Love both of your work and podcasts. As a subscriber from the shaky isles is there any chance of some of your fine literature on our first series win over India. If you think Australian press coverage of cricket is poor, then consider NZ's quality as banktupt, zip, nada, nothing...keep on with the great work.
I wrote something about Pakistan and NZ victories but didn’t post it bc it felt a bit gratuitous. If you aren’t fussy I can send it to you. Audience of one!
My sub editor (sue) hasn’t been through this so I apologise in advance. I did like the line from someone that Santner looked as excited with his performance as a man who’d won won another scratch card on a scratch card
PL
England and India lost Test series this Saturday, Pakistan and New Zealand triumphant. A duo of Davids had felled the giants of the world game, ambushing and humbling the opposition.
The results have upset the natural order of things and is as good for the oldest form of the game as it is unfortunate for India and England. Both outcomes remind us of the beautiful uncertainties possible in a red ball contest - the Kiwis and the Pakistanis twice overcoming opponents who seem almost smugly assured of their own superiority.
Both remind us, as the West Indies did when they beat Australia in Brisbane last year, that there is more to Test cricket than the spin cycle of series played by the big three.
India’s loss in Pune _ the venue where Steve O’Keefe took 12-70 to engineer the hosts first loss after 19 consecutive Tests _ was engineered by occasional member of the touring side, Mitchell Santner. Brought in for this match, the left arm orthodox spinner had never taken more than six wickets in his career, but here he bowled 48 overs unchanged across both innings to land 13-57.
This is only the third time India has been beaten in the 42 series it has hosted on home soil this century. England did it in 2012-13 (when its spinners outperformed the locals) and Australia in 2005.
The Kiwis have broken a run of 18 consecutive series wins on home soil.
India has banked on being the least worst at handling the spinning conditions in these contests and generally this has been the case, but there’s a sense that the home team has brought itself back to the pack. The Indian top order has learned to win overseas; once famed for failing where there was pace and bounce, the new crop of talent has mastered that skill, but appear to have done so at the cost of learning how to handle the turning ball on a crumbling wicket.
The modern batter believes in belting their way out of trouble and nobody has embraced that belief more than the Bazballing English.
Having cruised to victory in the first match against a home side that had previously lost to Bangladesh, England was high on confidence and odds on to make a clean sweep of the remaining matches.
Pakistan predictably panicked, replacing selectors, changing coaching roles and implementing a 180 degree change in its approach to the game. For much of the modern era the hosts had pinned their hopes on batteries of seam bowlers, but faced with further humiliation they cooked the decks, brought in two specialist spinners and then proceded to catch England napping.
The Sky commentary side suggested they’d found the kryptonite to counter England’s bazballers.
Called in for the last two Tests, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali proceded to take 39 of the next 40 wickets to fall. A study in slow bowling contrasts, the pair put on a mesmerising show and Michael Atherton description of the duo in The Times was spot on:
“Sajid ran in eagerly, and sent the ball fizzing down, all energy, wide-eyed and passionate, with a celebration to match. He looked more dangerous when the ball was hard and new but showed, when he lured Jamie Smith down the pitch on the last day, that he had guile as well. Noman is old-school: he has a stately walk-cum-jog to the crease, with lovely control of pace and flight. He seemed to have the ball on a string, making it hover in the air before dipping, and he put Jack Leach’s monochrome left-armers in the shade.”
England’s usually aggressive approach proved foolhardy and its batters appeared increasingly confounded. None looked more at sea than its captain Ben Stokes who was out LBW shouldering arms to Noman. The Cricinfo ball by ball description captures the moment well enough: “21.2 What an awful leave! Stokes, what are you doing?! Norman tosses one up, and Stokes presses forward and... doesn't bring his bat down, holding it above his head presumably expecting the ball to head down the leg side. But it's on with the arm and the umpire's finger goes up almost immediately after it hits the left-hander. The England captain has cursory look at Root for a review but off he walks. That was... awful 70/5.”
