New Zealand - Not to be Underestimated

Three days into the first test match over 10000 miles away in New Zealand England are starting to get a bit homesick...

After being skittled out for just over 150 England's bowlers struggled to stop debutant Hamish Rutherford, who I keep foolishly calling Greg Rutherford (British Olympic medallist last summer) from scoring a absolutely magnificent buck fifty in spectacular style in his first test innings. The young kiwi hit three sixes on his way to 171, more than all eleven English batsmen could muster up between them!

New Zealand scored over 400 with a magnificent late flurry from Brendon McCullum with help from debutant Martin. England are now 50 odd without loss in  reply.

But why have New Zealand had so much success in the first three and a half days (first day wash out) at Dunedin?

Well, the main reason is that they do have some quality players when you look at them individually.



Kane Williamson

Kane Williamson is a good player - playing at number three in the first innings he got a solid 24 while Rutherford done the work at the other end. For a man of 22 he's played quite a lot of test cricket, 20 matches to be exact, and he's definitely got good potential. I don't think he's going to be world class, but I think he could be a solid batsmen for New Zealand for many years to come.



Ross Taylor
 

Sticking with batsmen next, Ross Taylor. A man with more experience than that of six years younger Kane Williamson, Taylor brings some quality to the New Zealand middle order. Taylor is a very impressive ODI and T20 player, but he can do it on the Test circuit too, he's scored over 3000 runs for his country, notching up sixteen fifties and continuing on to a century seven times. I'd rather have him in my T20 team, but he's still a important cog in the NZ Test machine.


Brendon McCullum
 

Brendon McCullum is another man in the NZ team who is a big hitter in the one day and T20 games. He can hit the ball a long, long way, as he demonstrated in his quickfire 50 at Dunedin. He's hit two international T20 centuries, a feat which no other mortal has reached. For this reason he can score quick runs coming in late middle order, which can always be key in certain circumstances! He's a good wicket keeper as well, reliable. Nothing's worse than a liability behind the stumps!

Tim Southee

Tim Southee is a player I like. A tall right armer who can move the ball is always a risk towards the opposition batsmen. Although he only picked up one of the wickets in the England first innings I think we could be seeing him get 2/3 important wickets reguarly in this series. He's not quite as good as Steve Finn but he's still a good player - for that reason he could cause all kinds of problems for Compton and Root in particular. (The rookie English players in this team)

Those four New Zealand players are the ones with the most quality, (in my opinion) but one other could cause England problems for different reasons.

Bruce Martin is playing his first test match game, and is relatively unknown. He's been playing his trade in New Zealand and I don't think England will know too much about the left armer spinner. For this reason he could cause a lot of short term problems for England, he already has taken four wickets in England's first innings!

So New Zealand have got some good quality players in their armoury, and along with the hunger to win they could not only win this test match, but one of the next two as well, which would result in a series win for the Black Caps.

England definitely need to buck up their ideas, put in the hard work inbetween now and the next test match (this game has probably been lost already) to try and turn things around.

Two things are key for England; Cutting out any complacency, and do their homework.

So get down to work Cook and co.

Cheers

Joe Root - Destined for Greatness?

Joe Root has been in the limelight a lot recently for England - and he's made a big impact on the international scene as well as for his county Yorkshire last summer.

At just 22 years old he's got the best years of his career ahead of him; if he keeps on the straight and narrow unlike some other hot prospects in the English game. Ben Stokes *Cough* Matt Coles *Cough*

But what has Joe Root achieved so far in his relatively short career?

What brought him in to the English squad in the first place?

Well - he showed promise right from the word go. On his second team debut for Yorkshire he scored a half century. More impressive scores followed, and it was only a matter of time before  he got his chance in the first team.

His chance came against Essex; in the final CB40 match of the 2009 season. His first XI debut was just as fine as his entrance to the second XI, hitting a half century opening the batting. His 63 turned accounted for over a third of his sides runs and after the game he described his impressive debut knock as "dream come true."

Joe Root playing for Yorkshire in the CC

The England's under 19's squad is where a lot of young England stars start to shine on the international level. Michael Vaughan and Freddie Flintoff captained this side when they were both teenagers, showing that the under 19 stage is a vital stepping stone in the career of an aspiring international cricketer.

Root wasn't picked as captain for the team but in 2010 in the under 19 world cup. He was picked to open the batting. In two games he scored nearly a century in total, although these scores were against minor teams. His first two games were his big successes of the tournament from his personal playing point of view, as he made no major contribution to his teams totals in games against a strong India and then West Indies.

He'd done decent at the world cup but hadn't made a massive impact.

At this point few could predict that in two years time he would be a Yorkshire regular, holding several ODI caps and a single test cap.

In 3 of his one day games he hit half centuries and he has also hit a half century in his single test cap.

He can turn his arm over too; his gentle off break could claim a wicket or two once in a blue moon. Primarily, he can hold up and end for a couple of overs before the new ball is available.

