Season reflections, part 1

Looking back on the 2011 season, what will I remember best in 20 years time? I suppose taking my first wicket will be prominent, as will the car crash that was the game before. However, I'll leave all that for another post, and keep this post to my memories of following cricket rather than playing.

It's been a momentous year, that's for sure. England came back from a memorable winter during which they retained the Ashes for the first time in my memory, and off they went to the World Cup, where they avoided the kind of drubbings they have suffered in recent tournaments, but never really played their best. Somehow we managed to beat South Africa, tie with eventual winners India, and lose to Ireland. It really was rather a peculiar performance overall.

Sheer joy!

I was going to write a post utterly jam-packed full of bitterness at the way that, yet again, my captain didn't pick me on Saturday and gave me no explanation as to why, but I can't. Not today. Headquarters is a-buzz and packed to capacity, England have a very good chance of taking first blood against the best side in the world, and Tendulkar is at the crease hoping to make his century of centuries. The 2,000th Test is proving to be worthy of the title and my heart rejoices at just how magnificent it is to be a lover of cricket on a July day such as this. Test Match Special is blaring out of everything in the house capable of producing sound, if the atmosphere at Lord's is even 10% as good as it sounds it must be mightily impressive, and I'm making some pretty large sounds of my own every time an appeal goes up! It's lunch, we're six wickets from the win and we've got the best bowling attack on the planet. There's simply no way I could be in a bad mood today.

What a difference a week makes!

Well if last week was the worst I've ever known so far, this was definitely the best. I finally got that wicket I've been working so hard for these last 16 months, I got my first run of the season, the 4ths got our first win of the season, and I played two enjoyable matches against two teams who were both wonderfully friendly. It could not have been more different to last week's match.

Saturday's game was against Church Eaton, and while it had been raining quite heavily on Friday night and Saturday morning, we got to the ground and found the wicket a little damp but not too sticky, and the game was on. We lost the toss and were put into bat, I went out to umpire and although we lost the first wicket early on and then continued to lose them at regular intervals we were humming along nicely with Sam's brother Dan making a very impressive 54 not out. I myself was batting at 11 and came in with three and a half overs to go and the score on 181, but sadly after what was by all accounts a very solid block to the first ball I couldn't repeat it and the second ball beat the bat and ripped out middle to end the innings.

Putting my best foot forward

I made a couple of interesting discoveries at nets tonight, one relating to bowling and one to batting.

My bowling was the same as ever, some wonderfully tricky balls, some OK deliveries, the odd wicket and a few sprayed wide. The sprayed balls were largely the result of a loss of concentration, as the nets are pretty well attended and it can be pretty hard to focus at times - having to start your run-up from outside the line of the net doesn't help. Hopefully in a match I'll be better able to concentrate and this should remove some of the poorer deliveries.

I batted half-way through (Hyacinth got the gig today) and the coach was observing. After a few balls he came down and asked about my trigger. I explained how I was using it to prevent myself from backing away and he said it was a good idea, but he suggested I move my left leg first rather than my right so I don't get caught in a closed stance, and try to make some more positive movements forward and back. I tried it a bit and it seemed to help quite a lot, with more of a feeling that I was able to come further forward. It wasn't bullet-proof by any means, but it was a definite improvement. I wasn't trying to hit out, and again I was quite happy to leave balls, but by the end I felt I was seeing the ball well and able to try and drive the ball, and although my upper body messed things up a bit it was promising. Anyway, the really good thing is all winter I've made steady progress with my batting, and I've still got room for improvement.

"It's just so tempting"

Nets this evening was fun, got another bruise for the collection, and got a fair few stumpings too!

I got about 15 minutes worth of solo bowling in before my net was taken over by others, but it wasn't coming out quite as I'd like. I got padded up and went in, with the personal brief of remembering that left-right trigger and playing with a defensive mindset. Here it is ball-by-ball:

On the pull

Yesterday's nets was a bit of a strange one. I turned up ever so slightly early and started bowling to an empty net trying out a new run-up (more below), then when 3pm turned I got my pads on since there were plenty there but no-one padding up. It turned out to be an inspired tactical move as only myself and Sam (and two in the next-door net) got a bat before the heavens opened. For the first time I had a camera rolling so here's the highlights and lowlights: (should you wish to, you can see the full unedited 'innings' here)



In contrast with last Sunday, where the second ball cannoned into my left ankle, this week as you'll see I played the shot of my fledgling cricket career. It was lovely, a low front-footed pull shot, hit powerfully and safely through mid-wicket. It happened so quickly and effortlessly. Happy birthday to me. Smack. Middled. Four. "Fetch that and bowl me another..."

