Something to write home about
Andrew Miller's verdict from the first one-dayer at Lahore
The Verdict by Andrew Miller at Lahore
10-Dec-2005
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Given the tools at their disposal, it is arguable whether England have
ever produced a more perfectly paced one-day batting performance. In
essence, they had three categories of player on display - the
pinch-hitters, for want of a better word, in Marcus Trescothick and Matt
Prior; the nurdlers in Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood; and the flair
performers, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. With the exception of
Trescothick, who chose the wrong delivery to lift over the ring, each and
every man played his role to perfection.
The most striking aspect of England's play today was the manner in which
the baton was passed from performer to performer, with scarcely a break in
stride. Strauss's 94 was rightly hailed as the pivotal effort. He mustered
44 runs in four Test innings before missing the Lahore Test for paternity
leave, but snuck back into the side with one of the most anonymous
Man-of-the-Match displays on record. With first Pietersen and then
Flintoff bracketing his batting with typically lusty blows, Strauss's
score crept up by stealth.
"We're very very fortunate to have two world-class players in Flintoff and
Pietersen," admitted Strauss afterwards, "and we need guys who can work it
around, bat around the big hitters, and get them back on strike." He could
hardly have fulfilled his brief more impressively.
Nor, for that matter, could Prior. Last winter it was Geraint Jones who
stepped up to the opener's role for the tour of South Africa, but Duncan
Fletcher values his talents further down the order, where his finishing
skills were not today called upon. Instead it was the more muscular Prior
who was shooed in for the Powerplay overs, and he responded with a
hard-hitting 45 from 55 balls, an ideal launchpad for the thumpers that
lay beyond.
With Collingwood scampering the singles to offset Flintoff's power at the
tailend of the innings, England's innings could scarcely have unfolded
more purposefully, even if Flintoff played one or two air shots to Shoaib
Akhtar that betrayed his jadedness at the end of a long tour. Tomorrow
night comes the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, and his probable
3am coronation. Monday's match could prove a bit of a struggle.
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It was certainly a struggle with the ball for Flintoff, and that was
perhaps the only truly alarming aspect of the day for England. His first
five overs were clubbed for 46 runs as he trundled in at 80mph, and this
from the man who was the most economical bowler at the 2003 World Cup. On
another day, his shortcomings could have proved ruinous - let's face it,
Australia had earlier in the day failed to defend a total of 331.
But while England's batting, their World Cup trump card, purred with
contented harmony, it was their bowling - the undoubted weaker side of
their game - that sealed the contest, and in particular, three bowlers who
for various reasons might never have imagined this opportunity would
arise.
Jimmy Anderson had been on the sidelines for such a long time until his
four wickets against Pakistan A at Bagh-e-Jinnah confirmed his place in the starting line-up, and showed his rehabilitation as an international performer is underway. On recent tours, England have not known quite what to do with their boy wonder whose flame had flickered, but now there is a definite goal in sight. Another World Cup, and on today's evidence, he intends to be leading the attack in 15 months' time.
So too does Liam Plunkett, England's latest boy wonder, who turned in a
remarkably solid performance at a time when Pakistan's innings could have
gone either way. "It was a fantastic effort to come in on debut and bowl
so well," said Strauss afterwards. "It's not easy when the ball is being
dispatched to all parts, and when you've got no experience to fall back
on."
Plunkett's strength is strength. He bowled with a muscular upright action
and kept within his limitations, which bodes well for his development as a
frontline option. Anderson had more magic in his bowling when he too burst
onto the scene as a 20-year-old, which meant there was less to fall back
on when the stardust failed to sprinkle.
The final member of England's up-and-coming troika was Ian Blackwell,
ambiguously referred to as "Ian B" on the electronic scoreboard. He was
another member of the 2003 World Cup squad who faded from view, but Ashley
Giles's injury has given him a timely chance to cement a place as
England's spinning option. He wheeled his way through 10 tidy overs,
conceding just 45 runs in the process and extracting some appreciable turn
at times as well.
Perhaps even more excitingly for England, Blackwell was inked in at No. 9
for this match. That is a scandalously low position for someone who hits
the ball with quite such thrilling power as he does. If the Somerset
captaincy has galvanised his game to the extent that this initial
performance might hint, then England's batting could yet be even more
powerful come the World Cup.
But then again, let's not get ahead of ourselves. After a tour in which
England's ambitions have been thwarted at every turn, it is only in the
final analysis that anything can truly be read into this effort, promising
though the initial signs may be.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of Cricinfo