Firstly, please excuse my long absence from the blogging scene. Just because I haven't been writing doesn't mean I haven't been watching! What a winter.
I think my views of the Pakistan series are pretty well voiced. I felt that England should have taken more risks, played around with their failing batting order and looked outside of the box. Evidently my radical thinking (echoed by the great Bob Willis on SkySports) was not the way Flower and Strauss wanted to play. Cowering behind the sofa, I couldn't watch and frankly I didn't want to.
Bring on the ODI series. Not usually the cry from an England fan, particularly when the opposition is Pakistan, however where on earth did the form come from? Whitewash victory is just what we needed to reconcile the awful test performance.
As I am writing England are still world number one, but boy did they make it interesting. Under the watchful eye of huge traveling support, the England test cricket soap opera began. I seem to be attracted to teams who like to keep things interesting, as a Liverpool supporter I'm used to 'expecting the unexpected' and when it all looks too good to be true, it often is. During the first Sri Lankan test, my very proud half South African friend, Jacob Kaye, knew as well as I did that if England didn't win, South Africa would steal our world number one spot. Although Jacob would never admit it, the smile on his face made me realize that if we lost our ranking he'd never let me hear the end of it and that my university cricket conversations would be ruined....at least till the summer!
England left it till the very last minute to save my cricket conversations. Sri Lanka taking the early advantage, England had to win the second test. Why, oh why do the teams I support always have to be down and out before they bring something back? The comeback came from a surprising source, KP. Pietersen, who has played dismally against spin all winter and who's presence at the crease changes the attitude of the batsman at the other end (I forget exactly when, but I have recollections of Cook's attitude changing when KP entered the arena , Cook was noticeably worried for his team-mate at the other end) and it was not the obvious 'comeback king'. But, his 151 from 165 balls sparked real promise, a player who has struggled so much with spin, particularly left-handed spin, is the one who can dig deep enough and perform - a really cricketer! Granted, Pieterson fell to an LBW, but his performance was inspired.
I still got stick from Jacob, who reminded me that KP is a South African rather than a true Englishman - but I could cope with that. As long as KP and our other 'South African' players have lions on their chest, I don't care much about the 'are they really English?' chirps. Lions are lions.
Swann finished the job with a tremendous 6-wicket haul, England could breathe a sigh of relief. With our world number one ranking in tact, it was only the batsman's egos that were broken. We had survived a winter storm that was both unnecessary and embarrassing.
Hopefully this summer will be more like the last. Our form at home is dramatically better than our form in the subcontinent. But, South Africa (tests, ODIs and T20) will be tough and with the West Indies (tests and T20) and Australia (T20) also visiting, every fan is shouting: "Get your act together England - you're not the football team!"
England left it till the very last minute to save my cricket conversations. Sri Lanka taking the early advantage, England had to win the second test. Why, oh why do the teams I support always have to be down and out before they bring something back? The comeback came from a surprising source, KP. Pietersen, who has played dismally against spin all winter and who's presence at the crease changes the attitude of the batsman at the other end (I forget exactly when, but I have recollections of Cook's attitude changing when KP entered the arena , Cook was noticeably worried for his team-mate at the other end) and it was not the obvious 'comeback king'. But, his 151 from 165 balls sparked real promise, a player who has struggled so much with spin, particularly left-handed spin, is the one who can dig deep enough and perform - a really cricketer! Granted, Pieterson fell to an LBW, but his performance was inspired.
I still got stick from Jacob, who reminded me that KP is a South African rather than a true Englishman - but I could cope with that. As long as KP and our other 'South African' players have lions on their chest, I don't care much about the 'are they really English?' chirps. Lions are lions.
Swann finished the job with a tremendous 6-wicket haul, England could breathe a sigh of relief. With our world number one ranking in tact, it was only the batsman's egos that were broken. We had survived a winter storm that was both unnecessary and embarrassing.
Hopefully this summer will be more like the last. Our form at home is dramatically better than our form in the subcontinent. But, South Africa (tests, ODIs and T20) will be tough and with the West Indies (tests and T20) and Australia (T20) also visiting, every fan is shouting: "Get your act together England - you're not the football team!"
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