The boy can field too - he's pretty much got the potential to have the full package. The video --->  is a brilliant piece of fielding by the young man, and a brilliant example of the ever changing game of cricket. You wouldn't have seen a batsman playing a shot like this never mind the fieldsman producing a piece of magic 30 years ago.

So is Joe Root destined for great things? Will he become a key player in this years ashes and beyond? Or will he become a flop? Will he drift away from the national team set up and never be heard of again?

Well, I think Root is destined to play a massive part against the Aussies this year. Against a relatively weak bowling line up he could deliver a lot of damage.

Against India in December he showed his potential in very tough conditions.He batted slowly, with patience, and although he scored only four boundaries he kept the scoreboard ticking over. For this reason I think he is more suited to opening the batting rather than coming in at number five/six. He and Cook could give the Aussie's a lot to think about early on in the innings.

If he puts in the hard work on the training ground and stays out of the media for the wrong reasons then I can't see a reason why he can't replace Andrew Strauss at the top of the English batting order.

Only time will tell if I'm right, but I'm rarely wrong! However, I would still love to hear the views of you, any comments at the bottom of the page are always appreciated!

Cheers.

T20 World Cup - Story So Far

The T20 world cup in Sri Lanka is now just over a week in, but there has already been massive scores, massive shots, and above all. Massive fielding blunders. But what's impressed me the most? And what's left me shaking my head in disappointment?

The Afghanistan - India game was one of the first I could manage to watch from start to finish.

The first thing that struck me when I was watching was the skill of the Afghan bowlers, they were good, damn good.

This wasn't the amateur bunch of bowlers that starred at the start of that cricket documentary of the story of Afghan cricket a few months ago. These guys, had really skill.

Zadran cleared up Sehwag, and Sehwag was gone soon after. Kohli saved India from humiliation at the hands of these so called minnows in one of the first games of the tournament.

But it could have all been so different, the Afghan bowling was one of the things that has impressed me so much in the tournament so far. But the fielding, oh the fielding. It was utterly, utterly, dreadful. I can't stress the extent of how awfully astronomically terrible the fielding display was. I would have backed a bunch of 9 year olds who had never seen a cricket ball before to take some of the catches they dropped.

And this is the reason they lost the game. Some of the batting was a bit shabby but if they done the basic fielding correctly, they could knocked down India from their perch. And who knows, if Afghanistan would have beaten India they might have put in a poor display v England and Afghanistan could have been in the Super 8's...

Now that, would have been a bloody brilliant story. But unfortunately, fielding 1 Afghanistan 0

But then a couple of days late I saw Zimbabwe be completely taken apart at ease by a very impressive South Africa side. And they really were poor. Afghanistan's fielding was bad but nearly everything about Zimbabwe was diabolical. And I really do hope Afghanistan get a crack at test cricket in the future. But first, please sack your fielding coach.

Next, I have to talk about England. Against the Afghans, we put in a solid performance, picked up a win. This was what people expected of us and we delivered.

But then the real test came against the Indians. And.... oh dear...

The bowling performance was average, I've seen Broad bowl a lot better than how he did, same goes for Bresnan. I think Dernbach uses his slower too much and can be inaccurate. Swann was the only one who impressed me.

Rohit Sharma hit a quickfire 50 and Kohli hit another decent score of 40. This, in addition with Gambir's very good start to the innings left India with a over-par score of 170 off their allocated 20 overs. (I'd like to add that England bowled 8 wides in this innings, which is absolutely appalling at this level. Dernbach was a big culprit of this and it purely angered me, if your reading this Jade, bowl bloody straight, and don't get any more tattoos)

But then came the batting. Alex Hales was gone for two. Not the start we needed.

Luke Wright (who's never really impressed me at international level) was gone for 6. The rest fell like domino's.

Only three batsmen reached double figures, and of them was Jade Dernbach. Morgan, who's been in pretty dreadful form, got 2. Bairstow 1. It was torture watching us playing spin. We gave Harbhajan Singh the easiest four wickets he'll ever take, Chawla got 2, as did Pathan.

This batting display was without doubt, the thing that left me shaking my head in dissapointment.

But then today, I saw something maybe even more spectacular, I saw a Indian side be completely taken apart by the Aussies.

India batted first, and the first man to fall was Gambhir, who was run out by Cummins. It was pretty poor running, it was practicly a race between Gambhir and Cummins, plus Cummins had to kick the ball at the stumps, and the bowler still won. And Gambhir was gone, perhaps a little more time on the running track Gautam?

Virat Kohli, who's been in fantastic form, went pretty softly. Yuvaraj Singh mistimed a hook shot and was gone. Then Rohit Sharma went, I can only assume he misjudged the angle of the ball coming in from the left armed Starc coming round the wicket. The rest scored at more or less a run a ball and they finished on 140.

The Austrailian openers battered them. Shane Watson became the white Chris Gayle and was smashing the ball around for fun. Seven sixes were hit in his very impressive 72 from 42 balls. David Warner hit a 63 to go with it and they won easily.

Watching the Aussies win this easily is definitely what has made my eyebrows be raised the most this T20 tournament so far. They impressed me.

Watch out rest of world.

The Aussies could be coming...