I don’t know how much of the game you know he said to a questioner who mentioned
Posted in General on 22. Aug, 2010
“I don’t know how much of the game you know,” he said to a questioner who mentioned the fact that Trescothick does not move his feet much. (It was me.) Tresothick replied coolly that he does not think he has done much different over the past two years “Obviously I’ve got a bit of confidence from somewhere. I’ve been watching the ball pretty well and moving into it, but I don’t think I’ll ever move my feet a huge amount.”Stewart interrupted this to explain that it is not how much the feet move, but it is the transfer of balance that counts “He’s very good at that. He goes back, he goes forward, and you’re not going to make big strides against 90mph bowling He’s got the weight down into the ball.
That’s what’s been impressive about him.” Besides that, Stewart liked the way they ran together, putting the fielders under pressure.What a difference a week makes. At The Oval last week, after a humiliating defeat by Zimbabwe, Stewart described his batsmen as “thick”. Yesterday, there was no possibility that the criticism would be repeated since he and Trescothick gave none of the other batsmen a chance to be either thick or thin. The acting captain liked the intensity and commitment shown by England. “If we get on a winning roll, we get momentum.” He was talking confidently of reaching the final, not something he would have done last weekend.Stewart was full of praise for the wicket at Chester-le-Street, and the capacity crowd (either 10,000 or 15,000, depending on which official of the England and Wales Cricket Board you spoke to). He declared that this could be a Test-match ground in three or four years: “I wish they’d turn the radiator up a bit,” he added – though by the end of the game, the Riverside was bathed in sunshine, just as Lord’s had been two weeks ago.Jimmy Adams had a melancholy expression after the game. He said he did not believe that the defeat at Lord’s was responsible for the poverty of the West Indies’ play in their last two games, though he preferred not to say what was.
“I don’t think, as a team, we have come to terms with one-day cricket in England this summer.” No argument about that.But how the eye deceives. Last Saturday against Zimbabwe, Andrew Flintoff looked agile in the covers, swooping to a one-handed pick-up in the covers. Knowing that he was under the scrutiny of a full house yesterday, he looked clumsy and his concentration seemed to waver in the field. But Flintoff was acutely self-conscious.It showed in his body language: he realised that his concentration had lapsed when Chris Gayle drove straight to the boundary and Flintoff, at mid-on, gave up the chase when Andy Caddick ran round from long-off. Had he been thinking, Flintoff would have run towards the boundary to help Caddick, and he looked chastened.But Flintoff was, in fact, neither as quick nor as clumsy as he has looked in the past week. Against West Indies in the field, he caught Brian Lara when he top-edged a pull to mid-off, and took a comfortable catch in the covers off a ballooned drive by Franklyn Rose. There would have been a story only if he had spilled these.It was easier to judge Flintoff’s batting.
Duncan Fletcher had helped his confidence by promoting him toNo 3 in the order in against Zimbabwe on Thursday, and Flintoff rewarded him by scoring 42 off 45 balls with two sixes and three fours “Not bad for a fat boy,” he said after the game. But the cheerfulness of that remark was a front.Fletcher had put Flintoff at No 3 on the scorecard at Chester-le-Street too, but his proposed resurrection was delayed by another remarkable performance by Trescothick Flintoff is now the young cricketer who must prove himself.. Why do England’s cricketers need the spur of humiliation to persuade them to perform as they should? Two-and-a-half wretched Test matches had to be suffered before that inspiring victory at Lord’s. Why do England’s cricketers need the spur of humiliation to persuade them to perform as they should? Two-and-a-half wretched Test matches had to be suffered before that inspiring victory at Lord’s.
One-and-a-half abysmal one-day games then prompted the destruction of Zimbabwe at Old Trafford and now that of West Indies at Riverside.
Australia and South Africa require no such perverse stimulus. The very inconsistency of an England side who can only be pushed to their peak by disaster suggests it has not been fired in a hot-enough crucible. County cricket is still an inadequate breeding-ground for players who can only learn on the hoof on the international stage.A two-division Championship is a start. The top division needs to be whittled down to six sides; a transfer system put in place so that the best players rise to the top; and then the players at the top need to be paid more than those lower down the ladder so that human nature can play its own encouraging part.Only then, when excellence is concentrated like this, will England be able to start a tournament in the manner their bowlers have now achieved twice in a row. We are past the halfway stage of the series and England have become a formidable outfit – in the field at any rate – in the nick of time.Darren Gough and Andy Caddick have become the best opening attack in the competition. They were unlucky at Riverside to take only one wicket between them in the opening overs. They bowled with life and control on a pitch which had some pace.But once again it was Mark Ealham and Alan Mullally, with a bit of help from Craig White thrown in, who twisted the screw until it hurt.