Lords

Ah, summer's here. The Lords Test Match against the Australians, Is there anything more special? Well not for the Australians it seems. Their Test record at the home of cricket since 1896 reads played 27, won 13, drawn 13, lost just 1. In 1934. Good luck England...

Well perhaps they didn't need my good luck, here's how day one panned out...

Since 1896 Australia’s Test record against England at Lords reads played 27, won 13, drawn 13, lost 1. That loss coming as far back as 1934. So it would be fair to suggest that the Australians would have arrived in St John’s Wood this morning as favourites, but would England be galvanised by Andrew Flintoff’s resignation, or distracted by the hype as Ricky Ponting hopes.

Early team news was that, as expected, Panesar makes way for a quick man. Onions getting the nod ahead of Harmison as Flintoff is passed fit to play. Ricky Ponting, who named an unchanged team, lost the toss and England will bat on a bright but cloudy morning in North West London.

Hilfenhaus and Johnson shared the new ball, Hilfenhaus with the first over of the day from the Nursery End and Johnston, obviously then, from the Pavilion End. Johnson’s woes continued from the Cardiff Test, removed from the attack after bowling just four overs as England reached 39-0 after 9 overs. Johnston (0-26) replaced by Siddle.

The first hours play was a good one for England. Johnson out of the attack early, 57 runs on the board and Ponting complaining already, this time about the shape of the ball. The umpires weren’t having it though. Cook was first to fifty, in the 22nd over from 73 balls and England’s hundred was brought up courtesy of a bye off keeper Haddin’s pads in the 25th over of the morning.

126 for no loss at lunch England, a fantastic morning’s work from the opening pair who were opening the innings together for the 57th time today, the most by any English pairing. Alastair Cook went to lunch on 67 not out and Andrew Strauss was just three short of his half century on 47 not out. Australia’s bowling was poor, Johnson in particular will be a concern for Ponting, and both batsmen cashed in. Fantastic stuff.

Strauss joined Cook on fifty shortly after lunch, his half century coming up of 104 balls in the 34th over. The first real excitement of the day came midway through the 39th over, Cook advanced down the pitch and drove hard back at the bowler Hauritz who got a hand to it but succeeded only in having his middle finger bent backward so badly he had to leave the field in real pain, Marcus North finished the over, England beyond 150 by now. News from the Australian dressing room an hour after lunch was that Hauritz’s finger is not broken so that was good news, less good news was that Mitchell Johnson continued to bowl like a drain. 8 from his first over after lunch leaving him 9-0-61-0 at drinks.

Well, who’d have thought it, first Johnson over after drinks and he of all people gets Cook to claim his 100th Test wicket. Cook just five short of a century, the ball kept a little low and trapped him straight in front. Bad luck, England 196-1 and in came Bopara. Nineteen balls later back Bopara went as double Nelson struck. Another LBW, again dead in front, this time from the bowling of Hilfenhaus who had easily been the pick of Australia’s bowlers thus far. Bopara gone for 18, Hilfenhaus 16-9-38-1, England 222-2 and Richie Benaud impersonators around the World were in raptures. Strauss was still there on 90 and time for Pietersen…

And he didn’t disappoint, giving the spectators collective heart failure in the two overs prior to tea, racing down the track to smash the spinner, North, over mid on for four, then very nearly getting himself out handled ball and then very, very nearly being caught by Haddin from a top edge off a one handed pull shot. Scary stuff, finally a single got him off strike which led to…
Hundred for Strauss! Two balls before the tea interval he cut Hilfenhaus behind point for 3 runs to register his fourth Test hundred at Lords, his eighteenth in total and his third against Australia. England 255-2 at tea and the captain exactly 100 not out. Well played Sir.

Fourth over after tea guess who got out? Yep Pietersen. At least this time he wasn’t doing something stupid. A “fair dinkum”, as the bowler Peter Siddle might have said, outside edge. Terrific ball that committed KP to the shot and moved away just enough to square him up and catch the bat on its way through behind to Haddin. Pietersen 32 and England 267-3. More action came in Siddle’s next over when Strauss slashed hard to gulley and a diving Hussey put him down. It was a tough chance but you’d back these Aussies to take them and to add salt to the wound the ball carried on for 4. Siddle by this stage had cranked it up to a consistent speed of 90mph+ and was looking dangerous.

England reached 300 in the 76th over of the day when Johnson came back into the attack for another burst. 1-77 from 11 overs up until this point so not his best day it’s safe to say. Just one run off the bat and two leg byes came from this comeback over, and there was even a spot of swing.

