The failure of England's leading Twenty20 batsmen mean that the freedom of those further down is restricted by the need to regroup and not lose further wickets
England have now lost their past five Twenty20 internationals, a streak as they have never experienced in the nine years since first they played, against Australia at Southampton in 2005. Unless there is a drastic turn in fortune and performance from both sides it is difficult to see how that will be reversed in the final match of this Caribbean trip against West Indies on Friday.
England will then have two warm-up matches before the World Twenty20 begins in earnest, but as these are against India, who will be in familiar conditions, and, once again, West Indies, these may be more than a challenge too. As their group contains South Africa, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka, not to mention Ireland, it is being realistic rather than unduly pessimistic to suggest an early exit from the tournament is more than on the cards. Meanwhile the two teams that have beaten them recently might both be considered strong contenders for the title.
The bowling of James Tredwell and Ravi Bopara in the middle period of the match gave England just a glimmer of a chance of sneaking the match. Both have been impressive in the two games so far: for Tredwell to see Chris Gayle strike him out of the ground from the first ball of an over and then deliver five successive dot balls to him was outstanding.
Only in terms of runs, though, did they claw the game back, and any quality side, with hitters of the power and ability that West Indies are fielding, will fancy their chances of scoring at around one and a half runs per ball for the last three overs with seven wickets in hand: England were left with wicket-taking as their only real chance.
That Darren Sammy then finished the match in such devastating style more than anything serves to illustrate the extreme difficulty in delivering absolutely pinpoint yorkers to a tall batsman, with long levers and a massive backlift, who will sit deep in the crease one moment and come forward the next so that what might be a yorker on the crease becomes a half volley one moment and a full toss the next.
Simplistic as it might be to think otherwise, it is at the other end of the match that England are losing any real chance to compete at present. Eoin Morgan was honest enough after the second game to concede that England had effectively blown their chance by the time the opening six overs of the match – the powerplay overs – were done. And this has been the case in each of the five matches in the losing sequence.
The comparisons are instructive: against Australia, in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney England successively have been 45 for three, 42 for three, and 25 for three; against West Indies it is 32 for two and 30 for three. By contrast, Australia managed 52 without loss ,50 for one, and 41 without loss; while West Indies have been 56 without loss and 58 for one although each of the two wickets England have taken – Aaron Finch to Tim Bresnan, and Dwayne Smith to Jade Dernbach – have not come until the score was 48. Four times Alex Hales, still second in the ICC T20 rankings, and Luke Wright have each been dismissed in the powerplay, Michael Lumb three times with Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Morgan once apiece.
In Australia, they were largely undone by pace; in West Indies, on pitches that will be more akin to those in Bangladesh (or at least Chittagong, so the intelligence has it, where England play their group matches), it has been the leg breaks and, mostly, googlies, of Samuel Badree and the low-slung artful medium pace of Krishmar Santokie. The failure at the top of the order means that the freedom of those further down is restricted to an extent by the need to regroup and not lose further wickets.
In Bangladesh, England will get no respite from that sort of bowling at the top of the innings, and have to find a way of countering it. It is not something that comes naturally, for although there is evidence that pitches in England are becoming drier in general, probably a result of improved drainage, there is not the quality of spin bowling to exploit it and test batsmen.
The next generation are being tutored, including camps to Sri Lanka and India, but the development of skills and the confidence to use them, takes time: easy to say that use of the feet is paramount, for example, but against bowlers such as Badree and Sunil Narine, who spin it either way, and often cannot be read, that is not so easy.Both Hales and Wright were stumped off Badree in the first match and even Viv Richards has said he would not leave his crease to Narine.
England will not have closed minds, though, and surely recognise a definition of insanity being to do the same things repeatedly and expect a different outcome. In February 2010, England played the Lions in Abu Dhabi with their openers, Jonathan Trott and Joe Denly, apparently set in stone.
Lumb and Craig Kieswetter took England apart and it all changed. Kieswetter, it may be recalled, was man of the match in the World T20 final in Bridgetown. England could make changes now, for example with Ian Bell, not recognised as a T20 specialist but a fine ODI player and the best player of spin in the country almost certain to feature once England are confident he has found his playing legs. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.
