England thrash Australia to take Tri-Series
What the $%*^&!?! Australia started the Tri-series in near unbeatable form while England were happy just to win the toss. By the end of the series, England had won 4 consecutive matches with 3 wins over Australia, including a 34 run victory in the 2nd Tri-Series Final.
England's innings went much the way of the first final. Collingwood was the star, supported by Loye, Bell and Flintoff. Coming into this final, I was convinced Loye was out of his league playing international cricket - he seemed a one shot wonder (albeit a spectacular shot at that). His first few scratchy overs confirmed this but somehow he survived and went on to score a useful 45. Collingwood's only blemish was a ridiculous reverse sweep off Bracken. What's with this English obsession of fiddly reverse sweeps and paddle sweeps to balls 2 feet outside off stump?
England's death batting was conservative - they could barely find the boundary but instead nurdled it around for 1's and 2's. Spectacular it wasn't but what they did do was preserve wickets and bat out the full 50 overs setting a reasonable 246. Glenn McGrath's last delivery on Australian soil was a stirring moment, receiving a standing ovation as he came into to bowl and the catch taken at deep mid-wicket. Still, just like Steve Waugh's last ball boundary to bring up a century at the SCG, the magical moment turned out to be meaningless considering what happened afterwards.
Australia's innings was a shambles. The top order toppled like ten-pins, the 5th wicket falling at 63. It seems when Ponting and Hussey fall cheaply, the spine of our batting line-up is broken. With Australia 5 down, rain stopped play and for a while, there was the threat of the match being washed out. That would've been cruel luck for England (but I still would've taken it). However, the skies cleared and play resumed. Australia's chance was the slim hope that Brad Hodge a rusty Shane Watson could score 100 runs at 9 runs an over. That hope was dashed when Dalrymple took the catch of the season, diving to his left at point to snare Watson. The game was ended 6 overs early but with Australia requiring over 11 runs per over with 2 wickets in hand, the result wasn't in much doubt either way.
Now England deserve a lot of credit for their huge upset victory and turn around in form. Collingwood's batting was Husseyesque and Flintoff's bowling was back to his 2005 best. England are infamous for regarding Test cricket over the one day form, reflected by their #2 Test ranking versus #8 ODI ranking. After losing to an Ashes cleansweep then cleansweeping Australia in the Tri-Series finals, perhaps they might consider swapping priorities.
On the other hand, Australia need to take a hard look at the way they handled the Tri-Series. Their fiddling with the squad line-up went beyond resting players and disrupted performances. Giving Brad Hodge one match at the start of the Tri-Series then returning him in the finals was counter-productive. Bringing Shane Watson back into the first final was a risky move that failed and will only be forgiven if Watson hits his straps at the World Cup (a big if). Australia's peculiar fitness regime was meant to have them peaking in the finals. Instead, it succeeded in ripping Andrew Symond's bicep off his shoulder bone and judging by our finals performance, completely failing. Suddenly our frontrunner status heading into the World Cup is decidely shaky. New Zealand will be licking their lips looking forward to having a crack at our boys sans Ponting, Gilchrist and Symonds.
| Posted by JC on Sun 11 Feb |  22 comments |
I'm trying to think of something to say but I'm too flabbergasted.
I would like to have seen Australia's innings without the continual rain delays, its not fair having to get your eye in more than once. But that's no excuse, we were beaten fair and square. Congrats England, a deserved win.
Now I'm going to cry myself to sleep, not because we lost this series. But because we aren't in the form I thought we were going into the World Cup. :(
Posted by Timbo on 2007-02-11 23:01:31
I would like to have seen Australia's innings without the continual rain delays, its not fair having to get your eye in more than once. But that's no excuse, we were beaten fair and square. Congrats England, a deserved win.
Now I'm going to cry myself to sleep, not because we lost this series. But because we aren't in the form I thought we were going into the World Cup. :(
Posted by Timbo on 2007-02-11 23:01:31
Yeah, congratulations to England. A thoroughly well-deserved victory. That catch by Dalyrmple tonight I will remember!
If England was a racehorse I owned, then two weeks ago I'd have been in earnest conversation with the trainer about having it put down. Now I'd be contemplating a Melbourne Cup nomination. And the stewards would be making enquiries and taking samples.
Timbo, this might just be the wake up call we needed prior to the World Cup. Hope so. It just shows that you must always give your opponents due respect, difficult as it may have been after a lop-sided summer.