Next over, Collingwood thought he was Pietersen and danced down to Clarke and played a horrible shot straight to mid on. Strauss was furious at the non strikers end, and rightly so. What on earth was that all about? England 4 down now, 302 on the board, and the new ball was only 3 and a half overs away. Prior would need to stay at the crease until close or Australia would be right back in the game.

But he couldn’t. In the last over before the new ball was due the worst bowler on display so far, Johnson, found an absolute beauty to swing in and bowl him off stump. England 5 down for 317 and suddenly Australia were two quick wickets away from being in charge of the game. Flintoff in next. Ricky Ponting didn’t take the new ball straight away, having seen the ball swing in the last over he wanted to see if there was some reverse there for his bowlers before deciding what to do.

And that was the right decision, 2 overs and 3 deliveries after the new ball was due the old ball swung away from Flintoff, took the edge and flew to a delighted Australian skipper at 2nd slip. Having succumbed to double Nelson earlier in the day triple Nelson struck now, England 333-6 with Flintoff gone caught Ponting bowled Hilfenhaus for 4. Stuart Broad to the crease.

Having got the breakthrough Ricky Ponting took the new ball with 5 overs left in the day and continued with Johnson who conceded 9 runs from his over, and Hilfenhaus who goes for 6 runs, in the over where Strauss brought up his 150. Great knock, the captain leading from the front in the face of a jittery final session for England’s batsmen.

Strauss and Broad made it through to stumps with no alarms, Strauss passing 5000 Test runs in the process. The score of 364 -6 at close represented a really good day for England, tarnished only by the loss of perhaps 2 wickets more than they would have liked. Collingwood gifted his wicket, but the others were undone by decent balls so shouldn’t be too despondent. Strauss the captain 161* overnight will look to push onto 450+ tomorrow, a score that looks more tricky now than it perhaps might have given the state of the match at tea, but let’s face it, it’s not often the Australians lose all 3 sessions in a day. Well played England, well done Alastair Cook and very well done Andrew Strauss. For the tourists Hilfenhaus was the pick of the crop, finishing with figures of 25-10-77-2, his figures ruined slightly by some loose stuff in the last half hour of the day. Johnson had a horrible day going at more than 6 an over for most of it, but picked up 2 wickets. Siddle looked menacing but was without luck. Honours probably just about even, England perhaps still edging it. It will be an absolutely crucial first hour tomorrow morning.

Freddie Flint('s) Off

Hot on the heels of Michael Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff has announced his retirement from Test Cricket today. As the curse of the 2005 Ashes claims yet another victim, I'll be looking at Flintoff's career pre and post Ashes.

1995 -1998

After starring in youth cricket for St Annes in Preston and for Lancashire and England age group sides, where his size and strength gave him a considerable advantage over boys of a same age, Flintoff made his First Class debut for his beloved Lancashire in 1995 aged just 17. It wasn't a resounding success, scores of 7 and 0 were backed up with match bowling figures of 11-0-39-0 but at a young age, with all the talent in the World ready to be harnessed, there was a lot more to come. He captained the England under 19 side in 1996 and 1997 and, in what seemed at the time a bold move, was picked to make his Test debut in 1998, aged just 20. This came just a month after hitting 61 from 24 balls, including 35 from one over, to help Lancashire chase down 250 in a championship match against Surrey. Wasim Akram said at the time that if Flintoff had been born in Pakistan, he would have been playing Test cricket already, referring to the practice on the subcontinent of picking players on potential rather than weight of runs or wickets.

1998 - 2002

Unfortunately, for the first two years following his debut, potential was all anyone really saw from Flintoff in both the international arena and in domestic cricket. By Flintoff's own admission in "Being Freddie" (which can be summarised thus; "grew up, got good at cricket, got pissed a lot, got less good at cricket, stopped getting pissed, got good at cricket again, won the Ashes, got pissed.") he struggled with his weight largely due to his new lifestyle, that of a 20 year professional international cricketer with money and a city centre pad, hard to cope with, opting for pizzas, currys and cans of beer rather than chicken, pasta and mineral water. It wasn't a lifestyle that a 6' 4" frame could readily cope with and his weight ballooned to 19 stone which lead to two years of struggling with form and fitness and by 2000 his back was so bad he could barely bowl and many were beginning to lose patience with the precocious youngster who seemed to be in danger of eating and drinking away his talent without giving himself the chance to succeed. Having missed the first match of the 2000 NatWest series injured, his, "not bad for a fat lad" jibe when picking up a man of the match award in the following game - for 42 runs against Zimbabwe for goodness sake, at this stage his most significant international innings - was further evidence of his lack of dedication, and disregard for the wishes of the England management It's easy to look back on Flintoff's career now and think, "aw, bless him" but at the time it was no laughing matter. Something had to change, and fast.

