Looks as if my day’s ruined by the Australian weather again. Raining heavily in Melbourne with Afghanistan v Ireland already abandoned without a ball being bowled and Australia v England already delayed. Best we can hope for is a five overs a side match which would be a farce at best. Can’t help the weather of course but a crowd of 60,000 was expected. As things stand England are ahead of Australia on run rate in the league table.
Looks as if it’s a choice of watching old Ryder Cup wins or Nick Faldo major wins from my large collection of sporting video cassettes, although I’ve not watched England’s Rugby Union World Cup win for some time.
Ken - Someone on Twitter today posted the weather forecast from Melbourne, Victoria and Melbourne, Derbyshire (no - I hadn't realised there was one there, either). The weather in the UK version was rather better, causing someone else to nominate 3 grounds in Derbyshire where games could have been played. And it's no point saying that they are in Spring in Australia, as we are only 3 days from November in the UK, so no sympathy from here... A lottery from here on in the World Cup.
As Australia only beat Afghanistan today by 4 runs they are eliminated from the T20 World Cup unless England fail to beat Sri Lanka either through a defeat, a tie, or rain causing a ‘no result’. Putting it bluntly then, England must win to advance to the semifinals.
”””
What an outstanding win by England’s T20 side to reach the Final against Pakistan on Sunday. Restricting India to 80 for 3 wickets after 13 overs and despite conceding 80 runs in the final 7 overs to reach a par score of 168 for 6 before an excitable crowd of predominantly Indian supporters, England then silenced the crowd by scoring 170 without losing a wicket.
Alex Hales was Man of the Match scoring 86 from 47 balls with 7 sixes , whilst captain Jos Buttler scored 80 from 49 balls with 3 sixes. Adil Rashid bowled a beautiful 4 overs taking one wicket for only 20 runs and also took a stunning catch which removed Vilat Kohli just after he had completed his half century.
The questions now of course will England still be wthout Durham’s Mark Wood and Yorkshire’s Dawid Malan in the final (but why change a winning team!) and which Pakistan team will turn up?
Nevertheless Saturday will be a big day for yours truly wth the T20 cricket final in the morning and England playing Samoa in the Rugby League World Cup Semifinal in the afternoon. Haven’t Boro got a match too? However I ask myself who needs football when one sees cricket like today?
I 😍 cricket me!
@ken : I was listening to TMS this morning. That was a stunning victory - a total annihilation of India and the most one-sided match I can remember in the entire tournament. Hopefully we can avoid an "after the Lord Mayor's Show" performance in the Final, where I'd expect England to be favourites to win. And all without Jonny Bairstow, the batsman who'd been in the form of his life this year, too!
Just to point out in case you’re arranging your diary - the T20 World Cup Final is on SUNDAY morning.
Come on England.
It was a brilliant England performance, the best I’d seen for years. And as Dormo says, without Bairstow. But also without Jason Roy, Topley, Wood, Malan and Jofra Archer. Truly we have an abundance of talent right now. Let’s hope they can continue this kind of form against Pakistan on Sunday!
There is a darker cloud on the horizon, though. Almost all of England’s squad are over 30, some of them well over. Let’s hope we can continue to unearth great talent from the younger generation. Harry Brook looks to be well on the way.
it’s been a lot of fun having the T20 World Cup here in Oz. It’s always a pleasure when England knock out Australia but the most amazing sight was the India v Pakistan game at the MCG which had over 90,000 people attending. Apparently, games between the row teams are so rare that large groups had travelled from the sub-continent to add to the massive local contingent from both countries. I watched it on TV and the atmosphere was extraordinary.
Regarding sport this weekend, don’t forget the women’s rugby World Cup final between England and New Zealand. Ellis Park in Auckland is sold out and it will be a cracker of a game.
I’m still coming to terms with what I actually saw yesterday. It absolutely ruined what the sub-continent were looking forward to. I expect Pakistan were almost as disappointed as India that England had beaten, no annihilated their fiercest rivals. I’m old enough to remember Pakistan’s first test match which came 5 years after gaining independence from India in 1947. Pakistanis were eligible to play for India before that but very few were considered good enough to play for India. Indeed I’m struggling to remember the names of any Pakistani that actually played for India.
