A day after being a doubt for the match, Ian Bell went on to score 126 off 117 balls as England beat the West Indies by 114 runs (D/L). On Friday Ian Bell was stuck on the chin as he attempted a pull shot in the nets. He was suspected to have had a broken jaw and required 10 stitches. Today he appeared to be in no discomfort at all as he elegantly caressed the ball to all parts of the Ageas Bowl. There was some power hitting too though with a brilliant six that went straight over bowler Andre Russell's head.
With Kevin Pietersen's retirement from International ODIs, Bell was drafted into the squad to open. With it being the first time in England where a new ball has used from both ends in an ODI, England opted for a proper opener rather than a pinch-hitter.
England got off to a poor start having been inserted to bat when captain Alistair Cook was caught behind third ball off the bowling of Ravi Rampaul. However, Bell and Jonathan Trott went on to share a 107 run partnership and lead the recovery.
It was a different look West Indies team for the one-day series with the likes of Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Lendl Simmons coming in. But the West Indies were still missing the much anticipated return of Chris Gayle as he was ruled out with a leg injury. This must have been a disappointment to the 13,000 strong crowd who braved the bitter cold, strong winds and rain at the Ageas Bowl in this so-called summer. Whether it was the cold that affected them, but the West Indies fielding was sloppy with several lazy misfields.
Other than Cook, Ravi Bopara was only other Englishman to be out in single figures. The rest of England team who batted all made reasonable contributions as England made 288 for 6 from their 50 overs.
The West Indies started their reply well and were 59 for 1 after the first 10 overs with Simmons being the only casualty at that point. The rain came when the Windies were still in it at 127 for 5 after 23 overs. After an almost 2 hour rain-delay the teams came out to a revised D/L target of 287 from 48 overs.
With Gayle injured and Darren Bravo picking up a groin injury in the match, Andre Russell slipped on the green taking a run and had severe discomfort in his shoulder to add to the injury list. The rain seemed to liven the pitch up as the Windies collapsed. They lost their last five wickets for 35 runs as England's impressive bowling attack finished the job. Tim Bresnan was pick of the bowlers with 4 for 34 from 7.4 overs but the entire attack was economical and made bowling look easy. The West Indies were 172 all out from 33.4 overs.
The next ODI is on Tuesday at the Kia Oval, how the West Indies will be wishing he Chris Gayle is fit for Tuesday and hitting the ball out of the ground.
Saturday 16 June 2012
Have the ECB got "managing workloads" wrong again?
We have all bemoaned at how little today's England International players get to play for their counties. But even the most ardent county supporter must be raising an eyebrow at the ECB's latest decision.
Samit Patel, Jonny Bairstow and Jade Dernbach have all been released to play in tomorrow's T20 matches for their respective counties before returning to the England squad on Monday. England play the West Indies on Tuesday at the Kia Oval with a 10.45am start. Jade Dernbach will have the shortest journey from the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, to Kent, to the Oval. Samit Patel's trip will be Southampton-Durham-The Oval. Whereas Bairstow will travel from Southampton to Yorkshire to the Oval.
I understand that T20 is the shortest format of the game, but surely our players clocking up all these miles in such a short space of time isn't the best way the ECB could be managing their workload? Unfortunately it is not a one-off either. When the Aussies come over next yea,r England play a floodlight T20 at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday 29th August then play another T20 on Saturday 31st August in Durham.
After all the talk of James Anderson and Stuart Broad being rested from for the last Test of the West Indies series, it feels like the ECB have gone from one extreme to another with releasing Patel, Bairstow and Dernbach to their counties.
Samit Patel, Jonny Bairstow and Jade Dernbach have all been released to play in tomorrow's T20 matches for their respective counties before returning to the England squad on Monday. England play the West Indies on Tuesday at the Kia Oval with a 10.45am start. Jade Dernbach will have the shortest journey from the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, to Kent, to the Oval. Samit Patel's trip will be Southampton-Durham-The Oval. Whereas Bairstow will travel from Southampton to Yorkshire to the Oval.