A year later nothing had changed. Flintoff was out of the English team and was almost out of the Lancashire team after a dressing room dressing down by the coach Bobby Simpson. His career, such as it was at the time, was in serious danger of petering out into nothing. It took intervention and an all or nothing ultimatum from his management team of Andrew Chandler and Neil Fairbrother for Flintoff to realise just how much danger he was in. He was sent, at his own request, to The ECB Academy run by Rod Marsh to live and breath cricket, lose weight and get fit in an environment where could do little else. He was recalled to England colours in the winter of 2001 when he was called to India, but whether the return came too soon or whether it just wasn't his tour, he was in appalling form and became so frustrated that he broke down in tears in the dressing-room. He would later look back on this as a turning point in his career.

The 2002 New Zealand tour saw Flintoff make his maiden Test century and had a decent home summer although by the end of 2002, he had averaged just 19 with the bat and 47 with the ball in his career to date. The biggest moment of 2002 though happened off the field, when Flintoff met the lovely Rachel Woods in a sponsors tent. The love of a good woman seemed to do wonders for Flintoff, and he himself credits Rachel with finally getting his career going in the right direction.

2003 - 2006

This was Flintoff's golden period. Having recovered from an operation on a hernia sustained on the 2002/2003 Ashes tour, he had time out away from cricket to concentrate solely on getting fit and starred in the 5 Test summer series against South Africa scoring a century and 3 fifties, including 95 in the remarkable comeback at the Oval, winning man of the series in the process. The tour of the Caribbean at the beginning of 2004 further raised Freddie's stock, he scored a century, took a 5 wicket haul and continued to show that he could be a genuinely fast attacking bowler. In England's victorious summer of 2004 Flintoff hit half centuries in every Test and continued to be England's most potent weapon with the ball. He flew to South Africa for the 2004/2005 tour firmly established as England's talisman, having finally begun to fulfil all his early promise. Injury was a concern by the end of that tour and a cricketing nation held it's collective breath over his fitness for the Ashes, as we heard for the first time about that troublesome ankle.

All was well, and swapping his honeymoon for an intensive rehabilitation programme had him fit and firing and ready to capture the nations hearts during the greatest series ever. Enough has been written here and elsewhere about that so we don't need to go into any more detail. Suffice to say that Flintoff's all round performance evoked vivid memories of and inevitable comparisons with Both in 1981, key moments including his Edgbaston twin fifties and 7 wickets in the match, including Langer and Ponting in one of the most perfect overs ever bowled in the second innings, his century, his first against Australia, in the winning Test at Trentbridge, and 5 wickets in the 2nd innings at the Oval. Flintoff had become the first Englishman to claim over 20 wickets and 400 runs in a series as he finished with 24 wickets and 402 runs, enough to win him another man of the series award and the inaugural Compton-Miller Medal. The aftermath of this Ashes win, and Flintoff's part in that, has become stuff of legend and although there were a few disapproving murmurings, there are not many would have begrudged him this blow out.

Flintoff's star shone brightly for another year, he captained England in India in February 2006 due to the unavailability of Vaughan and Trescothick with success, doing enough to win another man of the series award and drawing the series courtesy of a series levelling win in Mumbai in which Flintoff contributed 100 runs and 4 wickets. Flintoff missed that home summer due to injury, losing the captaincy to Strauss, but won it back in time to travel as England captain down under for the 2006/2007 Ashes rematch.

2007 - July 2009

A 5-0 whitewash with a shadow of the 2005 side was too much for Flintoff to cope with on his own, and this tour was a Flintoff PR disaster. Hammered in the first Test, Flintoff was lucky to escape sanction when he arrived for a training session at the Adelaide Oval leading into the second Ashes Test at the end of 2006 clearly suffering the consequences of a heavy night out. Reports are that he could barley focus on the balls being hit to him for catching practice and had to have the bloke next to him throw them back in to Duncan Fletcher. It's said the only reason he escaped sanction then was to preserve team unity early in the tour. Flintoff is further believed to have sought solace in the bar on a number of occasions throughout the tour and indeed Duncan Fletcher reports that a practice session had to be cancelled prior to the One Day Series in February, because the captain was worse for wear. This was not long before the infamous "Fredalo" incident in St Lucia which cost him the vice captaincy and made many question his worth around the side.

