England Deserve to Lose It All

There was a time where it was fun to root for England, namely when they went about toppling the unbeatable Australians in 2005. The underdogs beating the Aussies at their own game playing with aggressive swagger and style.  It was great.

But that was nearly a decade ago. The so called English dominance of test cricket, brief as it was, is going through a painfully slow death where they can no longer play Ishant Sharma. 

And they absolutely deserve it.

lol

There is a difference between the once great Australia and the once "great" England.  Australia were ridiculously good and they knew it, they could field three cricket teams who could blow apart anybody that dared to turn up. One would scream out for those precious moments when another team actually got the better of them (the aforementioned Ashes 2005, a prime example).

England’s Ashes Pacemen Struggling for Form

England’s chances of winning the second Ashes Test in Adelaide this coming week look increasingly slim after their fast bowlers toiled to a forgettable draw against a Cricket Australia XI in Alice Springs. Following a quite humiliating 381-run defeat in the first Test in Brisbane, there was hope among cricket betting fans that England would regain some sort of credibility in their between-Tests fixture.

The England Method

England’s test team have an uncanny ability to not lose. Currently they have gone 12 matches without a loss and against this Australian team they look like they are set to continue the trend. You would think that to go unbeaten in so many matches,  they would have played a high standard of cricket, but in my opinion they have been below their best since losing the number one ranked spot in test cricket. So, how have England maintained their unbeaten record?

To win a test match, a team must take 20 opposition wickets. England makes this incredibly difficult. Their top order is resilient and will happily bat all day. Cook and Trott are two of the best in the world at just occupying the crease. Trott’s consistency is remarkable and Cook rarely gives his wicket away after getting a start. Despite this they have struggled in the current ashes series with Trott being horribly out of form and the pressure of captaincy is finally having an impact on Cook’s batting performances. I’m sure this is a rare blip and they’ll be back to their best soon.

The Team of Contradictions

I love the current English Cricket Team for its inherent contradictions.

The thinnest guy in the team is called Broad;

The ugliest guy is called Swann;

The slowest fielder is Trott;

The guy who is 'behind' the stumps is called Prior;

The guy whose father's name is John is called Peter-son;

And the guy who is named Monty goes in with his clothes on.

No doubt, this cricket team deserves to be led by a Cook.

Akashdeep Agarwal for DieHard Cricket Fans

Cook and Pietersen put England ahead

I'm very happy with the proceedings. Day 2 belonged to England. India started the day at 266/6. England must be happy to wrap their innings in 61 runs. England then put on 178 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. 

Compton was disappointing again. I know he is a new fellow, but it's disheartening to see all his hard work go waste. He played 90 deliveries but scored only 29 runs. Compare this to Kevin Pietersen's score, 62 off 85. If Compton does the hard work and stays there for so long, he must do himself justice by scoring more runs. This kind of batting is only useful when you are trying to save a Test, like the 1st Test. If Compton doesn't improve his strike rate, he should be dropped. 

Captain Cook lead from the front once again. He is batting on 87. What an amazing batsman he has become. I've followed his career from the beginning and seen him evolve. He had potential from the beginning. He scored 60 and 104* in his debut Test against India at Nagpur. But he has come a long way. Calm and collected from the very beginning, his technique and judgement have definitely improved. 

At what age a player should be taken into the side is very controversial. Alastair Cook was 21 when he debuted, James Anderson 20. Both of them are fine players of this era. But there have also been ones like Graeme Swann who made their way into the team at a much later age. There is hardly anyone more consistent than

Monty Got A Raw Deal

It's amazing how a players stock can rise when they're not even involved in a game of cricket. It's like the value of gold rising when equity markets are in crisis.

The trouble with using Monty Panesar as the golden boy in our investment analogy here is that he's far from being the perfectly safe investment England should revert to when their normal game plan defaults.

With England toiling as India reached 521 for 8 on Friday, long before their catastrophic capitulation with the bat to 41/3 at stumps on day two, the age old debate of England sub-continent tours of old has already re-surfaced: where is Monty? 

A run a ball 117 from Virendra Sehwag as well as a spritely 74 from Yuvraj, returning to test cricket after his battle with cancer, helped India into a position of power during their first innings. But it was the stand out performance of India’s new number three, Che Pujara, whose 206 was full of classical shots his predecessor Rahul Dravid would have been proud of, that really drove home India’s advantage.

A lot of the talk in England before this series focussed on the retirements of Dravid and the sublime VVS Laxman, not to mention the fading force of Sachin Tendulkar. But with Pujara delivering in Ahmedabad and the emergence of Virat Kohli as a genuine test cricketer over the past 12 months, India are re-generating their batting line-up. And mighty impressive it looks too.

England’s decision to maintain a three man seam attack resulted in Monty missing out in the first Test, with Samit Patel’s ability to bat well against spin giving him the nod over Jonny Bairstow.

England vs South Africa - The Batsmen To Watch

The series between England and South Africa that starts at the Kia Oval on Thursday, is the most eagerly awaited, non-Ashes series I can remember for quite a spell. And well it might be, for it pits the world’s best test team, England lest we forget, against the team ranked third. Further, it brings forth a battle between what are widely considered the best two bowling attacks in world cricket. The juices are flowing alright! 
 
England take on South Africa in this three match series having made light work of their summer warm-up act, the West Indies, beating them 2-0 in a three match series. The final match at Edgbaston was all but rained off, otherwise it would almost certainly have been a clean sweep.
 
Having also beaten Australia 4-0 in an ODI series this summer, England will be in buoyant mood right now, although South Africa will provide a much stiffer challenge than either of those two managed. 

With a bowling attack led by the imperious Dale Steyn, the world's best bowler, who is backed up superbly by the improved Morne Morkell, Vernon Philander, who performed so well for Somerset earlier this season and not forgetting the leg breaks of Hampshire old boy, Imran Tahir, South Africa have an attack that will give England's batting order a rigorous examination.