| England vs Austrailia, last ODI, The Oval, 21st June 2001 |
| The first thing to note is that England won the toss in this game. This is one of only two things which England have won during this series. The other is the last place trophy, along with the record for longest losing streak by an English team in ODI cricket. So, well done to England. As I said, England won the toss, and after watching Botham's pitch report which showed some life and movement on a pitch with live grass, Stewart decided to bat. Hmmm... Any thoughts that batting first on the pitch was a mistake were gone by the end of the first over, replaced by the knowledge that batting first was definitely a mistake. Trescothick blocked out McGrath's first 5 balls before being bowled on the last ball for a duck. Stewart and Knight did their best to make this look like a real match, but Stewart was softly dismissed for 22 trying to drive Brett Lee through the covers, and at 51-2 Austrailia were into England's tail. Nick Knight watched on from the non-strikers end as Shah did his imitation of a tail-ender, holding his bat out at a ball outside off stump and nicking to the wicketkeeper off Harvey for 1. Ally Brown then came to the crease, looking in as good a vein of form as ever in international cricket, adding a further 1 to the total before being dismissed by Lee. One question which I feel must be asked is "Who the **** is Paul Collingwood?". I'm all in favour of playing younger players, looking for the talent of the future. But the guy has played 4 innings now, and has a top score, which he achieved in this game, of 9. I don't care if he is top of the batting stats in county cricket, the guy has a lower ODI average than Mullally. Knight and Hollioake took the score onto 109-5 before Knight bettered Shah's tail-ender imitation, nicking through to Gilchrist off Fleming for 48. Hollioake was looking comfortable on 22 off 31 balls, and the austrailian bowlers couldn't work out how to get him out. Croft gave them a helping hand by driving straight down the ground, and the other helping hand was that of Damien Fleming which deflected the drive onto the stumps, luckily running out Hollioake. Gough offered no resistance, being bowled first ball by a Brett Lee loosener. Then Andrew Caddick came to the crease. Caddick went on to score 36, while Croft scored 20 before getting caught on the backward square leg boundary hooking a short ball by Harvey. Caddick and Mullally showed the top-order players how to bat, before Caddick's luck run out, dismissed at long off for 36. England's innings closed at 176, which considering the inaccurate bowling and batsman-friendly pitch, was quite an achievement for an England team which could have passed as Kenya's team with a little bit of face paint, and an increase in form for a few of the players. In reply, Austrailia's batsmen couldn't get the bat on ball of Andy Caddick's first over. That's because if he'd bowled any wider he would have hit the square leg umpire. Also, he decided that he need not obey the rules and was placing his foot over the crease line, and hence being no-balled. He also in this eventful first over had three leg before shouts. Admittedly they were all ridiculous ones, but he had the shouts nonetheless. Meanwhile, at the other end, Gough was helping the Austrailians in his usual friendly manner. 6 runs came off the first over, followed by successive boundaries off the first two balls of the second. After 4 overs, Austrailia had moved on to 29-0, which is roughly a sixth of what they needed. So, all was going as expected for England's bowling 'attack'. Caddick finally picked up the first wicket in the 6th over, Austrailia being reduced to 39-1. England knew that their bowling had to be tighter than usual, and with Gough's first 4 overs going for 28, they were well on the way to achieving this. Caddick, determined not to be outdone, also was going at 7 an over, and these two bowlers are forming a great partnership at the front of England's bowling attack, from the Aussies' point of view anyway. Gough was determined to be the most expensive bowler of the day, and his next over went for 11. And that is that, Austrailia just ran away with the game, and this commentary isn't really needed. I think it's about time to sum up my main feelings from this England one day performance: - Who the **** is Paul Collingwood? - Croft has contributed far more with the bat than the ball to England, not just in this game but in general - Mullally outscored 3 of the top 6 bastmen. Food for thought? - Caddick outscored 9 of the other 10 England players. Food for thought? - England's fielders have shown the commitment which took the England test team to number 9 out of the 9 test playing nations. - Why do England's "second string" bowlers tend to go for less than the "main" bowlers? Food for thought? - England are missing the talented players of the 90s, like Min Patel Well, until the next match, au revoir. Back to The Daily Crigg |