Panesar at home and Pietersen’s spark

I managed to get to a couple of games last week, the first was the 3rd day of the County Championship game of Northants against Glamorgan where I managed to see ex-South African all-rounder Lance Klusener reach his highest first class score of 202*. He was helped by a decent batting performance from Monty Panesar, who held up an end while ‘Zulu’ got to his landmark after which Northants declared.

Monty batted reasonably well for  his unbeaten 30 odd, but rightly so Klusener was roundly cheered by the sizeable crowd, considering it was a Friday.

  

Glamorgan were visibly flat in the field and looked to have an uphill battle to save the game after losing a wicket before bad light ended the day’s play. Hence I got to see Monty bat as well as bowl.

On Sunday I managed to see England’s last performance of the ’summer’, beating South Africa in the 4th ODI at Lords in what turned into a 20 over slog in the gloaming. Pietersen’s captaincy has reinvigorated the England team and as a result had convincingly won the one day series before even getting to HQ. Which was just as well as the weather was shit. I have a friend that I regularly go to cricket with who seems to carry the rain around with him, I mean this summer he has literally always been under a cloud, that more often than not chooses to spill its guts.

Luckily the Lords drainage showed its worth and we were able to get underway shortly after 1pm. England choose to field and were going through fielding drills before the start.

South Africa actually started their innings really well with Amla and Gibbs hitting regular boundaries with Amla looking in especially good touch before a shambolic attempt at a run, ended in Shah running out the bearded opener. Gibbs was the only South African batsman to make a meaningful contribution before the rains came again in the 32nd over.

Between the innings I walked around the ground as is traditional at the innings break and got talking to one of the stewards alongside the pavilion, who like the rest of the people in the ground was disappointed at the reduced play. He was absolutely adamant that the ground should have a roof for such occasion! A well natured argument then ensured with I, even with having being continually been screwed over by the weather this year, advocating no roof as atmospheric conditions play such a large part in the game.

Continuing the walk around the ground I came to the Nursery Ground under the Media Centre where there were many people milling about. Suddenly a group of stewards parted the crowd and between the 2 support columns of the Media Centre came the serious looking Andrew Flintoff who strode purposefully to the nets to prepare for the innings. He looked in good touch when smashing a few throw downs in the nets.

It came in useful later when despite the near dark, Flintoff and Shah smashed several boundaries to reach the target of 137 with a few overs to spare. England had started slowly with Bell and Prior struggling to find the boundaries early on. After their dismissals, Shah, Pietersen and Flintoff played themselves in before teeing off. In the best of lights it’s a challenge to face the likes of Dale Steyn, so to watch the batsmen flog them to all parts in the dingy light was an immense end to the summer.

Rain stops play

So far this year I have been to 3 separate days of international cricket. The 1st was the ODI England vs New Zealand at Edgbaston, the 2nd was the 1st day of the 3rd Test of England vs South Africa also at Edgbaston and the 3rd day of the 4th Test of England vs South Africa at The Oval. I only bring this up as I have had the luck or lack of, this year to have only seen 1 full uninterrupted day of cricket.

• Of a potential 100 overs in the New Zealand game, I saw 54 overs;
• I saw all 90 overs of the day at the 3rd Test versus South Africa; and
• Of a potential 90 overs at The Oval, I saw a mere 17.5 overs!

So this year out of a possible 280 overs, I have seen 161.5 overs, just over half of those possible had there been full play on each day! Really gutted with that so far this ’summer’, never more disappointing than in the New Zealand game. Actually I’ve never previously had to apply for a refund as I had to do in the final Test of the year. Absolutely gutting. One last chance to make it up comes when I go to the ODI at Lords at the end of the month. Please please please please please don’t rain!

Anyway of the day at The Oval, Pietersen’s first Test in charge no less, the highlights for me were, Stuart Broad ripping out McKenzie’s middle stump, the classy batting of Hasim Amla and the aggressive return of Steve Harmison.

A great atmosphere with people leaping to their feet when the young man rearranged the furniture! Definitely my favourite moment of the day.

Six balls short

Got back from Birmingham yesterday in one way happy that I saw some cricket, but in another frustrated at the lack of result. I did not have great hopes of seeing my first live international cricket of the year given Tuesday’s weather forecast for the following day. I would not have minded if it had hammered down with rain all day, but the annoying spits and spots that kept England and New Zealand off the field, seemed tailor made to frustrate. A friend noted I seemed depressed as I munched on my lunchtime sandwiches.

Come two o’clock I was ready to hit the road for the 2 hour journey home avoiding the rush hour and as a last resort popped into the Sports Cafe to see if there was any prospect of play. It was absolutely agonising watching the groundstaff tentatively pull off the first of the outer covers in the background while David Gower chaired a breeze shooting session in the foreground on Sky.