The highlight of the last week or two from an English perspective must be the potential of the "accidental tourist" Plunkett. Some of his bowling has been superb and he'll only improve with more experience.
Must say that despite its complexity, the DL system for rain shortened games seemed to come up with reasonable revised targets tonight, better than any previous system I've seen tried.
Thanks for the blog JC. Have a beer for me, Jim Ribbans.
See you for the World Cup.
Posted by Dan Tas on 2007-02-11 23:22:15
If England was a racehorse I owned, then two weeks ago I'd have been in earnest conversation with the trainer about having it put down. Now I'd be contemplating a Melbourne Cup nomination. And the stewards would be making enquiries and taking samples.
Timbo, this might just be the wake up call we needed prior to the World Cup. Hope so. It just shows that you must always give your opponents due respect, difficult as it may have been after a lop-sided summer.
The highlight of the last week or two from an English perspective must be the potential of the "accidental tourist" Plunkett. Some of his bowling has been superb and he'll only improve with more experience.
Must say that despite its complexity, the DL system for rain shortened games seemed to come up with reasonable revised targets tonight, better than any previous system I've seen tried.
Thanks for the blog JC. Have a beer for me, Jim Ribbans.
See you for the World Cup.
Posted by Dan Tas on 2007-02-11 23:22:15
This is hilarious! I'm a Brit who follows cricket a bit but not that much. But I'm always amused at how important it seems to be to the Aussies to beat England. Reminds me a bit of a teenage boy obsessed with beating his dad! How on earth can England really compete in the cricket world when we only play the game for about 3 months a year? So I found it very funny that we took the Ashes off you guys as well as the rugby world cup. The difference was stark though - the England rugby team were the best in the world for 3 years. The England cricket team were and are not. We won the Ashes playing out of our skins and you guys were a bit arrogant. The same thing happened today. But don't worry - Australia will probably win the cricket World Cup. This kick up the backside will do Ponting's men good.
Posted by Ben on 2007-02-12 01:16:54
Posted by Ben on 2007-02-12 01:16:54
Whats with the obsession with Shane Watson? The guy isn't a good batsman by a long shot. And when he is going for 5 runs per over or more consistently, there is not much sense losing out on White's late order hitting for saving another 10 runs in the field.
If only one of White or Watson can play, I would definitely go for White in ODI's. In Tests, Watson would be a better choice.
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-12 01:40:45
If only one of White or Watson can play, I would definitely go for White in ODI's. In Tests, Watson would be a better choice.
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-12 01:40:45
Well it was not a dream, my England won something! I do not think I have ever see Australia fold like that in my life, even in 05 there were no bakward steps taken. I hope the ods change for he World Cup as I still think Austrlai will win it.
Posted by Jon thePom on 2007-02-12 09:16:16
Posted by Jon thePom on 2007-02-12 09:16:16
Re Shane Watson, that obsession will quickly dissipate if he has a poor tour of New Zealand and he'll find himself off the squad. I'm not fussed on White either though - his bowling has been pretty ordinary although I would've liked Punter to have given him more overs.
Posted by JC on 2007-02-12 09:57:18
Posted by JC on 2007-02-12 09:57:18
The chopping and changing of the squad was bound to cause problems.
As for Australia obession to beat England, you obviously weren't watching the English newspapers and sports commentators, the only thing the English were considering after the 2005 Ashes was how the team was going to go in the 2006-07 Ashes.
Our Cricket team doesn't get Gongs for beating England, we just expect them to. We also expect them to win against every team out there.
The ICC must love this though, the weeks leading up to the World Cup the Australia are beaten at home, its bound to increase interest.
Posted by Andrew on 2007-02-12 10:41:21
As for Australia obession to beat England, you obviously weren't watching the English newspapers and sports commentators, the only thing the English were considering after the 2005 Ashes was how the team was going to go in the 2006-07 Ashes.
Our Cricket team doesn't get Gongs for beating England, we just expect them to. We also expect them to win against every team out there.
The ICC must love this though, the weeks leading up to the World Cup the Australia are beaten at home, its bound to increase interest.
Posted by Andrew on 2007-02-12 10:41:21
Well done England. Australia outplayed. Well done Vaughan for sticking with your squad through thick and thin. Well done Freddie for putting up with all the @#$@% from everyone and recapturing some of your form. Well done Collingwood for being a fighter. I'm pretty upset when I think that Fletcher's scalp has probably been saved by this cleansweep but I guess that's good for Australia knowing that someone completely incompetent is at the helm of England in the lead up to the next Ashes series. Australia has a lot of work to do; I suggest it begins with an 'attitude adjustment'. Who knows, maybe we have something to learn from England re sticking with core players game in / game out.
