There wasn’t blood

Full time: England 1-0 Spain. It’s an amazing result. I thought England would be butchered by Spain. To be fair, every analysis I saw agreed with me. Spain are rightly World and European Champions, whilst England looked lacklustre throughout most of their qualifying campaign.

Spain played their usual style of possession and passing based football, but even early on they were a bit sloppy. Their passes weren’t quite right and England had opportunities to pick them off before Spain could apply any sustained pressure. England couldn’t hold possession themselves, however, so there weren’t many real chances in the first half. England had looked strong at the back, but Spain made a living at the last World Cup by wearing down opponents and picking off late goals.

This being a friendly, though, England could change out their entire midfield during the second half, which I think really helped. They also played more positively for the start of the second half which led to their goal. It was an ugly sort of goal and Reina really ought to have done better, but it gave England something to defend. For a time after the goal England actually looked much the better side with Spain a bit shocked that they were behind.

It was in the last fifteen minutes in which England really performed well, however. Spain threw everything at them, but England’s defenders, Scott Parker in particular, were everywhere. Spain’s pressure was repeatedly cleared they only got a few clear chances from almost a quarter of an hour’s worth of possession in England’s back third. In the entire match Spain had something like twenty off target shots. A couple were bad misses, but a lot were scuffed because of the English defenders weren’t letting them get away. Only once in the last fifteen minutes did Hart have to make a save, though Cesc Fabregas missed a shot that he would put away nine times out of ten. Spain also had a shot come off the bar.

Overall, England played very well. Much better than I or almost anyone expected them to do, however Spain played poorly by their (admittedly lofty) standards. A defensive lapse led to the only goal and Spain had chances to equalise and take the lead late that they spurned. That shouldn’t bother England too much, however, as few sides can beat Spain when they are playing on top of their game. England mustn’t get carried away, but they can be rightly proud of their performance.

There will be blood

Tomorrow (or later today, depending on one’s location) an ‘experimental’ England side face a full strength Spain. Even a full strength England side failed (twice!) to beat Montenegro and barely beat Wales (Wales!) at home. It’s not going to be pretty. Or at least the bit England play won’t; Spain will probably pass the ball around very fluently and aesthetically, however. I’m not sure why the FA wanted to play the current champions of everything under the sun in a place where supporters would be able to witness the carnage first-hand, but there we are. It’s possible, of course, that Capello may find some hidden talent that wouldn’t otherwise get on the plane to the 31st best hotel in Krakow, but it’s more likely that said talent won’t be a match for Spain. It’s only a friendly though, and playing Spain will allow the supporters to get into the right frame of mind for Euro2012. My pessimism won’t stop me watching and cheering on England, I should make clear, it’s just important to be realistic.

How crazy are Fifa?

Not so crazy that they have not allowed a compromise on the issue of England’s footballers wearing a poppy on Saturday, but still crazy enough that they aren’t making any sense. Fifa and the FA reached a compromise allowing the England players to wear poppies on black armbands on Saturday. It comes after both David Cameron and Prince William wrote to Fifa to ask them to reconsider their ban.

It was a slightly farcical display all around. Fifa’s ban made no sense, the poppy not being a political sign, and was indicative of the kind of insane bureaucracy at which Fifa is adept. They went so far as to order the referee to call off the match if England took to the field wearing poppies anyway. Their reasoning was that it would ‘open the door to similar initiatives from all over the world, jeopardising the neutrality of football’ thus fully displaying their well known detachment from reality. Their disproportionate determination on this issue was only matched by ~~lunatics~~ members of the English Defence League, who climbed to the roof of Fifa’s headquarters to display a banner condemning the decision.

The compromise, whilst certainly a good thing, does not make a lot of sense. In effect Fifa have agreed that their rule should not apply to poppies (or else they should not shown at all) without actually agreeing to back down from their position. What’s the difference between a poppy on an armband and a poppy on a shirt? Apparently it is all a matter of mindlessly sticking to the letter of the law in defiance of all common sense. Fifa, in other words.

