Alastair Cook

Alastair Cook, like Ian Bell in the previous post, had an excellent start to his career. An unbeaten century against India in his first test set a high bar for his achievements. As can be seen from the graph Cook has been in decline ever since and shows no signs of reversing the trend.

Ian Bell

Career graph for Ian Bell. He had a fantastic start with a 65 and 166 (both) not out against Bangladesh. With the exception of three centuries in three matches in 2006, his career trend is very much downwards -- and quickly.

Paul Collingwood

An updated graph for Paul Collingwood. A long downward trend.

Andrew Strauss

I posted a graph of Andrew's career early in 2008, here is an updated graph. As can be seen he has played better since the start of 2008. Not setting any records though...

Jerome Taylor showcases new West Indies resolve

Jerome Taylor ran in today and bowled like a man who had already seen the script and knew he was the leading man. He knew exactly where to bowl for each batsman. He didn’t bowl super-fast, he just bowled quick enough to make it difficult. He didn’t bowl big swingers or move it excessively off-the-seam, he just bowled in the right place for each batsmen and got touch of movement. His genius was to let each batsmen provide the seeds of their own downfall. Cook, Strauss, Collingwood, Pietersen and Prior; all those wickets were classic dismissals for the respective batsmen. The wicket wasn’t bad, in fact it played more-or-less true but like all good spells of quick bowling it looked difficult to play. The demons played in the batsmen’s heads and they forgot what they were there for – to bat and make runs. Not for the first time English batsmen looked like startled rabbits in a West Indian quick bowling headlight. 9-4-11-5 are spectacular figures and it could easily have been six or seven wickets. It will be interesting to see how Taylor goes in Antigua, there will be lots of expectation on his shoulders; for now Jerome Taylor, take a bow.

England? They batted like rubbish amateurs of course, bowled out for 51 (a recovery from 26-7), how could they be anything else.

Win, Lose or Draw? Part II

It seems the ICC have, in a moment of madness, made the correct decision and decided England did after all win the match against Pakistan at the Oval in 2006. We all know England won. England knows England won. Pakistan knows England won and now it seems the ICC have recognised the fact. What's next: the end of two match Test series?

Bill Frindall MBE - `The Bearded Wonder'

I was going to harp on about how South Africa has just whipped Australia (again) but then I learned that Bill Frindall had died and he seems so much more important. Bill was scorer and statistician for Test Match Special, the BBC's radio cricket commentary show. His accuracy and knowledge of cricket statistics is unmatched and he will be sorely missed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7861363.stm

Michael Vaughan Interviewed

Not a bad interview with Michael talking about his future and how he feels good after a rest. He also talks about the KP row. What is certain is that Vaughan is in a lot better shape than Headingley, behind him, which looks like a badly ploughed field.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/england/7833699.stm

Matthew Hayden

How could Australia replace an opening batsmen like Matthew Hayden? The simple answer is that they cannot and a look at the graph below reveals just why Cricket Australia has been reluctant to drop him. A truly remarkable record consisting of thirty centuries and twenty nine further scores of fifty or more. Twice he has scored hundreds in four consecutive Test matches and twice more he has scored centuries in both innings of a match. He also, of course, held the world record high score of 380 (marked in white).

KP Resigns, Moores Sacked?

Kevin Pietersen has resigned as captain of England and it seems that Peter Moores will be sacked. What a sorry way to run a cricket team -- they are not even playing cricket at the moment!