Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Butcher 25.9/39
Hussain 37.2/37.2
Thorpe 39.1/53.3
Stewart 33.2/36.8 (as keeper)
Atherton 38.4/35.2

Caddick 29.9/29.9
Gough 28.6/28.1
White 41.1/36.8
Cork 31.8/23.9

So improvements for some, not much change for most. Though their declines due to advancing age impact the second number.

Apart from Thorpe, who was treated with suspicion in the nineties and was a key player under Duncan, I accept there's not much there.

Arthur Crabtree wrote:Atherton says that Illingworth devised the role of a soccer style supremo (something that was often talked about during his job at the BBC) and so got rid of people who used to support the side off the field. But then didn't bother doing the job himself. They'd always find him on tours by the pool. Consequently, the senior players were doing mundane tour managers jobs.

Asking Atherton his opinion on Illingworth, is like asking for Moggs opinion on Donald Tusk. Both take opportunities to hand grenade the other. I dont debate that you are wrong, but it is a tad strange.... Illingworth was credited as captain for fighting for better conditions and facilities for his players

November 30-December 4 1995 at The Wanderers, Johannesburg: England drew with South Africa.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/1625 ... ca-1995-96

English cricket in the nineties was like anything else; a brief spasm of rapture experienced against an eternity of wretchedness. On the Ashes tour of 1994-5, England lost the first two Tests, and the series 3-1, but miraculously won in Adelaide. They drew 2-2 at home to West Indies, coming from behind twice. They lost 1-0 in South Africa, but after holding out until the fifth Test in Cape Town. Angus Fraser mostly stayed fit and Dominic Cork had a sensational first year in international cricket.

The Test in 1995 that is most closely woven into the tapestry of England's cricketing mythology is the draw at the Wanderers, the scene of Mike Atherton's legendary eleven hour blockade erected against the hostility of the South African quartet of pace bowlers: Donald, Pollock, McMillan and Pringle. The sixth longest innings ever played by an England batter.

Ever since I started following cricket, there was always a belief that England players were never more at home than when fighting adversity, a faith that withstood abundant and frequent evidence to the contrary. Probably it has its roots in the foundation myth of modern Britain, the World War II of Churchill, Dunkirk and digging for victory. Commentators would look in vain for the same spirit in their sporting sons and daughters. And when it actually happened, it felt so right. And it felt especially right when it was Mike Atherton, cussed and pragmatic, backed up by the eccentric and improvisational Jack Russell who batted for nearly six hours for 29*.

Today, faced with 479 to win and 165 overs to get them, the England batters would choose to go for the runs and perish in the attempt. There remains something noble in the batter, ideally an opener, refusing to bow to the inevitable and blunting everything the opposition can throw at him, and not even to win the game. To deny the seeming inevitability of the defeat. It is the Test match's most esoteric joy. Athers bowed out of Tests with an average of 37.5 and 16 hundreds out of 212 attempts. But we remember him first of all as the resolute, durable and obdurate Iron Mike, the man who stood alone against South Africa for two days in Johannesburg. And why not. In sport, the myth is the best part of the story. These were the two days that Atherton got to live up to his popular image. Bruised, inexhaustible, unbeaten.

Apart from resurrecting the iconic images of Atherton -v- Donald, there are 2 things that stand out for me in that scorecard....

first that Devon Malcolm was playing, because he always feels to me like a player from an England era pre-1995

and second that Ramprakash scored 4 and 0 in a crisis... scores that summed him up as a player..... somebody should make him England batting coach so that he can pass on all that experience to the current players when faced with a similar crisis

Looks like Malcolm played his last Test in the Oval Ashes Test of 1997. England won that by 19 runs. So like Caddick he ended on an Ashes win.

I remember him, Caddick and Gough skittling out the Aussies in the first Test that year.

DM averaged 6 and he was about as bad with the bat as it is possible to imagine. Feels like too many. He could hit the ball, but he just couldn't see it.

Looking at the worst averages (20+ Tests) Chris Martin averaged 2.36, so quite a bit worse. Monty and Tuffers are the only ENgland players to do worse.

http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine ... pe=batting

Hoggy only averaged 7.3 and he was allowed to nightwatch.

Some England bats have blocked longer. Cook twice, in UAE (which I picked as his best innings on an old thread) and Brisbane. And Randall in Sydney which I touched o in this one. Plus Hutton, Barrington and Clive Radley. But somehow these (in recent times anyway) didn't capture the imagination as much as Athers did.

I notice that Cook is still in the Essex squad. Has he only retired from international cricket? He would probably make a better batting coach than Ramprakash

I think he's playing for Essex still.

