Kiwi injuries give England the edge
I have inspected the pitch for the third and final Test between New Zealand and England in Napier - and it looks to be a belter.
By that, I mean hard with predictable bounce and unlikely to offer the seam bowlers anything after the first session of play, and little help for the spinners, even later in the match.
It seems that a result might be hard to come by - but this is the decider, after all, and the series should not be settled by a lucky win of a toss on a sporting pitch.
Besides, both sides have shown that they are more than capable of collapsing with the bat and it could be that the team which keeps its nerve in this winner-takes-all situation comes through in the end.
To that end, New Zealand have been substantially weakened by the loss of Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills, and that definitely gives England the edge.
England will talk about their batting order, and then are likely to keep everything as it is. Andrew Strauss really looks all at sea and is desperately clinging on - but he did battle away at Wellington and, besides, Owais Shah hasn't had any proper cricket for ages.
The other batsman causing concern is Kevin Pietersen who simply has not fired on this tour, and who has now gone 10 innings without a 50 - comfortably the worst trot of his 35-match career.
One area that England must sort out is their fielding. It is one thing to say that their catching at Hamilton was excellent - the fact is that Alastair Cook’s catching at Hamilton was excellent, while Paul Collingwood and Matthew Hoggard both took a good one each.
That does not amount to the team being good fielders - and England are not. At Wellington we saw schoolboy errors with the ball going through Stuart Broad's and Monty Panesar's legs while the annoying preoccupation that England have with hurling the ball to the wicket-keeper all the time has now accounted for three sets of needless overthrows.
This could be the opportunity for Panesar to finish an otherwise disappointing winter on a high note. He should get the chance to bowl plenty of overs, and it will be interesting to see if he has taken on board the urgent need for him to vary his flight and speed.
Thirteen wickets at 47 runs each - including three Tests in helpful conditions in Sri Lanka - does not represent a great return from England's leading spinner who must be mindful that young Adil Rashid - a genuine batsman and developing leg-spinner - might soon be applying pressure.
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I agree in lots of places. Shah, now, needs more cricket before playing for England - and before he goes mad with dispair!
The Kiwis really will miss Oram and Mills. England will now be better able to score more runs and get them more quickly.
Both batting sides are indeed frail I fully expect at least one innings from one side to contain a collapse.
England do have the edge. That does not mean they are sure to win. Come on - at least two tons, PLEASE !!!
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I'd have to agree with Agger's views on Strauss and Panesar; Strauss has yet to show that his short hiatus from Test Cricket has solved any of the problems that dogged him in his last few series. Equally, something has been missing from Monty's game of late, which is quite a worry considering there is a real lack of depth in England for spinners. I remmeber seeing Rashid make his debut at the Oval and I was throughly impressed. Perhaps the competition will get the best out of both Monty and Rashid.
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Good write-up as usual, Aggers, and thankfully somebody's made the point that only Cook's catching was particularly excellent in Hamilton.
Good points to be made about Panesar... he has flattered to deceive of late and really needs to up his game to be taken seriously on surfaces that aren't utterly conducive to his style.
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I'd have to agree with Agger's views on Strauss and Panesar; Strauss has yet to show that his short hiatus from Test Cricket has solved any of the problems that dogged him in his last few series. Equally, something has been missing from Monty's game of late, which is quite a worry considering there is a real lack of depth in England for spinners. I remember seeing Rashid make his debut at the Oval and I was thoroughly impressed. Perhaps the competition will get the best out of both Monty and Rashid.
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I notice that the cover of the Playfair 2008 annual (due out early April) has Monty Panesar on the cover. In his editorial for the annual, Bill Frindall is well known for publicly worrying about the curse of the Playfair cover - that is, the player appearing on it seems to suffer a catastrophic loss of form, injury etc. Given that the cover player has been (in order since 2004) Vaughan, Harmison, Flintoff, then Bell last year, you can understand Bill's concerns.
