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England beat New Zealand in the Third Test

Ankit — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:42:34 +0000

England win by an innings and 9 runs. New Zealand were rendered helpless and found wanting on the fourth day of the Third Test. We had earlier reported how KP saved England on the first day! Maybe that proved to be the catalyst for a really inspired performance by the Poms.

Making 364 in the First Innings in Trent Bridge seldom means trouble. So England were always in a relaxed state of mind, with just a few hiccups, as they mercilessly bowled out New Zealand twice over two and a half days. James Anderson took 7 for 43 in the first innings whereas Ryan Sidebottom took 6 for 67 in the second outing.

Stats:

England : 364
New Zealand : 123 and 232
Man of the Match : JM Anderson (England)

My Poll too showed wrong results, with 67% people favoring NZ to win! What devotion man! Congratulations England for yet another series win at home. Celebrate as much as you want, till India or Australia come visiting.

Photo : Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

England beat New Zealand in the Third Test

England meander through

SixandOut — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:07:10 +0000

England successfully navigated their must-win match against Canada in the group stages of the World Cup. Having lost to New Zealand in game 1, a defeat here would have sealed a similar fate to that of Pakistan. Luckily, it didn’t happen, albeit under inauspicious circumstances. For starters, the team was without Andrew Flintoff, who was sidelined for a “breach of discipline”. Ravi Bopara replaced him. After being inserted, England started well, with both Joyce and Vaughan playing fluently. Vaughan got yet another start, but failed to make a big score, but he did at least manage to progress out of the twenties and limp in to the forties. He looks in fine form, so it’s really a case of getting his head down and scoring big. Joyce finally made some runs, and his 60 odd was a good foundation for England. But yet another spate of quick wickets took hold and it was up to rapidly becoming best English batsmen Paul Collingwood to steady the ship with another one day 50. Ian Bell, Ed Joyce and Kevin Pietersen all got out to undignified shots, which indicated a total lack of concentration on their behalf.

A quickfire 23 off 8 balls from Paul Nixon got England up to 280 from their 50 overs. I might regret saying this, but I’m slowly beginning to like Paul Nixon. I was critical of his initial selection because he’s too old for this to be a longterm solution, but it’s impossible to fault his work ethic (even if he was one of the players reprimanded for the boozing). Sure, he spouts a lot of nonsense behind the stumps, but he’s the first keeper since Alec Stewart to genuinely be the centre of the game, a role that the wicketkeeper must adopt. His batting has improved vastly and his ‘keeping has been as tidy as any of the others in line for the position, particularly stood up to the stumps to the likes of Collingwood and Bopara.

Canada did a fine job in trying to get the runs, despite early wickets. Samad, Mulla and Dhaniram all scored useful runs and helped Canada to their best ever total in one day cricket, albeit 51 runs behind the required. That England couldn’t bowl Canada out is telling. Whether the bowlers were the missing omnipresence of Flintoff, or if they were still recovering from the exploits of Friday night is unclear but this bowling attack won’t survive against the likes of South Africa or Australia’s batting and surely must improve if England are to go further in this competition. Job 1 is to raise their game against Kenya in the final match of their group.

Post from: EveryJoe

England meander through

Inauspicious start to England’s World Cup

SixandOut — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:38:26 +0000

England got their World Cup under way today with a warm-up game against Bermuda. The win was moreorless a formality, and fortunately England suffered no upsets in that regard. And looking at the match stats will suggest exactly how the game ought to have panned out – England posted 280 and bowled Bermuda out for 45, so in all reality a comfortable win. Top score for Bermuda was Hemp with 11, followed closely by extras at 8. There’s little point in being overly critical at this point, considering it is only game 1 for England, but they would likely have wanted a harder game, considering their next warm up is against Australia on Friday. A win by 241 runs is a win by 241 runs, but the top 5 batting was slightly disappointing. Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen scored in the mid-40’s but it was up to no.7 Jamie Dalrymple to really make sure of a total in scoring 76. Considering that England are on the back of beating Australia 3 times, scoring big totals, to only get 286 against Bermuda’s weak attack is a little disappointing.

England’s bowling did, for once, look good, but again it’s hard to really judge how well it is performing considering the opposition.

But, of course, it is the first game of the series for England and it’s a warm-up exercise – the main thing was to get out and play, to turn in a reasonable performance and get a win, which is of course what they’ve done. Still the most controversial aspect of the game is Andrew Strauss being left out, whether he was dropped or is being rested is really neither here nor there. He’s a man who should be playing, despite his recent lack of form.

Post from: EveryJoe

Inauspicious start to England’s World Cup

Warm up the MBE machine

SixandOut — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 18:04:35 +0000

England did the unthinkable: they actually played some good cricket. The net result: They Beat Australia. And considering that really, that’s all this trophy is about, it’s a Big Thing. Most surprising, however, was that England actually played the type of cricket of which we knew they were always capable, but have totally failed to demonstrate throughout this Ashes tour. Australia did feel like they were gifting the win, but considering the point of Australian cricket is to beat the English, then it’s hard to conclude that they may have actually let England win. Besides, it’s much more satisfying to think that England actually handed Australia a defeat for a change.

In fact, Australia did have to play an extended game of fetch. Ed Joyce led from the front in treating the Australian bowling with the contempt that it deserves, as Glenn McGrath was below par and Shaun Tait had an uninspiring debut, Australia really looked to be missing Brett Lee. Dropped twice, Ed Joyce made his maiden ODI century, ably supported at varying times through the innings by Ian Bell (51), Loye (29), Strauss (26) and Dalrymple (30). Loye and Bell will both be unhappy that they made promising starts but failed to score heavily, but that Joyce capitalised on Australia’s mistakes is important. England totalled a respectable 292/7. Such a target was by no means beyond the reach of Australia who have consistently scored over 300, but with Ponting rested, things didn’t go their way. Matt Hayden made 50 and Symonds was going well until he ripped his bicep, an injury which has ruled him out of the rest of the series and makes him unlikely for the World Cup. Liam Plunkett had a dream game with the ball with 3/24 off 9.4 overs and was instrumental in dismissing Australia for 200, including Adam Gilchrist first ball.

Fortunately, though, the response to the victory has been necessarily muted. That is, no-one has yet announced the revolution of English cricket, which might ordinarily happen. England will know that the win was important, but that it is merely a drop in a bloody big ocean and they must aim to continue to improve their cricket if they’re to make a mark on the World Cup.

Post from: EveryJoe

Warm up the MBE machine