Posted by TA on 2007-02-12 11:53:34
Posted by TA on 2007-02-12 11:53:34
Australia have become a victim of their own success. So successful and dominant have they been, that they have forgotten how to scramble with the bat. They have forgotten how to wear down bowling. Admittedly, with so much talent at there disposal, they rarely have to, but they have to learn to be flexible in their approach.
For example, does anyone remember when Australian batsmen used to be able to face swing bowling? Remember when the batsmen used to move their feet and get struck outside the line of the stumps or heaven forbid, let an excellent ball go through to the keeper. I know you won't score 300 plus with this type of batting, but when you only need 250 and have lost a couple of early wickets, surely it's worth a go.
It seems the Australian batsmen are intent on smashing balls "on the rise" rather than working them for singles and waiting for short balls or half volleys.
I think Hussey is a classic example of this. When he first came into the team, he would start slowly leaving balls and working singles. By the time he had fifty runs on the board he was scoring at a strike rate of at least 100, based purely on punishing bad balls and working good balls for singles. The last few innings he's been trying to smash good balls.
I think Hodge is now playing like Hussey was when he first came into the team. It will be interesting to see if he too joins the "smash anything in your half" club.
And as for Shane Watson, when the bio-mechanists were building him from the parts of deceased body builders, they forgot to install the "swing chip" and subsequently he cannot bowl it of face it with the bat. If he gets a decent outswiner, he just looks down the pitch with "does not compute" scrolling acoss his face.
Anyway, that's my knee-jerk reaction to the Aussies lossing the CB Cup, but I hope Australia continue to look for areas of improvement and that doesn't necessarily mean reaching a score of 400 on a flat pitch against ordinary bowling.
Posted by P. Dorf on 2007-02-12 17:27:13
For example, does anyone remember when Australian batsmen used to be able to face swing bowling? Remember when the batsmen used to move their feet and get struck outside the line of the stumps or heaven forbid, let an excellent ball go through to the keeper. I know you won't score 300 plus with this type of batting, but when you only need 250 and have lost a couple of early wickets, surely it's worth a go.
It seems the Australian batsmen are intent on smashing balls "on the rise" rather than working them for singles and waiting for short balls or half volleys.
I think Hussey is a classic example of this. When he first came into the team, he would start slowly leaving balls and working singles. By the time he had fifty runs on the board he was scoring at a strike rate of at least 100, based purely on punishing bad balls and working good balls for singles. The last few innings he's been trying to smash good balls.
I think Hodge is now playing like Hussey was when he first came into the team. It will be interesting to see if he too joins the "smash anything in your half" club.
And as for Shane Watson, when the bio-mechanists were building him from the parts of deceased body builders, they forgot to install the "swing chip" and subsequently he cannot bowl it of face it with the bat. If he gets a decent outswiner, he just looks down the pitch with "does not compute" scrolling acoss his face.
Anyway, that's my knee-jerk reaction to the Aussies lossing the CB Cup, but I hope Australia continue to look for areas of improvement and that doesn't necessarily mean reaching a score of 400 on a flat pitch against ordinary bowling.
Posted by P. Dorf on 2007-02-12 17:27:13
I just want to record this, because all too often on this blog (comments) the Aussies, and Ponting in paticular, get branded "arrogant" and "bad losers".
Posted by Timbo on 2007-02-12 17:27:24
"England can be very proud of what they have done. They have played their best two games of the summer in the finals and can go to the Caribbean with a lot of confidence." -- Ricky PontingIf telling the team that just kicked your arse that they can be confident in their upcoming world cup campaign isn't true sportsmanship, then I don't know what is.
Posted by Timbo on 2007-02-12 17:27:24
Good point but apparently he had his fingers crossed and looked like he was sucking a lemon at the time.
Posted by Jon the Pom on 2007-02-12 18:18:11
Posted by Jon the Pom on 2007-02-12 18:18:11
P. Dorf makes a good point - one of the (many) reasons Australia dominated the Test series was England's lack of ability to swing the red ball with any penetration. They had much more success with the Duke ball in English conditions in 2005. But finally when they got their line right with the white ball, we suffered. It seems to be a big weakness in Australian batting and I hope we work it out as we'll face the same problem in 2009 when we defend the Ashes.