In the wars but undefeated

Today's nets were probably my most encouraging yet. My bowling was exeptionally good, and my batting was, to use a cliché, "gritty", but pretty effective. Sadly they were also the most painful yet, as you'll find out below...

I really was exceptionally pleased with my bowling today. As far as I can remember there were only two (yep, just two) bad balls, and plenty of played-and-missed, nailed-on stumpings and a few catching chances. My line and length throughout was absolutely superb, and I think it's safe to say it's the best I've ever bowled at a batsman over a sustained period. It all felt so wonderfully natural. I'm feeling pretty confident about getting a regular bowl on merit now, and pretty confident of taking my share of wickets. I'm over the moon, to be honest.

Steady progress

Nets today was another good day for me, my bowling in particular feeling very solid and pretty consistent. I've definitely hit on a good trajectory as time and again I'm consistently beating the batsmen in flight. It's giving my confidence a big boost to know that I'm bowling mostly good balls and my wayward deliveries are slowly disappearing. People are beginning to notice my improvement and hopefully Sam will be able to have confidence in what he'll be getting if he brings me on to bowl.

There was one batsman who seemed to be smacking everyone about and I couldn't find a way to beat him, but looking at the field I tend to imagine setting (see the diagram on the left, if it's not clear enough click on it) I doubt he would have scored too many, and his singles would have got him off strike anyway. I did get him to edge one to or possibly just over the slip. Most other batsman appeared to be having real trouble dealing with the way I flight the ball so like I say, I'm pretty confident that given enough time in the middle to establish a rhythm I can do a decent enough job and, most importantly, TAKE WICKETS.

Double Plus Good

Finally today, everything felt right. It feels as if I'm beginning to get the hang of this ridiculously technical sport. OK, it wasn't perfect, but for once I came away satisfied with both my batting and my bowling.

As usual, I started off bowling, and in fact I asked Sam to give me the last batting slot so my bowling wouldn't be interrupted. One thing which helped was that I didn't face any left-handers today, but while that's still a question mark I should focus on the positives. My bowling was a little wayward at the start, but in a short time I found a decent length and was bowling a lot of dot balls and possible singles. As usual the batsmen were out to slog, but I still think my imaginary field would be a very effective one in the middle.

At least my inconsistency is consistent

Apologies for the lack of updates lately, I missed nets last week as my dad turned 60 and we had a family day. I've finally finished the post on nets the week before last, and that's below this one. As for nets today, rather frustratingly while my batting was much better than last week, my bowling took a dip. Why I can't get them both to improve simultaneously God only knows, and it's rather a pain.

So first, the bowling. I suppose I'm being hard on myself, as I was bowling a reasonable length from the start and feeling fairly rhythmical, but the end result somehow failed to satisfy. Again, I was lacking spin and not feeling that "flick", something I'm becoming increasingly concerned about as I'm simply not turning the ball as much as I could last year. My top-spinners do dip and my zooters do float, but I'm not detecting any drift from my leggies. For once I was disciplined enough not to venture outside these three variations, but the batsmen didn't seem to be in any way uncomfortable. At least my mental field settings seem to be fundamentally sound, and in the middle it probably wouldn't have been anything like the run-fest it looked like.

The Curate's egg

I don't really know how to describe nets today, I was just about good enough not to be especially bad, and just about bad enough not to be especially good. I suppose on balance I'm a little disappointed that I haven't continued my recent improvements.

My bowling was OK as it goes, I was bowling a reasonably decent line and for once it was my length that was wayward to begin with. I have to confess I was very tired even before nets began, so maybe my concentration wasn't what it should be. My run-up was still a big mess! One guy was hitting out so I started throwing in top-spinners and zooters and managed to stitch him up good and proper with a ball even the most average keepers could have fashioned a stumping out of. A decisive victory for me!

A Mushroom Cloud Laying Motherf***er

It had all started so well...

I got to nets slightly early this week. One of our local rivals has the nets for the slot before ours, so after a couple of minutes they left and I had time for two or three practise balls before the first batsman had padded up. My bowling today showed some steady progress on last week. I bowled a good, more consistent line, got more spin and the batsmen were playing me with more respect. A new run-up seems to be emerging, but it wasn't consistent. One encouraging thing was that even though my last few steps were a bit tangled I was still bowling reasonably straight, so maybe the accuracy is coming, and perhaps some of the work I've been doing in the gym is starting to pay off in terms of my muscles working in a more co-ordinated fashion. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the progress I'm making with my bowling so far, so fingers crossed I should have some good overs to contribute this season.