I understand that T20 is the shortest format of the game, but surely our players clocking up all these miles in such a short space of time isn't the best way the ECB could be managing their workload? Unfortunately it is not a one-off either. When the Aussies come over next yea,r England play a floodlight T20 at the Ageas Bowl on Thursday 29th August then play another T20 on Saturday 31st August in Durham.
After all the talk of James Anderson and Stuart Broad being rested from for the last Test of the West Indies series, it feels like the ECB have gone from one extreme to another with releasing Patel, Bairstow and Dernbach to their counties.
Tuesday 12 June 2012
Foxes battered in T20 season opener
Leicestershire got off to the worst possible defence of their T20 title as East Midlands rivals Nottinghamshire thrashed them by six wickets with seven overs to spare.
Leicestershire were bowled out for just 96 in 17.3 overs. That was Leicestershire's lowest ever T20 score. 13 was the top individual score, this was reached by Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wayne White and the extras.
Leicestershire lost wickets at regular intervals and just never recovered. Nottinghamshire bowled brilliantly with man-of-the match Steve Mullaney taking a very impressive 4 for 19 from his 4 overs. Samit Patel also bowled economically taking 2 for 20 off his 4 overs.
Matthew Hoggard opened Leicestershire's bowling with a maiden and then quickly picked up Alex Hales and Riki Wessels. But with such a low target to defend there was little the bowlers could do. Adam Voges and Patel played cameos to get Nottinghamshire towards their target. Michael Lumb remained unbeaten on 25 after opening the innings. James Taylor, in his first season for Nottinghamshire after his move from Leicestershire, made 16 off 6 balls. Only a small insight to Taylor's form, but he looked in fine nick and deserves to be in the England team.
The Foxes are resilient and good at comebacks so no-one should write them off yet. However, with key players missing from last year's successful campaign, such as Paul Nixon, James Taylor, Andrew MacDonald and Jigar Naik, through retirement, moving clubs or injury, it will be a struggle for Leicestershire to re-build the team. Let's see how Leicestershire perform against Lancashire on Friday.
Leicestershire were bowled out for just 96 in 17.3 overs. That was Leicestershire's lowest ever T20 score. 13 was the top individual score, this was reached by Ramnaresh Sarwan, Wayne White and the extras.
Leicestershire lost wickets at regular intervals and just never recovered. Nottinghamshire bowled brilliantly with man-of-the match Steve Mullaney taking a very impressive 4 for 19 from his 4 overs. Samit Patel also bowled economically taking 2 for 20 off his 4 overs.
Matthew Hoggard opened Leicestershire's bowling with a maiden and then quickly picked up Alex Hales and Riki Wessels. But with such a low target to defend there was little the bowlers could do. Adam Voges and Patel played cameos to get Nottinghamshire towards their target. Michael Lumb remained unbeaten on 25 after opening the innings. James Taylor, in his first season for Nottinghamshire after his move from Leicestershire, made 16 off 6 balls. Only a small insight to Taylor's form, but he looked in fine nick and deserves to be in the England team.
The Foxes are resilient and good at comebacks so no-one should write them off yet. However, with key players missing from last year's successful campaign, such as Paul Nixon, James Taylor, Andrew MacDonald and Jigar Naik, through retirement, moving clubs or injury, it will be a struggle for Leicestershire to re-build the team. Let's see how Leicestershire perform against Lancashire on Friday.
Monday 11 June 2012
Rain finishes final West Indies Test
The rain returned to claim a third day's play as the third final test of the series ended in a draw. After the first two days were washed out, days three and four offered an insight to what might have been had the West Indies fielded a full strength team bereft of IPL commitments and contractual issues.
The West Indies made their highest score of the series scoring 426. The one constant the West Indies have had is Marlon Samuels. With an average of 96.50 and 386 runs in the series, he was easily the West Indies best batsman. He has finally reached the potential everyone spoke about and let's hope he continues to deliver.
