Iain O'Brien's Cricket Blog

Suneer Chowdhary is a freelance writer from India. He shares his thoughts with us on a few things topical in the cricket world at the moment. Let us know what you think of Suneer's views which are not necessarily those expressed by Iain. Have to put the disclaimer in :-)

 You can contact Suneer at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com

Johnson and the Aussie soap!

If Andrew Flintoff’s clarion calls for retiring from the most traditional form of the game could have distracted the English team from their bid to regain the Ashes, Mitchell Johnson’s family drama has already made for prime-time viewing – and dissection – and couldn’t have come at a more inopportune moment for the tourists. While one could never be so harsh to blame a singular performance for the loss of a series or even a match, Johnson himself, would be in total cognizance of the fact that things have drastically spiralled down from where they once were in South Africa only a couple of months or so, back.

Australia, I think, had earlier erred in not picking up Stuart Clark in the first game. Even with Johnson being at his wicket-taking best, it wouldn’t have done anyone any harm if the English runs could have been throttled. But with Johnson not exhibiting signs of improvement – as the 0/42 in seven against Northamptonshire shows – it makes it doubly imperative to have Clark hold one end up and buy some wickets; for himself or for the other bowlers. While the Lord’s pitch has always assisted the batsmen in raking up the runs, this one did not seem to be the one in which 736 runs should have been allowed to be scored off 174 overs at an almost ‘T20esque’ run-rate of 4.2!

Despite what happens in the second innings at Northampton, the English batsmen will go after Johnson at Edgbaston – jelly pitch or not – and my surmise is that run-scoring can be controlled better by getting in the line and length bowlers, than have fielders everywhere except the slips and the gully.

One other thing is for sure, it couldn’t have been a tougher baptism for Mitch, and if does get through this phase of cricket, I get a sense that he could emerge a stronger bowler over the time.

Now, only to get out of this quagmire!

Back to square one and into a hole for Pakistan

Some place else, Pakistan cricket has gone through another circle. Around two months ago the things had degenerated to the extent of murmurs doing round that Pakistan may not feature in the 2011 World Cup because of the rebuff by the ICC. Some others said they may not even play the ICC World T20.

They won the tournament – and rather ironically at that, given that it is a format which is highly unpredictable, a trait it shares with the Pakistani team.

A month later, Pakistan has been routed by Sri Lanka in the test series, there are talks of in-fighting, lack of support for the captain, a low-on-confidence opener or two, selectorial dramas...you get the gist? Rather thankfully, the much awaited fuel to fire, that a Geoff Lawson or a Javed Miandad comment could have added, is rather conspicuous by its absence because of the presence of Intikhab Alam, a genial man without too many illusions about the post he has been assigned.

Everything else has been a shocker for the World T20 champions on the tour.

However, if they were to reflect back at the three games, the 0-2 could have easily been reversed, and if I were to stick my neck, with a slightly more experienced bowling line-up, read a clean sweep for the tourists. In the hindsight, it was the pitches that seemed to have taken the Pakistanis by surprise, a far cry from what one has come to expect from the Island nation. The ball swung – both conventionally and otherwise – on most days, and the spinners required guile and subtle variations – of the Daniel Vettori kinds – to have any kind of success on them.

That a quick bowler even ended with a Man-of-the-Series award and the most part-time of medium pacers in Younus Khan scalped a wicket in almost every spell he bowled, said a lot about the greenish tinge on most days of the series. Quite simply, Pakistan were outplayed in their minds.