Flintoff would go on to miss every home Test in 2007 and had been plagued with almost constant injury ever since. As he announced his retirement on July 15th 2009 to concentrate on ODI and T20 cricket, only a fortnight after his latest incident one can't help but look back over the career of Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff and notice some uneasy parallels.

A promising youngster who looked as though his lifestyle might prevent him ever reaching his full potential as a cricketer, Flintoff became for a brief spell one of the World's greatest. Building up from 2003 he peaked in the 2005 Ashes and achieved things no one would have imagined possible years before. He was England's number one and undoubted star, in a team full of match winners he rose above them all. But almost as soon as that little urn had returned to English hands, the bubble began to burst. An increased workload on the field that came with being England's go to bowler and talisman all rounder, the increased pressure off it with captaincy and media interest all became too much for the big lovable Northern lad and his career went into a decline from which it was never to recover. It's almost as if Flintoff's sole cricketing purpose was to regain the Ashes in 2005, and for that we should be eternally grateful, even if he does exit the Test arena leaving behind a hollow sense of unfulfilled promise, and tinge of regret for what might have been had his body allowed him to consistently be the player everyone can see he could have been. Or, perhaps more aptly, had he allowed his body to allow him to consistently be the player everyone can see he could have been.

You lucky, lucky b*stards...

Phew. Thrilling stuff, Manchester Piccadilly Stations sports bar wasn't where I would have imagined myself watching one of the great rearguard actions in recent times, but that wasn't biggest surprise of the day. Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar guided England to a draw. Here's how...

It seemed a pretty simple equation for the Australians arriving at The SWALEC for the final day of this Test. Turn up, take 8 English wickets and march on to Lords 1-0 up. Having given the English a 3 day batting masterclass in compiling 674, and Ponting reading the weather forecast well enough to declare earlier than most would have expected and nicking out 2 wickets before the rain came on day four, it looked like there was only one team left in the game. Of course England couldn't win, but a draw was still possible, but all the smart money must surely have been on Australia making it six in a row.

England's top two batsmen, captain Strauss and main man KP, were the not out batsmen over night so there was still hope. But not for long. Fourth over of the day saw Pietersen make a Horlicks, and a typically flamboyant one at that, of a straight delivery from Hilfenhaus which he let go all the way onto his of stump. England 31-3 and Collingwood, who it must be said thrives in this sort of situation, in earlier than anybody, Australians aside, would have liked. It didn't get any better any time soon as the much maligned Mr Hauritz stepped up and had the English skipper caught behind top edging a sweep in just his second over. 46-4 with just 45 minutes of the day gone. Lunch was beginning to look like it might be a liquid one for Ponting and his men.

Sure enough, Matt Prior didn't hang around all that long, 32 balls before he was back in the hutch caught off a top edge cutting, who other than Nathan "what the hell is he doing here" Hauritz. England finally limped to lunch 102-5, with no rain forecast to save them and only Collingwood left as a real hope for salvation. For any chance of the game being saved he would have to stay there for the rest of the innings and just hope that Flintoff, Broad, Swann, Anderson and, Heaven help us, Monty could do enough at the other end.

Flintoff did well enough, 89 minutes at the crease faced 71 balls and scored just 26 as he curbed his instincts to attack and played sensibly and solidly until he wafted his bat at a delivery from the out of sorts Johnston to Ricky at 2nd slip. You'd think it was game over now even with Broad and and Swann still to come. Decent lower order batsmen they undoubtedly are, but this would be a step too far. Surely...

Another hour passed before Broad was on his way back to the pavilion, 159-7 now, not that the 159 mattered, probably, but all of a sudden you maybe just wondered. Not long until tea, if Swann could hang around until then and maybe an hour afterwards, Anderson plays his nightwatchman role, Colly holds tight, Johnston continues to aim at first slip...

Well, as it happened, Swann did just that. Another hours play eaten up before he was plumb in front playing an awful pull shot to a straight ball which kept a little low, but not so low that the maker's name wouldn't have dealt with it. Elation from Ponting and his men, the new ball had worked but now there were less than 20 overs to go and the score all of a sudden was threatening to add an extra dimension to things. England had crept up to 18 behind. So suddenly there was the chance that Australia might have to bat again to knock off a handful of runs. And in the process lose 2 overs, or ten minutes, for the change over. The game, all of a sudden, was looking less like a formality by the over.