Posted by JC on 2007-02-12 19:27:36
Posted by JC on 2007-02-12 19:27:36
England won because England are better. Always have been. Just didn't want to show off.
Posted by Jonny on 2007-02-13 00:10:09
Posted by Jonny on 2007-02-13 00:10:09
Ah, the Ashes whitewash was all a ruse to lull us into a false sense of security. Clever.
Posted by JC on 2007-02-13 08:59:24
Posted by JC on 2007-02-13 08:59:24
Its so clear now, you're asolutely right! It was all part of their long term strategy to win the ODI Tri-Series!
I guess losing 5 of their 8 qualifiers, and the 20/20 match and even being humliiated by the Prime Ministers XI was all part of the master plan. Maybe even Tresco's nervous breakdown and the appauling squad selections was also planned just to boost our confidence. Brilliant stategy!
Come on Liz, OBE's all round this time! Losing the Ashes 5-nil sure showed us!
Posted by Timbo on 2007-02-13 10:20:45
I guess losing 5 of their 8 qualifiers, and the 20/20 match and even being humliiated by the Prime Ministers XI was all part of the master plan. Maybe even Tresco's nervous breakdown and the appauling squad selections was also planned just to boost our confidence. Brilliant stategy!
Come on Liz, OBE's all round this time! Losing the Ashes 5-nil sure showed us!
Posted by Timbo on 2007-02-13 10:20:45
I think everyone with a British Passport should be issued with an OBE, oh and give Peiterson one too.
Posted by P.Dorf on 2007-02-13 14:43:35
Posted by P.Dorf on 2007-02-13 14:43:35
I will go out on a limb and say that the reason that Australia lost was due to the inclusion of Shane Watson. Obviously this is related to Symonds being injured but the selectors seem to have a facination with Watson.I think he is the most overated crickter going around at the moment. He can't bat to save himself, let alone understanding how to bat with tailenders. He bowls nothing but rubbish and is used at the death of an innings which is a joke (watch last 5 overs of England's innings in first final).
I am an aussie supporter thru & thru but unless Watson is removed from the team, I hope that they lose the World Cup. This is a big call but the selectors need to wake up to themselves. There is no rhyme or reason to the selections. Tait out after 2 games in which he played quite well, Clark after being the revelation of the test series, Hogg coming in and out of the side. What happened to Hopes? Played 8-10 games and will never be seen again.
I say Australia would be better off bring Boof back into the side. He would be a huge improvement on Watson. At least he can strike a ball and hold an innings together
Watson can't even staisfy his girlfriend, thats why she took off with the guy off Dancing with the Stars
Posted by Gazelle on 2007-02-13 14:46:33
I am an aussie supporter thru & thru but unless Watson is removed from the team, I hope that they lose the World Cup. This is a big call but the selectors need to wake up to themselves. There is no rhyme or reason to the selections. Tait out after 2 games in which he played quite well, Clark after being the revelation of the test series, Hogg coming in and out of the side. What happened to Hopes? Played 8-10 games and will never be seen again.
I say Australia would be better off bring Boof back into the side. He would be a huge improvement on Watson. At least he can strike a ball and hold an innings together
Watson can't even staisfy his girlfriend, thats why she took off with the guy off Dancing with the Stars
Posted by Gazelle on 2007-02-13 14:46:33
Ouch, Gazelle.
Posted by TA on 2007-02-13 15:12:03
Posted by TA on 2007-02-13 15:12:03
Every time a Pom reverse sweeps, it's because they are trying to expunge from their memory Mike Gatting's reverse sweep that handed us the '87 World Cup Final.
It's like they're repeating a bad joke over and over in the hope it eventually gets funny.
It does. For me.
Posted by Tony.T on 2007-02-13 16:33:42
It's like they're repeating a bad joke over and over in the hope it eventually gets funny.
It does. For me.
Posted by Tony.T on 2007-02-13 16:33:42
Finally someone says what I have been thinking for a long time about Watson. His inclusion affects the team balance badly. One of the reasons that Pakistan are such an unpredictably good side in ODI's is because they have genuine ODI-class allrounders down the order who are explosive and can bowl a few tight overs when required. I have a feeling that the selectors want Watson to be like Razzak or Afridi but I dont think he would ever belong in their class battingwise
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-13 16:44:43
Posted by jethro on 2007-02-13 16:44:43
just because watson had 1 good year when he was playing for tassie, it does not make him a class australian player
Posted by JT on 2007-02-13 17:15:19
Posted by JT on 2007-02-13 17:15:19
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