My mood lifted in the taxi on the way to the ground, better late than never I suppose and Edgbaston cheered heartily when the players appeared for the 3pm start with Ian Bell playing at his home ground and the prospect of KP’s switch-hitting fresh in the memory.

Bell only lasted 3 balls before he got a leading edge and was caught in the off-side, looking to clip the ball off his legs. Never mind, time for Pietersen.

Great cheers as he walked out, however he didn’t really seem to time the ball too well, before he hit a catch straight to long-off on the edge of the fielding circle after scoring 13. Luke Wright on the other hand had some good clean hits in half century and having seen him for the first time I was reasonably happy with what was on show.

England lost wickets at some rate towards the end of the innings with Collingwood and Bopara involved in the most farcical, both diving towards the crease to avoid a run out. Bopara went for 10. I was really impressed by Owais Shah who looked in great touch as he got to 18, the highlight being a six he hit deep into the stands and midwicket that got the weather resilient Brummie crowd roaring. Dimi Mascarenhas tried to force the pace towards the end but was out cheaply as England lost all their wickets for 162 runs in their shortened 24 over innings.

Considering the weather, it was absolutely farcical that everyone sat around for half an hour between innings, surely the priority should have been to get on with the game? As it turned out, it made a real difference to the outcome. Or lack of.

The Kiwis came out to bat at six o’clock looking to chase 160 runs in 23 overs with the asking rate at about 7 an over, they played effectively if not in exactly a thrilling manner, picking up singles with the odd four clubbed along the way. The Mexican wave is often a key indicator of such play, but this is what the Black Caps do best; no place for a McCullum or Taylor fireworks show late in the day.

Cloud after dark cloud rolled over the ground during the match, over the pavilion, the pitch and then away towards the city. Unsurprisingly, it got progressively darker during the Kiwi innings with lights from the scoreboard and corporate boxes being very noticeable in what turned out to be the dying overs of the match. The temperature also dropped away significantly with the flecks of rain coming again. Wearing just a T-shirt under my light jacket it was the 18th over when I decided, looking at the skies coming in from behind the pavilion, that I’d had enough. After finally getting a cab outside of the ground (unreconstructed madness!), I slumped thankfully in my seat out of the rain that was now teeming down. On the radio Jonathan Agnew had just announced the abandonment of the game in the 19th over, 6 balls short of the Duckworth Lewis calculation kicking in and a result being had. The Kiwis were rightly annoyed being ahead on Duckworth/Lewis when the umpires pulled the plug.

Driving away from Birmingham later that evening the sky was the brightest it had been compared to almost anytime during the day. Frustrated but not as much as if I were a New Zealander. I had a slight smirk at that.

Hopefully Sunday will be better; I’m going to watch Northants in the Twenty20 Cup.

Collywobbles

Yeah and that’s the crappy tabloid headline out of the way! This has nothing to do with former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore, but being a cricket blog, it has everything to do with England ODI captain, Paul Collingwood’s, current struggles with the bat.

With his batting this season in all forms of the game hardly setting the world alight, or indeed the country (or indeed the county of Durham?) Collingwood will surely feel the pressure when England start their 5 match ODI series against New Zealand next week. As a gauge he only passed double figures once in 4 innings against a solid but unspectacular Kiwi bowling unit, scoring a measly 32 runs at an average of not even 11, giving him the worst statistics for a specialist batsman in the Test series. Hardly the same man who scored an almighty double hundred against the Aussies in their own back yard. (albeit in a losing cause in 2006).

Now I have to admit to a vested interest here; I have tickets to the 2nd ODI in Birmingham next week, my first live international cricket of the year, so the last thing I want to see as an England fan is Colly scratch around at the crease only to spoon a catch up for some bit-part Black Cap bowler. New Zealand will be up for it, wanting to take some cheer home with them following the 2 nil Test defeat when England’s bowlers found a rare moment of ruthlessness on the final morning.

With his early season lack of runs there has been much talk that his place in the side may be in jeopardy. Simon Hughes’ article in The Telegraph last week is a case in point and surely another poor series would have England’s fringe players again asking the question with Ravi Bopara and Owai Shah being the most audible of the enquirers. Yes, people will talk about his consistently excellent fielding, but it is as a batsman and a captain that he will be judged and Collingwood will need to assert those sides of his game to enable he stays at the helm.

The man is nothing less then a fighter, time and again working hard to maximise what skills he has often in the face of more obviously talented colleagues and opposition. Don’t write him off, but I’m sure he knows he has to fire in the coming weeks to retain his status as an England cricketer or risk being cast out.

Until then here’s the best of the England captain:

A quality catch; see ya Matty!