I almost felt sorry for the Indian fans yesterday as they expected to beat England, but what started as a carnival atmosphere soon became like a funeral when as early as the first 6 overs of power play by England was more than twice as many runs scored than India accrued from their power play. I can’t recall such a batting display since reading about England’s 903 for 7 declared against Australia at the Oval in 1938 when Len Hutton batted for over 13 hours scoring the highest individual test match innings at the time of 364.
Surely England must now become the first country to hold both white ball World Cup competitions at the same time.
it’s been a lot of fun having the T20 World Cup here in Oz. It’s always a pleasure when England knock out Australia but the most amazing sight was the India v Pakistan game at the MCG which had over 90,000 people attending. Apparently, games between the row teams are so rare that large groups had travelled from the sub-continent to add to the massive local contingent from both countries. I watched it on TV and the atmosphere was extraordinary.
Regarding sport this weekend, don’t forget the women’s rugby World Cup final between England and New Zealand. Ellis Park in Auckland is sold out and it will be a cracker of a game.
Don’t forget the Rugby League WC. I’ve just watched the Australian men score a try that frankly was unbelievable.
England men are in the semi final against Samoa tomorrow and England Women play NZ for a place in the final.
The England wheelchair team are also in their semi final too.
I’m still coming to terms with what I actually saw yesterday. It absolutely ruined what the sub-continent were looking forward to. I expect Pakistan were almost as disappointed as India that England had beaten, no annihilated their fiercest rivals. I’m old enough to remember Pakistan’s first test match which came 5 years after gaining independence from India in 1947. Pakistanis were eligible to play for India before that but very few were considered good enough to play for India. Indeed I’m struggling to remember the names of any Pakistani that actually played for India.
I almost felt sorry for the Indian fans yesterday as they expected to beat England, but what started as a carnival atmosphere soon became like a funeral when as early as the first 6 overs of power play by England was more than twice as many runs scored than India accrued from their power play. I can’t recall such a batting display since reading about England’s 903 for 7 declared against Australia at the Oval in 1938 when Len Hutton batted for over 13 hours scoring the highest individual test match innings at the time of 364.
Surely England must now become the first country to hold both white ball World Cup competitions at the same time.
It’s all a bit too reminiscent of 1992 when Pakistan again came from nowhere to make the final and then beat England. Does history repeat itself?
Yesterday’s Rugby League World Cup Semifinal between Australia and New Zealand transcends any other sports event ever seen in Britain in my lifetime. It actually makes football look like an amateur sport. If you don’t believe me you’ve just missed something that was quite amazing. This made football look like an amateur sport. Forget Hungary beating England 6-3 at Wembley in 1953, any Ryder Cup or Wimbledon Tennis final you care to mention, Dennis Taylor beating Steve Davis in the wee small hours of the morning in 1985, Red Rum winning his first Grand National when Crisp suddenly slipped on the home straight, Randy Turpin beating the mighty Sugar Ray Robinson in 1951, Henry Cooper coming within seconds of knocking out Cassius Clay (as he was then known) at the end of the 4th round in 1963, this week’s annihilation of India in the T20 World Cup semifinal, and only equalled by Shane Warne’s ‘ball of the century’ in bamboozling Mike Gatting in 1993.
I’ve seen many historic sports events in my lifetime but never expected that Rugby League would go down as the most memorable in not only my lifetime but probably in the lifetime of anyone who witnessed it. If you missed this match I hope that it will be repeated either on television or the internet, because even the most devoted football fan must agree with my sentiments; it really was that unbelievably superb.
What a great diversion the cricket in Rawalpindi has been for cricket lovers England scoring almost 7 runs an over in a test match. At this rate it would not surprise me if England become the first test side to score over 1,000 runs in an innings. Nevertheless I suspect that it will be difficult to force a result on this wicket as I think that Pakistan’s Abdullah Schaffique will have something to say about that. The wonder is though how Joe Root only scored 23. Strange though how some folk prefer football to cricket, but each to their own I guess. But football is struggling to catch up with Rugby League nowadays especially after watching that semifinal between Australia and New Zealand.
