With the injury sustained by Chris Tremlett ahead of the second test against India, I started wondering about who I would bring in to replace him. This led me to a more general question as to the balance of this England side as it bids to become the best in the world. With no true world class all-rounder avaliable it leads to the age old question - 4 or 5 bowlers?
With 4 bowlers, there are a couple of main issues to my mind, and we don't have to look too far back to come across one of them. In the first test India lost Zaheer Kahn to an injury early in the first innings, leaving them with 2 quicks and a spinner as their recognised bowlers. And with a first day pitch in England very rarely conducive to aiding the spinner, they struggled. Even Dhoni had a bowl to try and make a breakthrough. While I don't think anyone will pick a side in case someone gets injured, I do feel it is a problem with picking 4 bowlers. The other being that when struggling for a wicket, a change can sometimes work wonders. This is especially a problem when you have 3 very similar quicks, such as when Broad Finn and Tremlett all played against Sri Lanka earlier in the summer. This often leads to having part-timers trying to do something a bit magical, which in Englands case means Trott. An extra difficulty this bring is trying to keep all the bowlers fresh, which can be especially problematic at some of the hotter places they play.
With 5 bowlers, the problem is the weakened batting line-up. A tail starting at 7 is quite a long one, so unless the pitch is flat and the top 6 are all in form, this tends to get avoided. It's effectively the reverse of the problem of playing 4 bowlers. In one case you can end up going to the batsmen to get the wickets, while in the other you go to the bowlers to get the runs.
I take the point of view that to win tests, you need to take 20 wickets, so I lean towards the extra bowler. Other people like the batsmen to ground the other team down and then set things up nicely for the bowlers, but I feel this leads to more draws, and I'd rather risk losing for a higher chance of a win. But this means having a long tail, does this weaken the team too much?
For my money, not. While I don't think Broad is a test 7 yet, I think he's definitely not a 9 either, yet that's where he batted today. The combination of Bresnan, Broad and Swann is a competent enough batting unit to be 7,8,9 as their combined test average is almost 85 - and I think Broad's of 28 will rise further - his last two test innings show his ability. Given that the top 6 should average over 250 between them (ideally towards 300, with 50 being a good test average), I think this is enough batting, with extra flexibility in the bowling. While I think Pieteresen is a good second spinner, I don't think Trott is a good enough bowler to be able to fill in, something Collingwood was excellent for.
Another question that arose when I was considering this, is that of a night watchmen. While I'm not opposed to using them, I don't think Anderson is the right style of player for it, much in the same way as I didn't think Hoggard should have done it. I think a night watchmen should be able to protect his wicket in the evening, and then play some strokes the following morning. While Anderson has worked on his batting, I don't think he has enough scoring strokes for it. Years back, I wanted Giles to do the role, and currently I think it is something Broad or Bresnan should be doing, and given Broads current form I would plump for Bresnan. Swann could do it - he definitely has the shots for the following morning - but I don't think his defensive game is quite as good as the others for the evening slot.
Unfortunately, this means dropping one of the batsmen, probably Morgan, and this seems harsh on an ever improving player (this isn't in reaction to a few low scores, it's due to the position he occupies in the line-up. If they keep 4 bowlers he should be given at least until after this series for his form to pick up, and I have no doubts that it will). I would like to see how this balance would work, but I would be against making such a change mid-series. However on flatter pitches in the sub-continent it should be considered.
Friday 29 July 2011
Friday 22 July 2011
Moffat's Magic
Steven Moffat's Sherlock started a rerun on Wednesday, filling the gap in the schedules from the completion of The Apprentice, and watching it again knowing the outcome let me appreciate the hints that had been put in place throughout the episode. Before the initial airing, people were worried about trying to turn the Sherlock Holmes stories into a modern day piece, but these worries went unrealised. The entire production was excellent, the relation between the two leads often getting highly praised and quite rightly so, but all the other aspects I feel are exectuted brilliantly too, and I for one am looking forward to the rest of this rerun before the next series.
This isn't the first show that Moffat's written where I've been thoroughly impressed by some of the writing. Coupling and his Dr Who episodes have a tendancy to be very clevelry done, and while enjoying the stories I always appreciated the tightness (for want of a better word) of the writing. Case in point in the first episode of the fourth series of Coupling where you have the show done in 3 parts following 3 main couples and the overlaps between them continue to unfold right through to the final minute with you learning more about the earlier scenes by watching them from a different perspective. A clever idea, and the execution is flawless. Other episodes have had long conversations that were completely double ended, scenes done in parallel to previous ones and double screens - following two groups with sound alternating between them. I'm a huge fan of the comedy, but these clever little tweaks make it different to the rest and are all done well.