There were 30 better choices

My attention was elsewhere when England announced the squad for the upcoming friendlies against Spain and Sweden, but I was paying attention today when the FA announced the accommodations for Euro 2012. (And I got caught up on on the squad too.) They will be based in a five star, £177/night hotel in Poland’s mediaeval capitol. Which sounds nice, but it is the 31st best hotel in the city and the reviews are mixed. (From the pictures, it doesn’t look much nicer than the $50/night hotel in which I stayed last time I was on holiday, albeit with more amenities.) Ostensibly, this is to try to strike a balance between the decadence of Baden-Baden in ’06 and the remoteness of Rustenburg last summer, but it looks more like an attempt to pre-emptively punish the players for a poor tournament. The 31st best hotel in a city 150 miles away from the nearest match is not a vote of confidence, but they may only need to stay for eight days. Furthermore, they will be training on a ground that is the very picture of Eastern European disrepair. (The Guardian have a lovely gallery.) Krakow is, by all accounts, a lovely city, but the choices of hotel and ground therein are odd ones.

We’ll be a bit closer to knowing the team that will occupy the hotel after next week’s friendlies. Capello has chosen an experimental squad to face the reigning champions, with four uncapped players. Terry is still in the squad, though, despite the ongoing investigation into alleged racist remarks. Lampard is expected to captain the side, however. Andy Carroll is not in the side, unsurprisingly given his poor start to the season. It is a squad mostly of players hoping to force their way into the Euro 2012 squad with just a few old hands in the mix. I expect them to struggle against Spain. The full squad is here. I’d be interested to see if England play someone besides Hart in goal. There is no clear second choice keeper at the moment, and Robert Green showed us last year how bad things could be if Hart goes down with and injury before the tournament.

Top ten moments of 2011

Twenty-eleven is over as far as English cricket is concerned, so I am getting a jump on the year end reviews. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do a top ten so early, but then I realised that I would probably forget in December. Here, then, are my top ten cricket moments of 2011:

10 – Nasser Hussain v Ravi Shastri. Just the best of all the times over the summer the Indians were cross with Nass over a perceived slight.

9 – MS Dhoni recalling Ian Bell at Trent Bridge. It was a very polarising moment, but I think MS Dhoni did the right thing by recalling Bell. Bell was an idiot, but it wouldn’t have been right to take a wicket like that.

8 – Lancashire force a super over on T20 finals day. Lancashire lost in the super over, but only got that far courtesy of a six off the last ball of the innings to draw the scores level. I include it because it was probably the most exciting moment in a T20 I have ever seen.

7 – KP scoring 200 in the first test against India. In an odd way it was one of KP’s worst innings. He was under some pressure coming into the series after a run of low scores. He did not look comfortable for most of the innings, but once he got to his century he found another gear and slogged his way to 200 before the declaration.

6 – England record their highest ever innings total in Australia. It was a tour of records and one of them was England scoring 644 in the first innings of the Fifth Test. Never before had they scored so much in an innings in Australia, though they had declared on 620-5 at Adelaide.

5 – England complete the 4-0 whitewash of India India fought back well in the last Test, but needing less than 30 to make England bat again with five wickets in hand they suddenly collapsed and England won by an innings and eight runs.

4 – England’s spectacular victory in Cardiff. Only 900-odd turned up in Cardiff to watch the end of what looked like a rain affected draw. Instead England blew Sri Lanka away for 82 and won by an innings and 14 runs.

3 – Stuart Broad taking a hat trick against India. After batting England back into contention in the first innings, Broad blew away India’s lower middle order to keep England’s deficit manageable. Admittedly, Harabajan Singh should not have been given LBW, but it was India who refused to use the DRS so I have no sympathy.

2 – Lancashire winning the County Championship. The County Championship went right down to two wire for the second year in a row. Warwickshire couldn’t bowl out Hampshire on the final day and Lancashire thrillingly chased 211 in the last two hours to bring the trophy to the northwest for the first time in 77 years.

1 – England winning the Ashes. It’s the only thing that could beat out the Red Rose to the top spot. A first win in Australia for 24 years topped off by Jonathan Agnew doing the sprinkler.

Honourable mention: VVS Laxman losing his off stump as England marched to victory at Trent Bridge.

Three from three!

It’s not often that I can get a hat trick sporting victories in a day. (To be fair, it’s not often that three of my sides play in the same day.)