@ken - That was an UNBELIEVABLE first day of a Test Match at Rawalpindi. When I woke up at about 6.00am it was already about 150-0 and the scoring rate was phenominal. The first England match there for 17 years (cricket tours there stopped after a terrorist attack during a Sri Lanka tour to Pakistan and it wasn't felt safe for players, alone supporters), this match started off with a torrent of records.
Four centuries scored at breakneck speed by England's top order: Crawley 122 at more than a run a ball, a "shockingly pedestrian" 107 from 110 balls by Duckett who was the only centurian to face more balls than he scored runs, 108 from Pope off 104 balls, and a blistering 101 not out off only 81 balls by Yorkshire's Harry Brook in only his second Test (the third fastest hundred by any England player in about 140 years of Test cricket! A record number of runs (506-4) scored on the first day of a Test Match and it would have smashed the record for any day had play not been stopped early for bad light after only 75 of the planned 90 overs had been bowled. A run rate of 6.75 an over makes white ball cricket redundant, and in one over Brook hit all 6 balls for four. And tomorrow, in the early hours, it starts all again, for Day 2 with Brook and Stokes (who has already thrashed 34 runs off 15 balls) at the wicket.
And to think that 24 hours ago it seemed likely that the game might be put back 24 hours as 15 of the England squad had gone down with whatever the Pakistan version of "Delhi Belly" is called. No doubt the medical team will be doing their best to isolate the bug so they can re-infect the players the day before each of the games to come...
Measured by that metric (or since we are talking cricket, should we call it Imperial?) the last round of group games in Qatar for the football World Cup , and Croatia 0-0 Belgium, doesn't exactly set the pulse racing.
Mind you, with England after tea on Day 2 having amassed 657 all out and Pakistan being 127-0 in their reply, it is even more clear that this is a wicket to break bowlers' hearts. A long LONG way to go though....
Whatever England achieve in the current Football World Cup this month they will NEVER replace what Ben Stokes cricketers have done in that Rawalpindi first cricket test match which will remain the outstanding sporting event of 2022. Even if our football team were to win the World Cup nothing in my opinion will come close to emulating that historic cricket match which now becomes the template for Test cricket the World over. Just reading Marcus Trescothick’s report on the BBC website has reiterated the whole concept of Test Cricket for future generations.
Another brilliant display from Harry Brook in the warm-up match to the cricket series in New Zealand. A sighter first ball from Adithya Ashok to Harry Brook this morning and then smashing the next 5 balls over the ropes for six. Just another insight into the talent of Harry Brook who is going for 4 consecutive centuries in the oncoming Test series in New Zealand. Is there no more excitement or talent in this young Yorkshireman? I’m so wild about HARRY and it certainly is not Harry Kane!
More fine knocks from Joe Root, Dan Lawrence and Ben Foulkes as the English batters look like continuing their good form into this year. Once again cricket looks likely to put football in the shade this year.
Amazingly at the age of 40 Jimmy Anderson has returned to the top of the Test Cricket bowling standings. I’m not sure whether the ‘Burnley Express’ is inspiring the Clarets in their endeavour to regain their Premier League status or whether the club from Turf Moor are actually inspiring Jimmy in his quest for more success. But one thing is certain is that he and Stuart Broad have now taken over 1,000 wickets between them and are now the most successful bowling partnership in Test Cricket replacing Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
Surely Jimmy isn’t expecting to emulate Sir Stanley Matthews who was still playing football at the age of 50!
