Another bizarre month in cricket/showbiz
Where better to write this month’s column than the TMS box at Lords in the all singing all dancing media centre, writes BBC London’s Surrey summariser Johnny Barran. Like most cricket loving kids I aspired to play at the home of cricket, ideally leading England to a dramatic Ashes victory. However it was clear early on in my playing days that this was a fairly unlikely scenario, but growing up on a diet of Johnston and Arlott I did have aspirations to talk about the game I loved, with Lord’s being the Holy Grail.
So today those dreams are realized with the mouthwatering championship clash between Middlesex and Surrey who are second in the table. I say mouthwatering as Gordon Ramsey’s premier pastry chef Thierry who also works his magic at the Oval (he was baking a staggering 1000 cakes a day during the international T20 Tournament) is a guest in the commentary box and came armed with a ginger and carrot cake of distinction which as ever was demolished in barely a session by the BBC’s Kevin Hand.
It was a gorgeous day as I arrived at the ground. A few nerves jangled as I made my way up to the TMS commentary box where I was greeted by the news that Michael Vaughan had retired from all cricket. Earlier in the season I had the privilege of describing for the Beeb a silky 70 by Michael Vaughan for Yorkshire against Surrey in the friends provident. It was as ever with Vaughan a beautifully crafted innings with the trade mark cover drive, pull and pickup all in perfect order.
All of us on commentary that day hoped that it was a precursor to Vaughan’s re-admittance to the Test side, but as Steve Waugh pronounced there are no fairy tale endings in sport and careers inevitably end in tears as did Vaughan’s England career last year, very sad. It was quite appropriate therefore that the man responsible for finishing Vaughan’s career, Andre Nel joined us in the commentary box, Nel cleaned up Vaughan for a duck in the first innings and 17 in his final innings as an England player in the defeat at Edgbaston in the third test which sealed the series for South Africa. Nel, is charm personified off the pitch, but as he admitted on commentary he loves a scrap on the pitch.
Back to the cricket and Owis Shah treated us to a sumptuous 159 on day one, a poignant reminder to the selectors that he could excel in the longer form of the game. The highlight on day two was being allowed out on the outfield at the lunch break, which demonstrated to me emphatically what an incredible sporting theatre Lord’s is. Despite being supposed cricket correspondents and beyond churlish behavior Church, Hand and I spent the lunch break marking out our imaginary run ups, hitting imaginary sixes and taking imaginary wickets in our “virtual ashes” on the Lords Square much to the amusement of the written press who watched our antics in utter bewilderment.
Blimey. As I start my preparations for hosting this weekend’s polo international between England and Argentina I learn that my co-host for the event is Katie Price (aka Jordan) I am not sure whether to laugh or cry but it promises to be an interesting and entertaining day especially as the champagne starts flowing at 11.00am with prize giving a cool 7 hours later at 6. It could be a messy one……..
The later stages of both May and June have been taken up by the domestic 20/20 cup; it’s my favorite time of year as we squeeze in 10 games in a 14 day window. The week started with a visit to Hove in what was to become a must win game for Surrey. I arrived to mass media hysteria, as the World’s sporting press searching for Isdn lines and Wifi had descended on the sleepy sea side town. Not I might say for the 20/20 but for the Ashes as Australia formally began the Ashes tour with a 4 day game against Sussex. On arrival I made the fatal error of following Derek Pringle into the media catering, there were slim pickings in the great man’s wake so I settled for a burger.
As we took our seats for the must win contest, Churchy spots billowing smoke to our left hand side and remarks jokingly that it would be a disaster if that was the flood light generator! The lights at the sea end fail to fire and Churchy is spot on, nightmare! However as Sussex have previous in this territory (the lights failed against Kent) they had managed to rustle up a contingency generator and 40 minutes later had it running. Spare a thought for Afzal who was out first ball before the game was halted till the lights were up and running, sadly Surrey struggled and Sussex romped home.
With a finish way past 11.15, I catch a lift with Churchy and analyst Steve Rudkin in the “kit” van, once they have cut the highlights for Surrey TV and not before I packed it (had to earn my lift) the high point being packing the great man’s kit on board, memo to potential interested parties Ramp’s bats don’t travel in the Van, those including the one he scored his 100 100’s travel with him. We get back to the oval at 2.45 am nice!
Next up Surrey entertain Kent in another must win game, its a family show this evening as my brother in law is Surrey mascot Kenny Kennington. Kenny brings the house down in the build up to the game as he moonwalks, break dances and “caterpillars his way round the oval to Snoop Doggy Dog. Despite woven in ice packs in the costume, Chris. Loses 3 pounds in body weight and remarks that it’s the best work out he has ever had ever had. I am also on my best behavior as I have Seb Coe as a guest, despite my “gentle pressure” on trying to get the 20/12 Olympics to include cricket he refused to commit, I will keep trying though. Sadly Surrey lose in a thriller by 1 run and with it ending my lingering hopes of a trip to Finals Day.
The 6th Ashes test being hosted by my village side East Bergholt on the 28th of August is picking up momentum as I have managed to persuade Stuart Law to captain Australia. Neil Foster, Derek Randall, John Lever and Devon Malcolm are already confirmed for England, it promises to be a cracker!
