The Irish Times Vs. Indo Cricket Match 2009

The Irish Times cricket team beat the Independent XI by two wickets with just nine balls to spare in a hard fought match on Thursday evening (2nd July).

Hostile fast bowling from the big Australian quickie Adam Harvey, Faisal Mansoor from Pakistan and guest star Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan softened up the opposition early on. Accurate spin bowling from Paddy Smyth, Martin Noonan and Paul Gillespie also made life difficult for the Independent’s batsmen, who struggled to assert themselves by scoring on a rain soaked outfield in College Park.

With the Pavillion bar shut for a private function the small band of loyal supporters that turned up to watch had to make do with music from the nearby Eagles concert for kicks rather than the traditional pint of plain. But with the sun breaking through the clouds at the toss up even the odd puddle couldn’t put a dampener on the proceedings.

Jason Michael kept wicket superbly for the Irish Times in treacherously boggy conditions and an exemplary fielding performance was rounded off by a magnificent catch on the boundary by Harry McGee- the game’s true champagne moment.

Set a total of 103 runs to win in 22 overs The Irish Times XI set a steady pace with cameo innings from Noonan, Harvey, Gillespie and Keena getting the team off to a great start. And despite some light hearted sledging from the opposing fielders, Ian Kilroy and captain Jamie Smyth wrapped up the victory with nine balls to spare to gain revenge for the narrow one run defeat to the Independent XI last year.

The teams decamped to Kennedy’s afterwards to swap stories and nurse the several injuries picked up during the match. Plans for next year’s match are already in train.

Eng Beat WI in 2nd One Day Match

From Times Online
May 24, 2009
England defeat West Indies by six wickets

England coasted to a six-wicket victory over the mis-firing West Indies at Bristol today, to take an unassailable 1-0 NatWest Series lead.

Stuart Broad (four for 46) and occasional seamer Paul Collingwood (three for 16) did Andrew Strauss proud, after he had chosen to bowl first upon detecting a tinge of green in a pacy pitch.

The England captain's judgment proved sound, which was much more than could be said for any of the Windies batsmen - among whom only Dwayne Bravo ever looked set for the long haul required on a glorious day.

On a surface which had plenty of runs in it for anyone patient enough to wait before launching the big shots, the tourists were all out for 160 in double-quick time.

England found themselves batting before the lunch break and soon lost Strauss caught via a mistimed flick to leg off the pace of Jerome Taylor.

New number three Matt Prior glided a cut at Darren Sammy much too fine to slip, where Chris Gayle juggled but held the catch - and Ravi Bopara missed a clip to leg off Bravo to go lbw with a half-century in his sights.

But Owais Shah and Collingwood then made no mistake in a stand of 76 which helped to put the tourists out of their misery, with an embarrassing 14 overs unnecessary.

West Indies' batsmen had earlier threatened occasionally to recover from a horrendous start - seven for two - but never actually did so.

Gayle's response to losing his opening partner Lendl Simmons and then Ramnaresh Sarwan for ducks to Broad was predictable counter-attack.

Simmons went lbw on the back foot, and Sarwan caught behind driving at a length ball. Far from choosing to dig in alongside Shivnarine Chanderpaul, though, Gayle launched a flurry of boundaries.

He then hit Graeme Swann's first ball for a huge six over long-on, only to be bowled by the off-spinner's next delivery when he got into a tangle aiming for another maximum.

Chanderpaul and Bravo (50) put on 63 to carry West Indies into three figures with only three wickets down.

But Tim Bresnan surprised Chanderpaul with a little extra pace - and after the left-hander had been easily caught by Strauss via a faulty pull, the West Indies never hinted at a significant recovery.

Sixth bowler Collingwood was rewarded for a sensible spell as the tourists refused to retrain their sights and kept trying to hit their way out of trouble.

Collingwood's most important success was bowling Bravo, who played all round a decent delivery for a disappointing departure after a 55-ball half-century containing six fours and one six.

The remainder of the batsmen got themselves out, and there were some comedy moments along the way - not least Taylor's self-inflicted run-out after he set off for a non-single and then slipped mid-pitch.

A blameless Sammy was therefore left unaccompanied with 11.3 overs unused.

WI v ENG ODI: MAY 2009

Headingley's newly laid outfield couldn't withstand torrential Yorkshire rain, and the first ODI between England and West Indies was called off at 3pm.

Morgan in line to replace injured Pietersen at Headingley

Eoin Morgan (above, right) is in contention to make his England debut in the first one-day international against West Indies at Headingley on Thursday.

The Middlesex batsman has averaged 35.42 in 23 ODIs for his native Ireland and is now set to embark on the next stage of his international career after being called up to the England squad for both 20 and 50-over cricket.

The hosts, fresh from a 2-0 success in the Test series against the same opponents, must do without star duo Andrew Flintoff (knee) and Kevin Pietersen (Achilles) for the duration of the three-match series.

