Hughes falls down to earth with a ‘Harmison’!

Was watching the start of the Aussie 2nd innings yesterday and was quite surprised by how Harmison was really giving it to Phil Hughes with the short stuff.

I hadn’t watched him play before but, from what I’d read, he was supposed to be the next Sir Don with his crazy run scoring against SA as well as for Middlesex. I did notice the fact that he was scoring centuries for fun across 2 formats, so I was quite impressed.

However, what I say yesterday was surprising. I mean, here’s Harmison, stuffing it to him with the short balls. Why didn’t anyone else in the county circuit or SA think about this?

He clearly doesn’t have a leg-side game and it’s quite shocking! It’s like how I can’t play table-tennis with my forehand! There’s only so far that you can go by being able to play on only one side. I did come a cropper when coming to SL, the table tennis players at the school here being much better than what I’d encountered in ‘the foreign land’.

The worst part is that the Ashes is definitely no place to start testing out things. It’s like asking a private to try out different styles of shooting the enemy while he’s on the battlefield.

However, England should not get over-obsessed with Hughes because Katich seems to be silently accumulating runs. Add to that North, Hussey, Clarke and Johnson, and you have a formidable line-up..

Coming to SL cricket, the Summer of Cricket starts with the first day of the first test against Pakistan at Galle. The next 80 days promises to be really cool with 5 tests, 12 ODIs and 3 T20Is in store, so, BRING IT ON!

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Teflon King lives another day!

Having no claim than being a ‘classy player’, the Teflon King, Ian Bell, manages to sneak in the side after Owais Shah made a big claim for his spot with an unbeaten 125 against the St. Kitts & Nevis Invitational XI.

However, I’m still convinced that Ian Bell’s fingernail was responsible for Shah’s scratched cornea. Perhaps Straussy should try to remember who had big fingernails on that day! 🙂

Harmison has been brought in, in the hope that he might recapture the glory of 5 years ago (7/12 in an innings in the very same Sabina Park), and SiBo comes back after a very long break from cricket because of a bad back. Great bloke, he is!

The most relieving thing is that Freddie’s playing! Thank God! Now he should be geared up for the IPL! 😀

All Hail King Pietersen!

I know, I’m quite late on commenting on this, but, the transformation in the side after KP took charge is quite hard to believe, yet, its something that I actually predicted in one of my earlier post.

For those of you who had doubted his ability, and felt that the win in the test and the 1st ODI was a fluke, the 2nd ODI must have served to dispel any doubts. I didn’t watch the match, but the commentary on cricinfo gave me a good idea of exactly what happened. To get a really good side like SA out for 83 on a good batting track really speakes volumes about the way Pietersen has motivated a side which has often lacked the ‘killer instinct’.

Pietersen comes across as a very instinctive captain, who makes bowling changes when his gut tells him that something special may happen, which is precisely how he got Smith (or Gibbs, not too sure) out in the first ODI by giving Samit Patel, an occasional spinner, a bowl.

The fact that Flntoff made a substantial score in the 1st ODI after a very long time also tells you much about how well Pietersen has done to motivate him.

His efforts on Steve Harmison shouldn’t also be forgotten. I had mentioned, in an earlier post, that the recall of Harmison was foolish, because the one – time England bowling coach, Allan Donald, said that nothing was wrong with his technique, just that he had a fear of bowling on the big stage. However, his announcement that he has come out of ODI retirement is a credit to Pietersen’s effort!

KUDOS to Pietersen, and I just sincerely hope that he doesn’t fall into the habit of picking ‘from the family’, like Vaughan used to!

Harmison recalled – Quick fix?

Well, I borrowed the ‘quick fix’ part from Mickey Arthur, but, you know, he does have a point. Allan Donald, when he was the temporary bowling coach for England, did say that nothing was wrong with Harmison technically, he was bowling well, but it was the pressure of international cricket that was affecting him i.e. it was his mind that was responsible for his poor performances. This coming from one of South Africa’s best strike bowler ever!

Therefore, I don’t think that he should be selected anymore, because it’s clear that he can’t handle the pressure of international cricket. Perhaps he’d be better off if he goes into retirement, like Marcus Trescothick, and just enjoy the game while he can!