2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Dec 22, 2015 4:08 pm

Hipsters are elsewhere, losing their parents' money running an unnecessary boutique cheese shop.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:24 pm

Best innings against England of the year.

2. Mohammad Hafeez, 151 in Sharjah.

Of the five prolific batters in the Pakistan top six, Hafeez was the last to his ton, but just in time; he overturned a first innings deficit of 72, and gave his bowlers a fourth innings cushion of 284 runs. No one else made fifty. This was easily enough on a pitch that was always a challenge, and was turning, and offering reverse swing to Broad and Anderson. England, with little justification, were convinced Hafeez had edged a catch to Bairstow while on two. The opener had the decision annulled and it is easy to imagine words were exchanged, as Hafeez locked into to an intense, compelling contest while his colleagues' wickets slipped away at the other end. Although he played to the Pakistani plan, at times, the passion took over, as when he clubbed Anderson into the empty seats at square leg. He departed with his team 186 ahead and four wickets in hand, well on course for the series win.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:01 pm

Best bowling against England of the year.

2. Tim Southee, 4-83 at Headingley.

Tim Southee's year peaked early with his demolition of England at Wellington in the World Cup, and didn't really recover until the recent Test series against Sri Lanka. But at Headingley, with the England top order rapidly burning up New Zealand's first innings total, Southee got his swing back and removed four middle order wickets in a spell, to drag his team into the game. He removed Joe Root for 1, a crucial dismissal given the Yorkshireman's form, arcing the ball in and out of the channel, under cloud. With the English press happy to deflate the Kiwi's expanding reputation, and their captain's, after the England win at Lord's, the recovery of New Zealand's attacking and feelgood principles in Leeds, was one of the more satisfying moments of the summer.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby braveneutral » Sat Dec 26, 2015 2:19 am

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Hipsters are elsewhere, losing their parents' money running an unnecessary boutique cheese shop.

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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sun Dec 27, 2015 10:34 pm

England opposition team of the year.

9. Jerome Taylor.

11 wickets at 18.3.

Taylor made his debut for West Indies in 2003, and it took six years of fitful selection before he reached a career peak with his 9-4-11-5 at Sabina Park in 2009. England were bowled out for 51, and West Indies claimed a rare series win. And then Taylor's career dropped off the edge of the world. Four years of injury and disengagement with the WICB, left him at times without any team to play for at all, picking up some cricket and rehab in the USA. It was a long and circuitous path back to international cricket, that spoke of an unwavering belief in his ability. This year, Taylor was back as England returned. He cut a figure of a club player, a little overweight, and without the previous startling pace. Yet his bowling was immaculate in line and length, and consistent, both in the draw in Antigua (he was injured for the defeat in Grenada), and the win in Barbados where he took 6-69.

10. Nathan Lyon.

16 wickets at 28.3.

Lyon averages under thirty and has been a quiet achiever over three Ashes series, famously tough to dislodge with the bat in 2013-14. Previous attempts to cast Lyon as a countercultural socialist worker type, admittedly based on nothing more than his appearance, has had to be shelved on the gradual realisation that he is actually a bit of a team song singing patriot jock. But a quiet appreciation of Nathan's under-the-radar off spin, and a modest nature, has survived even a couple of daunting tours to Asia. He has proved a bete noire for England captain Alastair Cook, and he took plenty of wickets in Australia's wins at Lord's and The Oval. In a series where the Aussie's seamers form fluctuated, Lyon was consistent and particularly dangerous on the flatter tracks.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Mon Dec 28, 2015 8:01 pm

England opposition team of the year.

11. Trent Boult.

13 wickets at 24.8.

Surely everyone loves Trent Boult, the gracious, smiling pace bowler who in the middle of 2015 seemed poised to lead the post-Steyn scramble for the crown of the world's best fast bowler. In June, he was still in the glorious form he had displayed at home in the World Cup. He seems wholesome and rangy enough to model for WhatTractor, but has sufficient unrelenting menace to remind me of T-1000 (of course, he momentarily Terminated Gary Ballance's Test career). With his pace up around 140k, his mastery of swing and his brilliant use of the new ball, Trent-1000 was pretty hard to stop.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Mon Dec 28, 2015 8:04 pm

Rogers
Hafeez
Smith
Misbah
Blackwood
Shafiq
Watling
Shah
Lyon
Taylor
Boult
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby dan08 » Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:13 am

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Rogers
Hafeez
Smith
Misbah
Blackwood
Shafiq
Watling
Shah
Lyon
Taylor
Boult

Not sure any captain in the world who would pick a 2 man seam attack with Taylor being one of them.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:58 am

Or such a long tail.

Selections were based on performances against England. Taylor had a low econ and a low strike rate. He had the best average and SR of anyone to take ten wickets against England in the last year- on pretty flat tracks. A few of these don't look good if considered over the whole of the year. And I just thought the second spinner deserved to be in, and the third seamer didn't.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Dec 29, 2015 7:35 pm

England's best innings of the year.

