Leaving with a smile

No 3am start for me this morning (watching all of the first Commonwealth Bank Series final and then doing a day in the office afterwards on Friday almost killed me) but I did get up to see the last ten overs of England's innings this morning and then watched, gobsmacked, as between rain showers Australia crumpled. As the rains pour down again, play has closed and England have won the series and their fourth match in a row. They will fly home on Tuesday with a smile on their face.

It's a bit of a flat ending; it would have been nice to have had a full 50 overs at Australia and to have finished the match off by taking ten wickets but England will accept any win. Obviously Australia did not have the best of conditions after losing the toss, but they won the toss in the first final and still lost the match. Also, the highest second-innings score to win a one-day international at Sydney is 260, so England, with 246-8, were not far short of a match-winning total.

There is a concern that the toss has too much impact on day-night matches, so the fact that all the World Cup matches next month will be daytime affairs is to be welcomed.

Would we swap this series victory for a win in any one of the five Test matches? Definitely. I'd even swap it for winning half a dozen of the sessions we lost in the Test series, just so that we could have been competitive throughout the winter's big story. But winning four matches in a row against proper opposition was last achieved by England in 1998. And as Mathew Gullick points out in a comment on an earlier post, this is 20 years since England won the triangular series against the mighty West Indies and Australia.

Paul Collingwood has had an astonishing few games, another 70 today to go with his recent hundreds and a pair of wickets too. Andrew Flintoff has managed to combine having fun with being captain - I wonder whether having Michael Vaughan permanently in the dressing-room the past few weeks has helped him, Mal Loye batted aggressively and Jamie Dalrymple is proving a useful all-rounder. Above all, though, the side have fielded with purpose and belief. It has been lovely to watch.

So that's it. I'm sure I'll post some more thoughts later - we still have to track down Nigel Henderson from whatever bar he has crawled into - but even though the Australian winter has ended, Line and Length will endure. Keep on visiting and letting us know what you think.

Comments

[Peter McGuinness]

The Pom selectors would have to be absolutely joking to keep Nixon.

His keeping would be (conservatively) two thirds as good as Read. Further, could Read have batted worse? Almost impossible.

So, selectors think that someone with the act of a clown is the 'spark' of the team? Dear God. Hopefully, Nixon will see out his days in Lancashire where he may practise his carefully crafted 'trademarked' mannerisms to the delight of all.

At least we'll never have to endure the discomforting embarrassment of watching the knob at work down here again.

The England cricket side deserves better. It HAS better.

The last few games were characterised by Collingwood's great form and Plunkett's superb swing. Australia - unbalanced and flat - were undone by the sharpness Collingwood and Plunkett in particular.

One could understand Plunkett's vigour, having been unused all tour; but the fact that Collingwood found such mental energy after such a grinding and unsuccessful 3 months is remarkable.

The way Plunkett has been moving the ball, Harmy may have to pull his finger out come your next Test Series. Then again, Tests are Tests.

It would be good to see Plunkett given a go in the big show though.

Another interesting feature of the ODIs was the fielding of Monty. According to Pom reports, his fielding was a major impediment prior to this tour.

If so, he must have worked extremely hard on it, because his ground fielding efforts were great for someone with a reputation as a 'poor' fielder. Another reason to be happy with the bloke.

[Patrick Kidd]

Mathew
I fear you are right, but I agree with you that it would not be the ideal squad. Nixon doesn't really deserve his place on keeping or batting grounds but will no doubt stay because he for some unknown reason has a good impact on the team.

I remain doubtful about taking three injured men (Lewis, Anderson, Vaughan) to the World Cup but as the ICC have said we can replace anyone with an existing injury, perhaps three spares should be kept close by. Wonder if it has to be a like-for-like replacement? Ie, if Nixon gets injured out there, can they claim that Lewis, say, is not going to recover from his pre-tournament injury and draft in Read to replace him?

[Mathew Gullick]

What is the make-up of England's World Cup squad, to be announced shortly, going to be now given that we at last have a winning side?

Clearly Vaughan and Pietersen are both going to be named in the 15, and both are certain starters if they are fit. So, who is going to miss out? Below is my prediction for the World Cup starting XI and four other squad players...

1. Joyce
2. Vaughan (c)
3. Bell
4. Pietersen
5. Collingwood
6. Flintoff
7. Dalrymple
8. Nixon (wk)
9. Plunkett
10. Anderson
11. Panesar

12. Strauss
13. Loye
14. Lewis
15. Mahmood

So, no place in the final squad for Read, Bopara or Broad. Other "nearly men" from the preliminary squad of 30 include Cook, Clarke, Solanki and Yardy. Plus England's recent bowling performances against Australia have probably put paid to any chance of a recall for Gough.

Strauss has not had the best time of it recently, and his batting average has dropped from 36.8 at the start of the last English summer to 33.0 now (during which time he has scored 611 runs at an average of 25.5, with 14 scores of under 20 from 24 innings). But the selectors will stick with him now for the World Cup given their faith in him throughout the CB series. The question is whether he makes the first XI when Pietersen and Vaughan return, or whether Joyce has done enough to be picked ahead of him. Lewis and Anderson are again sure to be named, subject to injury (in which case Broad would step in), and it will be a tricky selection decision as to whether Anderson plays ahead of Plunkett or Mahmood. The latter two men are "in possession" following the CB finals success and it would be a hard decision to leave them out...

A key decision will be whether to play four frontline seam bowlers, in which case either Dalrymple or Panesar will be sacrified, or if there is enough confidence in Panesar, Dalrymple and Collingwood to get through a combined total of 20 overs (and possibly more) for a moderate amount of runs. Given their career economy rates are all less than five runs per over (compared to Mahmood and Plunkett both going at around six), plus the fact that Dalrymple is a very good fielder and competent batsman, I suspect the selectors will stick with two spinners and so will have to make a big decision about whether to bring Anderson (economy rate of 4.8) or Lewis (who goes at a meagre 4.0 per over) into the XI at the expense of Mahmood or Plunkett. If there is to be a change, my bet is Anderson coming into the side for Mahmood, who has proved very expensive indeed on several occasions.

If England pick a second wicket-keeper, then it is surely Loye rather than Strauss who will miss out in favour of Read. But the chances of Read taking over from Nixon in the Caribbean (barring injury) are surely close to nil in the current climate - despite Graveney saying prior to the CB series that Read and Nixon would "compete" for the keeping slot, Read's only appearance in the ten games has been as an out-fielding substitute and drinks carrier. Is that really the sort of "competition" the Chairman of Selectors envisaged - in which, over a ten match series, one of the two players didn't even get a chance to stake his claim?

Has there ever been a worse case of selectorial short-sightedness and poor decision making than that of Read since his recall to both the Test and ODI sides last summer?

Read's excitement was obvious when he was recalled in August against Pakistan, and at the time he said that he had "half an eye on this winter, which is a phenomenal winter to be involved in - an Ashes tour and then the World Cup." Little did he know then of the bit-part and non-playing roles he was destined to fulfil...