@ken - It is really interesting to note that, in his earlier career, Jimmy Anderson was an adequate fast-medium Test bowler. I haven't got his figures in front of me but I think his average runs-per-wicket may have been over 30 when he was in his first five years as a Test cricketer but he has got better as he has aged. I think his average since 35 years old is just over 20 (which is really top drawer). He has looked after himself and now limits his cricket (not playing T20, IPL, the Hundred etc) but what his career demonstrates is that fitness, strength and speed can be matched by persistence, guile and nous. His knowledge of wickets, the ball and his own body makes him a better bowler now that he has passed his 40th birthday than when he was 25 or 30. Very unusual.
He may very well have a big say in The Ashes...
Once again Harry Brook 184 not out and Joe Root 101 not out have placed England into a winning start from a disastrous position of 21 for 3 to a close of play score against New Zealand in Wellington of 315 for 3. I can’t wait for Jonny Bairstow to be fit enough to open for England in this years Ashes series; the Aussies won’t know what is about to hit them!
@ken - I went to bed at "Lunch" in the Test Match - about midnight - with England having had a traditional start, losing 3 quick wickets at 21-3 before 2 of our favourite 3 Yorkshire batsmen set about restoring some sense to the situation, and it was 101-3 when I switched off. Imagine my joy to learn, when I got up this morning, that no further wickets had been lost during the rest of the day's play with England on 315-3, and Root had got to 101not out and Brook to 184not out when play ended. In fact the rain set in after 65 overs had been bowled so the crowd missed 25 overs of the intended 90 overs, and England would probably have raced to 450+ on the first day if the rain had not intervened, if scoring had maintained the same rate.
I suspect I mentioned on here, and certainly did to my mate and others at the Flattened Frog (before Brook had set his Test career in motion), that Brook might very well re-write all English Test batting records before his career ends (health permitting). Root is a real class player, already one of the greats, and I thought he'd go on to break the records in his day, but I felt Brook was something else and would go past any figures that Root posts. These are glorious times for Test cricket generally and supporters of England in particular, and we sit here in the knowledge that we have last year's top batsman, Jonny Bairstow getting himself fit for this coming summer after his recent freak accident.
So, joy at the cricket and joy being a Boro supporter at present. These are good times, so let's all enjoy them while we can.
That was the most compelling Test match I’ve ever witnessed. One advantage to being a ‘night owl’ is sleeping during the afternoon but staying up until the wee small hours to see a finish like that. I can’t imagine ever staying up as late as this to follow my beloved Boro, but cricket under Ben Stokes brings into perspective what a great sport cricket is, far better than dreary old football can ever be and I’m writing this having been a Boro fan for all my life. Would I have preferred England to win rather than see Boro gain promotion this season? Probably not, but that doesn’t diminish the glory of Test cricket under Ben Stokes.
I obviously would have preferred England to have won this morning, but New Zealand probably deserved this win, after the narrow defeats in England a few years ago. If the Boro were to lose the playoff final by a last minute goal, I would be saddened but hope that I still would have still have had the good grace to applaud the victory of their conquers. After that is what the word SPORT means to me. I show no bias, even if Sunderland were to defeat Boro in the playoffs, as I have the utmost respect for Tony Mowbray and all he has achieved as a person and a footballer during his life.
I’m no ‘goody two shoes’ but as I reach the end of my life, I have mellowed quite considerably and adhered more to the words of Rudyard Kipling - “if you can allow all the bad things that have befallen you with equal good grace, then you will grow to be a man my son”.
It is now past 4.30am on Tuesday and I’m still buzzing wide awake to what I’ve just witnessed. In reality there have been no winners or losers this morning, but both England and New Zealand are to be congratulated for performing as well as they could, and as ever SPORT is the real winner.
@ken Your 4.30 AM is our 6:30 AM here. So I was awake when you finnished your post. Happy to hear you enjoyed cricket.
Unfortunately it has never been on TV over here. But I have seen a few matches on the North York Moors and a couple locally. In Finland it is mainly played by the British and Indians living locally. The chairman of the Finnish Cricket Board is a Mancunian who now speaks fluent Finnish without an foreign accent.
Up the Boro!
There were 3 wickets down as I went to bed and I wondered would NZ do it.