England’s men started the morning with a T20 against India. Despite my earlier prediction, they finally found a bit of form and restricted the hosts to 120-9 off their twenty overs, though once again the death overs were expensive. Steven Finn was once again the pick of the bowlers with 3-22. Showing that they had taken the lessons from the ODIs to heart, India opened the attack with spin from both ends. This did tie down England to an extent, but KP was intent on breaking the shackles and did so to awesome effect. He hit 53 off 39 (5×4 3×6) deliveries before being adjudged LBW to a ball that pitched outside leg. By this time the match was all but won, and England got home with six wickets and eight deliveries to spare. Unfortunately England’s women were denied by rain after being well on top in their T20 match in South Africa. They were 15-0 chasing 111 to win and it’s probably the only way South Africa were going to avoid defeat.

Whilst that match was going on, Bath Rugby played London Irish in the Premiership. Bath won 12-13 thanks to a late penalty and some very good stoppage time defending. Bath were probably the deserved winners; ten of their points came from tries. They could have had the match well in hand, but Sam Vesty missed both conversions and a first half penalty. He was still responsible for eight of the points, however, scoring one of the tries as well as the match winning penalty in the 77th minute. The first try was the only scoring of the first half coming after Delon Armitage was sent to the sin bin for a high tackle on Tom Biggs. It was a very see-saw encounter with Bath coming from behind twice in the second half. The win takes them to fourth in the table.

To cap off the day, Liverpool beat West Brom 2-0 at the Hawthorns. The Reds did not play brilliantly, and showed why they dropped points to Man United and Norwich in the preceding weeks, but West Brom were awful. Their defence was nowhere for much of the first half and their offence only put pressure on the Reds a couple of times. Liverpool took the lead early through a penalty after Suarez was brought down. It’s worth pointing out that although Suarez gets a lot of criticism for diving and going to ground easily he stayed on his feet in the Carling Cup tie against Stoke when he could have had a penalty and made an effort to do so today. The West Brom fans were not happy with him or the referee, but their ire should be directed at their own defence. Despite efforts to put him off, Adam converted from the spot to give Liverpool the lead. Suarez continued to play well; though he still could not get the finishes that have eluded him in the league this year, he set up Liverpool’s second goal just before halftime. Carroll was the scorer, his third for the Reds this year, after Lucas stole the ball in midfield and Suarez put him through on goal. Liverpool’s defence held firm in the second half for just their third clean sheet this season. The only real disappointment for the Reds was Stewart Downing, who came close to scoring his first Liverpool goal, but hit the woodwork.

Let’s get this over with

Now that the World Series is over I can turn my attention back to England’s disaster of a tour to India. The final match is tomorrow, a one-off T20 in Calcutta. England are the reigning T20 World Champions as well as the number one ranked T20 side according to the ICC’s recently unveiled rankings. Despite this, I can’t see England winning. Admittedly, T20s are rather more of a lottery than any other format (as we saw against the West Indies) but England have played so abjectly against India that it will take a huge slice of luck to win. Graeme Swann will lead the side again and once again it will be a very young side.

After the match England will be able to fly home for a much needed rest until the series against Pakistan in the UAE in the new year. Whilst there will be a lot of questions asked about the performance in India, England have never been all that good at ODIs in India and the focus should certainly be on the upcoming series. Pakistan are playing rather well against Sri Lanka right now, and it is looking like it will be a good contest in January. Pakistan have shown that they have the firepower to bowl England out twice in that series (though they’ll need to improve their fielding). I think this will be the more interesting of the two series. Sri Lanka appear to pose the opposite problem; England found it difficult to bowl them out twice in England this summer and it won’t be any easier in Sri Lanka. England have not actually won a Test match in Sri Lanka since the last match of the 2001 series, but Sri Lanka are a worse side than they have been for some time and England are a much better side. I think England will manage to beat Sri Lanka 1-0, but I’m not sure about Pakistan. It’s going to be a tricky winter and the best thing England can do is get the T20 over with and put the series behind them.

The TV’s been off

I was planning to write this morning about how either the Texas Rangers had won the World Series with substandard pitching or how the Cardinals had forced a Game Seven for the first time (in the World Series) since 2002. But instead the game was postponed mid afternoon as it was clear that it was going to rain all day. Well worse things have happened in Bangladesh.

I couldn’t stay up to watch Pakistan play Sri Lanka, but so far the match is following much the same course as the first test with Sri Lanka bowled out cheaply in the first innings and Pakistan on course for a big lead after the second day. Also like the first match, Pakistan are scoring at under three an over. They’ll probably need to get a move on.