For a country that were unaccustomed to international cricket, it is easy to forget how quickly South Africa became a very good side.
None of the below played in the game versus England, yet could have made up a pretty good composite team from those that had acquired a handful of test caps within 10 years of re-integration:

Smith
Gibbs
McKenzie
Kallis
Kirsten P
Boucher
Klusener
Boje
de Villiers
Ntini
Adams

Durhamfootman wrote:I notice that Cook is still in the Essex squad. Has he only retired from international cricket? He would probably make a better batting coach than Ramprakash

Chris Martin couldn't do any worse than Ramps

Mind boggling how the bloke still has a job

Arthur Crabtree wrote:The Test in 1995 that is most closely woven into the tapestry of England's cricketing mythology is the draw at the Wanderers, the scene of Mike Atherton's legendary eleven hour blockade erected against the hostility of the South African quartet of pace bowlers: Donald, Pollock, McMillan and Pringle. The sixth longest innings ever played by an England batter.

Ever since I started following cricket, there was always a belief that England players were never more at home than when fighting adversity, a faith that withstood abundant and frequent evidence to the contrary. Probably it has its roots in the foundation myth of modern Britain, the World War II of Churchill, Dunkirk and digging for victory. Commentators would look in vain for the same spirit in their sporting sons and daughters. And when it actually happened, it felt so right. And it felt especially right when it was Mike Atherton, cussed and pragmatic, backed up by the eccentric and improvisational Jack Russell who batted for nearly six hours for 29*

I guess part of the myth is the "hostility of the South African quartet". I remember reading a Darren Gough tour diary, and he made it well known that the English team were quite happy with what they were facing in South Africa, due to the massive fitness issues the hosts were having.

McMillan was done and could barely bowl anymore, his figures from this series to the end of his career are horrendous (average of plus 100 a wicket). Donald was clearly injured but struggling through. He would eventually get dropped in the World Cup following after it became clear he couldnt even bowl decent pace for 10 overs a day. Pollock debuted in this test and must have been very young. Pringle was a bit of a left field pick; he was part of the team after their reinstatement, but then Javagal Srinath nearly killed him with a bouncer to his head, and he had gone off to commentate on Xhosa TV. How he found his way back into the team for this test (a one test experiment that wasnt repeated) is a mystery. Well not really I guess. Matthews was injured, Schlutz was always injured, and so was Fanie. Adrien Kapier was by miles the best South African spinner going, but he shunned the test team for the quiet rural life.

I wonder how Atherton and Jack would have fared vs an attack fully fit..... I doubt he would have batted for 11 hours.

Wasnt Atherton also dropped all over the place? I know specifically he was dropped on 99 by Kirsten, but I think he was also put down by a few others. Russel was also dropped a couple of times.

I guess no one wants to dwell on that, as it doesnt fit the "fight them on the beaches" take.

that they were dropped a few times doesn't in any way diminish their achievement. They can only deal with the things they can influence. That they were able to continue battling on without allowing themselves to be distracted is also merit worthy

Many of the great test innings of all time would have to be chalked off if a chanceless innings was the main meritorious requirement.

June 6-9 1996, at Edgbaston. England beat India by 8 Wickets.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/1618 ... gland-1996

Toward the latter half of the nineties, despite the occasional defiance of gravity, the England team was mainly heading in the direction of a definitive and messy fall to earth. They flapped and swooped under the eccentric leadership of David Lloyd whose appointment (with hindsight) suggests something must have gone badly wrong at HQ. Viewed from the present day, the appointment of Bumble appears a decision bereft of sanity. While there were occasional wins, supporting England mostly started to become a bit of a chore as Lloyd gave debut caps to a plethora of rather unexceptional cricketers untroubled by any x factor at all and better left in the County Championship.

I'm thinking Mark Ealham, Simon Brown, Mike Smith, Aftab Habib and Warren Hegg among others.

The most memorable cricket for Lloyd's England that year was the drawn series in Zimbabwe, but for the wrong reasons. Lloyd winning his first game in charge in the summer of '96 has to be the pick of England's games as it was the only Test they won; resulting in a 1-0 series victory against India. Though what I mainly recall of that tour are the debuts of Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly, who immediately looked the business. India gave six new caps in the first two Tests, suggesting they had problems of their own.

Lloyd brought three new caps into the XI from his years in County Cricket: Mullally, Patel and Irani. On his recall to the side, Nasser Hussain made a determined match winning century on a wicket that gave a lot of help to Lewis and Cork (Fraser and Malcolm were dropped after the defeat in South Africa), and Srinath and Prasad. The best batting of the match came from Sachin Tendulkar in India's second innings, but lack of any support meant England needed only 121 for victory.

Hussain had been out of the side for three years and scored heavily that summer on his return. But England were then to lose 2-0 to Pakistan leading into the debacle in Zimbabwe and any feelgood factor engendered by the win in Birmingham was shortlived.

Next time- back to Birmingham and an unforgettable Ashes victory.