Trezza at his best

I just thought of looking at Tresco's career and his achievements.

It was in 2000 when Tresco played for England. He was very much an unknown quantity then and was a surprise inclusion in the England one day side. Fletcher had seen him score a breathtaking triple hundred for the second team so he insisted on him being included.

Anyhow what struck me most in his first onedayer was his confidence. He just came down the wicket and smacked the second ball of Streak's over for a boundary and Streak was not some club standard bowler. He had a very successful one day series and there was a clamour for his inclusion in the test side. As expected there were many skeptics of his technique like some said that he had concrete feet but all those whingers had not seen the fact that Tresco's balance at the time of playing the ball was so good and he played with such a still head. Of course he had such good hands, and hand eye co ordination. Anyhow in spite of all that rubbish which was said about him he was selected and he immediately made an impact by doing well against the likes of Walsh and Ambi and played a huge part in helping England to win back the Wisden trophy.

His bigger test came in that winter when England went to Pakistan, and Lanka where the slow and low wickets would test the technique and temperament of many a batsman but Tresco stood up to it especially in Lanka when he played a masterful hundred at Galle against Murali and co. on what was an turning wicket. He showed excellent technique and patience in that innings. What struck me most in that innings was he had such good hands because of which he was able to manoeuvre the strike and he RARELY USED his pad against the spinners.

Back home he did well against Pakistan at Old Trafford when he scored 117 though at the other end wickets fell like nine pins and England lost. Again he showed that when the team is in trouble he is the one who will come good. In the Ashes that followed though he did ok he was not outstanding and again the so called experts started questioning his lack of footwork but thankfully it did not get into Tresco's head as in India he yet again did well and most of the times the team were under pressure yet Treso stood to the task.

His biggest test though came later in that year in Australia when he started to get low scores and were not the pundits waiting for it as they all jumped into the bandwagon and started questioning about his technique and one has to say that there was immense pressure on the guy when he walked to bat against SA at Oval in 2003 as he had not scored a century for over a year but how well he responded by playing a magnificent knock and getting a double hundred. Infact England were behind in that match as they were chasing a good score of 485 made by SA yet Tresco anchored the innings beautifully and helped England to win. His shots against Paul Adams in that knock were great to watch. After that series he scored a fine hundred against Bangladesh at Dhaka. I am discussing this knock just because even against Bangladesh England were in trouble and without Tresco's hundred England may have lost.

He had his troubles in the Caribbean and as expected the cricket pundits were beginning to question his technique but Tresco silenced them atleast for sometime as he did well at home still there were whispers about him failing on the bouncier tracks of SA but in his usual style of standing upright and getting a good stride in Tresco was able to do well in SA. His knock at Durban where he and Strauss put on a double hundred first wicket stand helped England not only to make sure that they will not lose but got them back in the match as suddenly England from losing had a good chance of winning! At Wanderes he helped England to win the match by scoring a blistering 169 which helped England to declare early as England won the series in SA. Few of the shots which I still remember from the knock were that nonchalant flick of Kallis, and coming down the wicket and hitting Boje straight down the ground against the spin.

The next big series was against Australia and the cricket experts were back on track as they started pointing towards Tresco's rather modest record against Aussies especially Ian Chappell was very critical of him as he said that both Kasper, and Dizzy will get him for single digit scores but did not he prove them wrong and who can forget his 90 at Edgbaston which brought some new life to England's camp or all those consistent scores throughout the series. In total he scored 430 runs and for once all his critics shut their mouth. He showed his class in Pakistan with a fine 189 at Multan though his team let him down by collapsing as England lost.

I don't want to get into the details of all that happened after that tour as Tresco finally retired in 07 but there is no doubt in my mind that he was an underrated opener. He was someone who stood upto the challenge whenever England were in trouble.