I couldn’t watch the England Women’s T20 against South Africa because it wasn’t on, but England won comfortably again. South Africa posted 128-6 off their 20 overs, with Alison Hodgkinson making 51 off 37 balls before being run out. England chased down the runs with almost three full overs to spare. Laura Marsh was out for a duck, but Charlotte Edwards scored 49 off 46 and Sarah Taylor made exactly fifty off just 33 deliveries. Those were the only three to fall for England, who now lead the three match series 1-0.

Recap

Some brief thoughts on occurrences today:

The England men collapsed from 129-0 to 176 all out. It was pretty spectacular, even by English ODI standards, but there is little to be said about the match that has not been said on the tour already. The loss hands England a 0-5 whitewash. England can try to salvage a bit of face in a one off T20 before having two months off preceding the series against Pakistan in the UAE.

England were on the good side of a whitewash in South Africa though, as the women beat South Africa by five wickets to secure a 3-0 whitewash. A good bowling performance ensured that they only had to chase 182 to win and despite the early losses of Charlotte Edwards and Danni Wyatt they got home with a full seven overs to spare. Lydia Greenway top scored with 63, (and won Player of the Series) and Heather Knight won Player of the Match for her unbeaten 55 with the bat and 2-15 with the ball. England now have a three match T20 series to conclude the tour.

Bangladesh drew their rain ruined Test against the West Indies in Chittagong. There was never going to be a result, although the Windies were bowled out for 244 (a deficit of 106). Bangladesh were the better side and will take heart from debutant Elias Sunny who took 6-94 in the first innings. Two full days were lost to rain, although it was all overnight rain. The groundstaff could not get the outfield dry and days two and three were completely lost. It was something of a farce and should not happen on a test match ground, even in Bangladesh. The Windies have not had a great tour thus far; they won the ODI series 2-1, but were bowled out for 61 in the last match and this performance was a pretty poor one. There is one match left in the series and they will need to up their game considerably to avoid a humiliating defeat.

Zimbabwe won a historic victory against New Zealand. They chased down 329 to win by just one wicket and with one ball to spare. It was their highest ever successful run chase. Malcolm Waller won a deserving Man of the Match after scoring an unbeaten 99 off 74 deliveries and hitting the winning runs (though he was dropped twice in the last over). The Kiwis still won the series 2-1, but this does add something (I’m not sure what, exactly, probably some sort of spice) to the one off test match next week. Hopefully it will be a good match.

Not today, but on Sunday South Africa (men) levelled their series against Australia, inflicting an 80 run defeat on the tourists. Australia won the first match by 93 runs (D/L) so it’s been a pair of hammerings, but in opposite directions. The ODI series concludes on Friday and I am not even going to try to predict how that will go. A tie would probably be most fitting.

It’s almost over

England’s ill-advised ODI series comes to an end tomorrow in Calcutta with England looking to avoid a 5-0 whitewash. On form, the match is more likely to be rained off than England are to win. What we’ve learnt from the series so far is that England’s ODI bowlers still struggle to take wickets on slower surfaces. They’ve not done a bad job of keeping things tight early on (though it’s not been anything about which to write home either), but India have had wickets in hand and been able to put up big runs in the late overs. We’ve also learnt that England’s ODI batsmen still struggle on slow surfaces against spin. The normally sharp fielding has also been dreadful this series, meaning that England have bowled poorly, batted poorly and fielded poorly. It’s pretty much exactly what India did in England over the summer and we are seeing the same results. The sooner England can get it over with the better.

I don’t think it forecasts any extra difficulty in the Test series next year, however. England’s ODI side have always been a mercurial (or just an outright shambles) even when the Test side has done well. (Example: The post Ashes ODI series.) Including the current one, the last three tours of India have seen England win one out of fifteen completed matches. In the five accompanying Test matches, however, England have performed rather creditably. They drew the 2006 series 1-1 and had the better of the drawn match. They lost 0-1 in 2008, but the loss was that famous Chennai test in which England played quite well. It should also be remembered that those two sides were hardly world beaters. In 2006 they had come off a 0-2 loss in Pakistan and would go on to draw Sri Lanka 1-1 at home. In 2008 they had come off a 1-2 home loss to South Africa and would go on to be bowled out for 51 by the West Indies. In both cases, their Test performance was better in India than in the preceding or subsequent series despite losing badly in the ODIs. It’s impossible to know in what condition the Test side will be in a year’s time, but right now I’d back England to win the Test series in India.