England have now lost their past five Twenty20 internationals, a streak as they have never experienced in the nine years since first they played, against Australia at Southampton in 2005. Unless there is a drastic turn in fortune and performance from both sides it is difficult to see how that will be reversed in the final match of this Caribbean trip against West Indies on Friday.
England will then have two warm-up matches before the World Twenty20 begins in earnest, but as these are against India, who will be in familiar conditions, and, once again, West Indies, these may be more than a challenge too. As their group contains South Africa, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka, not to mention Ireland, it is being realistic rather than unduly pessimistic to suggest an early exit from the tournament is more than on the cards. Meanwhile the two teams that have beaten them recently might both be considered strong contenders for the title.
The bowling of James Tredwell and Ravi Bopara in the middle period of the match gave England just a glimmer of a chance of sneaking the match. Both have been impressive in the two games so far: for Tredwell to see Chris Gayle strike him out of the ground from the first ball of an over and then deliver five successive dot balls to him was outstanding.
Only in terms of runs, though, did they claw the game back, and any quality side, with hitters of the power and ability that West Indies are fielding, will fancy their chances of scoring at around one and a half runs per ball for the last three overs with seven wickets in hand: England were left with wicket-taking as their only real chance.
That Darren Sammy then finished the match in such devastating style more than anything serves to illustrate the extreme difficulty in delivering absolutely pinpoint yorkers to a tall batsman, with long levers and a massive backlift, who will sit deep in the crease one moment and come forward the next so that what might be a yorker on the crease becomes a half volley one moment and a full toss the next.
Simplistic as it might be to think otherwise, it is at the other end of the match that England are losing any real chance to compete at present. Eoin Morgan was honest enough after the second game to concede that England had effectively blown their chance by the time the opening six overs of the match – the powerplay overs – were done. And this has been the case in each of the five matches in the losing sequence.
The comparisons are instructive: against Australia, in Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney England successively have been 45 for three, 42 for three, and 25 for three; against West Indies it is 32 for two and 30 for three. By contrast, Australia managed 52 without loss ,50 for one, and 41 without loss; while West Indies have been 56 without loss and 58 for one although each of the two wickets England have taken – Aaron Finch to Tim Bresnan, and Dwayne Smith to Jade Dernbach – have not come until the score was 48. Four times Alex Hales, still second in the ICC T20 rankings, and Luke Wright have each been dismissed in the powerplay, Michael Lumb three times with Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Morgan once apiece.
In Australia, they were largely undone by pace; in West Indies, on pitches that will be more akin to those in Bangladesh (or at least Chittagong, so the intelligence has it, where England play their group matches), it has been the leg breaks and, mostly, googlies, of Samuel Badree and the low-slung artful medium pace of Krishmar Santokie. The failure at the top of the order means that the freedom of those further down is restricted to an extent by the need to regroup and not lose further wickets.
In Bangladesh, England will get no respite from that sort of bowling at the top of the innings, and have to find a way of countering it. It is not something that comes naturally, for although there is evidence that pitches in England are becoming drier in general, probably a result of improved drainage, there is not the quality of spin bowling to exploit it and test batsmen.
The next generation are being tutored, including camps to Sri Lanka and India, but the development of skills and the confidence to use them, takes time: easy to say that use of the feet is paramount, for example, but against bowlers such as Badree and Sunil Narine, who spin it either way, and often cannot be read, that is not so easy.Both Hales and Wright were stumped off Badree in the first match and even Viv Richards has said he would not leave his crease to Narine.
England will not have closed minds, though, and surely recognise a definition of insanity being to do the same things repeatedly and expect a different outcome. In February 2010, England played the Lions in Abu Dhabi with their openers, Jonathan Trott and Joe Denly, apparently set in stone.
Lumb and Craig Kieswetter took England apart and it all changed. Kieswetter, it may be recalled, was man of the match in the World T20 final in Bridgetown. England could make changes now, for example with Ian Bell, not recognised as a T20 specialist but a fine ODI player and the best player of spin in the country almost certain to feature once England are confident he has found his playing legs. Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 hours ago.