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England in Bangladesh: Reasons to care

England playing cricket in Bangladesh is a hard tour to sell and likely to go under the sporting radar for most. Here The Worm offers a few pointers that might make the series worthy of your fleeting attention...

The limits of video technology - a cricketing footnote

Charles le Roi reflects on one of the controversial moments in the recent South Africa-England Test series...

Driving back from Cape Point to Cape Town with the cricket commentary on R2000 for company was a wonderful way to take in the action on the first day of the fourth and final Test between England and South Africa. While the striking vista over False Bay and the dramatic twists and turns round Chapman’s Peak demanded attention, it was increasingly difficult to ignore the drama unfolding in Johannesburg.

The English team had displayed admirable resolve on this tour but they were inarguably riding their luck. As I pulled into Cape Town – long before the far more controversial and hotly debated debacle of the Graeme Smith not-out – that luck appeared to be deserting them.

Although England’s subsequent lame surrender in the second innings suggested there was only one possible outcome to the Test, Morne Morkel’s dismissal of Alastair Cook was arguably the key moment of the match. With England’s openers playing as though they felt they had a duty to be polite to their hosts, and with Kevin Pietersen batting throughout as though offering apology for his ‘defection’, the fourth wicket was a crucial moment in establishing whether England might recover from their disastrous start or limp to the sort of total eventually posted. Enter match referee Daryl Harper, cricket’s most disputed arbiter of justice.

While happy to take the wicket, the South African radio commentary team was practically unanimous in its verdict that it was a no-ball and therefore should not have stood. Although they hoped, more than believed, that millimetres of Morkel’s heel may have been behind the line before sliding forward, their view was that had Harper not awarded the wicket, South Africa would have had few, if any, complaints.

Interestingly, it was suggested that over the course of even a few overs the white line demarcating the crease becomes somewhat smudged and therefore thickens slightly, meaning that those (from a South African perspective) precious millimetres may not have been there first ball of the morning session. This raises the intriguing possibility that there was, in this instance, perhaps no real right or wrong decision. It provides further proof that video evidence cannot always be conclusive. It asks what purpose does it serve then?

Test cricket enters a new decade in breathless fashion

Forget Twenty20, we have seen two of the most dramatic Test finishes the decade is likely to produce in only the first week of 2010. Pakistan’s meek run chase in Sydney and South Africa’s failure to bowl England out in Cape Town both have major implications for the series results. Australia are two up with one to play while SA can only draw the series at best.

Sports calendar: The Big 10 for 2010

Having taken advantage of one or two quieter moments over the festive season to scour the schedules for the year ahead, quantumofsport.com is proud to present its brand new “Sports calendar 2010”. As ever, it will be a busy 12 months in the world of sport, with a range of top events competing for our attention. The calendar represents our (non-exhaustive) selection of what to look out for. We’ve also picked out – here below – ten of the biggest sporting occasions of the year, restricting ourselves to one entry for each sport we cover on a regular basis: it’s The Big 10 for 2010. Let’s hope there’s plenty of drama in store…

Feb 6-Mar 20, Six Nations rugby (for N. hemisphere fans at least!)
Feb 12-28, Winter Olympics, Vancouver, Canada
Apr 17-May 3, snooker World Championship, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield
May 16, Formula 1 Monaco GP (or any other between Mar 14 and Nov 14!)
Jun 11-Jul 11, soccer World Cup, South Africa
Jun 21-Jul 4, Wimbledon tennis
Jul 3-25, Tour de France (starting in Rotterdam and Brussels)
Oct 1-3, Ryder Cup golf, Celtic Manor, Wales
Oct 3-14, Commonwealth Games, New Delhi, India
Nov 25->, Ashes Test cricket series Australia v England

For the full calendar, click here.

The stars align for England as they achieve a flawless victory.

England have taken a 1-0 lead in the series with two to play after a weighty victory in Durban. It was a match in which, after losing the toss, everything fell in their favour. They were buoyed by wickets on the first morning; South Africa were only able to reach an apparent par score of 343 courtesy of a 150-partnership between Smith and Kallis, and a wagging tail. Cook and Bell then scored centuries and Collingwood a strong 91, but more pleasing was the manner in which the total was built, with six 50-partnerships in their sole innings. SA stumbled to 133 all out and to defeat by an innings and 98 runs.

The weather certainly favoured England, perfect for batting on days 2 and 3 before the overcast conditions returned in time for the South African second innings. The ball swung in England’s hands and at times, particularly the crucial fourth day, the ball behaved as if it were in English, rather than African conditions. This reflects an interesting phenomenon supported by events at the MCG, where Mitchell Johnson has just taken 6 wickets at 13.2 against Pakistan after being almost exclusively awful in the Summer. Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner were dangerous whenever and wherever they played, Donald and Pollock likewise- but even the very best the world currently has to offer are dependent on favourable conditions to look like accomplished test players.

So, how were England able to power through the South African batting line up so decisively on day 4, when twenty wickets in a match had looked beyond them in the first test? It’s true that we saw the ball swinging for the first time in the series, but this did not earn Broad his four wickets. They came from a build up of pressure on the South African batsmen such that they chose too circumspect a response. Kallis, de Villiers and Duminy were all out attempting a misjudged leave, brought on by the buzz-term "scoreboard pressure" and maximised by Broad putting the ball in that ambiguous area on the verge of off stump. Days like these will teach Broad how to push on and become a consistent threat rather than an occasional match-winner. Swann, meanwhile, continues to bowl beautifully; he is reliable, subtle, intelligent and has an extraordinary knack of taking wickets in his first over. Comfortably the leading wicket taker in the series, he has taken over Flintoff’s mantle as Strauss’ go-to man.

This result is confirmation of the maxim that batsmen can set you up but bowlers win you matches, and South Africa were outbowled so completely here that they will have to make changes for the third test in Cape Town. Friedel de Wet, after his impressive debut at Centurion, will surely return. He should take Ntini’s place but this will not be a purely sporting decision. Politics plays a big part in South African selection and dropping a post-Apartheid black legend may require time and meetings. Although it would be sad to see his career end on this whimper, The Worm wonders if he will be politely encouraged to retire before the series is up thus preventing the embarrassment of dropping him. The other option would be to play the extra bowler in place of Prince or Duminy but this would promote Morkel to number 7 and create too fragile a tail to be viable.

South Africa suffered from Paul Harris’ ineffectual bowling in this match. The spinner is expected to hold an end for extended spells whilst the pace is rotated around him, but the English batsmen targeted Harris and made him look expensive and ordinary. He confounds, his stats suggest he should turn the ball more than he does. He is an annoying bowler, and one that batsmen must hate losing their wicket to for he appears so easy to play. Unlike at Centurion, it did not happen for him here and this left the other bowlers overworked. Duminy would not have expected to have bowled 24 overs, while both Kallis and Steyn are bowling at less than their best. South Africa will need to improve with the ball quickly or they will lose to England, as they lost to Australia in their last home series.

By The Worm