Andy Flower singles out Bresnan as stand out seamer

Bresnan Bowled Beautifully!

As you may have read the other day when I blogged (had a rant!) about the lack of depth to England’s seam bowling attack and stand out performance from Tim Bresnan, England cricket coach Andy Flower has come out and said that he agrees (with me – get in!!).


"Tim Bresnan wasn't originally selected in the Test party but with the opportunity given to him by the injury to Ryan Sidebottom, and after his performances in the one-day series, he sort of leapfrogged his way into the side," Flower told reporters before the team left Dhaka.


"He reverse swung the ball both ways, he was controlled and accurate, bowled a heavy bouncer and was strong enough to keep going for long periods of time," Flower said. "I thought our players held strong in some trying conditions weather-wise and on some very flat pitches.”


The 91 in the second test is surely a sign that Bresnan can bat at 7 ahead of Stewart Broad should England wish to play 5 bowlers. Very important given that the Ashes in Australia are only 8 or 9 months away!


Paul

 
Read the full article - cricinfo.com

2nd Test vs Bangladesh (day five)

Captain Cook!

So England managed to go on tour to Bangladesh and come out as expected with a white was in every format. Their ability to beat their opponents in both tests, despite the ridiculously flat wickets, was a credit to their bowlers. The two main players for me have been Swann and Bresnan, most notably the latter who had very little to assist his brand of seam bowling, but ran in and took 6 hard earned wickets at a cost of just over 30 a piece. That being said, Swann did manage to take the most out of both sides (as expected), bagging 16 scalps at 25.25.


Tredwell managed to take more wickets that Swann in the final innings of the tour, which was an unexpected surprise, taking his tally to six in the one solitary game that he played.

The thing that is nagging at me though, being the cricketing guru that I am (NOT) is that there seems to be a lack of seam bowling depth. Finn and Broad really were pretty average on the whole and they both lacked variety and imagination, as far as getting batsmen out rather than waiting for them to make a mistake. They really needed Onions as he is the gravy (sorry about that one)!

The lack of inspiration and seam depth is rather alarming as it’s only eight or nine months until the ashes down under, against an Australian team that love revenge and have a wealth of talented and nasty fast bowlers. A lot of whom have the wool over a fair few of the English batsmen!

On the subject of batsmen and captain supreme at the same time, Alistair Cooks first proper run out as captain must be very very satisfying indeed. With two hundreds in the test series (one of them a big one) and some very solid one day inning to boot, Cook may have deservedly nudged his way into the selectors minds in terms of one day selection. Not to mention becoming the future captain. I hope Andrew Strauss has had a nice rest!!

Paul

2nd Test vs Bangladesh (day three)

Bell makes his 10th test hundred

Surely England should whitewash Bangladesh? Their test series in Bangladesh should be more straight forward than this. England played some scintillating cricket in the ODI’s with Eoin Morgan in particularly good form. Bangladesh, although new to the international cricketing arena, do not have the players that England do nor do they have the pedigree. Don’t get me wrong they have some fine cricketers including the young Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan but they do not match up against the likes of Kevin Pietersen and Paul Collingwood.

Surely then this series is a foregone conclusion? With Bangladesh achieving a score of 419 in this test match, their third highest ever score in their short international cricketing history; it suggests that it is not.

A good consistent response from England which included 138 from Ian Bell and an unbeaten 74 from Tim Bresnan has left England on 440-8 at the end of day three in Mirpur. With the relative inexperience and the youth of the Bangladesh front line, England’s bowlers and Graeme Swann in particular, should see Bangladesh off in the end. Maybe it’s me being too expectant of England and their cricketing prowess or maybe I am just realistic but Cook and company should polish this off with relative ease (in theory)!

Rob
Follow the game here - http://www.cricinfo.com/

2nd Test vs Bangladesh (day one)

Bell and Prior watch as Bangladesh march on

So I wake up this morning to see that Bangladesh have almost mustered 300 in the first innings of the 2nd test in Mirpur, against England. They eventually closed on 330-8, with Mr Graeme Swann claiming another 3 wickets (30 – 4 – 94 – 3) and debutant James Tredwell claiming 85 – 2 off of his 29 overs. It’s clear that Bangladesh are improving as a test cricket nation, their current score of 330 almost equalling their second innings fight at Chittagong, they still have a long way to go.

That being said, England’s lack of penetration it terms of seam bowling is rather worrying. It was only 5 years ago that it was an attack formed of messers Flintoff, Jones, Harmison and Hoggard. The attack of today seems rather dull and lacking in match winning characteristics. Although Tim Bresnan, Steven Finn and Stuart Broad are fine bowlers, with good records at the county championship level, are the test match bowlers??

Compare England’s current attack to the one lead by Flintoff in the 2005 Ashes and which one are you more scared of and which one is more likely to get (knock) you out?!

I’m guessing what I’m saying is that the current seam attack don’t have the same aura and ability as they used to, and this is really evident in the way that Bangladesh, the lowest ranked team on the test match ladder, are fighting against them. But how do they get this X Factor back?? Pick the 2005 Ashes attack maybe??

Paul

Follow the game here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/default.stm or here http://www.cricinfo.com/bdeshveng2010/engine/current/match/426424.html

Craig Kieswetter (wicket keeper batsman)

Another Huge 6 At Taunton

Since this is the first time that I’ve posted on here I thought I’d keep it close to home. Being born and bred in the west-country it seems only natural that my first post is about the magnificence that is Somerset County Cricket Club, more specifically the sensation of Craig Kieswetter.

In the past few years they have had a meteoric return to their rightful place at the top of the county championship, largely thanks to the opening partnership that is Marcus Trescothick and Craig Kieswetter. These two propel Somerset at an incredible rate in the one day game and have taken this aggression out on the county scene as well.

Like a number of players before him Craig Kieswetter, a hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman, chose England ahead of South Africa. He joined Somerset when he was 18 and made his international debut four years later, little more than a week after completing qualification. Playing against Bangladesh in his first 2 ODIs Kieswetter made scores of 19 and 4, and he looked rather out of his depth. In the third however, he repaid the decision of the selectors with and extremely mature innings of 107 (from 123 balls). He is the first wicket keeper since Alec Stewart to score a hundred in limited overs internationals, and this surely must be worrying the current holder of the gloves, Matt Prior.

This wonderful start to an international career must be the signs of things to come from such a promising young talent. It is my belief that Craig Kieswetter will be the full England keeper, in all forms of the game within the next year and a half, which will bring a much needed sense of youthful exuberance to the team. Anyone care to bet against me???

Paul



Follow Craig Kieswetter here at cricinfo.com:

http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/230855.html