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The Spin
Lawrence Booth
26 February 2008
In this week's Spin:
Marks, marks, marks;
Money, money, money.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
MUST DO BETTER
No England series defeat is complete without a post-mortem involving
fatuous generalisations and all-too-convenient marks out of 10. The
Spin did not want to disappoint ...
Ryan Sidebottom: 6 wkts @ 34, runs/over 4.55; 6 runs @ 3.00,
strike/rate 18
If only Jimmy Anderson had paid more attention. He might have taken
two of his six wickets in the last of the 45 overs he bowled in the
series, but again suffered bad luck with dropped catches and was
hardly ever collared by New Zealand's openers. Among 30-plus seamers,
only Stuart Clark's stock has risen as quickly as Sidebottom's. Is he
capable of bowling badly? 8/10.
Paul Collingwood: 151 runs @ 50, s/r 119; 4 wkts @ 43, r/o 5.03
Those innings at Auckland and Napier (124 runs off 80 balls without
being dismissed) might have earned him a decent fee at the IPL
auction. His continually under-rated bowling pulled its weight too.
But why did his team-mates keep bowling short? What happened to the
post-Hamilton rollicking he was supposed to have dished out? And was
the decision to bowl Wright for the final over at Napier an inspired
hunch or a lucky gamble? Two series wins and two defeats as one-day
captain is not world-class, but at least it's a damn sight better
than what went before. 7/10.
Alastair Cook: 184 runs @ 36, s/r 66
Three innings of substance was a good return for a player who has more
of a role to play at the top of the order than some give him credit.
But - and it's a decent-sized but - he needs to add 10 to his
strike-rate (a couple of sixes would help) and keep working on the
fielding. It can happen and the yin-and-yang partnership with Phil
Mustard deserves perseverance, especially as Cook is adding strokes
to his repertoire: witness the leg-side hoick at Napier that revealed
a pleasingly grim pragmatism. 7/10.
Luke Wright: 71 runs @ 35, s/r 133; no wicket for 28, r/o 5.60
Wright is clearly a danger down the order - his attempts to open in
Twenty20 cricket were too hit and miss to inspire confidence - but
what is his role in a side also containing Dimitri Mascarenhas if he
is given only five overs in two games? And why only five when that
final over at Napier revealed guts and nous? And is a top three
including both Cook and Ian Bell crying out for some impetus? Watch
these spaces. 7/10.
Ian Bell: 145 runs @ 29, s/r 80
Another nearly series. Bell has batted 16 times in ODIs since his
supposed breakthrough hundred against India in the summer, and has
reached 20 on 10 occasions. But he has passed 50 on only three of
them and his scores here - 5, 0, 73, 43, 24 - were all too
characteristic. There was bad luck (a sensational catch by Brendon
McCullum at Hamilton, a rotten lbw decision at Auckland), but he
perished twice going for sixes, which is a crazy way to go for a man
who is a timer, not a hitter: he hit 20 fours, more than any England
player, but failed to clear the ropes once. Perhaps he should stop
trying. 6/10.
Stuart Broad: 8 wkts @ 25, r/o 5.42; 52 runs @ 52, s/r 66
Excellent in parts, this was the definitive curate's egg. Twice took
cheap three-fors, but a combined analysis of 19-0-148-2 at Hamilton,
Napier and Christchurch placed too much onus on Sidebottom. Fell into
the trap of dropping too short when he should have taken a leaf out
of Kyle Mills's book in the final game by aiming for off-cutters. A
very handy No9. 6/10.
Dimitri Mascarenhas: 29 runs without being dismissed, s/r 241; no
wicket for 93, r/o 6.64
An enigma. How was he limited to a single innings after showcasing his
stratospheric hitting in the Twenty20s? Perhaps the answer lies in
his bowling, but even that must be a retrospective judgment: after
all, he went into this series with an ODI economy-rate of 3.82. That
made the decision to start the series with Bopara a strange one, a
feeling confirmed when Mascarenhas took 22 off Jesse Ryder's last
over at Christchurch. But will his lack of penetration with the ball
cost him in the long run? 6/10.
Phil Mustard: 144 runs @ 28, s/r 90; 4 catches, 1 stumping
Please can we stop this nonsense about the next Adam Gilchrist?
There's every chance the whole of cricket will never unearth another
Gilchrist, let alone the current England side. Yes, his 83 off 74
balls at Napier rightly got people excited, but it remains his only
score above 31 in 10 innings, so let's keep things in perspective.
Equally, we shouldn't fuss too much about that drop at Hamilton:
McCullum missed a far easier one at Napier. Now the selectors must
choose between him and Tim Ambrose for the Tests: continuity points
to Mustard. 6/10.