His other majoy success was in Dr Who. Before he took over the reins from Russel T Davies who had resurrected the series and made it essential viewing, he'd written some of the more memorably episodes. Blink is still quite possibly my favourite episode, and the Silence of the Library and the Empty Child double features were for many the stand out episodes of their respective series, wonderfully self-contained and showcase some of his talents. But I think that's been shown even more since he took over as head of the production, and the penultimate episode of the last series - the Pandorica Opens was truly spectacular, and the scene where the Doctor shouts to his collected enemies was brilliant - and When a Good Man Goes to War also stunned me with its brilliance, and I can't wait to see the outcome when it returns.
I believe that Moffat is one of, if not the best writer in British television, and I can't wait to see anything else he works on. The return of Dr Who and Sherlock are events that I can not wait for, and I hope that he has more ideas up his sleeve for other programs.
This isn't the first show that Moffat's written where I've been thoroughly impressed by some of the writing. Coupling and his Dr Who episodes have a tendancy to be very clevelry done, and while enjoying the stories I always appreciated the tightness (for want of a better word) of the writing. Case in point in the first episode of the fourth series of Coupling where you have the show done in 3 parts following 3 main couples and the overlaps between them continue to unfold right through to the final minute with you learning more about the earlier scenes by watching them from a different perspective. A clever idea, and the execution is flawless. Other episodes have had long conversations that were completely double ended, scenes done in parallel to previous ones and double screens - following two groups with sound alternating between them. I'm a huge fan of the comedy, but these clever little tweaks make it different to the rest and are all done well.
His other majoy success was in Dr Who. Before he took over the reins from Russel T Davies who had resurrected the series and made it essential viewing, he'd written some of the more memorably episodes. Blink is still quite possibly my favourite episode, and the Silence of the Library and the Empty Child double features were for many the stand out episodes of their respective series, wonderfully self-contained and showcase some of his talents. But I think that's been shown even more since he took over as head of the production, and the penultimate episode of the last series - the Pandorica Opens was truly spectacular, and the scene where the Doctor shouts to his collected enemies was brilliant - and When a Good Man Goes to War also stunned me with its brilliance, and I can't wait to see the outcome when it returns.
I believe that Moffat is one of, if not the best writer in British television, and I can't wait to see anything else he works on. The return of Dr Who and Sherlock are events that I can not wait for, and I hope that he has more ideas up his sleeve for other programs.
Saturday 9 July 2011
Franchise Failure
While I wouldn't describe myself as a Nintendo fanboy, I would say that I think they're a great games company and have enjoyed a variety of their games, I have a confession. Out of games of their big three franchises, Mario Zelda and Metroid, I have not finished a single game.
Gaming consoles I've had, have all been from the Big N: Gameboy pocket and a N64 from my childhood, and more recently a Wii. For these I've had LoZ Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, a Metroid game for gameboy, NSMB Wii and Mario Galaxy 2. I had other games from other franchises though - I completed Yoshi's Story, Lylat Wars, and Super Smash Bros (original and Brawl) among others - but never one from the big 3.
In my defense, I only got my three Mario games recently - Super Mario 64 I found second hand in Chips a bit over 6 months ago, and with University I've not had much time for playing them. I probably could have got them finished by now, but after getting about half way through them I decided to try to 100% each of them instead of just going to win. Currently, I've got over 80 stars out of 120 for SM 64, half way through world 8 on NSMB Wii with only a few star coins missing from each of the previous worlds, and about 70 stars in Galaxy 2 out of the 242, but I need to beat the game to go past 120 there. With the onset of summer, I'm hopeful that I can beat these soon.
