Onions and Anderson do well

It is good to see that Onions and Anderson have come good. I have said before that Onions in England can be useful as he makes the batsmen play and gets it to move just enough either way to cause problems to the batsmen and that is what he did today. He also can bowl long spells and has a good bouncer.

Anderson may have got a bit lucky with a few decisions but he bowled better today as he bowled with better control.

Anderson has improved as a bowler and I don't think he deserves the amount of criticism he still gets. He can occasionally go for runs but he can take wickets as he gets it to swing very late and no batsmen would like to face that. A good example would be the ball that he bowled to Manou which swung late to clean him up.

The one bowler I am still not convinced is Broad though some do rate him highly.

To end it it has been a fine performance from both.

The great knock played by Hanif Mohammad

Most cricket fans do remember Hanif Mohammad for that great knock of 337 at Bridgetown Barbados in 1957/58. So how good was it?

If one looks at the knock statistically Pakistan team were already 473 runs behind after getting bowled out for just 106 in the first innings. So, in the second innings Pakistan were in all sorts of trouble but, Hanif played a great knock as he scored 337 runs in 970 minutes which shows that he must have had great concentration powers. As expected he holds the record for playing the longest innings in test cricket. His knock of course helped Pakistan to save the match and add to it the Caribbean team had bowlers like Sobers, Gilchrist, Valentine etc. So, one can say it was a good bowling attack.

Tony Cozier once said, he defended so much that a guy who couldn't get into the stadium but climbed on a coconut tree to see the match went into a deep slumber after seeing the way Mohammad was defending and in the end fell from the tree and that woke him up!

Kulasekara?

To start with Kulasekara seems to a good bowler. He may not be quick as a bowler but, he can move it both ways as he has the ability to bring it back sharply into the batsmen and to get it to straighten just enough to cause problems to the batsmen.

He also uses the bouncer as a surprise weapon and I have seen him getting players like Shewag out with a surprise bouncer. He can also get useful runs lower down the order.

So it looks like he can be a very useful player for Lanka.

Your views on Kulasekara.

The battle for Frank Worrell trophy 95

I thought of writing an article on the battle for Frank Worrell trophy in 1995. It was a great test series as Aussies played out of their skins to defeat the Westindies to get back the prized Frank Worrell trophy after so many years.

It all started with the the Westindies thrashing the Aussies in odi's and Aussies had more problems as both Dermott, and Fleming got injured. Australia's woes was compounded by Warne looking ineffective as Lara, and Hooper played him very well. So, let us see how the test series unfolded.

In the first test Julien was the surprise package as he took four wickets. Australian fielders took some great catches which helped the team but, there was a controversial one if I remember taken by S.Waugh of Lara? when the Aussies played they got a lead as everyone chipped in with a good score. In the absence of McDermott the young McGrath took the mantle of being the main bowler as he bowled superbly to take 5fer as the Aussies won by 10 wickets. In the second test the Aussies did well again as Reiffel with his accurate bowling got wickets even Warne chipped in with few wickets. For Westindies Walsh bowled superbly.In the end Mark Waugh and Boon rescued the sinking ship to take Australia to safety as the match ended in a draw.

In the third test Ambrose bowled superbly as it looked like the speed king had woken up from a deep slumber because in the first two tests he wasn't good. One also can remember some heated exchanges that happened between Steve Waugh, and Ambrose as the Aussies were crushed though, not before McGrath again showed why he is highly rated by taking another 5fer. It was a sight to see McGrath not holding back against Ambi, and Walsh as he tested both of them with bouncers. So, it all came down to the final test where the Aussie bowlers dismissed the Windies cheaply then the Waugh twins took over, and played magnificently with their trademark flicks and cuts as S.Waugh scored a double hundred and Mark chipped in with a fine hundred. Windies did show some resistance in the second innings but, soon it all ended with the Aussies winning.The celebrations began as the Aussies celebrated long, and hard!

To end it the Aussies played as a team and won a historic series.

Adcock and Heine

When it comes to opening bowling pairs from say 1940 to about 1960 many talk about Lindwall and Miller, Trueman and Statham, Hall and Griffith but, what about Adcock and Heine of SA?

I actually first read about both Adcock, and Heine in a cricket magazine and it made me look for more information about Adcock, and Heine.

Of course everyone remembers Adcocok for hitting Sutcliffe of NZ on his head and as expected he was said to be quick and fearsome also what about Peter Heine? he is said to have supported Adcock well. Heine may not have been in the class of Adcock but, most of the former players who played with him or against him say that he had a never say die spirit who could bowl long spells.

Mike Procter on Adcock,and Heine

"Adcock was quicker but Heine put the heat into the combination."

Monty Noble?