There came a huge, huge, huge HUGE miss on the first ball of the16th last over. Anderson defended a short ball into the leg side, Collingwood wanted one, Anderson toyed with the idea for a step or three then sent Collingwood back, by which time Hauritz had picked the ball up and send it towards the stumps at the non strikers end but missed all three as Collingwood was face down in the dust 6 inches or so short of his ground. That was match point missed. The rest of the over passed without incident and 15 overs were now to be bowled, as a minimum, and Aleem Dar signalled the last hour of the match at 5.50pm on the button.

11.3 overs to go, Collingwood caught Hussey, bowled Siddle. Oh. Dear. Wonderful stuff from Mr Gritty, 344 minutes 245 balls and he was devastated. Out comes Monty, there go England.

7.4 overs to go, Australia have to bat again. Now then, now then, now then said Jimmy. Possibly.

5 overs remaining, England lead by 6. So if a wicket falls next over that one is gone, minus another two for the change. So it's not quite now or never at this stage, but it ain't far off.

Now, 4 overs to go following another Hauritz over and Ponting turned to North. Now it was now or never. If Australia didn't get a wicket in this over that would be it. But, it wouldn't. Because we were in the last hour. 15 overs minimum. Must play an hour. And with spin at both ends it was now a time issue, not an overs issue. Play had to end at 6.50pm, it's a ten minute change around between innings so England just had to bat out until 6.41pm. Which would be in about 4 overs time. So two each from North and Hauritz. Even if a wicket did fall Australia would probably have only 1 over to score the required runs which would by no means be a foregone conclusion. England, at 6.30pm on the final day, had somehow, just about saved this Test Match from an impossible position at close on day 4, an insurmountable position at lunch on day 5 and a perilous position at tea on day 5.

And, lo and behold, save it they did. Monty crashed North through cover for 4 in his first over, Anderson blocked out a maiden from Hauritz, Monty blocked out a maiden from North, 6.39pm, one more over during which the clock would tick on to 6.40pm and the game would be over anyway, no runs until the last ball which spun out of the rough for a bye, handshakes all round and the game was drawn. My word what a final session that was.

Well done England, commiserations Australia. England escape and have little time to sort things out before Lords. Batting needs work, not technically, but mentally. The Australians will be looking for more of the same. Ineffectual stuff from Johnston today cost them big, and the two spinners never really looked like sorting the last pair out. Thrilling stuff, bring on the next one.

Typical. 29 years of livng in Scotland with little or no top level cricket to watch, your work moves you to Manchester the weekend before the Ashes starts and where is the Old Trafford Test? Cardiff, that's where. Bloomin' Cardiff. I repeat, typical.

Now, I accept that the chances of getting tickets were slim anyway, (although I was offfered one for the Saturday) and Manchester is only two and bit hours from Lords and the Oval, an hour from Headingly and an hour and a half from Edgbaston but that's beside the point. I'll also be able to watch every ball on an outdoors big screen with a cold pint of Red Stripe at £2.95 a pop so it's not all bad.

Anyway, the move to Manchester has left me without internet connection outside work for the time being, so have to leave it at that. Best of luck England for day one, and I'll be reporting on day two's play for worldcricketwatch from an internet cafe somewhere.

And did those feet, in ancient........

Pic of the Day

The SWALEC Stadium, which on Wednesday will become the 100th Test Match venue.

ICC Cup

This season's ICC Intercontinental Cup, which gives the Associate (i.e the best non Test playing) nations the opportunity to play against each other in 4 day matches gets underway today in Aberdeen with the opening match between Scotland and Canada. Scotland captain Gavin Hamilton sits this out and Gordon Drummond gets his first shot at captaining the national side.

Running commentary and full scorecards of the next 4 days play can be found here.

Robert Key

In the wake of the Ashes squad announcement and beginning of both the England Lions vs Australia and England vs Warwickshire games commencing yesterday, Rob Marrs over at Left Back in the Changing Room quite rightly bemoans the seeming loss of Robert Key to English cricket.

Like Rob I agree that Key, Fat Bobby or not, has been very harshly treated by the English selectors over the years. With all the toing and froing for the number 3 spot and the insistence on keeping faith with Iain Bloody Bell, Key can count himself mightily unlucky not to have had another chance.

Rob discusses in more detail here