Kevin Pietersen: 165 runs @ 33, s/r 73
Began in sparkling form and kept threatening to break free, but New
Zealand's bowlers played expertly on his love of the midwicket whip
and he ended up scoring more slowly than Bell. Does that make him
anything less than England's best one-day batsman by a country mile?
No. And at some point, someone is going to pay. 6/10.
Owais Shah: 72 runs @ 18, s/r 58; 1 wkt @ 46, r/o 6.57
Retains the capacity to delight and frustrate in equal measure, but
there was more frustration than delectation here. There are few
cleaner strikers of the low full-toss in the game, but his running
between the wickets makes Inzamam-ul-Haq look decisive. The misses
outweigh the hits, and he remains unreliable in the field too. A
player who six months ago looked odds-on for the next World Cup might
find himself fighting for his place this summer. 4/10.
Graeme Swann: no wicket for 44, r/o 8.80; 8 runs @ 4.00, s/r 36
Did England ditch him too quickly? New Zealand's decision to play two
spinners at Christchurch suggests they might have done, although the
emergence of Wright, his replacement, was a bonus. But this was a
player deemed central to England's one-day success in Sri Lanka. The
whiff of selectorial inconsistency is a worry. 3/10.
Jimmy Anderson: 4 wkts @ 67, 7.29 r/o; 5 runs @ 5, s/r 22
Er, what happened there? England's most experienced one-day bowler
performed like a total novice. Figures of 10-1-41-2 at Auckland were
respectable; 27-0-229-2 everywhere else represented one of the most
gruesome maulings of his quixotic career. New Zealand hit 31 sixes in
the series and Anderson, drawn to the short ball like Ryder to a
well-stocked fridge, conceded 12 of them. Deserves some leeway after
good series against India and Sri Lanka, but to go at more than seven
an over went far beyond the realms of aberration. 2/10.
Ravi Bopara: 26 runs @ 13, s/r 41
A winter of discontent. Three successive Test ducks in Sri Lanka were
cruel, but he was never around for long enough to reveal his form.
Hamilton told us everything. He scratched around for 23 in 42 balls
and ran out Cook. So frail was his confidence that Collingwood did
not even trust this supposed all-rounder with a single over. He will
come again - his World Cup innings against Sri Lanka in Antigua was
too good to be a fluke - but this was grisly. 2/10.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"We were playing a game of touch footy out on the MCG to warm-up
before training in preparation for tonight's game against Sri Lanka
and there were a few high balls he missed. He jumped up but couldn't
reach them so we reckon his pockets were too full and he couldn't
leap high enough" - Ricky Ponting reveals the level of abuse aimed at
Andrew Symonds, who cost Hyderabad $1.35m at last week's Indian
Premier League auction
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EXTRAS
There have been a few exceptions. Michael Clarke opted out of the IPL
to spend time with his father, who has cancer. Jacob Oram (Chennai,
$675,000) has said Test cricket remains his priority. The whole
England team (no one, $0) has lined up to stress its collective
allegiance to Queen and country. But the overwhelming emotion after
last week's auction in Mumbai was not the pride the players will feel
for representing their franchises, but the excitement over a pay day
that makes Kerry Packer look like a purveyor of small change.
Usually when a star player signs up for a new team, the cliches can be
written in advance. "Looking forward to helping the boys win some
trophies" ... "Helping the youngsters" ... "A club with proud
traditions I intend to uphold" ... "Etc, etc, blah, zzzz". Last week
we had: "I was obviously blown away and having slept on it, it's a
great feeling and it's nice to get the recognition" (McCullum,
Kolkata, $700,000); "It's in the realms of the English Premier
League, which for a long time players have wanted to aspire to" (Neil
Maxwell, agent to the Australians, name the price); and "I thought I
might have been able to attract a little bit more than that" (Ricky
Ponting, Kolkata, 20 rupees). It's enough to warm the c0ckles of your
heart.
I know, I know. This is where the future lies. Don't get in the way of
progress. Face up to the fact that India is now the home of cricket,
you stiff-upper-lipped gin dodderer of an Englishman. Yes, yes, yes.
But it was interesting to note that India's National Cricket Academy
is planning to institute "financial counselling" for young Indian
players who threaten to have their heads turned by the money. "Maybe
even the parents of these cricketers may be invited for the
counselling," said Ravi Shastri, the NCA chairman. Loosely
translated, this means: we will try to stop everyone hating Ishant
Sharma for picking up nearly $1m for bowling a decent spell to
Ponting at Perth. Still, at least the NCA has its eye on the
ball/cash. Now, if you'll excuse the Spin, it's off to apply for the
position of dressing-room gofer for the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
They say team spirit is excellent.
