fact sense that he maybe isn’t ‘all that’.
That’s a tough and entirely unfair thing to say about a young player. As with most 23-year-olds, there’s more to come than’s been with Ansari. It’s just that in previous years we’ve read reams and reams about how great and fantastic and exciting the likes of Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker were and then when it actually came down to it, they weren’t particularly good. They often became newsworthy simply because someone had spent the day in front of a laptop at The Oval and didn’t feel they could file a blank page.
So column inches are not directly proportional to quality, which is why we reserve the right to be cautious now that Ansari is getting more and more of them.
Our views on the second division of the County Championship are fairly straightforward. This season, playing at that level, Ansari has averaged 36 with the bat and 31 with the ball. That’s okay, but it only makes him six runs better than fellow Surrey spinner Gareth Batty for the former and six runs worse for the latter.
But maybe this already pointless umming and ahhing is redundant anyway. We’ve just noticed that Ansari’s gone to hospital with some sort of thumb knack. “Fingers crossed for him,” said Alec Stewart – which seems an unnecessarily cruel turn of phrase to use in reference to someone who’s just bust a digit.
We hope he’s okay and we hope he turns into an excellent cricketer. Cynicism and hope cohabit within us like Patrick Stewart and Brian Blessed in the gay domestic sitcom a friend of ours once envisioned.
Reverse Sweep Matters
Although in my playing days the sweep was one of my few run scoring shots I, of course, never played a reverse sweep and have always considered it, at best, to be a risky option for the modern player. However, the commentators seem to expect it from all batsmen these days and never criticise its use which is odd because it seems to so often be the cause of a dismissal. Even the great exponents of it, such as Glenn Maxwell, are undone by it. I have no statistics but many exponents of this stroke are caught or bowled trying to play it. The safety factor maybe LBW in that the umpires have to add the alternative stance into their judgement of any appeal.
Foreman Matters
Frank Foreman sent me this anecdote after meeting up with Andy Roberts
Look who I found on our recent trip to Antigua.
He was very pessimistic about the future of WI cricket. None of the new blood wanted to play five day cricket nor had the stamina to do it. Youngsters were only interested in the game if they could conclude it in one day. Also thought that the current bunch were obsessed with building upper body strength when what was needed for the five day game was the stamina to compete over all five days. When I asked him if there was any new exciting prospects coming through he simply said 'none'.
King Cricket Matters 2
Ged writes:
Two days after my last-minute-dot-ticket-office, cocktail-avoiding day at the Lord’s Test with Charley the Gent Malloy, I returned for my long arranged Sunday visit with Daisy. The weather forecast had been dreadful, but we woke up and indeed arrived at the ground on a beautiful sunny Sunday.
Daisy and I had an event-free circuit walk during lunch, but when we attempted similar at tea, we ran into Mr Johnny Friendly, walking the other way.
“Hello you two,” said Mr Friendly, stopping to chat with us. “Are you enjoying the cricket?”
“Oh yes indeed, Mr Friendly, very much so,” said Daisy politely, before enquiring: “Have you been watching the cricket or playing your beloved real tennis?”
“Mostly the latter,” replied Mr Friendly. “I can’t get enough of it these days.”
“I saw a television broadcast about real tennis only yesterday,” said Daisy. “The rules sound fiendishly complicated.”
“Not at all, young Daisy,” said Mr Friendly with his kindly voice. “The rules can be set out on a couple of pages; indeed there is an MCC leaflet that explains it all. Would you like a copy?”
“Nothing in the world should give me quite so much pleasure,” blurted Daisy, slightly exaggerating her Jane Austen-style manners.
Unfortunately, you see, Daisy comes from almost the right kind of family, which, after making a modest fortune through trade, then packed Daisy and her sisters off to almost the right kind of school. You should not scorn or reproach such people, dear reader. Daisy is a very good sort of girl; you should wish her extremely well and be happy to see her respectably settled. No doubt, there are men who might not object to her.
“Then you shall have a copy of that MCC leaflet,” said Mr Friendly with his benevolent voice.
“Ey up, tha’s reet gradeley,” said Daisy, getting so excited and confused that she muddled Jane Austen, the great early 19th Century novelist of manners, with Jane Austin, sister of the mighty Ian Austin, the greatest all-round cricketer that Haslingden, nay, even the whole of Rossendale, has ever produced.
“Hello you three,” said Mr Friendly, turning away from us. He was greeting some friends or acquaintances, no doubt far more important folk than us. Soon Mr Friendly was in deep conversation with those people.
We wandered on, thinking that Daisy’s real tennis rule leaflet hopes had been thwarted. But two days later, by means of that magnificent institution, The Royal Mail, a personally autographed copy of the MCC Real Tennis Rules, together with warm wishes from the Friendly family, arrived at our humble little hovel on the western fringes of London. Now that’s class for you.
Old Danes Matters
Shepherds Bush CC has agreed to host another Old Danes Gathering in 2016. The date is likely to be Friday 29 July, but this yet to be confirmed.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]
www.googliesandchinamen.com
le='text-align:justify'>Late in the day, Charley offered to open the Chianti, but we both agreed that it would be a waste, as neither of us really wanted to drink any more. We got some quizzical looks – perhaps they were looks of pity – from our newfound, cocktail-sodden friends. Still, Chas and I agreed that the bottle of Chianti should live to fight another day. Indeed, our planned trip to see Essex v The Australians in a few weeks’ time should be ideal for it.
Googlies and Chinamen
is produced by
James Sharp
Broad Lee House
Combs
High Peak
SK23 9XA
Tel: 01298 70237
Email: [email protected]
www.googliesandchinamen.com