Their absence provides an opportunity for several players to stake a claim, most notably Morgan, Warwickshire batsman Ian Bell and Yorkshire all-rounder Tim Bresnan.

England's top five has a familiar look with captain Andrew Strauss and Ravi Bopara pencilled in as the opening partnership and Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood the incumbents at three and five respectively.

That leaves the number four position, usually Pietersen's, available in Leeds for either Bell or Morgan.

Bresnan, who played in the two Tests, is likely to be tasked with filling Flintoff's boots, while James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann provide the bulk of the bowling attack.
The final place in the starting XI is between fit-again left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom and big-hitting all-rounder Dimitri Mascarenhas.

"There were some fresh faces in there (for the Test series) and they all came to the party," said Strauss. "That's what you need - some depth.

"There have been times over the last 18 months when we have relied on the likes of Kevin Pietersen far too much but if we are to have a successful summer we need contributions from all 11."

New talent can dominate the Ashes series

From Times Online
May 20, 2009

Richard Hobson, Deputy Cricket Correspondent

Seven weeks remain before the start of the Ashes. Part of me thinks it a shame that we don't have a year and seven to go. England may be on their uppers after demolishing West Indies, but they are unproven against the best, while the squad announced by Australia this morning also reflects a group in transition.

The series is coming earlier than both sides would like, but this creates an opportunity for new talent to dominate the summer. Nothing invigorates quite as refreshingly as young players free of baggage blowing away the older generation.

England's 2005 success arrived on the back of results stretching back more than a year. Duncan Fletcher, then the coach, insisted that he needed that year to build. This time, players have been thrown together in the direst circumstances and emerged under Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower not only as skilled operators but as strong characters and a genuine team. It often takes adversity for that to happen.

Australia at least saw a situation coming and could plan for the loss of senior players. But it is one thing to foresee the retirements of the McGraths, Warnes and Gilchrists, quite another to identify their replacements and have to courage to back them through the inevitable decline. A few have come and gone - there cannot be many uncapped spin bowlers left in Australia - and doubtless more will come and go before they settle.

The exciting part is not so much that the teams have young players, more that they are filling such critical roles. Phil Hughes and Mitchell Johnson for Australia, and James Anderson, Ravi Bopara and Stuart Broad for England are all likely to be significant players over the five Tests; three are new ball bowlers and two designated to bat in the top order. All should have the best of their careers beyond 2009.

True, Anderson made his Test debut as long ago as 2003, but his re-introduction in New Zealand last year clearly represented a defining point, a new start. He was given to believe that he was in for the long haul and told to become the leader of the attack. It has taken a year or so to grow into the role and acknowledge his status without worrying that he may look big-headed or, worse, delusional.

Johnson has taken such strides forward over the same period that he, too, is a kingpin. But this will be his debut Ashes series and ought to be the first of many. Like Broad, he could be a fully-fledged all-rounder by the time of the next series in 2010-11. Hughes, his unorthodox style self-taught in the outback, and Bopara, with his whippy bottom hand and endearing self-confidence, have knocked out hundreds without making batting look a grind. Both can score thousands of Test runs well beyond the immediate contest.

England just about have the capacity to regain the Ashes, especially if it boils down to a contest between the respective spin attacks. But Australia must be favourites. Working back, they have just beaten South Africa in South Africa; the same South Africa who beat England in England in 2008. And history warns how foolish it can be too under-estimate Australia simply because a few names are relatively unfamiliar.

Twenty years ago they arrived with a squad gleefully described in England as the worst ever sent. Bookmakers offered odds of 11-4 against their winning the first Test at Headingley. Australia not only triumphed by more than 200 runs but took the series 4-0. Looking back you ask how a team including Mark Taylor, David Boon, Steve Waugh, Allan Border, Dean Jones, Ian Healy, Terry Alderman and Geoff Lawson was dismissed so arrogantly. Actually, it is obvious: in 1989, Boon, Healy, Waugh and Taylor were young and unproven while Border and the bowlers were supposedly scarred by previous losses.

Somewhere in the Bradman Archive is a recording of the great man reflecting on a similar theme. When The Don brought his 1948 team to England (which included Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and Arthur Morris among others) he was told that they weren't as strong as the 1930 vintage. In 1930, his first Ashes tour, he was told that the squad could not have competed with their 1921 predecessors. Bradman delved deeper and discovered - doubtless to little surprise by now - that the 1921 party was thought inferior to the group of 1902.

Australia were seemingly not as good as they were, and never had been. But they were still plenty good enough for England each and every time.

ECB must follow Australia's lead on IPL

Andrew Flintoff was allowed to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL), got injured and now appears likely to miss the ICC World Twenty20. The ECB believes it had little option except to grant Flintoff his passage to South Africa, no matter the constant fitness issues around the key all-rounder. But Cricket Australia (CA) has had no compunction about laying down the law to their own players, even those on the very outer fringes of their plans.