After the match Stokes looked like a businessman who’d tried to drive his luxury sports car across a paddock and was now waiting for it to be towed back to London, his countenance suggesting he could not wait to get out of this unfamiliar place and never return.
England do not have another Test in these parts for years, but Nasser Hussain seemed to take the approach of the England side personally. A former captain himself, the commentator was not accepting any excuses and did not hide his disappointment with the visitors apparent intransigence. England was a shadow of the side that had scored 800 odd in the first Test of this series and 500 on the first day of the last Test it had played in Rawalpindi.
“Absolutely there should be a discrepancy, because the pitches have been so different from the first Test to the second and third, there's no doubting,” Hussain said. “Scores should go down and spinners should go up, but the discrepancy in the England side is a concern. It shouldn't be so drastic that you play so well on flat pitches and you can hit through the line and the moment it then grips, you can't play like that, and so you're then a little bit lost.
“Three of your top six seem to be lost in those conditions. I'm talking about Crawley, when it grips and you have to work into areas like Saud Shakeel (the Pakistan batsman scored 134 in the first innings) did, or Pope, who's got hard hands and doesn't know how to work into areas like Saud Shakeel did, or the spinners.
“Stokes in Asia, his last 10 as he came in, I read out his last 10 scores. They are very low in these conditions, and he used to be one of our best players against spin, but in these conditions, when it's gripping a little bit, he seems a bit lost.
“I stood here yesterday at lunchtime and said, England have done well off the field. You cannot doubt the selections they've made, the likes of Jamie Smith, Gus, Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, there's a long list of them that have come in and done well. But within that side, I want to see a bit more learning. You can't just be ‘that's the way I play’, when it comes on to the bat, I'm going to smash it, we're going to get 500 a day.
“When it grips a bit then what am I going to do? I just want to see a bit of improvement and learning. When the pitches do grip, we'll come back to that. I just want to touch on
“They lost a series in India, and they've lost a series here. And that can't be coincidence, and it's all well and good. Brendan (McCullum) saying, well, last time we were here, we got 500 in a day, and we won three nil. And first test, we got 800 they were completely different conditions and pitches to this.
“So why do you think they changed it, Pakistan? Not only did it suit their game, they realised that it doesn't suit England's game.
“Mistakes happen. Part of sport is mistakes. You speak to any great coach or leader. It's not knocking the mistakes, because then you put fear in your side. And that's why McCallum and Stokes speak the way they do. They don't want to knock them and hit their confidence, because that makes a fearful side, but the flip side of that is you've got to learn.”
Indian captain Rohit Sharma suggested after his side’s loss that there would be no panic, even if it means they must win the last Test of the series and beat Australia at home again to cement their place at the top of the World Test Championship table.
"We have won 18 series [in a row] in India, which means we've done a lot of things well," Rohit said. "We've batted well in the first innings; we've batted well in the second innings. Perhaps we haven't batted as well in this series as we should have, but these things happen. Our batters have consistently made runs on challenging pitches whenever we have played in India, so I don't want to overthink and say we've gone topsy-turvy. Our batters have had two poor matches - two or three innings, if you look at it. But these things happen.
"Sometimes if you're winning so many matches and doing so well consistently, things you wish to do don't come off in the odd series. What we wanted to do in this series, it didn't work out for our batters. But I don't doubt anyone's ability because everyone has a lot of ability. These are the same batters who have won us all these matches and series [in recent years].
"I don't want to do too much of a post-mortem, but we can look into how we can approach these situations differently. All our batters will need to work out their plans and trust those plans, [like] 'This is my plan and it will work'. It's a different thing if it doesn't work, but you need to trust it."
Your readership of 1 loved the piece. It wasn't gratuitous in my view. I think it was,a pretty good analysis. In particular on NZ v India. Let's see how the Wankede test goes. I also liked your views on the English approach with Bazball. It's,all good when it goes well but like all things, needs constructive criticism to keep it honest!
Isn’t gratuitous the whole point of this internet thing? 😉. Here’s another reader who’d gladly welcome things to read about any multi day cricket around the globe; and definitely that going on in India and Bangladesh at present
Love both of your work and podcasts. As a subscriber from the shaky isles is there any chance of some of your fine literature on our first series win over India. If you think Australian press coverage of cricket is poor, then consider NZ's quality as banktupt, zip, nada, nothing...keep on with the great work.