South Africa ease past England
June 11, 2009 by Duncan Steer
Filed under Featured Content, News
South Africa beat England by seven wickets with ten balls to spare in the first game in Group E of the Super Eights. In truth, it was a thrashing, with England well behind from the first Powerplay. The South Africans cruised to their minuscule target of 112, taking a massive 46 singles in the process.
England were bowled out for 111, with only Owais Shah (38) offering much in the way of stickability or inspiration.
South Africa made their way to the 5.5 runs an over target cautiously, and though it took them until the 18th over to pass England’s total, the result was never in doubt.
England bowled well – Adil Rashid (1/24) in particular showed plenty of variety and confidence. But England had no chance of making up for an inept batting performance against one of the most skilled attacks in world cricket.
Ravi Bopara (2) and Luke Wright (1), England’s bankers over the last week or so, were both back on the bench within two overs, as Dale Steyn (1/19) and the brilliant left-armer Wayne Parnell (3/14) gave South Africa the immediate initiative.
Kevin Pietersen fell to a sensational catch from Roleof van der Merwe, diving to his left at mid-off. That made it 25/3.
Shah, having taken a long time to play himself in, briefly threatened to make a game of it when he hit van der Merwe for 6-6-4 in consecutive balls. But England, short of runs – their six-over total of 25/3 was the lowest of the tournament so far – simply had too much ground to make up.
England’s procession of batsmen dismissed thanks to poor shot selection was a return to familiar scenes, after the excellent showing against Pakistan on Sunday. Shah was out trying to steer the ball fine past the wicket-keeper; Foster was out reverse sweeping; Mascarenhas was out dabbing at a ball outside off-stump. The reluctance to try and hit down the ground with the face of the bat was marked. Already up against it, England’s refusal to play the percentages in their shot selection made their task almost impossible.
South Africa were mustard in the field; England less so. Skipper Paul Collingwood’s field placements were a puzzle, looking to defend 111 rather than going for wickets, he introduced a slip only very belatedly once the game was gone.
For a time, tight bowling kept the score rate down: Mascarenhas went for just a single from the first over of the innings. But it was improbable that England could win without taking wickets: Broad hurried Graeme Smith into a top edge (17/1); Graeme Swann bowled Herschelle Gibbs with a quicker ball as Gibbs looked to finish things off (91/2); and Rashid picked up a late consolation wicket when he had AB de Villiers caught at slip (108/3). But there was little to challenge the inevitable result or sense of anti-climax.
The Saffers are the world’s No 1 ODI side and England’s record in the short form is patchy at least. The result, perhaps, should have come as no surprise. The meekness of England’s surrender – especially in the light of the 4-0 win they handed out to the Saffers when the sides met last summer – was what will have disappointed the Trent Bridge faithful.
Man of the match Jacques Kallis (57 off 49) anchored the run chase without really breaking sweat. He didn’t need to.
Now England must beat reigning champions India on Sunday to stay in the competition.
Eoin Morgan World Twenty20 blog: Netherlands & Pakistan
June 10, 2009 by Eoin Morgan
Filed under Eoin Morgan blog, Features
As it turned out, I think losing to Holland did England a lot of favours. The extra pressure put on us in the 48 hours before the game with Pakistan allowed us to go out and throw caution to the wind and play fearlessly. It was almost ideal. T20 cricket should be played instinctively; you should express yourself and that’s how we were against Pakistan. The crowd at the Oval was unbelievable. It was the best atmosphere I’ve been a part of. Ridiculous. The support was magnificent. The fact that we’ve bounced back so well and so quickly will give us a lot of confidence going into the Super8s.
Losing to Holland was a massive shock. I’ve been playing against them for years and I’d never seen them play like that before. It certainly came as a surprise to me. Because I’d had so much experience against the Dutch, I had been giving the guys the low-down on the Dutch batters and bowlers in the build-up to the game. Or what I thought was the low-down! But nothing prepared us for what they threw at us. They played so well. We’d been in high spirits, we felt we’d hit the ground running with the ODIs and our T20 warm-up games. So it was a massive shock for us.
I certainly didn’t have any idea that Tom de Grooth could play like that. I’ve played with and against Tom for years. We spent three months together at an ICC High Performance camp in South Africa and I’d certainly never seen him strike the ball like that. Every time we looked to peg them back, they found a boundary - either by smashing it or by getting an inside edge. It just seemed to be their day.
It’s true that there’s probably less video footage of the Associate nations, so in some ways the bigger teams are less well equipped to prepare for games against them. But, really, it’s not down to the video footage or laptop work: it’s more down to whether you’ve faced certain players before. So Associate nations do have a small advantage in that way.
It’s difficult to pin point where we went wrong. Obviously we could have done better in the field; we missed those run outs. But I don’t think we played that badly. We just needed another 10 or 15 runs.
At the time - even though we hadn’t got any partnerships going after Luke and Ravi had set things up – we were pretty happy with the total we’d set. It wasn’t a case of underestimating Holland and saying, ‘Oh, 160 is enough’, it was more backing our bowlers. The only real mistakes we made were the run out chances: we must have had the chance to hit the stumps five or six times and if we’d taken those the result might have been different.