However, the difference with Monty is that he has been on the wane for some time now, and is following in Giles' footsteps as England's non-spinning spin option. He doesn't seem to bowl with any variety, Johnathon, that's the issue - it's all very predictable and pretty easy to play. There's no obvious flight, change of speed, arm ball, drift, sharp spin etc. And as he offers virtually nothing with the bat or in the field, he is becoming very much a luxury pick.
Graham Swann would have given England many more options and can consider himself very unlucky to have fallen victim to this pre-occupation the Eng management seem to have with personalities.
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As you say Aggers, it looks set up as a belter of a track, so this will be a test of the England top 6 -if they don't produce the goods this time round, there could be a couple of them having a rest when the Kiwis follow England back over here. Strauss is probably in the Last Chance Saloon, but if he gets two decent scores he may well have nudged himself into the squad for the summer. KP and IB look like they need to find a beach somewhere for a couple of weeks rest, and even Colly (who has shown the most application during this tour) looks like he wants the return flight to be sooner rather than later.
It does just strike me though Aggers that England may (at last?) be looking to play different teams in the 1 day and 5 day formats - eg. keep Monty for the tests and play Graham Swann and Adil Rashid (who deserves a try, on the basis of others who have been tried and discarded) in ODIs. Same with the keepers - Ambrose in tests and the Colonel in ODIs. At least this would mean that certain players could not lay claim to be playing too much cricket and using that as a reason for poor form.
Anyway, it's very considerate of everyone to have organised this test for over the hols, means my body clock is going to take a hammering over the next few nights.....
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Spot on Aggers, once again, i do however have one comment to make and thats about Ambrose...while i am a big Prior fan, and would love to see him with the gloves again, i would like to stick with ambrose for a while, even with some mistakes, the reason why we dont keep a keeper is that if they make 1 or 2 mistakes, then well theyr'e not given anymore chances
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Looking forward to a run fest.
Interesting poser at the end there. Do you think Rashid is a batsman who bowls? If so, surely he should displace Colly or Bell rather than Monty?
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The poor fielding in the last day was, in part, due to particularly blustery conditions.
Also, England bowled well to take a certain amount of pressure off the batsmen. There is a good degree of consistency in the batting which has not been mentioned much. England are short of aggression with the bat while KP has a bad run.
Trescothick and Flintoff were always there to provide that if need be and Collingwood is not coming in to do that job, although I have no doubt that he could.
I feel that Strauss shpuld open with Cook allowing Vaughan to bat at 3. Vaughan is a good foil for Bell and KP but is not agressive enough for Cook. Whether or not Strauss is is a moot point.
The bowling looks to have some zip about it again BUT I think Hoggie may come back in soon. Broad is a young lad and has time while I hope Anderson gets A good successful go in the side. He is good enough, we just need that consistency from him.
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Can't let your blog score a duck Aggers. However funny it would be to hear Vic marks refer to it.
A draw against NZ really would go down as a poor result. A home win against NZ is now absolutely essential for a number of the players, the captain and the coach. They've allowed pressure to build up on them.
I think Rashid needs at least another full season in county cricket before he can be exposed to the best players in the world. Monty will keep his place because of a lack of competition. Which is of course bad. It's not good that such a poor fielder can become such a mainstay of the Test side.
But better news from abroad. Flintoff is bowling, and his return would be the biggest plus factor that England could have.
As for tonight, the loss of Mills and Oram are such massive blows that it is difficult to see NZ winning. And neither side has been batting well enough for the draw to be a factor. So an England win, by default.
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Can't let your blog score a duck Aggers. However funny it would be to hear Vic marks refer to it.
A draw against NZ really would go down as a poor result. A home win against NZ is now absolutely essential for a number of the players, the captain and the coach. They've allowed pressure to build up on them.
I think Rashid needs at least another full season in county cricket before he can be exposed to the best players in the world. Monty will keep his place because of a lack of competition. Which is of course bad. It's not good that such a poor fielder can become such a mainstay of the Test side.
