Line and Length - Times Online - WBLG

England v South Africa

SA 170 all out off 42.4 overs: That's it! England have won the third one-day international. Ntini gets a thin edge behind and Patel has five wickets. 5-44 in 9.4 overs and, in the words of Derek Pringle sitting behind me, "Swanny's just got the noose out in the dressing room". Well it's certainly going to be hard for any spinner, Swann, Panesar or whoever, to break into the ODI side now.

I have to go and write my piece now, but I leave you with this one ridiculously optimistic stat. England now lead the series 3-0: if they win it 5-0 they will become the second ranked side in the ICC ODI list. Go and check it yourself. And to think that they were seventh a couple of months ago.

SA 170-9 after 42.1 overs: The end is nigh. Patel gets his fourth wicket in rather odd fashion. Botha rocks back to cut and gets a bottom edge down on to his boot, from where it ricochets backwards on to the stumps. Botha out for 19 and yet another South African has made a start but no more.

SA 160-8 after 38.4 overs: One Morkel has already gone and here goes another. Morkel follows Albie back to the pavilion by trying to repeat his brother's trick of six-hitting Patel. Instead he lofts the ball to the able hands of Broad at mid-wicket.

Ashes Heroes No 46: Frank Tyson

Our weekly series of essays on the men who made the Ashes continues and after Richie Benaud last week it is back to an Englishman and the young fast bowler who came from nowhere to shock Australia Down Under.

The dictionary defines a typhoon as a violent storm and Frank "Typhoon" Tyson certainly battered Australia in 1954-55, bowling faster than anyone had done since Harold Larwood 22 years earlier or possibly since. It was the first time since Larwood's Bodyline tour that England had won a series Down Under and Tyson's 28 wickets at an average of 20 proved crucial.

Of course in Tyson's day there were no accurate speed measurements. A study at the New Zealand Aeronautical College in 1955 measured Tyson at 89mph, although apparently he had not warmed up or indeed changed into his whites for the experiment. He claimed that he could bowl at more than 110mph although that could be taken with a grain of salt. Either way, he was nippy.

In later life, Tyson paid little stock by TV speed guns. "I have always maintained the only true judge of a bowler's speed is the batsman," he said. So over to Arthur Morris, one of the finest batsmen to wear the baggy green. According to Morris, Tyson was "through you almost before you had picked up your bat". Richie Benaud has said that Tyson was the quickest bowler he ever saw. More importantly, given that he had faced Larwood, Don Bradman was of the same view, although he was retired by that tour.

Tyson was born in Lancashire but played all his county cricket for Northamptonshire. Unusually for a professional cricketer (this was in the days when professionals and amateurs had separate changing rooms), Tyson was a university graduate. He had read English literature at Durham and served in the Army before making his county championship debut in 1953. A year later he took 78 wickets in the summer at an average of 21 to earn a call-up for the Oval Test with Pakistan, in which he took five wickets, and then that winter's Ashes tour.

There was little evidence in the first Test, at Brisbane, of what was to follow. Len Hutton won the toss, put Australia in and saw them rack up more than 600 (it wouldn't be the first time that would happen to an England captain in Brisbane). Tyson bowled 29 eight-ball overs and took one wicket (Benaud) for 160.

Things changed at Sydney, though, and much like with Devon Malcolm against South Africa 40 years later, a blow to the head fired up Tyson. Ray Lindwall, Australia's own speedster, pranged Tyson on the bonce, knocking him out, left. When he returned, he was a man transformed. Bowling off a shorter run-up, which made best use of his power, Tyson took four for 45 and six for 85 as Australia, set 223 to take a 2-0 lead in the series, were skittled for 184.

In the third Test at Melbourne Tyson went one better, taking seven for 27 in the second innings as he scythed through the Australia order by sheer pace. Twice the batsman was bowled before he could bring his bat down. England won by 128 runs. Next match, Tyson took three in each innings as England won by five wickets to claim the series. The final Test was drawn.