1. Alastair Cook, 263 in Abu Dhabi.

In Spring, in Bridgetown and at Lord's against New Zealand, Cook looked as if he may have recalibrated the machine that had once been so productive. For two years, 2013-15, his game malfunctioned, like there was a hair stuck in the fine escapements of his batting. Perhaps this impediment was his wish to lead the ODI side into the 2015 World Cup? I'm not entirely convinced that Cook is back for sure, but his 263 in UAE is the closest he has been to classic Cook since Kolkata. He was relentless. It was impressive enough that he batted for fourteen hours in that heat, but his innings, in which he was the only centurion, was a stand out instance of England standing up to scoreboard pressure in 2015. Gazing up at Pakistan's distant 523-8, Cook was seventh out on 549. And with this innings Cook re-established his primacy among a new generation of England players.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Tue Dec 29, 2015 7:36 pm

I wrote quite a lot on that, and then the page reloaded for mysterious reasons, and I lost it. Never mind.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Wed Dec 30, 2015 6:52 pm

England's best bowling of the year.

1. Stuart Broad, 8-15 at Trent Bridge.

In 2013, Broad was the world's top wicket taker by a mile, but hardly anyone noticed, or drew any conclusions. He was never really taken seriously, as if he was only even there because his dad got him the job, or he was the dumb beneficiary of James Anderson's overwhelming quality. At Trent Bridge he seemed to secure his reputation finally, doing what was once used to disparage him- getting on a roll and running through a side in a spell. He got the crucial wicket of Rogers for his first Test duck, with his third ball, to bring up his 300 Test wickets. Smith went off the sixth. On a very green pitch, Broad had to bowl ultra full, or the ball just did too much. He bowled perfectly given the particular, helpful conditions. Little went past the bat, and all eight were caught at slip or gully. Australia were all out in 18 overs of which Broad bowled half. It was the closest England got in 2015 to some payback for the 2013-14 Mitchwash. And since Trent Bridge, the media have finally come to see Anderson and Broad as a pair, rather than the beginning of a steep hierarchy.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:57 pm

Best innings against England of the year.

1. BJ Watling, 120 at Headingley.

Bless them, it only takes a single win for the UK cricket press and their tv colleagues to turn Cooky's heroes into an era defining dynasty. After the England triumph at Lord's, it was South African born Bradley-John's turn to cause them to briefly to reconsider. Playing as a batting specialist, he put on 119 with the rather more charismatic Brendan McCullum, and then 102 with Luke Ronchi and Mark Craig, to set England 452 to win. But it was the contrast between this unheralded, unassuming Kiwi dependable and the feted England stars that made this innings so stirring. Almost as if this was Blyth Spartans turning over Arsenal in the cup. Which, of course, is ridiculous. Probably my favourite cricketing moment of the year.


Best bowling against England of the year.

2. Peter Siddle, 2-32 & 4-35.

I don't know when it was it happened, that snarling Peter Siddle, the man who was always at the elbow of Ricky Ponting, shouting at a poor unfortunate victim, became Bananaman, a player I somehow liked, a little bit. Maybe the surprising Boho diet helped. Maybe, as it so often is, it was the loss of the potency of his venom. Sympathy. I liked him because I thought he was over. In interviews, the collaborative, hard working and competitive Siddle has an unexpected bluff dignity. And his bowling at the Oval was made all the more poignant, because he was ignored all series, as his team mates failed to work magic on some ultra English surfaces. Finally given a chance in the dead fifth Test, his figures didn't do justice to how great he was there. If Broad never missed the edge of the bat in Nottingham, Siddle went past the bat again and again and again. He wrung every drop of potency there was in the late summer pitch. He went at under two runs an over, and bowled less than a handful of loose deliveries. And he saved his Test career with his last chance.
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Sat Jan 02, 2016 10:02 pm

Still got my player of the year to go. But if you've enjoyed the year of cricket, or even if you haven't, why not take time to pick your moments of the year on this thread?



viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20678&p=619754#p619754

Either post on the thread, or PM.

Cheers!
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Re: 2014- The Sequel: England in 2015.

Postby Arthur Crabtree » Mon Jan 04, 2016 9:29 pm

Player of the year, as last year, is Brendon McCullum. I kind of splurged the stuff I could have used here on the thread about his retirement. Not his best year with the bat, but as leader of the NZ side, I felt he was the most significant figure in the story of 2015. The Kiwi's play in the World Cup was utterly unconventional. One of my favourite feelings in cricket is when you get a sense of a captain creating a narrative in front of you on the field, with whatever means at hand. I got that with Michael Clarke, and Michael Vaughan. And with McCullum. Add to that the goodwill he and his team mates brought to our early summer. I can't remember the last time a touring side was so welcome and popular. I think he'll be remembered in the UK with the kind of affection that Rahul Dravid inspired here. He'll be missed.
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