But better news from abroad. Flintoff is bowling, and his return would be the biggest plus factor that England could have.
As for tonight, the loss of Mills and Oram are such massive blows that it is difficult to see NZ winning. And neither side has been batting well enough for the draw to be a factor. So an England win, by default.
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Whilst i agree there has been a drop off in monty's form imo not having a stable stumpman has to have a bearing on it.Spin bowling to me is just as much about the relationship with the keeper.
Hopefully Ambrose barring injury will be picked for the whole summer as will Monty and i mean for the one day matchs not just tests.He has to learn to bowl on all pitches under all conditions then and only then will he come through to be the bowler i think he is capable of.
The other worry for me is the captains position Michael as talented an individual as he is is a shadow of his former self and i wonder if the dual captains role shouldnt be reviewed i never liked the idea and still remain to be convinced.I would always want a continuity of leadership for the Test and 50 over side and if a player is not good enough for one of the teams then that should cast a doubt over his selection in one or the other.
Great column aggers and i look forward to hearing the crew live tonight.
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well....
England should find it easier to play now the 2 more infulential bowlers are injured.
Panesar and Pietersen are playing poorly and are not performaning at international standard.
The thing is if someone like Broad or Ambrose play as poorly as Monty and KP they will be dropped.
But due to the fact they are both cult heroes they will not be dropped.
The England test team is turning the same way as the football under the pevious manager. Picked on name not form.
Adil Rashid looks like a good young player and i believe he should get his chance. Also i think, despite a few fumbles, Ambrose can only get better. He has the quality and temperament to finally replace the great Alec Stewart.
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I was one of Montys biggest fans, but I do believe that he should be dropped and Swann should play in this deciding test.
Monty has flattered to deceive on both winter tours, and looks like he needs some time away to further develop his game.
Swann would add more depth to the batting and fielding departments, and surely deserves a chance. Why do the selectors stick with such players when they drop Hoggard after just one poorish match?
On the subject of Hoggard, I would like to see him selected tonight, and not at the expense of another bowler. This is a test match England must win, and if the pitch is as predicted then England should rely on the batsmen to fill their boots.
Hoggard would give England great depth on what could be a batsmans paradise.
So I would replace Swann for Panesar, and Hoggard for Strauss.
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I was feeling more positive about England's chances of winning this test, more because of the players that NZ are missing than through any confidence in England's abilities, when I read Jonathan's dread words 'the team which keeps its nerve in this winner-takes-all situation (will) come through in the end', Aaaaaagh, no, 110 all out, Englandtestcollapse as a single word etc etc. There is no hope.
On the up side, however, there do appear to be signs that Michael Vaughan is regaining the grasp on reality which he so spectacularly lost at the conclusion of the 2005 Ashes series. Having a captain who actually exists on this planet will be a useful (re)acquisition for England.
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Please leave Adil Rashid alone for quite a bit longer. He is a fantastic prospect, already a better batter than Freddie (not that that is saying much these days), but he is still very inexperienced as a spin bowler and spin bowlers take time to 'cook'. Don't let Team England ruin yet another promising young player.
I will be interested to see how Anderson and Broad perform on a good batting pitch, as compared to the seamers' paradise last time. I was surprised to see that Aggers thought the outcome at Hamilton justified the decision to drop Hoggie. If he had been bowling in those conditions I suspect that NZ would have been hard pressed to get past 100!
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It appears to me that these injuries are more benefical to NZ than people first thought. The new bowlers brought in will have the luxury of being an unknown quantity to the English batsmen and to appears to be working so far.
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After NZs defeat at Wellington last week (which I attended) I read some very uncomplimentary posts about the NZ cricet team in this column.
Given that NZ beat England 3-1 in the one day series, and beat England in the first test I thought that the critcisms were at best unfounded.
I turned on the radio to discover England was 7/3 an hour ago. Ive just got another score update-40/4.
Impressive.
If NZ is as good as a "second rate county side" what does that make England?
ps its 25degC and sunny in Auckland.
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