My diet of one day matches ended with Australia’s efforts to play England at the Oval in the first of five ‘let’s milk this cash cow for what it’s worth’ one day series.
Commitments mean that I cannot go to any more one day 50 over games this season and through choice I don’t do T20.
The diet ended on starvation rations as the second tier or ‘new look’ Australia one day side were just out of their depth. Whilst they have some brightly shining stars and would be stars, not all the working parts work and the team dynamics is well below expected standards (team dynamics is an old favourite topic of mine on the blog as readers will attest!).
Admittedly England played well and can only play the team put up against them with the spinners doing well on this track and well supported by the quicks.
I’m still convinced that Willeys run up is too long as he seems to stutter at the end and Wood is all body power from much more career sustaining. A few highlights from Australia’s batting – Maxwell eventually came good with 60, Agar of 2013 Ashes memories made a sound 40 but the rest didn’t click and were bowled out for 214 in 47 overs was never going to be anywhere near enough.
England didn’t start well but after a few initial alarms – Hales seems out of form, not surprising if you just restrict yourself to white ball cricket; there’s no second innings to give you another chance, to get you back into form, nick, rhythm or whatever you want to call it. Morgan and Root almost saw them home but not quite and had to leave it to Ali and Willey. Why the Aussies didn’t use spin more, who knows but they seemed overall to be the standard of a poor county side and from what’s been seen so far, England have little to worry about, Australia have it all to do but I must admit I like the look of Stanlake, he’s got something about him and could well do well in years to come. Is he a candidate for the Ashes tour next year? Who knows but he could well get a test call this coming Aussie summer.
What do we learn from this one day diet? In reality not a lot as each match just melds together into the memory and each match becomes instantly forgettable. What it does do is bring punters through the gates and noticeably greater numbers than the Championship even on the first day which seems to be the spectators day of choice when the real excitement is there on days three and four- there’s so much good and challenging cricket in the Championship and can be tense in the extreme – can you remember the last one day match you saw when the outcome wasn’t clear until the last over? No? Me neither!
So I’m back to the four day stuff next week and probably not go to another one day match until next season but shall keep an eye on this series and the rest of the 50 over cup, but let’s hope that there are a few one day watchers who now want to try a day or two of the Championship and with school holidays on the horizon the youngsters can go along…but oh, there’s so little to be played as the one days become even shorter and more akin to evening club games…perhaps that’s where the youngsters need to be encouraged to go?
And finally…whoever decided that the long air filled tubes you bang together was a good idea didn’t have the misfortune to sit beside the crèche at the Oval! Whoever they are deserve to have one inserted….(I’ll leave it to you to decide where and how!)
Cricket51days 