Take the case of Shaun Tait. Tait was refused permission to play for Rajasthan Royals following a long recovery from hamstring trouble. He was said to be "very disappointed" - understandably given the $375,000 fee he had commanded at the IPL auction. But at least he could think that the protection meant he was in the thoughts of the selectors. Not so. Last week, CA opted against renewing his central contract. He has been overlooked for the Ashes.

In a sign of the times, Tait, one of the fastest bowlers in the world, believes his future may lie as an itinerant Twenty20 player. "There are franchises all over the world, so hopefully I can align myself to a couple of those," he said. "Being dropped off a contract probably frees me up a bit more to do that." Tait stressed that he wants to fight his way back into the national team. But how much does the loss of a central contract hurt these days?

May 2009: Second nPower Test, day five.

James Anderson swings through West Indies to wrap up series for England

Mike Selvey at The Riverside
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 May 2009 17.58 BST


Andrew Strauss received back the Wisden Trophy, relinquished in Trinidad barely two months ago, shortly after lunch on the final afternoon of the brief series. They probably needed to scrape the frost from it. The ceremony, sensibly held inside, was watched on the big screen by a crowd numbering tens which is more than might have been expected were this not a part of the world where T-shirts constitute winter outerwear.

The wind was as stiff as the brandy that might have been needed to counteract the temperature. Different conditions then, and different circumstances for a West Indies team for whom it must have been bone-chilling purgatory compared with the balmy warmth of the Caribbean.

Resuming the final day on 115 for three, still needing 144 to avoid an innings defeat, they had lost a further five wickets before lunch in adding only 28 runs as, refreshed by a couple of breaks for sharp showers, James Anderson and Tim Bresnan bowled unchanged to the interval.

Precisely three overs after the interval the pair had polished things off, West Indies all out for 176, losing the match by an innings and 83 runs to go with the 10-wicket defeat at Lord's.

West Indies have offered scant competition these past few weeks and only Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who made 47 before succumbing to the brilliant Anderson, offered resistance. But that is not to denigrate England's overall performance which has been first-rate. Tougher days lie ahead but at this stage they have done pretty much all that Andy Flower can have asked of them.

The honours went to Anderson and, to the genuine delight of his team-mates, Bresnan, who, wondering perhaps if he might ever take a Test wicket, ploughed his considerable frame manfully into the wind and managed to do so with the last ball of his 25th over at this level and went on to collect two more, including the final one, to finish with three for 45 and so deprive Anderson of the chance to get a second five-wicket haul in the match.

Anderson, meanwhile, was outstanding. With atmospheric conditions perfect for him and having managed to get a decent shine on the ball, he made it talk so eloquently that it should be signed up immediately for next week's Question Time. He now has complete control of swing both from over the wicket and, more difficult to execute, from around the wicket, where his ability to hoop the ball away from the left-hander brought memories of Bob Massie and, indeed, such was his pace, Mike Procter.

Two deliveries to tail-enders were as articulate as anything. First Jerome Taylor was worked this way and that by hokey-cokey bowling in which he sent the ball in, out, in, out before shaking the off-stump all about, cartwheeling it from the ground as a perfect away-swinger eluded the outside edge. The left-handed Sulieman Benn then received similar treatment from round the wicket, the stump plucked from the turf once more.

To Anderson also went the key wicket of Chanderpaul who, farming the strike now, pushed out to another ball that left him late and edged a straightforward catch to Paul Collingwood, substituting as wicketkeeper for Matt Prior. He held it OK and with unrestrained joy at gaining some tangible recognition of his task as deputy but generally he would be advised not to give up the day job.

With the earlier wicket of Lendl Simmons – one of three catches to go to substitute fielders Scott (of the Antarctic?) Borthwick and Karl Turner – he was to finish with four for 38, giving him match figures of nine for 125, not quite sufficient to top his best of nine for 98 against New Zealand at Trent Bridge last year but good enough for the man of the match award. Ravi Bopara, with centuries at Lord's and here, was man of the series.

The decision to give one end to Bresnan, rather than Stuart Broad or Graham Onions, was a sound as well as humane one. The team have made him extremely welcome (which has not always been the case for newcomers in the past) but for the entire series hitherto he has still been the lone if cheerily willing guest sitting in the kitchen at the party.

All things being equal, he will be down the bowling pecking order when in Cardiff at the start of July England next take the Test match field, tucked in behind his three compatriots here, with additionally Ryan Sidebottom, free now of pain from his achilles tendons, Andrew Flintoff and even Steve Harmison, in the event he should recover from sore shins. But injuries occur and the situation might arise where he is wanted, and at short notice. Now he will not feel intimidated by the step to the next level. The wickets, no matter their provenance or quality, will be a signal to him that he belongs.