I wrote something about Pakistan and NZ victories but didn’t post it bc it felt a bit gratuitous. If you aren’t fussy I can send it to you. Audience of one!
My sub editor (sue) hasn’t been through this so I apologise in advance. I did like the line from someone that Santner looked as excited with his performance as a man who’d won won another scratch card on a scratch card
PL
England and India lost Test series this Saturday, Pakistan and New Zealand triumphant. A duo of Davids had felled the giants of the world game, ambushing and humbling the opposition.
The results have upset the natural order of things and is as good for the oldest form of the game as it is unfortunate for India and England. Both outcomes remind us of the beautiful uncertainties possible in a red ball contest - the Kiwis and the Pakistanis twice overcoming opponents who seem almost smugly assured of their own superiority.
Both remind us, as the West Indies did when they beat Australia in Brisbane last year, that there is more to Test cricket than the spin cycle of series played by the big three.
India’s loss in Pune _ the venue where Steve O’Keefe took 12-70 to engineer the hosts first loss after 19 consecutive Tests _ was engineered by occasional member of the touring side, Mitchell Santner. Brought in for this match, the left arm orthodox spinner had never taken more than six wickets in his career, but here he bowled 48 overs unchanged across both innings to land 13-57.
This is only the third time India has been beaten in the 42 series it has hosted on home soil this century. England did it in 2012-13 (when its spinners outperformed the locals) and Australia in 2005.
The Kiwis have broken a run of 18 consecutive series wins on home soil.
India has banked on being the least worst at handling the spinning conditions in these contests and generally this has been the case, but there’s a sense that the home team has brought itself back to the pack. The Indian top order has learned to win overseas; once famed for failing where there was pace and bounce, the new crop of talent has mastered that skill, but appear to have done so at the cost of learning how to handle the turning ball on a crumbling wicket.
The modern batter believes in belting their way out of trouble and nobody has embraced that belief more than the Bazballing English.
Having cruised to victory in the first match against a home side that had previously lost to Bangladesh, England was high on confidence and odds on to make a clean sweep of the remaining matches.
Pakistan predictably panicked, replacing selectors, changing coaching roles and implementing a 180 degree change in its approach to the game. For much of the modern era the hosts had pinned their hopes on batteries of seam bowlers, but faced with further humiliation they cooked the decks, brought in two specialist spinners and then proceded to catch England napping.
The Sky commentary side suggested they’d found the kryptonite to counter England’s bazballers.
Called in for the last two Tests, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali proceded to take 39 of the next 40 wickets to fall. A study in slow bowling contrasts, the pair put on a mesmerising show and Michael Atherton description of the duo in The Times was spot on:
“Sajid ran in eagerly, and sent the ball fizzing down, all energy, wide-eyed and passionate, with a celebration to match. He looked more dangerous when the ball was hard and new but showed, when he lured Jamie Smith down the pitch on the last day, that he had guile as well. Noman is old-school: he has a stately walk-cum-jog to the crease, with lovely control of pace and flight. He seemed to have the ball on a string, making it hover in the air before dipping, and he put Jack Leach’s monochrome left-armers in the shade.”
England’s usually aggressive approach proved foolhardy and its batters appeared increasingly confounded. None looked more at sea than its captain Ben Stokes who was out LBW shouldering arms to Noman. The Cricinfo ball by ball description captures the moment well enough: “21.2 What an awful leave! Stokes, what are you doing?! Norman tosses one up, and Stokes presses forward and... doesn't bring his bat down, holding it above his head presumably expecting the ball to head down the leg side. But it's on with the arm and the umpire's finger goes up almost immediately after it hits the left-hander. The England captain has cursory look at Root for a review but off he walks. That was... awful 70/5.”
After the match Stokes looked like a businessman who’d tried to drive his luxury sports car across a paddock and was now waiting for it to be towed back to London, his countenance suggesting he could not wait to get out of this unfamiliar place and never return.