However when it comes to the others, I'm afraid I've let Link and Samus down. I've had these games for years and not beaten them. Ocarina of Time bested me as a child, and I never got into the Metroid game I had. That one is completely my fault through a lack of effort - I gave up far too easily on it, and was more willing to put in the hours on Pokemon Red (which I did finish, and filled my pokedex - yay me!), and I feel that now I should either go onto the virtual console and get one of the early Metroids or find one of the newer ones to play and give a fair attempt to. But Ocarina is my current challenge. With the release of the 3DS version, I've had a compulsion to go back and play it. I got lost at the bottom of the well when I was younger, and never got past there, but today I went back to it, got the eye of truth and went onto beat the shadow temple. With Skyward Sword on its way sometime before the end of the year, I want to be able to say I've beaten Ganondorf at least once before playing that. I'm not bidding to find everything in it, there are far too many heart pieces and Gold Skulltullas in it for that, but I want to win before the end of the summer.
After those 4 (I'm sorry Samus), who knows? Nintendo has other franchises I've not even played. Maybe when I have some more money I may go onto the virtual console and raid it for some classics. All the classics of the 3 I mentioned before, more Star Fox, some DK for the first time, I've never played Kirby either, and maybe even getting the Pikmin games and a Gamecube controller - I've missed out on games from NES, SNES and GC, and I want to have those experiences. Who knows, I may even branch out from Nintendo and download the first 3 Sonic games. Is it time to live the Sonic/Mario Rivalry for myself?
Gaming consoles I've had, have all been from the Big N: Gameboy pocket and a N64 from my childhood, and more recently a Wii. For these I've had LoZ Ocarina of Time, Super Mario 64, a Metroid game for gameboy, NSMB Wii and Mario Galaxy 2. I had other games from other franchises though - I completed Yoshi's Story, Lylat Wars, and Super Smash Bros (original and Brawl) among others - but never one from the big 3.
In my defense, I only got my three Mario games recently - Super Mario 64 I found second hand in Chips a bit over 6 months ago, and with University I've not had much time for playing them. I probably could have got them finished by now, but after getting about half way through them I decided to try to 100% each of them instead of just going to win. Currently, I've got over 80 stars out of 120 for SM 64, half way through world 8 on NSMB Wii with only a few star coins missing from each of the previous worlds, and about 70 stars in Galaxy 2 out of the 242, but I need to beat the game to go past 120 there. With the onset of summer, I'm hopeful that I can beat these soon.
However when it comes to the others, I'm afraid I've let Link and Samus down. I've had these games for years and not beaten them. Ocarina of Time bested me as a child, and I never got into the Metroid game I had. That one is completely my fault through a lack of effort - I gave up far too easily on it, and was more willing to put in the hours on Pokemon Red (which I did finish, and filled my pokedex - yay me!), and I feel that now I should either go onto the virtual console and get one of the early Metroids or find one of the newer ones to play and give a fair attempt to. But Ocarina is my current challenge. With the release of the 3DS version, I've had a compulsion to go back and play it. I got lost at the bottom of the well when I was younger, and never got past there, but today I went back to it, got the eye of truth and went onto beat the shadow temple. With Skyward Sword on its way sometime before the end of the year, I want to be able to say I've beaten Ganondorf at least once before playing that. I'm not bidding to find everything in it, there are far too many heart pieces and Gold Skulltullas in it for that, but I want to win before the end of the summer.
After those 4 (I'm sorry Samus), who knows? Nintendo has other franchises I've not even played. Maybe when I have some more money I may go onto the virtual console and raid it for some classics. All the classics of the 3 I mentioned before, more Star Fox, some DK for the first time, I've never played Kirby either, and maybe even getting the Pikmin games and a Gamecube controller - I've missed out on games from NES, SNES and GC, and I want to have those experiences. Who knows, I may even branch out from Nintendo and download the first 3 Sonic games. Is it time to live the Sonic/Mario Rivalry for myself?
Sunday 3 July 2011
The State of British Sport
So in the last week Andy Murray went out in the semi-finals of Wimbledon while Liam Broady lost the boys singles' final, David Haye lost his WBA title to Wladimir Klitschko, the England Cricket team lost the 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka and the top Brit in the first stage of Le Tour was 6th. As a nation we crave success, and deem the last week to be an abject failure. But is it really that bad? Given our relative size I'd say not.
Starting with Murray, he's the 4th best player in the world. That's not something to be sniffed at, especially when you consider that the men at 2 and 3 are always mentioned in any discussion about the greatest of all time, and the man who beat him hadn't lost at Wimbledon in his previous 19 matches. Murray's won 17 titles and been in 3 grand slam finals. Most players would love to have those statistics by the end of their careers, and Murray still has plenty of time left in his, with the hard courts of the US and Australian opens more likely to give him success than the grass of SW19. He may not have a Slam yet, but he's had enough success for us to be more than happy to have him. Broady came from nowhere and got to the final. In my book that's a success.