I had a bat towards the end of the hour, and again it seemed mostly promising. I was trying out a backlift I'd been working on during the week and it seemed to help a lot with my timing. I wasn't bowled once (if you discount one which dribbled off my thigh-pad and bat back on to the stump) which is pretty much a first. Again my leg glance seemed to be my best shot, and given this perhaps I shouldn't look to leave quite so many leg-side balls. I did bat pretty seriously, no silly slogs, but the one really black mark was that my footwork was, not for the first time, virtually non-existent. I'm finding it extremely frustrating but it wasn't for lack of trying, my legs just don't seem to react fast enough. Anyway, despite rather more edges than I'd like I am continually improving how often I manage to get a good hit on the ball. With my pads off I went back to bowling for a little while, but with about 5 minutes left I bowled a very nice ball and decided to call it a day on a high note.

Then we had our fielding session, and the wheels came off a bit.

Encouraging signs...?

I was back at Blessed Bill's for nets today, and came away feeling heaps better than I did last week. Firstly, my bowling was much better, with the ball coming out reasonably well, landing in the right areas most of the time and on occasion I was putting the batsmen in trouble. I'm not bowling as well as I can, but for some reason it was much, much better than last week. I felt as if I was taking my time more and bowling in a slower and more relaxed way, so maybe last week was a temporary reversion to the same problems I started with last year, trying to bowl too fast and too flat. I still struggled badly against left-handers, so that's definitely something I need to work on. Another potential dark cloud is that there was another leg-spinner bowling today who looked pretty handy, so maybe I've got some pretty stiff competition!

The coach asked us to have a think about what we were aiming at when we bowled, to which I replied that I could tell him straight away - I first look for where I want to plant my back foot, then change focus to where I want the ball to land. He said I ought to work on not having to do the first part, but it seemed to affect my rhythm so I went back to my tried and tested method. It may be that I can sort this out when I practise on my own, but in these nets I can't afford to waste too much time on it. My run-up does need a lot of work, as since I junked my original run-up I haven't yet settled on a replacement - I just walk in and improvise.

The harem's newest member - "Olivia"

My new pride and joy arrived today, even if initially it was inexplicably delivered to a Mr Hill at number 39, a house a significant distance down the street from mine. It matters not, she's here now and she looks gorgeous. I've never seen such a piece of willow. It's a good thing I'm not superstitious, as I counted thirteen grains on the face...

I spent a while wondering about names. I knew it had to be a girl's name beginning with 'O', and came up with about a dozen candidates. I whittled these down to Odessa, Ophelia and Olivia before finally plumping for Olivia after I got one of my twitter friends to decide a winner. Given the olive-green colour of the labels I suppose it's rather apt!

So now comes the preparation, and I'm really rather nervous about it. I really don't want to muck up such a lovely, expensive bat. I rang M&H for some tips and they were very helpful, and I'm going to try my best. The first coat of oil went on at 2pm today and the second is due at 10pm. By the time the tea-break rolls round tomorrow (much of my life at the moment seems to revolve around the timings of Ashes Tests) the oil should have soaked in and I can start with the knocking in, which is the part that terrifies me the most. One thing M&H were at pains to stress was that I will probably need to hit the bat much harder than seems sensible, so no namby-pamby taps... Once I think I've got it nicely knocked in, the facing can go on, and the bat will be ready to start the season.

One simple, really nice touch was the guy at M&H wishing me good luck with the bat. I'm already dreaming about what shots I'm going to play and how many runs I'm going to score. I know a bat, however good, can't turn a rank amateur into VVS Laxman overnight, but for the moment it's nice to dream a little...

For those who asked, here are a few photos of my new bat:

Picture 1 - Picture 2 - Picture 3 - Picture 4 - Picture 5 - Picture 6 - Picture 7

In Affectionate Remembrance of Australian Cricket...

...which was mercilessly put to the sword by England at the Adelaide Oval.

England have beaten Australia, in Australia, in a match that actually counts, by an innings and 71 runs, and we have a 1-0 lead in the series. Now re-read that sentence. I know. I can't quite believe it either.

Michael Atherton said that this was the best performance by an England team in 30 years, which since I'm not yet 29 makes this the best in my entire lifetime. Having watched most of it, I can easily believe that. We comprehensively thrashed them on four out of the five days, and if it hadn't been for the rain we could have wrapped this up with Monday off. From start to finish, our batting, bowling and fielding were an order of magnitude better than Australia's. There's only one word for it, this was a ROUT.