This was no mean Australian batting side with Morris (career average 47), Neil Harvey (48) and Keith Miller, the great all-rounder who averaged 37 with the bat and 23 with the ball, in the top six. But on hard pitches, Tyson was unplayable. He went on from there for two Tests in New Zealand and took 11 wickets for 90 runs. But a spate of injuries, as happen to many great fast bowlers, restricted his career.

He would play only nine more Tests after the 1954-55 tours, finishing his career with 76 wickets at an astounding average of 18.56. His highlight after winning the Ashes was taking six for 28 in 22 overs at Trent Bridge against South Africa, but he played only four more Ashes Tests, taking four wickets. The typhoon had blown hard and blown fast but like all typhoons he blew himself out in the end.

Interestingly, like Larwood, the man who terrorised Australia but then went to live there, Tyson also emigrated Down Under, becoming a headmaster in Victoria. He was also a respected commentator and writer on the game and a couple of years ago produced the acclaimed In the Eye of the Typhoon, his book on that momentous series.

David Fulton's Ashes Top Ten

To complement our series on Ashes Heroes, we have been asking guest writers to name their Ashes Top Ten. After Christopher Lane, this week it is David Fulton who picks his list. Fulton is the former captain of Kent who was once tipped by none other than Steve Waugh as a future England captain. Not the most accurate prediction, but Fulton was within a sniff of England selection in 2001 when he scored almost 2,000 runs at an average above 75. Here's his list:

Don Bradman No one man so dominated the game of cricket as Bradman. He'd be the first name down in any "greatest" list, while his 1948 Ashes team were dubbed  the "Invincibles" under his leadership

Ian Botham The great all-rounder wrote his own Ashes' scripts. Won a series by himself in 1981 and always performed against the old enemy.

Michael Vaughan Three high-class centuries in 2002-03 marked him out as something special while his captaincy in the success of 2005 led to comparisons to Mike Brearley

Keith Miller One of the great flamboyant entertainers. Ten wickets at Lord's in 1956 at the ripe old age of 37 saw him on both the honours boards in the visitors' dressing room having scored 105 at HQ three years earlier, a feat which has never been equalled.

Richie Benaud One of the great Test captains who embodied all that was good in an Ashes contest.

Dennis Lillee The best and most feared fast bowler of his generation. A craftsman and a character.

Allan Border Led Australia out of the post-Packer doldrums into an era of world dominance. Was as tough as they come. Australia's most capped player with 156 Tests, 153 came consecutively. There would be no one you'd rather have batting for your life

Steve Waugh In the Border mould, Waugh got runs when his team needed them most - most notably Old Trafford 1997 - and was an immovable rock for the best part of 20 years and nine Ashes series.

Shane Warne The leading wicket-taker in the history of Ashes cricket Warne announced himself with the ball of the century to Mike Gatting in 1993 and was still bamboozling England's best 12 years later. A cricketing genius.

Glenn McGrath A great foil for Warne, McGrath rarely bowled a bad ball. He terrorised Michael Atherton and many others of England's top order. The leading fast bowler in the history of the game in terms of wickets taken.

Bradman speaks

Hurrah for Will (owner of what Marcus Trescothick calls a "so-called cricket blog" in his autobiography) for dredging up this footage of Don Bradman giving an interview. It is not clear when the video was made - Bradman wears a cap saying 1930 but the discussion suggests it is later in his career, maybe 1938 or even 1948 - but some things are striking.

1) Bradman's voice is quite squeaky. He almost sounds like Dame Edna Everage. Apparently WG Grace also had quite a high-pitched voice. Does squeakiness lead to greatness? Quick, someone produce a PhD on this.

2) As he demonstrates his full range of strokes, Bradman's speed of hand is astounding. It is helped by having a light bat, of course, and Bradman tended to favour one weighing 2lb 3oz, a good 10oz or so lighter than the one Sachin Tendulkar uses. All that practice hitting a golf ball with a stump probably created quite a whippy action, too.

