Survival of Capt. Steely. England against the world in 2014.

[Arthur Crabtree]

A year of eight months. I could have typed this in August, as England's Test cricket shut down for the year then, until the tour of West Indies next Spring. Probably not a bad thing. Following the England cricket team hasn't been a pleasurable experience for the past year, almost exactly since the happy tourists arrived in Australia with their menu of super-fruits and a heavy schedule of team meetings.

Personally, I can't remember a year as dismal as this since Mike Gatting, currently a managing director at the ECB and President of the MCC, took a rebel tour to South Africa. Most of it seems to have been centred around the reaction to Kevin Pietersen's sacking and literary retaliation, and Alastair Cook's hapless tenancy as England skipper, and the ECB's image manipulation of Captain Steely. Cook had a terrible year, the feuds with opposition captains and the press rendered all the more stark for his poor batting form. Still, with a backwind of support from the press, he got through it. And Cooky, was given an unexpected boost from Pietersen's sympathetic rendering in his autobiography.

But this thread is about events on the field. Unfortunately not a year of cricket easy to celebrate for supporters of the England side. Twenty-fourteen started in Sydney, where a disinterested England XI completed their series whitewash against a bellicose and vengeful Australian team which righted some ancient wrongs with a huge win. Probably by Sydney, a reserve state side would have done the job. It wasn't even easy to indulge in petulant hostility towards the victorious opposition. The England side was pretty hard to like itself

Back home, Sri Lanka won their first ever series in England, and when India bounced England out on a green Lord's pitch, made for their own bowlers, England had reached a fresh low. Cook had Ballance and Bell and a lot of luck, to thank for his recovery in Southampton, and subsequently Anderson and Broad with the ball. Yet, so abject was India's submission to three successive defeats, that it hardly lifted the gloom. Watching them throw away their wickets to Moeen Ali felt a little bit depressing.

So, in perennial fashion, I'll pick the five best batting and bowling displays for and against England this year, and then pick an opposition XI. But you know, what stays freshest in the mind since the start of the year, is the aggro, on and off pitch. No more of that, on with the action.

[Arthur Crabtree]

England's Batting.

5. Gary Ballance, 156 v India at The Rose Bowl.

It's difficult to separate Ian Bell and Gary Ballance in England's huge 569-7 in Southampton. After the defeat at Lord's they gave the bowlers a massive bulwark of runs. Both had a little luck at the start of their innings, and both exploited it with six hour plus innings. I've gone for Ballance purely because he came in at 55-1 rather than 213-2, and because Ballance was hugely the senior partner in the 152 runs partnership with his captain.

England's bowling.

5. Liam Plunkett, 5-64 v Sri Lanka at Headingley.

Although Jimmy Anderson took wickets all summer, he didn't bowl at his best until Southampton. Stuart Broad seemed injured most of the time. When the pitches were at their least helpful, it was usually Plunkett who looked the most dangerous, often bowling with great heart, principally with an old ball. Also at times, he was lacklustre. Here he bowled Sri Lanka out for 257 in inauspicious bowling conditions, which really shouldn't have allowed for the Sri Lanka win.

[Arthur Crabtree]

4. Joe Root 200*, v Sri Lanka at Lord's.

One of the more encouraging England innings during the Ashes defeat was Joe Root's 87 in the Adelaide thrashing. But over the series he began to look traumatised by the Australian pace attack, so much so that he was dropped in Sydney. This story was a little unexpected, because, for all the suggested technical issues, mental strength was on Root's calling card, right under 'can bat anywhere in the top six'. So the pressure on him was double for the first Test of the summer: he was fighting for his place, and his side, shattered by the winter tour had to arrest the decline. From 74-3 to 575-9d, Root's unbeaten double, back at number five, was a return to the big numbers that had accompanied England's better days under Flower, and offered Moores and Cook a toe hold on the recovery. Which they failed to exploit.

4. Moeen Ali, 6-67 v India at the Rose Bowl.

The win in Southampton reverted to the old blueprint of big first innings totals, defensive fields and tight bowling, with Anderson and Broad bowling out India in the first innings and the spinner joining in for the second. Only this time it was Moeen and not Swann. If there was a moment when the lightbulb blew in the minds of the Indian batters in this series, it was probably during Moeen's spell. He mowed through the Indian batting, inexplicably. Was it because he was bowling a bit faster? Did Cook learn to trust him? Was he just stupidly underrated? Time will tell. To an extent it just looked like India lost the motivation to compete, but these (more so than at Old Trafford) were proper spinners' wickets, challenging both sides of the bat.

[Arthur Crabtree]

3. Joe Root, 154* v India at Trent Bridge.

Trent Bridge was an awful Test, played on a bad pitch between two teams that didn't really care for each other. Most of the entertainment was provided by the batting of the number elevens on both sides; which is a bit like watching dogs swimming or chimps having tea. Undoubtedly fun, but mainly because of how unexpected and incongruous it is. Of more customary merit, Root again batted well with the tail, and turned up in the first innings of the first Test as he had at Lord's against Sri Lanka. Annoyingly, in the field Root spent the whole game in the ear and personal space of the non-striker. But, with the bat, even given the dead pitch, this was another sensible, mature innings.

4. Stuart Broad, 6-25 v India at Old Trafford.

From the Rose Bowl onwards, Anderson and Broad carried the England seam bowling to a much needed end of season revival. And to some extent, within that pairing, Anderson carried Broad, who looked tired and injured all summer. Maybe going to the T20 while unfit wasn't a good idea? Sometimes, even struggling or declining players will give an unexpected flash of what it was that made them special. Here, Broad got on the sort of wicket taking blitz that marked his pugilistic best. He took two wickets in his first spell to leave India at 8-4. After Ashwin and Dhoni recovered, he returned to dismiss both. India were all out for 152. Unfortunately, a horrific facial injury ended his Test early, but he won the game on the first day.

