Posts tagged with ‘Stuart Broad’

South Africa are just about the best team in the world right now. England are hopeful, but in reality they have got their work cut out. Here’s what they have to do to overcome the odds.

Shane Warne has a habit of saying things in the press that English cricket does not want to hear and that come back to bite us. Remember what he said about Ravi Bopara before the Ashes? Five months after becoming England’s latest pre-ordained Ashes hero, RavBop didn’t even make it into the Performance Programme.

So when Warne writes in his Times column that England will ruin Stuart Broad, now a bona-fide Ashes hero, we should start to worry. A lot.

The ECB are considering whether county cricket needs a transfer system. The move of Steven Davies from Worcestershire to Surrey recently, and of Stuart Broad from Leicestershire to Nottinghamshire in 2007 highlights the problems for smaller counties who develop talented young players from an early age. This is one area where cricket could learn a valuable lesson from football.

Aside from the 3-0 scoreline, there are signs that the England team just aren’t that into this ODI series. First Stuart Broad and now Paul Collingwood and James Anderson are being rested from the team.

The stage was set for England’s all-rounder to take centre-stage, to win the Ashes with one final, devastating display before bowing out of Test cricket. That was Andrew Flintoff’s script for the Oval.

Today, Stuart Broad stole that script, crossed out Freddie’s name and wrote his own.

This (impending) defeat will rank as highly as, if not higher than, any of England’s regular ’90s maulings. They have been truly embarrassing, like senile old men who have soiled themselves, shuffling about aimlessly, muttering incomprehensibly.

England 425, Australia 156/8; Hussey 51, Anderson 4/36
What a day for England.  Australia belonged to Jimmy Anderson today, he owned them with both bat and ball.  Despite Strauss lasting only two balls, Anderson and Onions produced a vital partnership to get England beyond 400.
With the ball, Anderson quickly did for Phil Hughes, and then removed [...]

As emotive as England’s late escape was yesterday, the team will be under no illusions – they were thoroughly outplayed. With the 2nd Test following just a few days behind, Strauss will need to regroup his team fast. Here are the areas that are of concern.

To be honest, this was probably as far as they were expected to get. That they managed to bounce back from the humiliation against Holland was creditable, and the victory over India was a feather in their cap.

Stuart Broad’s decision to stay in England in order to prepare for the International summer seems ever more vindicated. Meanwhile, a century on his Middlesex debut for Philip Hughes suggests that all the fuss made about his Ashes warm-up may be irrelevant after all.