Tino Best made the highest test score ever by a number 11 and was unlucky to be caught on 95 off 112 balls when he so deserved 100. At least he gave the crowd who paid £63 for a ticket for the Saturday something to cheer about. With 14 fours and 1 six, someone might have been telling Tino to mind those windows with good reason this time round.
The one blip on the West Indies batting performance was Dinesh Ramdin's celebration on reaching his century. As he got to 100 he retrieved a piece of paper from his pocket saying "Yeah Viv, talk nah." Whatever his gripe with Sir Vivian Richards, one of the West Indies' greatest batsman of all time, that wasn't the way to deal with it. Ramdin has subsequently been fined 20% of his match fee.
England fielded a weakened pace attack with both James Anderson and Stuart Broad being rested, much to the disappointment of the bowlers in question. Many a team would welcome Graham Onions and Steven Finn as their reserve bowlers.
It was great to see Onions back in an England shirt two years after a serious back injury jeopardised his career. Personally, I would have opened the bowling with Onions and Finn and brought Tim Bresnan on first change. Four wickets for Onions and three for Finn showed a decent performance but Anderson and Broad can sleep easy at night knowing they are England's number one bowling duo. Anderson was missed in the slips too with Ian Bell dropping two catches.
England won the series 2-0 and outplayed the West Indies for most of the series. It would have been interesting to see how this test match would have panned out had we not lost any time to rain. I think the West Indies would have put up more of a fight. Add a Chris Gayle or Ramesh Sarwan to the squad and who knows what might have been?
On to the one-day series on Saturday with a returning Chris Gayle; and missing, a retired from ODIs, Kevin Pietersen.
The West Indies made their highest score of the series scoring 426. The one constant the West Indies have had is Marlon Samuels. With an average of 96.50 and 386 runs in the series, he was easily the West Indies best batsman. He has finally reached the potential everyone spoke about and let's hope he continues to deliver.
Tino Best made the highest test score ever by a number 11 and was unlucky to be caught on 95 off 112 balls when he so deserved 100. At least he gave the crowd who paid £63 for a ticket for the Saturday something to cheer about. With 14 fours and 1 six, someone might have been telling Tino to mind those windows with good reason this time round.
The one blip on the West Indies batting performance was Dinesh Ramdin's celebration on reaching his century. As he got to 100 he retrieved a piece of paper from his pocket saying "Yeah Viv, talk nah." Whatever his gripe with Sir Vivian Richards, one of the West Indies' greatest batsman of all time, that wasn't the way to deal with it. Ramdin has subsequently been fined 20% of his match fee.
England fielded a weakened pace attack with both James Anderson and Stuart Broad being rested, much to the disappointment of the bowlers in question. Many a team would welcome Graham Onions and Steven Finn as their reserve bowlers.
It was great to see Onions back in an England shirt two years after a serious back injury jeopardised his career. Personally, I would have opened the bowling with Onions and Finn and brought Tim Bresnan on first change. Four wickets for Onions and three for Finn showed a decent performance but Anderson and Broad can sleep easy at night knowing they are England's number one bowling duo. Anderson was missed in the slips too with Ian Bell dropping two catches.
England won the series 2-0 and outplayed the West Indies for most of the series. It would have been interesting to see how this test match would have panned out had we not lost any time to rain. I think the West Indies would have put up more of a fight. Add a Chris Gayle or Ramesh Sarwan to the squad and who knows what might have been?
On to the one-day series on Saturday with a returning Chris Gayle; and missing, a retired from ODIs, Kevin Pietersen.
Monday 4 June 2012
Netherlands beat Foxes to continue CB40 success
Grace Road was glittering in the sun today as were the men in Orange as the Netherlands continue their impressive start to the CB40 campaign.
Having been put in to bat the Netherlands made an impressive 304 for 3 from their 40 overs. Michael Swart made 102 off 100 balls. Tom Cooper made 68, but it was Borgas' innings of 61 off 33 balls that really propelled the score. The Dutch offered very few chances to get wickets in their entire innings.