3) His modesty, especially when he claims that he won't beat Jack Hobbs's run-scoring and century-making records because "people don't play as much cricket these days". Given that six years of Bradman's career were lost to war, I wonder how close he would have got. Quick, someone do another PhD.

4) The politeness of the interviewer. "Could you show us a few shots Mr Bradman." Wonderful, let's have more of that deference. Let's get Botham, who loves his Sir Ian trapping, to start talking about Mr Pietersen.

5) And on a similar theme, let's have more TV interviewers wearing hats. Boycott is the only pundit I can think of who ever wears one. Should a Sky executive be reading this blog, I have my own green felt Trilby...

Mintgate

I've written a column for the Opinion pages of today's Times that you may find interesting on Marcus Trescothick's revelations that England used the sugary saliva that comes from sucking mints to smear the ball and, it was hoped, make it swing.

One point I am keen to make wider known, because most people who have run this story have got it wrong, is that Tresco's autobiography (page 96) makes it quite clear he is talking about the 2001 Ashes not, as the Sunday paper serialising the book claimed, the 2005 series. And we were beaten 4-1 in that series. As cheating goes, we suck.

Happy birthday Bradman

It is right that much has been made of what would have been Don Bradman's 100th birthday today. Composers and artists get their anniversaries celebrated (one feature of the BBC Proms season in London is that each year a proportion of the concerts are dedicated to those who were born or died a significant number of years ago). So should the greatest sportsmen.

But of course with Bradman the figure 100 is about more than just a birthday. The number 100 is indelibly linked with him, a magical number for a magical facility for scoring Test centuries that will never be beaten. That he ended his career just four runs shy of averaging 100 over his lifetime is an imperfection that only highlights the magnitude of his overall achievement, like a beauty spot on the face of the most attractive of women. Incidentally, Bradman's 99.94th birthday would have been 22 days ago.

Christopher Martin-Jenkins has written a fine tribute to the Don, which you can read here. For my part, I will just echo the point made by several people over the past few decades: he was head and shoulders above anyone else who has ever played in a sport where one error means your innings is over. Babe Ruth was a great baseball player but he got several chances a game to score a home run; Tiger Woods is a brilliant golfer who has won more majors, as a percentage of the ones he has competed in, than anyone else, but he can fluff the odd drive and still bounce back; Muhammad Ali was regularly hit, even put on the floor by Henry Cooper of all people, but it was rarely terminal.

Bradman would bag you a hundred almost every time he batted; the next best average is barely over 60. Having a Bradman in the side effectively meant that you had 12 players. There was a time in the 1990s when the entire England middle order barely added up to one Bradman. No one in any sport has been so dominant. I have been running a series of essays on Ashes Heroes on this blog, and No 46 will be put up later today, but it is no surprise to say that you will have to wait until next summer to find Bradman.

As this article in The Australian shows, Bradman was also a fine competitor in other sports. Chances are that his hand-eye co-ordination, determination and work ethic would have made him a success in whatever professional sport he tried. He was the once and future king of cricket.

Mind you, he struggled against Harold Larwood...

An ODI defeat for England

As the golden era of King Kevin continues at Trent Bridge today, with England seeking a third consecutive win under Pietersen's captaincy, a colleague asks why today's match hadn't been played yesterday or indeed at any point over the Bank Holiday weekend. Instead we had three days fit for prime slothfulness and no international cricket on the telly to occupy us.

The answers, says the ECB, is because they find it hard to sell international cricket on Bank Holidays and Trent Bridge had asked if the game could be moved to a work day because they would find more takers. Counter-intuitive, perhaps, but there you are.