Our ground fielding and catching was pretty good considering the conditions: it was raining for the best part of the last eight or nine overs and the ball was pretty slippy.
It was quiet in the dressing room afterwards. Everyone devastated. Shell shocked, more than anything. Really down. We spoke about it and picking ourselves up. The belief was that we could beat Pakistan.
Between games, we didn’t really talk about the prospect of going out of the tournament. We were focused on what we had to do positively: we had to beat Pakistan, we had to bring our ‘A’ game and play fearless cricket. If you’re tentative, you’re lost. It’s all about momentum, taking everything to the opposition. The whole experience geed us up. We went out on Sunday with a point to prove.
I was left out of the 11 against Pakistan. We were playing on a wicket that had been used three times already and we’d seen it turn in the first game of the day – South Africa against Scotland – so we decided to play two spinners. The balance of the side worked brilliantly. Graeme came in and bowled fantastically. Adil just nailed it, too. The Dutch game was his first, but he’s a very fast learner and always very keen to learn. He spends a lot of time with Mushtaq Ahmed. Adil’s a very skilful bowler in the way that he can change his game straight away.
We set our stall out unbelievably well, with Kev and Luke and Owais, which put a bit of a downer on the Pakistani guys. In Twenty20 runs are so valuable; so when you see catches go down or misfields, you get that feeling that the opposition aren’t quite as up for it or haven’t worked quite as hard as you have. It gives you a little mental advantage.
Luke is doing fantastically - he seems to have recaptured the same form he had a couple of years ago in county cricket. It’s great to see him doing it in international cricket now - he’s such a great talent and a lovely fella as well.
I ended up playing a decent role in the win. Owais came off after six overs of the Pakistan innings - a hamstring twinge - and I was on the field for the rest of the innings. The ball seemed to follow me around, and I picked up two catches. I’m sure Owais will be fine for Thursday.
I was just really pleased to get to play a part. I do a lot of work with the fielding coach, Richard Halsall. Because I don’t bowl, 30 to 40 per cent of my training time is spent on fielding. I work on it quite hard. I played other sports as a kid - rugby, football, gaelic football, pretty much every sport - so I’m quite well co-ordinated and it comes naturally to me.
Monday I was back at home. Chilling out. Watching the cricket on TV. Going out for dinner with friends. We’re not ‘in-camp’ at this stage. We trained pretty hard ahead of the tournament but we all went our separate ways after Sunday. Of course I watched the Ireland win over Bangladesh. Fantastic. It’s great to see them doing so well. The O’Brien brothers thrive on playing in the big competitions and the spotlight being put on them. It was the first time I’d watched Ireland in a major competition - I was playing for them until April - and it’s brilliant to see them do so well. Playing with Ireland in the [2007] World Cup was the best time in my life. But for me, it was always the dream to play for England. Everyone in Ireland knew that and they’ve all been pleased for me. I haven’t heard one begrudging word.
England are meeting up again in Nottingham on Tuesday evening for a game of football. Playing not watching. I love it. I play upfront in the mould of, say, Robbie Keane. Playing for Spurs or Ireland, that is. We’ll practice together – cricket – on Wednesday, before the game against South Africa on Thursday. We’ve a good bunch of lads; as a newcomer, you feel at home very quickly. Everybody’s been really welcoming and easy to get along with. It’s been so easy coming into the changing room, especially as we’ve (mainly) been winning.
Bresnan and Onions called up to England Test squad
Yorkshire’s Tim Bresnan and Durham ’s Graham Onions have been named in the England 12 for the first npower Test match against the West Indies which starts at Lord’s on Wednesday.
Ravi Bopara, who scored an outstanding 104 against the West Indies in Bridgetown, is chosen in the batting line up ahead of Owais Shah, who batted at No 3 in the recent series in the Caribbean.
Bresnan, 24, has played in five One Day Internationals for England as well as a Twenty20 against Sri Lanka at Southampton in 2006 while Onions, 26, will be making his first appearance in an England Test squad. Both Bresnan and Onions have appeared for the England Lions.
Geoff Miller, National Selector, said: ‘This is very exciting for the two young fast bowlers to be included in the squad for a Lord’s Test match and sends a message to all county players that if they put in consistently good performances they will get recognised. Both have had good starts to this season and had been close to Test match selection on a number of occasions. They have earned their place in the party.
‘The selectors also felt that Ravi Bopara deserved his chance after his performance in his single Test in the Caribbean this winter. There was a lot of competition for that batting position but Bopara now has the opportunity to stake a claim. He showed in Barbados that he has the ability to play at Test level.’
England squad for the 1st npower Test Match against West Indies - Lord’s May 6-10: A Strauss (Middlesex, captain); J Anderson (Lancashire); R Bopara (Essex); T Bresnan (Yorkshire ); S Broad (Nottinghamshire); P Collingwood (Durham); A Cook (Essex); G Onions (Durham); M Panesar (Northamptonshire); K Pietersen (Hampshire); M Prior (Sussex); G Swann (Nottinghamshire)
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