Crucket

“Another day of dominance for SL” read the headline on the Cricinfo Daily e-mail newsletter yesterday. The headline barely expresses the situation; there have been 8 completed days in this test series and each of them have belonged to Sri Lanka, as has the first half of the 9th day. We are now also into the 8th innings of the series. Of the completed 7 innings, the best 4 were the Sri Lankan innings and the worst 3 have been those of New Zealand.

I suppose it is possible for the difference in the teams’ results to be greater in magnitude (NZ have scored over 200 in each of their completed innings after all), but not in consistency.

It might not look like things have changed since the first test, but behind the scenes Sri Lanka has risen to no. 2 in the ICC test rankings. This was due to Australia falling to an embarrassing 4th, rather than Sri Lanka doing anything to push themselves up. But even so, for the no. 7  team, taking on the no. 2 team seems so much more daunting than taking on the no. 3 team.

You wouldn’t quite expect the no. 2 to beat no. 7 in every 2 out of 2 tests. It’s probably more like 1.75 out of every 2 tests. If Sri Lanka win today’s test, they will slightly entrench their no. 2 ranking. Currently both Sri Lanka and India are on 119 points, with Sri Lanka being fractionally higher. A 2-0 series result will bump them to 120 points, pushing them just clear of India.

But if they don’t win, then it is interesting. A draw in this test will actually see Sri Lanka lose points, even though they would have won the series. They will fall to 118 points, into 3rd place. Now, if New Zealand were to win and the series shared, Sri Lanka would fall to 115 points, below Australia, while New Zealand would rise to 86 points (whoa!), actually putting them in 6th place, above Pakistan.

When John Bracewell handed in his papers as New Zealand coach, the nation breathed a sigh of relief. Amongst the welcome changes was that the new coach Andy Moles was not going to be part of the selection panel, so we were to be spared the kind of micro-management that Bracewell carried out with his freedom to drop and pick players. The issue of selection and influence on the team by the team leadership had been an issue before Bracewell’s appointment, with Richard Hadlee revealing that Stephen Fleming had too much influence on team selection when he was captain.

Having either coach or captain with a say in team selection is potentially a serious problem. But now, despite having experience those problems, New Zealand cricket has both its coach and captain as selectors.

Now, there are arguments in favour of these appointments. Namely, it allows the coach to choose the appropriate players for his game plan and it gives the captain the say over what tools he has to use on the field.

However, the arguments against are strong. The selection process, almost by necessity, is a political process. If the captain is part of that it is going to bring the politics onto the field and into the changing room. It has a great potential to upset the team I believe. At some stage Vettori is likely going to be sharing a changing room with someone who previously missed out on selection and possibly blames Vettori for that.

Did Mark Richardson really have so little to talk about after the test that he had to rehash the Murali chucking whine? Or was he just courting some controversy?

We’ve all watched Murali, looking for some elbow bending. And of course, all I can see is bending. And a lot of flipping and a lot of rotating. A lot of rotating. Like 180 degrees. Which is the whole point of Murali’s action. The bend and the rotating gives him a big arc which added to his wrist flipping gives him torque on the ball. That bend is crucial. So why would he straighten?

The first test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka was fairly straightforward. Obviously the food poisoning made any heroics by New Zealand impossible, but even considering that the test was won by the better team who scored more runs and took more wickets.

This Ashes cricket however, I just can’t get a bead on. The state of the series see-saws from test to test. Innings to innings even. From delivery to delivery? How can you understand a series with innings scores ranging from 674/6 to 102? Where the momentum from a win only carries you to an innings defeat? A series where Michael Clarke and Stuart Broad are heroes?

There are only as many as two days left in this test series and Australia are chasing an indomitable 546 runs. But with all the twists and u-turns that have gone before in this series, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Australia rose up and won this test.

If this is how test cricket is supposed to be, then let’s see more of it!

Black Caps go down to Sri Lanka by 200 runs, having owned nothing of this test beyond the first half hour. Bit of an embarrassing day to be a New Zealander, all things considered.

Andy Moles knows the test will be hard to save. He reckons application and discipline will be crucial. Personally, I would prescribe imodium and ginger beer. A bit of the good stuff would also help.

The test is at present out of New Zealand’s hands.  The lead, with the Sri Lankan second innings approaching 100 only 1 wicket down, is about 250. Sri Lanka could declare at any time and expect to win. It really doesn’t matter what New Zealand do. If they were to dismiss the last 9 batsmen for as many runs, all they have done is make Sangakkara’s decision about when to finish the innings for him. If they slow the Sri Lankan batsmen down to a crawl, they’ll just declare a bit later in the day, still leaving them plenty of time to take 10 New Zealand wickets (several of them apparently puking their guts out). Well okay, maybe factoring the weather in makes restricting the run rate worthwhile, but with Dilshan and Sangakkara at the crease, that’s going to be hard work.

I get very nervous watching a lead being built in the third innings. When the lead gets to 30 I start thinking “there’s a wicket’s worth of runs”. When the lead get up over 100 you really want to be able to see the end in sight somewhere. But when the lead starts at 150, each run pushes the target towards dangerous territory, and then beyond.  Each run is a little pain, a little pin prick.

The current test is being played at Galle International Cricket Stadium, which is here:

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Surrounded by sea. So if you are having trouble hearing Brian Waddle’s commentary over the background noise, it is probably the sea breeze and waves breaking against the stadium walls.

Now half way through the first test, with NZ about 100 runs short of the follow on target, 7 wickets in hand. Things not disastrous, touch wood.

Sri Lanka scoring 450 in the first innings certainly puts them ahead and well on the road to a victory.

This is disappointing for New Zealand, but I am getting the feeling that NZ is being judged quite harshly, due it would seem to the low expectations for the team. (If you want to see how low expectations are, check out the first picks in the Sportsfreak tipping competition. Of eight pundits, only one is not picking a whitewash to Sri Lanka. That one is me of course.)

Really, any decent team should score 450 every now and then. It’s not a ridiculously high total and similar scores have been scored at Galle in the last few years, 499/8 two years ago for example.

So what’s my point? Perhaps just that things are not as terrible as the doom-sayers are making out. We should still fancy our chances against Bangladesh later in the season.