A big hundred at last..
What a pleasure it was to see Andrew Strauss return to form with a big hundred in the third and final test against India this morning.
England have not had an easy time of it in the sub-continent this winter, to say the least. Much of it, certainly as far as this tour is concerned, is due to the loss of key players - Simon Jones, who last summer established himself as a key part of England's awesome pace attack, has been unable to take part in either tour due to injury, and nor has Ashley Giles. Michael Vaughan, the captain, has had to return home from India due to a recurrence of his knee problem, and Marcus Trescothick, the most dependable of England's batsmen for the last couple of years, has returned home for personal reasons and will also miss the one-day series.
It seemed losing Steve Harmison to injury, just as he seemed to be getting back to his awesome best, would be the final nail in the coffin. Certainly it will be a lot harder to bowl India out twice without him.
The other main reason why England have struggled in Pakistan and India, in my view and that of many pundits, is the failure of the batsmen to post big totals, especially in the first innings. Most of them have looked good at some stage or other, and by and large they have all got starts. There have been positives, such as Alistair Cook's hundred on debut and Paul Collingwood's 134 not out in the same match. In Mohali, however, no one scored a hundred and England lost.
This was especially disappointing when you take into consideration the fact that all of the top seven got into double figures in the first innings, and a score of 300 looked well below par.
Consequently all the talk before this match was of the need for someone to score a big hundred. If England were going to end the series on a high, someone really had to step up.
The man who stepped up on this occasion was a certain Andrew Strauss. Whilst he has struggled on this tour, and scored just 44 runs in two tests against Pakistan, you always know that with a player of his class a return to form and a big hundred is always just round the corner.
Strauss, or "Brocket" as he is known to his teammates, can consider himself unlucky not to have been appointed stand-in captain on this tour. The reasons for this, I believe, are two-fold. Firstly, I think making Flintoff captain was a shrewd move by Duncan Fletcher to ensure he would not fly home during the series to attend the birth of his second child. Fletcher knew he would rise to the added responsibility of captaincy and put the needs of the team first. Secondly, Strauss was going through a lean patch for the first time in his career as an England player, and this was clearly not the time to complicate matters further by saddling him with the captaincy.
I have no doubt that his time will come, however. Strauss seems born to the captaincy - he is an extremely bright individual who, after graduating, turned down a career in the city to play professional cricket. He is 100% committed to the cause, and no one should forget the contribution he made to England's Ashes triumph last year. Being the only player on either side to score two hundreds was a fine riposte to Shane Warne's claim that he would be the next Darryl Cullinan (Cullinan was known for struggling against spin, especially when facing Warne).
Another nice thing about the first day's play was seeing Owais Shah playing well on debut, reaching a composed half-century before retiring hurt with cramp. Whilst England have lost to Pakistan and can no longer win the series against India, some of the debutants have been superb - Cook and Panesar previously, and now Shah. Having a large pool of talented players and the concomitant competition for places augurs well for England's ambition of usurping Australia's position as the best team in the world.
And how nice, also, to see the Indians attending to Shah when he was suffering from cramp. As one of the commentators said, which other sport would you see that in?
Hopefully Shah will come out tomorrow and build on his good start and England will go on to score an imposing total. But things can change rapidly from one session to the next in this game, which is another thing I love about it.
Not long now until the cricket season begins here in England. I have my tickets for Lords, a one-day match against Sri Lanka in June, and the Saturday of the Test match against Pakistan in July. I can hardly wait.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, March 2006
England have not had an easy time of it in the sub-continent this winter, to say the least. Much of it, certainly as far as this tour is concerned, is due to the loss of key players - Simon Jones, who last summer established himself as a key part of England's awesome pace attack, has been unable to take part in either tour due to injury, and nor has Ashley Giles. Michael Vaughan, the captain, has had to return home from India due to a recurrence of his knee problem, and Marcus Trescothick, the most dependable of England's batsmen for the last couple of years, has returned home for personal reasons and will also miss the one-day series.
It seemed losing Steve Harmison to injury, just as he seemed to be getting back to his awesome best, would be the final nail in the coffin. Certainly it will be a lot harder to bowl India out twice without him.
The other main reason why England have struggled in Pakistan and India, in my view and that of many pundits, is the failure of the batsmen to post big totals, especially in the first innings. Most of them have looked good at some stage or other, and by and large they have all got starts. There have been positives, such as Alistair Cook's hundred on debut and Paul Collingwood's 134 not out in the same match. In Mohali, however, no one scored a hundred and England lost.
This was especially disappointing when you take into consideration the fact that all of the top seven got into double figures in the first innings, and a score of 300 looked well below par.
Consequently all the talk before this match was of the need for someone to score a big hundred. If England were going to end the series on a high, someone really had to step up.
The man who stepped up on this occasion was a certain Andrew Strauss. Whilst he has struggled on this tour, and scored just 44 runs in two tests against Pakistan, you always know that with a player of his class a return to form and a big hundred is always just round the corner.
Strauss, or "Brocket" as he is known to his teammates, can consider himself unlucky not to have been appointed stand-in captain on this tour. The reasons for this, I believe, are two-fold. Firstly, I think making Flintoff captain was a shrewd move by Duncan Fletcher to ensure he would not fly home during the series to attend the birth of his second child. Fletcher knew he would rise to the added responsibility of captaincy and put the needs of the team first. Secondly, Strauss was going through a lean patch for the first time in his career as an England player, and this was clearly not the time to complicate matters further by saddling him with the captaincy.
I have no doubt that his time will come, however. Strauss seems born to the captaincy - he is an extremely bright individual who, after graduating, turned down a career in the city to play professional cricket. He is 100% committed to the cause, and no one should forget the contribution he made to England's Ashes triumph last year. Being the only player on either side to score two hundreds was a fine riposte to Shane Warne's claim that he would be the next Darryl Cullinan (Cullinan was known for struggling against spin, especially when facing Warne).
Another nice thing about the first day's play was seeing Owais Shah playing well on debut, reaching a composed half-century before retiring hurt with cramp. Whilst England have lost to Pakistan and can no longer win the series against India, some of the debutants have been superb - Cook and Panesar previously, and now Shah. Having a large pool of talented players and the concomitant competition for places augurs well for England's ambition of usurping Australia's position as the best team in the world.
And how nice, also, to see the Indians attending to Shah when he was suffering from cramp. As one of the commentators said, which other sport would you see that in?
Hopefully Shah will come out tomorrow and build on his good start and England will go on to score an imposing total. But things can change rapidly from one session to the next in this game, which is another thing I love about it.
Not long now until the cricket season begins here in England. I have my tickets for Lords, a one-day match against Sri Lanka in June, and the Saturday of the Test match against Pakistan in July. I can hardly wait.
Copyright © Jonathan Weedon, March 2006
posted by Jon | 6:57 pm
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