Best Times For English Cricket?

Posted: Saturday, September 25, 2010 by Sanya Michelangelo in Labels: , , , ,
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Since 1st July '09, England have only lost one series, to Australia in England (6-1). Apart from that all one-day, Tests and Twenty20 series have either been drawn or won by England. During this time, England also reached the semi-final of Champions Trophy and won their first ICC Tournament - World Twenty20 in the West Indies. England have encountered Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and Bangladesh and different teams in ICC Champions Trophy (Defeated Sri Lanka, South Africa, lost to New Zealand and Australia) and ICC World Twenty20. This summer has been amazing too. This season, England have played 29 matches and won a staggering 21 out of them and lost 7 games. England have never won so many matches in a season before. The only low was losing their first match to Bangladesh. England played 20 matches in the winter and won 12 of them, lost 6. This year, England have played 38 matches so far, winning 27 and losing 9 of them. In the last 10 years, the win/loss ratio hasn't been so good in any year.

Shah was the most impressive in the Champions Trophy and Swann and Morgan have made a lot of difference. Morgan has played a big role in some chases. England used to be crap at chasing, they are better but still win more when they defend. The bowlers are exciting. No England spinner has been as successful as Swann, now regarded as the best spinner in the world. And the fast bowlers have been doing their job very well. Hoggard, Harmison were dropped for Broad, Anderson in New Zealand. And I was very critical of playing Broad in Tests but he is good enough now. Harmison did come back, thanks to KP, but went out again. Sidebottom was great in Tests in '08 but he was dropped later. He has been the most successful in county but England have under used him and thus, he retired. What some people and ECB don't understand is that it's not necessary to play the same bowlers in all or even 2 formats. Wasn't right to bring Broad into Tests, Bresnan into Tests, Yardy in one-dayers. They realised that they need to drop Jimmy from Twenty20s, that was so right, just at the wrong time. Sidebottom and James Anderson are much better in Tests than the shorter formats. Andrew Flintoff played a big role in the start of this new era - in the Ashes '09 but he retired this month. Sidebottom retired too. The future of fast bowling is bright, with Steven Finn, Ajmal Shahzad, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Liam Plunkett, Chris Tremlett and Chris Woakes.

England vs Pakistan one-day series posts:

1st one-day: Pak's carelessness pays off as England defeat Pakistan in 1st ODI
2nd one-day: England triumph in tight clash 
3rd one-day: Pakistan win thriller to come back in the series               
4th one-day:  Superb Bowling and Razzaq Routs England, Series Levelled
5th one-day: England Drubs Pakistan to Finish Summer On A High

Other recent posts (As on 25th Sep '10): 

4 comments:

  1. sunny says:

    The Ashes will go to a far extent determining how good Englad is I reckon. There isn't much doubt however that England have progressed a lot since the past year, and they owe much to Morgan for that.

    Seems like you've been in the cricket blogosphere since quite a while but never noted you before. Nice to see a girl doing the job, will blogroll you right now!

    Cheerio.

  1. Yeah, Ashes will be a good test. England would the best team if they win the Ashes (Not talking about ICC rankings).

    Well, I started this blog in January '09 but only got serious in mid-June this year. And the title of the blog was "jimmymycrushie" till earlier this month. And there were about 50 England cricket posts and 8 posts about other topics. Thanks for blogrolling!

  1. Anonymous says:

    Good blog - England have done well, very well recently. But being England having won six in a row they're bound to lose the next one - which just happens to be the Ashes!

  1. Unknown says:

    It's good to see England doing well for quite some time now...

    And Sunny, yes Morgan is good! Very good, in fact! But the major share of the credit must go to Swann.