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
THE WEEK IN CRICKET
- England and New Zealand tie the fourth ODI at Napier with 340 runs
apiece after Jamie How (139) is run out off the penultimate ball of
the match, but New Zealand seal the series 3-1 with a 34-run
Duckworth/Lewis victory in the final game at Christchurch. Naturally,
England take plenty of positives from the defeat.
- Shortly before being signed for $625,000 by Kolkata in the IPL
auction in Mumbai, David Hussey hits 113 off 64 balls with eight
sixes for Victoria against New South Wales in a Ford Ranger one-day
match at Sydney. But Victoria go on to lose by one wicket to Tasmania
in the final.
- Malcolm Speed says the International Cricket Council will not create
a special window for the IPL until 2012 at the earliest. All fixtures
on the Future Tours Program have been pre-arranged until that date.
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni fetches $1.5m from Chennai at the IPL auction,
making him the most expensive of the 78 cricketers on auction. Next
comes Andrew Symonds (Hyderabad, $1.35m), followed by Sanath
Jayasuriya (Mumbai $975,000), Ishant Sharma (Kolkata $950,000) and
Irfan Pathan (Mohali, $925,000). Ricky Ponting went for just
$400,000, while Mohammad Yousuf and Ashwell Prince failed to attract
a bid at all.
- Graham Onions takes seven for 37 in 10 overs but can't prevent
England Lions going down by two wickets in a one-day game against the
Maharashtra Cricket Association at Mumbai.
- Australia beat Sri Lanka by 24 runs on Duckworth/Lewis in the latest
match in the CB Series at Melbourne, thanks mainly to an unbeaten 64
in a low-scoring match by Mike Hussey. Ricky Ponting then hits 124 as
Australia see off India by 18 runs at Sydney, despite 113 from Gautam
Gambhir.
- But there's more controversy as Ishant Sharma is fined 15% of his
match fee for pointing Andrew Symonds back to the pavilion. India
complain that Symonds provoked Sharma into making the gesture, but
fail to confirm whether Sharma would jump off a cliff if Symonds told
him to.
- North Zone successfully defend the Duleep Trophy with a six-wicket
win over West Zone in the final at the W@nkhede Stadium in Mumbai.
- Hampshire sign Shane Bond for the first part of the 2008 summer as
cover for Shane Warne, who will be playing in the IPL.
- Jesse Ryder will be out of the game for three months after injuring
his hand during a very-late-night bar-room incident in Christchurch.
Ryder required a skin graft after trying to get into toilets which
had been accidentally locked, and received a ticking-off from New
Zealand Cricket for his troubles. "We recognise the pressure Jesse
has been under through his success in the England series and he has
suddenly become a high-profile international player," said a team
spokesman. "However, this behaviour is unacceptable and we will have
a serious discussion with him to ensure situations like this do not
occur in the future." An apologetic Ryder adds: "I'll be doing
everything in my power to get my attitude sorted out."
- England's interest in the Under-19 World Cup in Malaysia is ended in
the quarter-finals when they are bowled out for 146 by India, who go
on to complete a comfortable seven-wicket win.
- South Africa survive some tricky moments to beat Bangladesh by five
wickets in the first Test at Mirpur. After conceding a first-innings
lead of 22, they are grateful for Jacques Kallis's five for 30 and
Dale Steyn's four for 48 to leave them a fourth-innings target of
205. Graeme Smith's 62 helps them on their way.
- England's Ashes-winning women are trounced by 123 runs in the first
ODI by New Zealand at Lincoln.
- Owais Shah hits 96 and there are three wickets each for Matthew
Hoggard and James Anderson as England warm up for next week's first
Test at Hamilton with a two-day draw against a New Zealand
invitational XI at Dunedin.
- Marlon Samuels is banned from bowling in international cricket after
tests conclude that his off-break is delivered with 27 degrees of
flexion and his faster ball with an astonishing 35. Anything greater
than 15 degrees is deemed illegal.
- The Texas billionaire Allen Stanford says England or Australia are
welcome to come to Antigua to play a game of Twenty20 against a West
Indian side ... for $20m. "We will see who wins," he says.
- Ishant Sharma and Praveen Kumar take four wickets each as India join
Australia in the final of the CB Series with a comfortable
seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka at Hobart.
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CONTACT THE SPIN
Email lawrence.booth@guardian.co.uk and feel free to cc.
sports.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk while you're at it.
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