Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

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Re: Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

Postby Making_Splinters » Sun Aug 03, 2014 5:14 pm

Arthur Crabtree wrote:
Making_Splinters wrote:It is interesting that under all the years of Flower's tenure we were never able to find a replacement for Colly. Yet Moores has been able to get performances out of three new batsmen already.


The inability to get new players to thrive, or their worsening of performances after a decent start, allied to a tailing off of the established players appears to represent an entire coaching failure. It wasn't yet a case of a team getting old together. And neither could they be reinvigorated by younger players. I'll be interested to hear reports from the players about the dressing room as time passes; how welcoming it was to new players in particular.

There were other quibbles I had. The treatment of Samit Patel can be justified, but to some extent he seems to have been humiliated by his time with England. The reliance on psychological profiling that was said to have led to the jettisoning of Nick Compton (plus reports of his unpopularity among the senior players) makes me feel uncomfortable.

Existence of dressing room factions remains a bit of an imponderable.


You could argue that Ballance was Flower's pick and that we haven't seen any proof as of yet that Moore's picks will have a long term impact. Robson already looks a little ropey at this level.
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Re: Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

Postby shankycricket » Sun Aug 03, 2014 8:06 pm

No place for Anderson's performances at Kolkata and Nagpur in the best bowling list? Thought he was better than Panesar tbh as the conditions didn't even remotely suit seamers.
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Re: Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sun Aug 03, 2014 11:28 pm

I thought Anderson was a bit overrated for those spells. His pace was low, and the swing was a bit loopy and from the arm. He used the crease well.
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Re: Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:48 pm

Ten great wins of the Flower era.

9. Wankhede Stadium against India, 2012.

England beat India on proper Indian turners, by at last adapting themselves and their methods to the conditions. Four players dominated this win (much as four Indians beat Australia in the famous Laxman Test...): Pietersen, Cook, Panesar and Swann. With a bit of a nod to Prior for spending the whole game stood up to the stumps. An unforseeable thumping by ten wickets. Arguably Flower and England's ultimate achievement, 09-14.

10. Eden Gardens against India, 2012.

As stunning a win, except England would have gone into this game with greater confidence, having won in Mumbia. This time, Anderson and Finn contributed with the ball, though Panesar nipped off the Indian fightback on the first morning. Another brilliant innings from Cook led the team in the way he did best. England's first innings 523 was easily their best batting innings in India since their winning series in 1985. Many England batters had suffered since then.



Ten great innings of the Flower era.

10. Ian Bell, 113 at the Riverside v Australia, 2013.

Difficult to pick a best innings from Bell among the three gems he played in this halcyon Ashes for him. All series he scored heavily to third man, but in this one, he did with absolute security. And while he batted from a parlous situation in the first knock at Lord's, in the second innings in Chester-le-Street, he absolutely could not afford to fail. He was under great pressure, and he delivered England a defendable score in the fourth innings. He scored 562 runs in the series at 62.4 and reached a peak as an England batter.
Last edited by Arthur Crabtree on Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Aug 12, 2014 3:52 pm

Curious that Bell only took two catches in the series.
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Re: Feast and Famine- Andy Flower as England Coach.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Aug 12, 2014 4:35 pm

Ten great bowling performances of the Flower era.

8. James Anderson, 5-85&5-73 at Trent Bridge v Australia, 2013.

This reminded me of Matthew Hoggard's heroics at the Wanderers in 2005. Not just that Anderson went on for hour after hour, but that he offered so much of the team's threat. When he stopped bowling, the pressure was released and the game drifted back towards Australia. This pitch offered little to the pace bowler, and less as the game went on. Anderson responded to such unpropitious conditions with typical dedication and endeavour.

9. Graeme Swann, 5-44&4-78 at Lord's v Australia, 2013.

Supposedly the pitches for the 2013 Ashes were prepared with Graeme Swann in mind. Though it's hard to imagine such moribund strips were created for the benefit of any bowler. When the pitches were helping no one, Swann typically stepped up and took the lead. He was top England wicket taker in the series, with 26, which he worked hard for. A spinner who made small parsimonious gains when there was nothing on offer, with ingenuity and gamecraft, but also cashed in times of bounty. Probably the key player of the Flower era.

10. Stuart Broad 5-71&6-50 at the Riverside v Australia, 2013.

It was Broad's turn at Chester-le-Street, where his thrilling spell after tea on day four seized a game for England that seemed to be agonisingly drifting towards the tourists. He was relentless, taking out six of the last seven with lift, and alarming seam and swing. While Broad is known for this kind of hot streak, like a gambler that can't stop turning over aces. But with 261 wickets now, perhaps not enough credit is given for his consistency.


An appropriate place to end, with the three players who were the most reliable stalwarts of the Flower era, who least fell away after the glorious toting of the mace in the late summer sunshine at the Oval. And who gave the game up last, during Flower's final calamitous Ashes campaign.
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