Ban The Sweep!
I am utterly disgusted this morning. England should not have lost the second Test in Adelaide - but they did! How? Well, I really struggle to work it out. Having scored so freely on the first couple of days, they declare on 551/6, a score which I didn't think was enough at the time (though having said this, I always maintain that you should bat until you're bowled out on first innings). Given the flat nature of the pitch, Australia find the score fairly easy to match, albeit with a little help from Ashley Giles dropping Ricky Ponting on 35, but England can't lose the match. No, it's a dead cert to be a draw.
WRONG! Why? Because England come out in the second innings and display the ability only they have to throw away a game that is impossible to lose. They decide not to play shots, but to just defend instead - not a good policy. I always find scoring runs is a better form of defence - it's called "attack" - and Collingwood scores only 1 run in his first hour at the crease.
That wasn't the worst of it, however. The worst of it was Kevin Pieterson's inability to turn his brain on and play a sensible innings. In his 158 in the first innings, he did not sweep the ball once. The first time he does in the second innings, he is clean bowled. You idiot. The sweep shot should be banned for all England players. They have a complete inability to play the shot well - and I'll admit, I'm a poor player of the sweep too - and it gets them out more times than they ever hit the ball cleanly. So, Duncan Fletcher, please duly fine your players every time they try and play the sweep shot. Leave it to players who can play it well. We sure can't.
While I'm handing out advice, however, I would like to reiterate this over team selection: Ashley Giles is not as good as Monty Panesar. I don't care about his batting - after all, he is a bowler. Do we pick James Anderson on his batting ability? No! So why should we pick any other of our bowlers on that basis? We shouldn't. He got a duck in the second innings, oh, the usefulness!
Secondly, the wicketkeeping position: Geriant Jones should not be picked, especially on his batting, and I've never rated his wicketkeeping either. He scored 11 with the bat in the match - giving him an average a number 11 could not be proud of, on a good batting pitch too. His wicketkeeping is not a good as Chris Read's, and Read's batting is much better than it used to be. Pick him instead, and listen to Shane Warne.
The first 6 players picked should be batters, though it's great if the number 6 can bowl too. Number 7 should be a wicketkeeper, and if he can bat, congratulations, give him a medal. Numbers 8 to 11 should be picked on their bowling ability, nothing else. If you have a problem with the strength of any of those departments on the basis of that selection procedure, maybe you need to invest more time and money into developing better players in the future.
So, there you have it: Noelinho's simple fix for the England cricket team. And yes, I know, it's meant to be Wales too, but face it, Geriant Jones is useless, I'd rather he was on the other team.
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