When Australia were losing the Ashes there was a lot of talk of the statistical mugging Australia was giving England while still managing to quite beautifully lose the series.
This series has a similar story.
England had one batsman average over 45.
Even Bell and Cook who apparently came of age could only muster 44 and 41 between them.
Trott might be from South Africa, but there is no statistical proof that he even went, his average of 27 is even bad for an English number 3.
Then the two highest paid batsmen combined to average 49.
As world’s greatest hack Nigel Henderson pointed out to me, why are people talking about Daryl Harper.
Because it is funny and he is shit.
But once they stop chuckling at Daryl looking at the carnage of this series will not be pretty.
The bowling is not that much better, their bowling unit got more wickets than in the Ashes, but their averages do not inspire moans of pleasure.
Swann was the top wicket taker with 21, but his average was 31, Morkel took 19 wickets at 21.
Anderson took 16 wickets, which is respectable, at 34, Steyn took 15 at 23.
Had it not been for their new Jesus (I move on just that quick), the man who saved them twice and then was crucified, England could have gone down 3-1.
However, when you swim out of that faecic quagmire look at the actual scoreline. Not bad. The Ashes scoreline worked for England as well. Had England been offered these two results going in they would have taken them.
Somehow England have invented a style of play that means that very few players have to do anything, the rest turn up for the food, and yet they still remain competitive.
That is something I really can admire.
Dis-organised shitness with positive results, sort of like this website.
No one expect ENgland to win Ashes and even draw series with SA. So england is certainly improving. They really should have 11 SOuth african players though. :D
I know you are saying it in jest, but does “worlds greatest hack” Mr Nigel still have that “Collingwood for PM” Facebook group? He may be a mate of yours, but ginger is still ginger
England get outplayed in most of the matches. Yet they cling on to draws in most of them mainly due to the power of No. 11. There is something about the Pom No.11 position. It teaches the holder of that position for the match to present a dead bat to all deliveries. There was Monty earlier, then there was Onions. However alongwith the durability comes the curse of losing your bowling mojo. So it is a double edged sword my friends.
.-= Dhananjay Mhatre´s last blog ..Short Story 3 – Stylebhai =-.
Anyone underestimate any team , they will surprise you. SA always a slow starters. I still think it should have been 3-1 for SA.
Somehow England lucky to draw the series and even win Ashes.
No 11 batsman batting to ensure draw is purely depends on luck and England team is most luckiest team ever on the planet.
England got threashed 1-1. Never has this ‘joke’ been more true than in South Africa.
There was some talk making Harper man-of-the-match (by the adjudicator). That, however, would mask the horror of England’s performance. The poor decisions may have made some difference … but not much.
.-= Rob´s last blog ..Not much sun with mostly showers =-.
If they come back using Harper as an excuse they will look more stupid than Harper does, getting bowled out for 180 when you are in control of the series (in respect of scoreline, not performances) is a joke.
They had no reason to go out there chasing runs in the manner they did in their 1st innings, it was braindead cricket with no tactical awareness at all. It wasn’t Englands job to try and force the result, this was beyond the capabilities of England’s (lack of) think tank though.
Bat properly and put 400 on the board, then watch SA batsmen fret needing quick runs, as when under pressure they are nearly as bad as England.
In truth, looking at the Australian series against both the Windies and Pakistan, along with SA’s inability at finishing off England and you would have to say the standard of test cricket at the moment is very poor.
There has been some entertaining matches/series, but generally between evenly matched average/crap sides.
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shit is too tame a word to explain the shots played by bell and prior yesterday.
If England blames Harper it will continue to mask its problems.