I was going to write a post a couple of weeks ago appealing for everyone to stop being so bloody English, stop thinking this series was going to be close and realise that actually we have the better individuals and the better team all round. I couldn't quite bring myself to write it, as I guess I was being too bloody English! If we can maintain our current form, this is the promised land for us. Our performance in Adelaide was so good, so ruthless, so utterly flawless in every department that we can with some justification look forward to challenging not just for the odd series but for nothing less than World dominance in the Test arena. In recent years we've beaten the West Indies, Australia, Bangladesh and Pakistan at home, beaten Bangladesh away and drawn with South Africa. Next year we face India and Sri Lanka at home and if we can win against them we will be right up there. Good times!

In the meantime, the nature of Australia's performances so far - and don't forget that our second innings at Brisbane is still going at 1137 for 6 - allied to the lack of any clear way back for them, leads one to think that it's not a matter of if England retain the Ashes, so much as a case of how much we win the series by. Right now, a cricket match between England and Australia is like a battle of the bands between Led Zepplin and McFly...

Overthrows

The England vs Pakistan series seems a long time ago now, but it's worth returning to one particular match, and one particular moment.

Let's go back to the Oval. England were two-nil up in the four match series, but while our bowlers had proven adept at skittling Pakistani batsmen cheaply, many of our own batsmen were also struggling for form. Only Morgan and Prior had scored centuries, and of all England's batsmen Cook was looking particularly uncertain. Never mind what had happened on the far-away winter tours, no matter that he had competently understudied as captain in Bangladesh, in the English summer season he had posted scores of 7, 23, 29, 8, 12, 17 and 4 prior to the Oval Test, where in the first innings he had again succumbed for just 6. Even against some clearly highly capable bowling, for an opening bat this was simply not good enough. At that point, frankly, he was for the high jump.

So in the second innings, Cook was under serious pressure. It showed. His innings was not one of those where you very quickly see that a big score is coming, it was one of those where every ball survived seems a decided bonus. He hadn't come in to form, he just seemed to be riding a rare flush of good luck. Somehow, he rode this luck all the way to 96, but there was nothing certain about his transition to three figures until another generous dollop of good luck came his way. He blocked a ball back to bowler Asif who, frustrated by Cook and Trott's continued presence, pick the ball up and shied at the stumps with a throw so wayward it went directly over the keeper's head, and on over the boundary to give Cook his first and only century of the summer. Cook's ticket to Australia was finally booked.

That overthrow has so far cost Australia 438 runs...

Waugh's declared...

"I am speaking to you from the Long Room at Lord's Cricket Ground. This morning the England Cricket Board's representative in Australia handed the Australian Cricket Board a final note stating that, unless we hear from them by 11 o'clock this evening that they were prepared at once to concede that we are the superior cricketing nation, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country's cricket team is at war with Australia."

Latest scores

Watson (NSW) ..............................6

Katich (NSW) ................................1

Ponting (Tas) .................................7

Clarke (NSW) ........................Injured

Hussey (WA) ................................0

North (WA) ..................................17

Haddin (NSW) .............................10

Johnson (WA) ...........................121*

Hauritz (NSW) ...............................0

Hilfenhaus (Tas) ....................Rested

Bollinger (NSW) .............................0

Meanwhile, in Tasmania:

Panesar ......................................13

Sit Rep

From: A. Flower, CiC, Ashes Expeditionary Force

To: ECB Command HQ, Lord's

08/11/10 09:10 GMT

TOP SECRET
Overall our first few days behind enemy lines have gone to plan, and we have encountered surprisingly little hostile resistance of the sort we have experienced on previous missions.
We did engage a localised force on 05/11/10 and I am pleased to inform you that after a dramatic breakthrough yesterday morning our first skirmish resulted in a notable success. Cpt Strauss excelled himself, 2Lt Pieterson seems to be back to his former self, and Cpl Broad and Sgt Swann did well to capitalise on some inspired work from young LCpl Finn. There are however still some concerns about Lt Cook and other middle-ranking members of the raiding party, but overall confidence remains high.
We have obtained a document detailing the morale of the enemy populace, and it makes for extremely encouraging reading. It appears that a majority of the locals are convinced that we shall ultimately prevail, and in addition there seems to be considerable mutinous intent both within the populace at large and within the enemy's elite force itself, and we will obviously be aiming to exploit this as much as possible. The enemy have suffered a run of setbacks on a number of fronts of late and seem to be suffering from a certain amount of mental disintegration. Nevertheless I am taking steps to ensure we do not become complacent.
We have now moved camp to Adelaide where preparations will continue.
God Save The Queen.
ENDS

Shane Warne's nightmare