Then when I got up for the usual old man's visit to the loo in the smaller hours I checked the score. 5 wickets down and 68 runs left to chase, with Root on 88 and Stokes on 25 I think. I went back to sleep thinking it was as good as all over.
So, at ten past 5 this morning as I got up and looked to see if it was all over... well what a surprise!
I don't have BT so haven't seen any of this mini series, but credit to the way Stokes likes to make cricket such a positive game. So this match was lost. But credit to NZ for making the result so exciting and right down to the wire.
Sport as sport should be played. Played and enjoyed.
I hope you don't mind me likening it to the way MC had changed the mindset at Boro. We don’t set out to play to stop the opposition, we set out to play the way we want to win. What a difference it has made, even though we do still lose some games. Like the cricket last night, this season promotion from the Championship could go right down to the wire.
Keep finding the positive in your life Ken and I am sure there is one more promotion for you to savour yet.
Hi Ken, what a game eh. It's real Roy of the Rovers stuff. You never like to lose but it feels like England have decided to play cricket the way you always imagined it should be when you were a kid. Then again, I always wanted to bat like Boycott so I'm maybe reassessing my life choices 😀
I do think that under Carrick we are channelling a bit of the same mentality. I think we are playing football the way that Carrick thinks it ought to be. We're not exactly doing the whole Kevin Keegan "charge" thing but we are definitely playing to certain principles.
Keep on keeping on. It's hard to find the joy or meaning in life when you are where you are but it's good to see cricket and a love of sport providing some for you.
I probably should have more sense than to write a blog at 5.00am considering my health problems, but I felt wide awake and just had to describe what had unfolded at Wellington this morning.
But now come the questions. Ben Stokes opted to declare England’s first innings at 435 for 8 wickets. After having lost their first three wickets on a green looking pitch for 21 runs, and then brilliant centuries from Harry Brook and Joe Root followed by a mini collapse, Stokes had no option but to try to establish a large first innings lead.
The fact that England had established a first innings lead of 226 after another Kiwi collapse gave Stokes the option of enforcing the follow-on. But was that the correct option considering that batting last could be a tricky situation. Sometimes there is a small divide between confidence and arrogance, and perhaps Stokes took the wrong decision in inviting the Black Caps to bat again. But a wonderful century from Kane Willliamson looked like turning the result into the favour of the home team at 450 for 5, but then England fought back taking the last 5 wickets for a measly 33 runs put a different complexion on the likelihood of making the last day more of an equal competition. In fact the Kiwis might well have added another 100 runs instead of those 33 runs.
But Stokes would have been happy with only another 210 runs required on the final day for a 2-0 series win. But even Ben Stokes is not infallible, and that enforcement of the follow-on was in reality why England lost this match, albeit by a single run, though credit must go to all 22 players for making this such an absorbing contest. The match looked all over when Harry Brook was out for zero without facing a bail, and England in a precarious position at 80 for 5 wickets.
But then a weary looking Stokes and a rejuvenated Joe Root put on a total of 121 runs with the latter now adapting his improvised style of batting to a new form of batsmanship although Neil Wagner was magnificent in dismissing both of them in the space of three balls as Ben Foakes and Stuart Broad eventually saw England through to 251 for 8, with only 7 more runs required. By this time Foakes had refused the odd single to safeguard Jack Leach from facing too many balls.
When Foulkes was 9th out for 35 after a magnificent catch from Neil Wagner off the bowling of Matt Henry, in came Jimmy Anderson who always says he hates batting, but when he hit a four all the ‘barmy army’ went wild with excitement. However that man Wagner had the last laugh by having Jimmy caught by wicket keeper Tom Blundell, and England had lost by one solitary run. It may be disappointing as New Zealand became the first country to win a Test match after being invited to follow on. But as I mentioned before, Test cricket was the real winner. I earlier mentioned Rudyard Kipling’s poem entitled “IF” and forgive me for writing this poem in its abridged context here:-
If you can keep your head when all about you ar losing theirs and blaming it on you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can dream, and not make dreams your master, and not make thought your aim, and if you can meet with Triumph and Disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run; Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, and what is more, you’ll be a MAN MY SON.
