Right, as I mentioned last week, Week 18 of this surprisingly long-running series was never going to be a classic. True, if I'd actually bothered to cover Pakistan vs Australia, I'd have had some seriously exciting stuff to comment on. But I didn't. More on Pakistan in a minute. Let's tie up the loose ends from Bangladesh and Australia's tours of England in 2010. Bangladesh finished off with a whimper in Glasgow:
Scotland vs Bangladesh - Match abandoned due to rain
Netherlands 200-4 (28.5 overs) (Szwarczynski 67 off 54, Barresi 64* off 43) beat Bangladesh 199-7 (30 overs) (Imrul Kayes 52 off 50) by 6 wickets with 7 balls remaining.
Losing to Holland at cricket is pretty bad, as England's T20 squad of 2009 will tell you. True, they do have some big hitters and tidy medium pacers, but come on - a full international side should have more than enough nous to win, even in a shortened ODI. The Tigers remain a side who go one step forward and then two back. It must be frustrating for coach Jamie Siddons. Their fielding has improved immeasurably and is probably the best on the subcontinent, but the domestic system and the selection does not give the young players a chance to prove themselves worthy of a place in the side - they are called up too young and then discarded. While this carousel effect remains, they will go nowhere fast, which is a shame because the talent is there.
Tour highlight - it has to be the win in Bristol, their first ever against England. They may not have got enough runs on the board, but it didn't matter as every single bowler contributed in the defence. It's a shame they didn't show their mettle more regularly.
Lowlight - like I said, losing to Holland is bad. But being obliterated by a Sussex side fielding 4 debutants is even worse.
The Australians look in decent shape for the Ashes and the World Cup, but are nowhere near the team they were 5-10 years ago. Star names (Ponting aside) have been replaced with hard-working and resourceful men such as Simon Katich, Marcus North and Doug Bollinger. A team of Paul Collingwoods if you like. They won't let you down but they won't set your pulses racing either. The only unreliable man in the squad, Shaun Tait, is the exception and goodness knows what his availability for both tournaments will be!
Highlight - The Tait show at Lord's. It may have been a consolation win, but what a win. A real team performance, but it was Tait who stood tallest with an amazing burst of 95mph+ bowling to rip through England's batting. They didn't really read his slower ball either!
Lowlight - Having come back from the brink at Old Trafford through Bollinger and Tait, to be denied by Tim Bresnan's last wicket heroics and concede an irreparable 3-0 series deficit must have been a bit of a choker for Ponting et al. He really hates captaining in England.
So now we come to Pakistan. Having impressed in the 2nd test against the Aussies (OK, so I had one eye on it) with high-class swing bowling, the seam attack should find conditions at Trent Bridge to their liking. The Mohammads Aamer and Asif will be the modern day answer to Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis (now head coach), known as the Sultans of Reverse Swing, hence the cute title of this entry, and the batting remains flamboyant and unpredictable. They'll be exciting to watch no matter what happens. Unless it rains. Or if they go off in a huff after being accused of cheating like they did last time they toured. Jimmy Anderson will hold the key for England. Full report next week.
Finally, back to the county matches - I have two winners this week in light of the poor weather, which washed out most of the Championship action:
Stuart Broad (Notts) - OK, I concede, the time spent away from international cricket on strengthening programmes may have done him some good after all. A career-best 8-52 blew Warwickshire away for 100 in the 2nd innings at Edgbaston, leaving a simple run chase, achieved without loss for a 10 wicket win. The weather has been pretty poor in the last couple of weeks, meaning overcast conditions are always likely to favour the bowler. At 133-5 in the 1st innings, Notts will have concurred! A ton from Mark Wagh and 83 from skipper Chris Read rescued the innings, as they grabbed a healthy lead. Broad did the rest, although will be less than thankful for Andre Adams, who nabbed the wicket of Neil Carter (top scorer in both innings with an agonising 99* and 27) and Steven Mullaney, who ran out last man Imran Tahir, after Broad reduced the Bear to 33-7 all by himself! LAD
Mark Ramprakash (Surrey) - Rejoice, for Surrey have won a game at home for the first time in ages! An innings and 175 runs is a margin which reflects the one-sided nature of their contest with Northants. An the original Twinkletoes (or was that Darren Gough?) was the chief wrecker of the Steelbacks with 248 of the finest runs, putting him back as leading run scorer on the circuit past Adam Lyth of Yorkshire. Rory Hamilton-Brown and Matthew Spriegel also notched tons, with Gareth Batty and Chris Tremlett running through the Northants batting lineup twice to bring the crushing victory. It is amazing though how Ramps can still make so many runs so stylishly at the age of nearly 41. LAD.
RM
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