[Arthur Crabtree]

2. Gary Ballance, 110 v India at Lord's.

After the controversial pitch at Trent Bridge, the Lord's staff took the draw out of the equation with the greenest pitch I've ever seen. England fluffed the opportunity presented by winning the toss, taking all day to bowl out the tourists. On day two, the pitch was a little easier, but still a trial, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar was in great early series form. Gary Ballance's second Test ton was made with little support form the top seven (a tail end fifty from Liam Plunkett gave England a modest lead). His innings was utterly without personality, though impressively competent. And it was he who met England's hardest batting challenge of the year.

2. Ben Stokes, 6-99 v Australia at the SCG.

England's other most burdensome assignment of 2014 was the final Test in Sydney where Australia sought to wipe England out 5-0. The England team was pre-beaten. We know that Paul Downton watched this game closely, so he must have been impressed with how Stokes kept going, with eight wickets in the game, and the most runs for his side. Throughout the whitewash, he played with passion, and at the last he was the side's cutting edge when all was lost. Note also, that when England replied at 23-5, he made 47 and at least arrested the route. What little pride the side had left at the SCG came courtesy of Stokes.

[Arthur Crabtree]

1. Moeen Ali, 108* v Sri Lanka at Headingley.

The notion of scoring 350 to win had been destroyed the previous evening when Dhammika Prasad reduced England to 57-5 at stumps. Moeen faced the first ball of the day with the task in hand of being the first batter ever to see a team to a draw from five wickets down. Largely by leaving the ball (not trying to dominate the bowlers) he saw England to the last ball, when a devastated Jimmy Anderson ended his own 80 minute vigil, looping a catch to square leg. A heartbreaker, but in his mature and calm approach, Moeen compiled the only score of the year which will be remembered when people discuss great England knocks.

1. James Anderson, 5-53 v India at The Rose Bowl.

After an unsuccessful and acrimonious Ashes (14 wickets at 44) Jimmy Anderson looked shelled, and for the first time in a long time, it seemed appropriate to wonder about his international future. In the early home season, Anderson was the lead pace bowler, but looked overstretched in the role on some unhelpful pitches. He produced his worst display in the defeat at Lord's on a pitch that had been given to him as a present. He delivered at The Rose Bowl, with his only five-fer of the summer. Anderson still had another acrimonious series, but he seems rehabilitated as a pace bowler, with 37 wickets at 21 over the season. But he needs more help.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I'll start on the opponents next week.

[sussexpob]

I have just stumbled on this thread, Arthur...

Way too positive.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, I went heavy on the whitewash so I wouldn't be accused of having an agenda.

[shankycricket]

You not doing the opppnents, Arthur?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yup. Just having a break.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I didn't realise two weeks had passed!

[Arthur Crabtree]

Cranking back into motion. Starting at the end of the Ashes series.

5. Steve Smith, 115 at the SCG.

If Steve Smith started the year of the ten Ashes Tests not quite the bits and pieces leggie cum number eight that he had appeared in 2010-11, he was still a figure on the periphery of the Australian team. He wasn't picked in the original squad to tour UK. Over this series he transformed his reputation into one the central figures in Australia's batting future. Anderson, Broad and Stokes still presented a challenge in Sydney, and Smith and Haddin (75), again, took Australia from 97-5 to 325, when Smith donated his wicket, clearing his front leg to whack Stokes. Smith was particularly brutal on debutant Scott Borthwick approaching his ton. Maybe he recognised a nervous looking legspinning all rounder when he saw one.

5. Ryan Harris, 5-25 at the SCG.

After having to take it and like it from Mitch Johnson's sneering tattooed avenger all series, it was a pleasure to be humiliated by the more gentlemanly qualities of Ryan Harris in front of the Ladies Pavilion in Sydney. Harris had been a supporting figure in the first four Tests, with 14 economical wickets at 26. His eight dismissals here got his average for the series below twenty. If Johnson surprised England with the startling severity of of his sudden bouts of violence, Harris extracted his rewards with more of an old world modus operandi. More of a safecracker, striking with the precise, sensitive manipulations of his wrist. And at plenty of clicks. Of course, what really makes me select Harris, even though he was placing his foot on the head of a drowning man in Sydney, is his touching emotional commitment to his team. 5-0. Thanks Ryano.

[sussexpob]

I think I might get involved in this......

5. Alistair Cook, 1 at Lords vs Sri Lanka

Nearly 600 runs were scored, it was a good pitch, and Cook used that to his best advantage. Sri Lanka teased him in the first over, bowling him juicy "hit me" balls outside and full of his off stump. They under-estimated just how street wise this mouse is though, and rather then be tempted into the trap chasing the cheese, he instead executed some textbook leaves. The tension was building, and it would be Sri Lanka who cracked first. Cook, his Steely look penetrating the bowler like a laser beam, mind f**ked Kulasekera into sending a ball too straight towards his pads, and with a flick of glorious perfection, the ball went to the fielder at long on for a single. Take that Mr Sri Lanka

Unfortunately though, dark forces were at work. Captain Fantastico would be duped by Malinga, who using a special type of reflective hair dye in his bouncing bouf, managed to distract Captain Fantastico into not seeing the ball. SL then managed to scramble the telecast pictures of the third umpire to make it look like the bat had not touched the ball. He was given out LBW.

Feeling cheated and dejected, Captain Fantastico limped off.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Very lol.. Maybe a worst of would be more appropriate this year.