Most cricket fans talk about Miller as the greatest allrounder Australia have ever produced but, how good was Monty Noble? He may not be in the class of Miller but, during the early part of the 19th century he did very well for Australia.

He was known to be a graceful batsman who could mix caution with aggression and could change his game as the situation demands. As a bowler he had reasonable success against England. He usually bowled medium pace and mixed it up with spin.

As the captain of the Australian side he was by all accounts good and under his leadership Australia did defeat England in 1907 as well as in 1909. I have read that he was tactically good.

So, one can surely classify Noble as a genuine allrounder as he was a good batsman, good as a bowler, was said to be a fine fielder, and of course did well as a captain too.

Another allrounder that comes to my mind is Gregory. It looks like he too was a fine allrounder.

Technique?

I have had some discussion about what is actually technique? As Ian Chappell once said technique is all about helping a batsman score runs.

My take on it.

Technique doesn't mean that every batsman should have an text book like technique. It is there to help a batsman score runs.

S'wag scores runs so he is technically very good but Afridi tries to slog everything and can't succeed in test cricket!

Actually if we look at it Afridi has great hand eye co-ordination and confidence as does S'wag and KP but Afridi hasn't succeeded in test cricket.

Yes technique matters but over analysis on whether his technique is like what is written about doesn't look right.

In my view a player has to be mentally tough and a technique that works for him.

Pietersen's contributions to English cricket

in recent times there has have lots of debate regarding whether KP is a team player, is he good when England have been in trouble etc.

So I have come up with those knocks which he has scored when England were in trouble to see whether he is a team player or not.

In his first test at Lords in 2005 against Australia he comes into bat with England in all sorts of trouble as England are down in dumps with the score reading 21 for 5 in reply to Australia's 190 but in his first test itself he plays sensibly against McGrath and co and scores 57 as England get bowled out for just 155! In the second innings he fights hard amidst the ruins surrounding him as he scores 64 not out and he is the only one to reach the half century mark as England get bowled out for just 180 to lose the match.

In the famous test at Edgbaston England did start well as Tresco just hammered the opposition bowlers but as soon as he got out England lost quick wickets and the score suddenly read 187 for 4, but KP along with Freddie came up with a crucial century partnership to get England to 400. KP scored 71 in this innings.

Of course I do not have to say much about his 158 at Oval. England were looking to draw the match but before the lunch session itself England had lost few wickets, but KP plays all types of unorthodox shots which annoys the purists and gets 158 to save the match for England.

KP scored a fine hundred at Faisalabad too. It was a slow track with the ball not coming on to the bat. In reply to Pakistan's 462 England were 107 for 3 and on a slow track taking a bit of spin it was KP who scored a hundred. He took the attack to the opposition bowlers like Kaneria and Akthar and took the team to 446. Of course Bell also has to get the credit for making a fine century.

His 87 at Nagpur in 2006 against India also was a good knock. England had taken the lead in the first innings, but after a good start from Strauss and Cook England suddenly lost both of them as Kumble with his googly and Harbie start troubling England, but KP was still there as he took charge of the proceedings and started hammering the bowlers and the way he left almost all his 3 stumps and smacked Kumble bowling from the rough was amazing. He made sure that England would have enough time to declare. Another point to note is that he could have taken singles and slowly got to yet another hundred if he was THAT SELFISH!

142 at Edgabston against Lanka in 2006 was another fine knock which came under pressure. England had bowled out Lanka for just 141, but Malinga and Murali did well to help Lanka make a come back, but KP took on Murali and co and scored 142 out of 293 runs which was almost half of the runs England scored in that match as England went onto win the match! Of course most of the cricket fans remember that switch hit of Murali from that match.

I do rate his 92 at Brisbane very highly too. England were 445 runs behind after the first innings, but Australia bat again for the second time around and score some more runs to make sure that England are down and out. In the second innings too England lost a few early wickets but enter kp who starts his knock by playing with a straighter but shorter back lift against Clark and McGrath as both were looking to bowl full to him and looked to come forward to both of them, though he did stay a bit more in the crease to the quicker Lee. In this knock he mixed caution with aggression to make 92 and maybe he should look at this innings as it may give him a clue regarding how to play Hilfy and Siddle. Anyhow coming back to the innings he tried his best only to see England getting all out for 370 and as expected lost the match.

Against the Caribbean team in 2007 England needed quick runs to declare so, who comes good? of course it is KP as he scores 109 out of 138 balls. If he was not a team player he could have again slowed down when nearing his century!

Against India he scored a fine 134. In this match though England took the lead in the first innings, but the second time around they lost 4 or 5 wickets early, but KP with his 134 took England to a winning position but only for rain to save India from a certain defeat. Actually this knock came on a pitch that was helping the quicker bowlers and the so called selfish KP was the 9TH MAN OUT.

His knock of 101 at Oval helped England to save the match against India.