This encapsulates what SPORT should be all about, and it has taken me many years to abide by these rules. What I don’t wish to hear is Schadenfreude, or the views of a few Wigan rugby league fans who were hoping that neighbours St Helens would get slaughtered by the Australian champions Penrith in the cross country challenge, when the win has actually raised the profile of rugby league in the northern hemisphere. That is pure jealousy, when most fair minded people welcome this as a fillip for English rugby league. It was the first time since 1974 that an English side had beaten the Aussies in their own backyard.
A few thoughts on the current furore around cricket.
At primary school I was a very good cricketer, a decent batter and an even better bowler. I once took a hat trick in a boys against dads match with the last three balls of an over and I can assure everyone that no dad wanted to be bowled out. I actually took a wicket with the first ball of my next over too.
When I moved up to Guisborough Grammar school I continued to play, although by then I’d started concentrating on batting as others were handed the ball to bowl ahead of me. I come from a working class background and my parents had no history of playing sport (although my dad was a runner in his school days) - I’d spent hours bowling to my dad on our drive with wickets in front of the garage door (some of the happiest memories of my childhood).
There was an Indian professional who played for Guisborough CC (GCC)who came to school to give us some coaching- this was completely new to me as I’d never had any coaching and was very interested in what I could learn. Some of the lads on the team also went to GCC to play and unfortunately he concentrated on them and I never got any help. They all had immaculate whites, expensive bats and middle class parents who were involved at the local club. I lived in Nunthorpe but had no social interaction with anyone at the village club and was too shy to take myself along try and get involved.
I drifted in and out of playing for the school but luckily got involved with playing again much later in life and absolutely loved it. I opened the bowling and batting so obviously still had a lot to offer. I often wonder if I could have made it at a higher level - I was 6’5” and very quick across the ground so surely had potential as a fast bowler.
It’s a shame that there are barriers to entry as far as cricket is concerned, which don’t exist in football. I was also captain of the football team at junior school and played for Guisborough Grammar throughout my time there. I also continued playing after school, although I definitely wasn’t as good a footballer as I was a cricketer.
From my reading of the recent reports it seems that not much has changed to open cricket up to a wider pool of talent - let’s hope that things can change going forward.
However in the haste to drive me to James Cook Hospital I only had time to wear a smock, no underwear, no spectacles, and no other clothing but fortunately a list of telephone numbers of people at home. For 3 days nobody was aware of where I was. As mobile phones are not allowed in James Cook Hospital except when in transit awaiting an ambulance I had to rely on nurses to make people of my whereabouts as by then I was deaf in both ears. I never once in those first 3 days was I allowed to leave my bed, although I must say that the food has improved immensely. On the fourth day I was moved on another bed to the base of a spiral staircase to climb up to prove I would be capable with carers help to look after myself. Then had to turn around and descend the staircase in my usual manner before entering an exray room for five exrays. I must say that this was the coldest hospital I have ever encountered with windows open in Ward One. Eventually I returned to Ward One to await an ambulance to take me home but there were none available. The lad next to me had already been waiting over 4 hours because he had to wait for an ambulance and to collect his medication from the pharmacy.
Eventually I managed to get an ambulance home by 8pm. The second part of the summer was much more rewarding as I decided to pay 80£ to have my ears syringed at home to great relief. By then I had decided to ignore football and Rugby League for the rest of the summer; after all both sports in my opinion look fairly drab when compared to cricket. For the first time for many a year I watched the Open Golf Tournament in its entirety and most of the Ashes Cricket series. As for football I discarded it completely for the summer. I have no idea of Boro’s fixture list for the forthcoming season, nor who they play in their first match. Cricket reigns as far as I’m concerned, and I’m of the opinion that generally speaking that Ben Stokes Ashes team have outplayed the Aussies during the season and are unlucky not to have regained the Ashes. I shall continue to watch them throughout the late summer in the white ball season in preference to football which will get more attention from me in the Autumn. I’m not even going to speculate where