England do not have another Test in these parts for years, but Nasser Hussain seemed to take the approach of the England side personally. A former captain himself, the commentator was not accepting any excuses and did not hide his disappointment with the visitors apparent intransigence. England was a shadow of the side that had scored 800 odd in the first Test of this series and 500 on the first day of the last Test it had played in Rawalpindi.
“Absolutely there should be a discrepancy, because the pitches have been so different from the first Test to the second and third, there's no doubting,” Hussain said. “Scores should go down and spinners should go up, but the discrepancy in the England side is a concern. It shouldn't be so drastic that you play so well on flat pitches and you can hit through the line and the moment it then grips, you can't play like that, and so you're then a little bit lost.
“Three of your top six seem to be lost in those conditions. I'm talking about Crawley, when it grips and you have to work into areas like Saud Shakeel (the Pakistan batsman scored 134 in the first innings) did, or Pope, who's got hard hands and doesn't know how to work into areas like Saud Shakeel did, or the spinners.
“Stokes in Asia, his last 10 as he came in, I read out his last 10 scores. They are very low in these conditions, and he used to be one of our best players against spin, but in these conditions, when it's gripping a little bit, he seems a bit lost.
“I stood here yesterday at lunchtime and said, England have done well off the field. You cannot doubt the selections they've made, the likes of Jamie Smith, Gus, Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, there's a long list of them that have come in and done well. But within that side, I want to see a bit more learning. You can't just be ‘that's the way I play’, when it comes on to the bat, I'm going to smash it, we're going to get 500 a day.
“When it grips a bit then what am I going to do? I just want to see a bit of improvement and learning. When the pitches do grip, we'll come back to that. I just want to touch on
“They lost a series in India, and they've lost a series here. And that can't be coincidence, and it's all well and good. Brendan (McCullum) saying, well, last time we were here, we got 500 in a day, and we won three nil. And first test, we got 800 they were completely different conditions and pitches to this.
“So why do you think they changed it, Pakistan? Not only did it suit their game, they realised that it doesn't suit England's game.
“Mistakes happen. Part of sport is mistakes. You speak to any great coach or leader. It's not knocking the mistakes, because then you put fear in your side. And that's why McCallum and Stokes speak the way they do. They don't want to knock them and hit their confidence, because that makes a fearful side, but the flip side of that is you've got to learn.”
Indian captain Rohit Sharma suggested after his side’s loss that there would be no panic, even if it means they must win the last Test of the series and beat Australia at home again to cement their place at the top of the World Test Championship table.
"We have won 18 series [in a row] in India, which means we've done a lot of things well," Rohit said. "We've batted well in the first innings; we've batted well in the second innings. Perhaps we haven't batted as well in this series as we should have, but these things happen. Our batters have consistently made runs on challenging pitches whenever we have played in India, so I don't want to overthink and say we've gone topsy-turvy. Our batters have had two poor matches - two or three innings, if you look at it. But these things happen.
"Sometimes if you're winning so many matches and doing so well consistently, things you wish to do don't come off in the odd series. What we wanted to do in this series, it didn't work out for our batters. But I don't doubt anyone's ability because everyone has a lot of ability. These are the same batters who have won us all these matches and series [in recent years].
"I don't want to do too much of a post-mortem, but we can look into how we can approach these situations differently. All our batters will need to work out their plans and trust those plans, [like] 'This is my plan and it will work'. It's a different thing if it doesn't work, but you need to trust it."
Your readership of 1 loved the piece. It wasn't gratuitous in my view. I think it was,a pretty good analysis. In particular on NZ v India. Let's see how the Wankede test goes. I also liked your views on the English approach with Bazball. It's,all good when it goes well but like all things, needs constructive criticism to keep it honest!
Thanks again
J
Isn’t gratuitous the whole point of this internet thing? 😉. Here’s another reader who’d gladly welcome things to read about any multi day cricket around the globe; and definitely that going on in India and Bangladesh at present
Haha, would love to read it if you're happy with readership size.