However, news reaches me that there actually was some international bank holiday cricket being played in this country yesterday. At Amersham Cricket Club in Buckinghamshire, the local side took on the Tanzania national XI, who are seeking practice before hosting the ICC World Cricket League Division 4 in October. Sadlyy, it wasn't a proud day for England. Tanzania won by 79 runs.

The Line & Length Monday XI

It's a Bank Holiday in England and Wales today, so apologies for putting the weekly quiz up late but I've been pursuing the national sport of sitting in traffic on a motorway (you can keep your cycling gold medals, congestion is where we really excel).

Anyway, here are the usual XI testers. This week no multiple choice, but can you identify the well-known cricketers from their unusual middle names? As a clue I've put their nationality and the initial of their first name. Answers on Wednesday...

Question 1 M Ravin... (England)

Question 2 S Rodger... (Australia)

Question 3 S Manohar... (India)

Question 4 H Herman... (South Africa)

Question 5 C Hubert... (West Indies)

Question 6 RG Dylan... (England)

Question 7 F Sewards... (England)

Question 8 D Ivon... (England)

Question 9 SC Glyndwr... (Australia)

Question 10 G St Aubrun... (West Indies)

Question 11 H Hilton... (Zimbabwe)

The bully boys batter the Boks

How lovely to see Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen batting so freely in harness this afternoon. Coming together with England 118 for three in the 29th over against South Africa, England's bully boys put on 158 in 127 balls to turn the game England's way. Chasing 276 under floodlights will be a formidable ask for South Africa in this first ODI, especially if Graeme Smith's tennis elbow flares up.

Some will tut-tut about Flintoff and Pietersen's approach to batting, but if it was aggressive it was also controlled and some of the straight-driving in particular was textbook. It's just a shame that we have so rarely seen them bat for long periods together. Here comes some tradmark Kidd geekery...

Pietersen has shared 15 partnerships with Flintoff in Test cricket (more than with anyone bar Collingwood), but only one of them yielded more than 80 runs, 103 against the Aussies at Edgbaston in 2005 (and how crucial were those runs...). They have had three other stands of between 50 and 80 and six of less than 25. In five of the six cases, England were under the cosh when they came together and could have done with something more substantial (19-4, 102-4, 119-4, 101-4 and 98-4 respectively).

In one-day cricket, Flintoff and Pietersen have batted together 12 times, but their innings today was their highest by almost 100 runs. The previous best was 60, against India in 2006. The next best was 38 and seven of the other ten times were less than 20. You have less time to build a partnership in one-day cricket, but you would still hope that your fifth-wicket pair could take you almost to the finishing line. Today's stand, when Flintoff fell only in the final over, was the first time Flintoff and Pietersen have batted together past the 44th over and only the second time that they have batted on past the 36th.

Partnerships win one-day matches, not individual innings. I imagine these two probably enjoy batting together, but for England's sake they need to stay out there longer in each other's company.

The astounding Mr Ramprakash

A couple of weeks ago we were wondering whether Mark Ramprakash would ever get to 100 first-class hundreds. Having got two hundreds by the end of April, it took him 11 innings, spread over three months, to get his third hundred of the year and reach the landmark. Well now there is no stopping him.

After making 112 not out at Headingley, he made his 101st century with 200 not out at Taunton last week and today, back on home soil at the Oval, is on 133 not out at stumps. Three innings, 445 runs and not out once. Knowing Ramprakash he may well carry on scoring hundreds for the rest of the season. He is on the threshold of passing 1,000 runs in the championship yet again and his average of 72 is 12 runs more than the next man. You will no doubt recall that he ended 2006 and 2007 averaging more than 100, which is very very rare.

So what does this say about him? That it proves he has psychological problems with pressure and that when the expectation is off he is brilliant? Or that he simply hit a small dry patch (and ten innings without a hundred isn't a bad fallow period) and is now motoring again and should be in the England team? Either way, it will be well worth keeping tabs on how MR Ramprakash finishes the last month of the season. Three years in a row with an average about 100 would be something extremely special.