Posted by After criticism but then victory in the first Test, England coach Brendon McCullum has conceded his team made the wrong decision at the toss at the start of the second Test. A far bigger toss issue was however the massive great load of it the bowlers served up in each innings.
Maybe a team that wasn’t England could have batted out the final day to secure a draw. This seems to us a very minor issue compared to the bowling.
One of Ben Stokes’ greatest tricks has been persuading onlookers that England had some sort of a chance surprisingly long into this match. Previous deeds – like conceding 471 in the first innings of the first Test and winning – ghosted around compelling people to think twice about stating the bleeding obvious: that they were getting absolutely bloody hammered.
England had two stints in the field – the first and third innings of the match – and wouldn’t have bowled India out for under 500 in either of them. You really would have to be quite the batting side to concede 1,000 and win.
The new ball proved pretty important. According to Cricinfo, India took 15-300 with the various new balls at their disposal. It’s easy enough to work out from that how well they performed with the old one.
It therefore wasn’t the best pitch on which to play only one new ball bowler, as England did.
We flagged this before the series. Brydon Carse doesn’t normally open the bowling. He’s learning the role on the job. More experienced opening bowlers might also have fared badly. They may also have taken a wicket inside the first 20 overs, which could have steered the match in a slightly different direction.
The jarringly damning upshot was that England’s cow-cornered tiger, Shoaib Bashir, emerged as their most successful bowler – even though his match figures of 5-286 were the most expensive for England since 1950.
The other four frontliners managed…
- 2-142 – Chris Woakes
- 2-139 – Brydon Carse
- 4-212 – Josh Tongue
- 1-100 – Ben Stokes
We suppose you could, if you were so inclined, argue that Tongue’s wickets were taken at a lower average than Bashir’s.
Would you like to argue that? Feel free. What’s your point?
Extras
Speaking of big runs, in an incredible move, the captain declared on South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder when he was on 367 not out against Zimbabwe this morning – just 34 runs away from breaking the record of King Cricket himself.
It was an astonishing move that only becomes fractionally more comprehensible when you learn that the captain in question was Wiaan Mulder.
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Was going to mention Wiaan Mulder’s selfless declaration on 367 not out, but glad you (KC) got in there first.
Sadly, I was not been able to find a live stream so will have to put up with whatever crappy five minutes of highlights gets released.
I guess his average of 26 went up a bit, and I also guess there can only be a handful of cricketers that have scored over 300 runs in an innings and taken a wicket in the same match. Becoming a new captain for one’s national side these days seems to up the batting ability a tad.
…and now my avatar looks like a black metal band logo. I approve.
Players with a triple century and at least one wicket in the match.
Chris Gayle 1/65 and 317
Virender Sehwag! 1/37, 319 and 1/55
Michael Clarke 329* and 1/22
Graham Gooch 333, 1/26 and then 123
Sanath Jayasuriya 3/45 and 340
Wiaan Mulder 367* and 2/20 (at time of writing)
Slightly surprised Sobers and Hammond didn’t get wickets when they got their triples.
…and if I may hog the comments section further. At the current state of play, I predict that Mulder’s 367* will be enough to beat Zimbabwe’s aggregated match total.
Sean Williams’ Test average is up to 49.05 after his 55-ball 83 not out.
Well, my prediction fell short, but only by 23 runs (or should it be 24? I get confused).
I know that giving the ICC credit for anything might be a bit jarring (it’s a first for me) but by the power of google I belatedly discovered that they had live streaming of the match on their website, just in time to watch Mulder face 2 balls before his lunchtime declaration 🙄. So this might be a place to go seeking slightly more niche live action in future…
I look forward* to England correcting* this by playing three new-ball bowlers in the next Test.
His declaration is still not that comprehensible. I read elsewhere that it may have been “out of respect for Brian Lara”. Because it didn’t really count to beat his record against Zimbabwe? Didn’t stop Matthew Hayden… Any other theories?
Meanwhile on the original topic – Gus Atkinson’s leg. Is better I hope.
From cricinfo…
“First things first. We had enough to bowl (at). Brian Lara is a legend. He got 400 or 401 or something against England and for someone to keep that record, it is special. I spoke to Shuks (Shukri Conrad) – and spoke about letting the legends keep (that record). Lara keeping that record is exactly the way it should be.”
Fair enough. He’s more a bowler so I’d bet he’d take 10 for 52 without a second thought.
…and I suspect Hayden would still hit those runs even against a nursery school girls 11.
…and there’s also the bragging rights of saying “well, I could have taken his record, but then he never took as many wickets as I did. Gotta leave him with summat (although he currently has a better economy rate)”.
I saw the new ball stats during the match. Where is the line drawn when the new ball loses its shine and seam enough to no longer be new?
This is a genuine question.
I see that KC later references ‘20 overs’. Is that the answer ? Seems reasonable enough. Perhaps a tad longer than I thought xx
Dunno to be honest. Cricinfo are clearly drawing a line but obviously it doesn’t work like that in practice. It’s just an illustrative thing really.
Are we doing kisses at the end of our comments now? xx
😳oops. I was texting the wife just before writing that post.
I do love this website and its comments section though.
Thanks Buttface (love writing that), looks like the Mulder mystery (x file?) can be closed. “Lara currently has a better economy rate” nice