His knock of 115 at Napier helped England to make a come back from 5 for 86 to win the match.

At Oval against SA his hundred came at a crucial time what with England in trouble as he again took the team to a position of strength as England won the match.

At Mohali he came in at 1 for 2 and scored 144 to take England to a draw.

At Trinidad he scored a quickfire 102 to help England declare.

I have not included his curial knocks in one day cricket as the list can get long! He plays a few silly shots but everytime he does that he gets criticised like anything.

In this series he has been in decent touch with an average of 38 but if I listen to some it looks like he has scored about 10 runs!

I hope he gets fully fit and returns back to the side very soon. Good luck KP!

Swann against left handers

So after a fine performance at Lords can Swann continue to do well in the rest of the series?

He did bowl too full and pushed it through at Cardiff and didn't look like the wicket taking option I thought he would be. Strauss did use him as a stock bowler too which was not great too see and some people even thought that Giles was better!

In the second test Swann did give it a bit of flight and got a bit of turn. I have said it previously that he always likes to bowl to lefthanders because unlike many other modern day spinners he goes around the wicket and is consistent when he goes around the wicket. He can also turn that quicker one a bit which helps him.

I thought with his limitations Giles did a ok job in 05 Ashes but Swann is more of an attacking option especially against the lefthanders and should be used as an attacking bowler by Strauss. To end it Aussies do have 5 lefthanders in their side!

All time team for WI

After having a look at the Pakistan and NZ all time teams I also thought of having a go at the team from Caribbean. With so many legends around it is always tough to select the side but this is my side.

Greenidge
Haynes
George Headley
Lara
V.Richards C
Sobers
Dujon
Marshall
Holding
Ambrose
Gibbs

I have picked Gibbs as I thought that there should be some variation in the attack and that is why great quicks like Constantine, Martindale, Hall, Walsh, Roberts Garner etc have been left out.

Headly had a great record of playing well in a average side on not so easy tracks, so I have picked him.

Pitches

The ICC have been thinking about making test cricket more interesting what with day and night matches, test championship, even four day tests etc but what about the tracks on which cricket has been played?


The track at Perth is no more lightning quick, the track at Brisbane does not help the quicker bowlers like it used to, or for the matter the Adelaide track which has always been good for batting but nowadays every batsman thinks that if he plays on the Adelaide track he should get a big score!

The track at Barbados on which England and the Caribbean team played was so flat that the match may not have finished even if they had played for 10 days on it, or even the track at Jamaica has become a lot more flat.

The tracks in subcontinent like Kandy, Karachi, Mohali etc always had something in it for the bowlers but nowadays it is known more for big hundreds.

The track at Basin reserve in NZ was one of the best tracks as it had bounce and a bit of sideways movement but when India played NZ it had nothing in it for the quicker bowlers.

The tracks at Lords and even Headingley have become a lot more batsmen friendly and the pitch at Oval is just a belter.

The South African tracks like Durban still has something in it for the quicker bowlers though the Durban track now has more of a tennis ball bounce rather than the true bounce one used to see in the past.

So let ICC do something about the pitches and things like overrates to make cricket more interesting as without good wickets cricket won't be interesting as one needs to see an even contest between bat and ball.

Pakistan and NZ all time teams

I thought of coming up with all time Pakistan X1 and NZ X1.

Here are my all time Pakistan and NZ teams. First up is the Pakistan team

H.Mohammad
S. Anwar
Miandad
Z.Abbas
Haq
I.Khan (C)
Bari
Akram
Qadir
Fazal. Mohammad
Younis



Debatable selections can be Zaheer over Yousef, Fazal over Sarfraz. Fazal was said to be almost as good as Barnes but Sarfraz could just be brilliant on his day and with regards to Majid V Anwar again it can be debated and changed as can any other selection which is not agreed upon.

All time NZ X1

Turner
Sutcliffe
Fleming- captain
Crowe
Reid
C.Cairns
Ian Smith
R.Hadlee
Vettori
B.Taylor
Bond

Maybe Andrew Jones or someone else can be included instead of Reid as can other players like Donnelly, Congdon, Motz, Collings, Wright etc but this list can change.

Ashes cricket

My take on the final day's play of the test match between England and Australia.

Anderson set the tone with a great first over.

Freddie bowled the perfect first over as he go it to straighten just a bit and as expected Haddin played away from the body and got out.

Clarke and Johnson battled through some hostile bowling by Freddie especially Johnson looked all over the place. He surely likes to come forward.

Swann again showed that he is a good finger spinner as he got the important wicket of Clarke. He does turn it a bit and gets the quicker one to turn a bit as well and that helps and of course to the lefthanders he comes around the wicket.

Freddie got a 5 for at last and Swann got yet another lefthanders wicket by coming around the wicket to end the match.