Spirits Cricket

The test and ODI captain of England cricket team, Alastair Cook, has said that the England team is capable enough to beat India in the upcoming test series even in the absence of Kevin Pietersen. The record of the England team in India is not that good. In the last 17 years, England has won only one test match on the Indian soil. But, the England captain believes that the team will do much better in India this time around.

When asked about the India tour, Cook said, “Beating the Indian team on their home soil is not going to be easy for sure. But, it’s not impossible. I don’t want my team to go into that series with a negative mind set. We should go out there thinking that we can win.”

“We had done pretty well on the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year. The conditions in Sri Lanka were pretty much like India. So, if we can win a test match in Sri Lanka, we can do the same in India as well.”

Cook has been appointed as the captain of the test team after the retirement of Andrew Strauss. Strauss had announced his retirement from test cricket after the series defeat against South Africa. When asked whether the team is going to miss Strauss in India, Cook said, “Yes, definitely, we are going to miss him on India tour. He was a great opening batsman and a very good player of slow bowling. He could have been quite handy in India. But, the youngster who has been selected on his place is quite talented and I am confident that he will play well in his debut series.”

When asked about the exclusion of Kevin Pietersen from the test squad, Cook said, “Any captain in the world would want Kevin Pietersen in his side, but, according to the current situation, he can’t be included in the team due to some issues. Hopefully, he would be back soon.”

Video Rating: 4 / 5

The second test match between South Africa and England seems to be going towards a draw. The rain stopped the fourth day’s play when the score of South Africa was 39 for 0. Earlier in the day, the England team was all out on 425. South Africa made a very good start to the day’s play. Morne Morkel didn’t let Pietersen add even a single run to his overnight score of 149 and trapped him in front of the wicket. That was a big blow for England. Tim Bresnan came to bat after the fall of Pietersen’s wicket and he put up a brief partnership of 45 runs with Prior for the 7^th wicket, but, when the score was 396, Bresnan edged an out swinging delivery from Philander and Graeme Smith didn’t make any mistake  at the position of first slip.

Stuart Broad fell early. He tried to sweep a delivery from Imran Tahir and miscued it. The ball went up in the air and Faf Du Plessis, who was on the field as a substitute fielder, took an easy catch at midwicket. Matt Prior completed his half century in the meantime, but, he wasn’t able to convert it into a hundred. He also tried to sweep a delivery from Imran Tahir which was outside the leg stump and had a bit of bounce. The ball took the top edge of the bat and went straight into the hands of the fielder standing at long leg. The last wicket of England fell in the form of James Anderson who was knocked over by Imran Tahir.

Due to the hamstring injury of Alviro Petersen, Jack Rudolph came to open the second innings of South Africa along with the skipper Graeme Smith. The opening pair started well, but, when the score was 39 for no loss, the umpires stopped the play due to rain.

Video Ranking: 5 / 5

The England Cricket team got into trouble in the first test against South Africa after losing the four early wickets in the second innings. Earlier in the day, South Africa declared its innings at 637 for 2 after taking a big lead of 252 runs. Hashim Amla became the first South African player to score a triple century in test cricket. The elegant right hander played a marathon knock and batted for almost 13 hours. Kallis also played a brilliant knock of 182 runs and these two put up a brilliant partnership of 377 runs. The England batsmen had to apply themselves to save the test match. But, they looked tired in the second innings.

In the second over of the second innings, Alistair Cook edged an away going delivery from Vernon Philander and AB De Villiers made no mistake. In the second consecutive inning, Dale Steyn was not given the new ball and was brought into the attack as the first change bowler. But, soon after coming into the attack, Steyn gave South Africa the second break through when Jonathan Trott edged one through to AB De Villiers. After losing two wickets, there was enormous pressure on Pietersen and Strauss to play with patience and see the day off. But, South African bowlers, especially Morne Morkel, bowled to Pietersen in a planned way. First Morne attacked him with a lot of short pitched deliveries and then suddenly bluffed him with a full pitched one. Kevin was waiting for another short one and got bowled.

The stylish leg spinner Imran Tahir gave South Africa the fourth break through. The English captain, Andrew Strauss, tried to sweep one, but he didn’t time it well and the fielder at square leg had no problem in catching that. England finished the day at 102 for 4 with Ravi Bopara and Ian Bell at the crease. The England batsmen have to work very hard on the 5^th day, if they have to save this test match.

Steve Finn, the fast bowler of the England Cricket Team believes that the squad rotation policy should be looked as a way of developing the next set of national team players and not a deprivation of the fans from seeing their heroes or idols. Finn’s comments come in the wake of the criticism aimed at the team’s decision to rest the likes of Graeme Swann, Tim Bresnan as well as Stuart Broad for the final One Day International match of the series against the West Indies at Headingley on Friday, the 22^nd of June.

According to Finn, it is important and logical for the team to rest the senior players of the team when they have to chance to in order to keep them fresh, and this decision will be better for the team and not worse. He also added that in this case, when the team has already won the series, there is no need for the England Cricket Team to burden their senior players with any unnecessary action.

Moreover, he also upheld the rotation policy by stating that is also important to blood in the new and young players slowly and steadily into the side so that they have the necessary experience when the time comes for them to make the step up to the senior side and take on the responsibility. Head coach Andy Flower has taken the opportunity of being 2-0 up in the series already by calling up youngsters Stuart Meaker, Chris Woakes and James Tredwell to the side for the One Day International match at Headingley.

Steve Finn also went onto add that he himself began his journey into the England Cricket Team as part of the squad players being rotated and blooded into the side some years back and admitted that it was of immense help.