Leicestershire got off to the worst possible start when Josh Cobb was bowled by Van der Gugten by the first legitimate delivery of the innings. Ramnaresh Sarwan led the fightback and showed us all what the West Indies are missing. His 82-ball century was a delight to watch and contained 7 fours and a six. When Sarwan was run out for 115 all of Leicestershire's hopes were dashed too, with the Foxes still needing 90 off 6 overs.
The middle order played cameo innings but the inevitable happened as Leicestershire stumbled to 261 for 9 from their 40 overs. Netherlands deservedly won by 43 runs. Although Leicestershire lost, there were plenty of positives to take from this game. With Leicestershire's most successive form of the game, T20, starting soon, hopefully Leicestershire can build on today's positives.
On a personal note, I had a thoroughly fantastic day at Grace Road. I was privileged enough to meet two directors and the Chief Executive of Leicestershire who all made me feel very welcome and thanked me for my support. It was a shame not to see a bigger crowd on a bank holiday with such good weather. People really need to get behind counties like Leicestershire and give all their support. Hopefully being 2011 T20 Champions will draw in the crowds!
Having been put in to bat the Netherlands made an impressive 304 for 3 from their 40 overs. Michael Swart made 102 off 100 balls. Tom Cooper made 68, but it was Borgas' innings of 61 off 33 balls that really propelled the score. The Dutch offered very few chances to get wickets in their entire innings.
Leicestershire got off to the worst possible start when Josh Cobb was bowled by Van der Gugten by the first legitimate delivery of the innings. Ramnaresh Sarwan led the fightback and showed us all what the West Indies are missing. His 82-ball century was a delight to watch and contained 7 fours and a six. When Sarwan was run out for 115 all of Leicestershire's hopes were dashed too, with the Foxes still needing 90 off 6 overs.
The middle order played cameo innings but the inevitable happened as Leicestershire stumbled to 261 for 9 from their 40 overs. Netherlands deservedly won by 43 runs. Although Leicestershire lost, there were plenty of positives to take from this game. With Leicestershire's most successive form of the game, T20, starting soon, hopefully Leicestershire can build on today's positives.
On a personal note, I had a thoroughly fantastic day at Grace Road. I was privileged enough to meet two directors and the Chief Executive of Leicestershire who all made me feel very welcome and thanked me for my support. It was a shame not to see a bigger crowd on a bank holiday with such good weather. People really need to get behind counties like Leicestershire and give all their support. Hopefully being 2011 T20 Champions will draw in the crowds!
Sunday 3 June 2012
Anderson rested for Edgbaston Test. Do we play too much cricket?
James Anderson has been rested for the final Test of the West Indies series as England "manage" his workload. I'm sure Anderson will have wanted to play with the stronger opponents South Africa coming up.
I understand we have an unassailable lead in the series so it leans towards team rotation. However, is it fair to deprive the paying public the opportunity to see England's spearhead? There is also the chance of Stuart Broad being rested too.
The need for resting players and the retirement of Kevin Pietersen from ODIs surely means the International calendar requires looking at. Test cricket is the pinnacle of cricket. So why are the top two countries, England and South Africa only playing a 3-Test series?
With the rising popularity of 20 over cricket, we need to cut back the number of meaningless 50 over matches. The modern cricket schedule is so hectic that someone playing all three forms of the game will find it unsustainable.
I understand we have an unassailable lead in the series so it leans towards team rotation. However, is it fair to deprive the paying public the opportunity to see England's spearhead? There is also the chance of Stuart Broad being rested too.
The need for resting players and the retirement of Kevin Pietersen from ODIs surely means the International calendar requires looking at. Test cricket is the pinnacle of cricket. So why are the top two countries, England and South Africa only playing a 3-Test series?
With the rising popularity of 20 over cricket, we need to cut back the number of meaningless 50 over matches. The modern cricket schedule is so hectic that someone playing all three forms of the game will find it unsustainable.
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