David Haye lost his unification bout, but at least he had the ambition to go for one. In the end he just wasn't good enough, but that's been true for anyone that's faced either Klitschko in the past 5 years. He stepped up a weight division having been hugely successful at cruiser, and became a world champion multiple weights. He's done brilliantly in his career, and brought fresh life into the heavyweight champion with his approach, even if it wasn't to everyones taste. Unfortunately, it is quite possible that this fight will be all people will remember of his career, which is a sad way to remember a former champion.
The England cricket team is not great at ODIs. The loss against Sri Lanka was not hugely surprising - the world rankings show them to be the better side - but we beat them in the first one and there is plenty of time left in the series. This is a fledgling team, with a new captain. We will have to wait and see how they develop over the next year or two before we can fairly judge their progress. And in the mean time the test side is doing brilliantly and the series against India later in the summer will see if their goal of becoming the best team in the world is a feasible one.
Similarly with Le Tour, we can't comment after only one stage. However there we have Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, two people who will both want to be at least in contention for jerseys. Cavendish, with 15 stage wins in 3 years, will be disappointed if he doesn't don green at least once this year and will believe he can win it. Wiggins, 4th two years ago, will be looking to improve on that and get onto the podium. Cycling in the UK is in a strong position, and will be looking to lead a gold rush at the Olympics next year.
I don't believe these should be viewed as failures but as success, especially given our population, and when you combine them with the success in golf - top 3 in the world are all British - the England football team are up to 4th in the world rankings, although unfortunately haven't had any tournament success for far too long, and all of the home nations feel confident going into the rugby world cup this summer, although the Tri-Nations are favourites, and at the last Olympics we came 4th in the medal table and 2nd in the Paralmypics. We should be proud of our sportsman and celebrate their success, and not criticise them so readily.
Starting with Murray, he's the 4th best player in the world. That's not something to be sniffed at, especially when you consider that the men at 2 and 3 are always mentioned in any discussion about the greatest of all time, and the man who beat him hadn't lost at Wimbledon in his previous 19 matches. Murray's won 17 titles and been in 3 grand slam finals. Most players would love to have those statistics by the end of their careers, and Murray still has plenty of time left in his, with the hard courts of the US and Australian opens more likely to give him success than the grass of SW19. He may not have a Slam yet, but he's had enough success for us to be more than happy to have him. Broady came from nowhere and got to the final. In my book that's a success.
David Haye lost his unification bout, but at least he had the ambition to go for one. In the end he just wasn't good enough, but that's been true for anyone that's faced either Klitschko in the past 5 years. He stepped up a weight division having been hugely successful at cruiser, and became a world champion multiple weights. He's done brilliantly in his career, and brought fresh life into the heavyweight champion with his approach, even if it wasn't to everyones taste. Unfortunately, it is quite possible that this fight will be all people will remember of his career, which is a sad way to remember a former champion.
The England cricket team is not great at ODIs. The loss against Sri Lanka was not hugely surprising - the world rankings show them to be the better side - but we beat them in the first one and there is plenty of time left in the series. This is a fledgling team, with a new captain. We will have to wait and see how they develop over the next year or two before we can fairly judge their progress. And in the mean time the test side is doing brilliantly and the series against India later in the summer will see if their goal of becoming the best team in the world is a feasible one.
Similarly with Le Tour, we can't comment after only one stage. However there we have Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, two people who will both want to be at least in contention for jerseys. Cavendish, with 15 stage wins in 3 years, will be disappointed if he doesn't don green at least once this year and will believe he can win it. Wiggins, 4th two years ago, will be looking to improve on that and get onto the podium. Cycling in the UK is in a strong position, and will be looking to lead a gold rush at the Olympics next year.
I don't believe these should be viewed as failures but as success, especially given our population, and when you combine them with the success in golf - top 3 in the world are all British - the England football team are up to 4th in the world rankings, although unfortunately haven't had any tournament success for far too long, and all of the home nations feel confident going into the rugby world cup this summer, although the Tri-Nations are favourites, and at the last Olympics we came 4th in the medal table and 2nd in the Paralmypics. We should be proud of our sportsman and celebrate their success, and not criticise them so readily.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)