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England’s New Cricket Fantastics
- By Abdul Ruff Colachal
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1.
A visibly unhappy UK premier Gordon Brown can be all smiles now; After all, he has, at long last, on 23, some reason to claim victory over the Tories at least in cricket, and has some thing to feel happy about his 10 Down street new innings when his cricket boys lifted the series after 2005 against Aussies. There were enough twists and turns in this series to keep everyone engrossed. It was a fabulous advert for Test match cricket and who says that the oldest format is dying when you can sample such a great series.
Amid scenes of delirium unwitnessed in South London since the unforgettable summer of 2005, England's cricketers reclaimed the Ashes on a tumultuous fourth afternoon at The Oval, as Australia's brave resistance collapsed. When Swann balled to Mike Hussey, and got him out, caught by Cook, Brown would have felt a satisfied man. England has won back the Ashes after 2005! Magnificent scenes out there! Finally Mike Hussey's heroic innings comes to an end! Australia have slipped to fourth on the ICC Test rankings list just after India, its former partner in joint cricket exercises ( India in fact tricked Australia into the new format of jugglery and thereby weakened the team), England are fifth now with today's victory.
It has been a tremendous series and Eng. Ponting and Australia are devastated now and it seems they have to start all over again from the start, but remember not to play joint exercises in cricket with India or any other team. Lose of number one status in any form of sport cannot be digested by any team and Aussies lose should be the most insulting to Sydney. The 197-run loss in the deciding fifth Test at the Oval on 24 August gave the English hosts a 2-1 series win. England's spirits are very high now. Brown would perhaps employ a couple of cricketers to boost the image of Labor party now in shambles.
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Even while sports are largely used as a tool for economic and weapons trade plus profits, England has at long last won a test in at home against Australia which has already lost collective form, thanks mainly to their nasty joint cricket exercises with terror India. I have time and again pleaded not to trust any personal or team records in cricket as cricket matches smacks of controversies of match fixing, mutual adjustments and special considerations for a specific batsmen and bowlers. Especially that is the case with the long Test matches that lack reliability and respectability as a pure sport. Among all formats of cricket, it is Test that cannot be tested for its truthfulness..
Anti-Islamic fanaticism and “fixed” cricketism may not have common threads but with hidden agendas they do pose serious threat to human civilization. However, 2009 July 20 would be a remarkable day for the Englishmen who introduced this sport to the former British colonies, including "secular' India, relish cricket. Even before Swann threw the last ball to Johnson, out Bowled him, and end the match there, the English boys had won the match.. In fact, on 19 July itself they could have won the match but they seem to have decided to play the fourth day as well since the victory was fancifully glancing at them. It has been a long time when asked about the 75 year jinx at Lord's. Eng win against Aus in a Test for the first time at Lord's since 1934! It was a tremendous achievement from a clinical English side as they ran riot on the final day with Freddie Flintoff bowling unchanged for 10 overs and picking up 3 wickets including the big one of Haddin.
Andrew Flintoff broke England’s 75-year Lord's curse with his first five-wicket haul since the Ashes-clinching Oval Test of 2005. It was, unquestionably, a performance that will enhance his already mythical status within English cricket, but more pertinently for now, delivered England to a 1-0 series lead heading into Edgbaston. Flintoff claimed his third career five-wicket haul by bowling Peter Siddle, and Swann rounded off the innings, and the match, by scything through Johnson's defences. Ricky Ponting said: We were outplayed right through the course of the game, England have been the better team. We've got to bounce back pretty quickly. We've been beaten by over 100 runs in a Test." Andrew Strauss steps up now with a gigantic grin on his face: "It's been a really special victory. To win an Ashes Test match at Lord's is something that plenty of guys have dreamed about over the last 50 or 60 years. We're not going to get carried away, there's plenty of time left in the series."
A 75-year-drought ends as Swann gets one through the advancing. Johnson's early exchanges inspired little confidence that he would be the man to steer Australia to an improbably victory. Johnson half-ducked, half-stabbed at his first delivery from Flintoff and, as with his bowling, looked a shadow of the figure who compiled unbeaten innings of 96 and 123 against the South Africans four months prior. But soon he also fell ending the English strive for a win at the Lords. Strauss gives special mention to Flintoff, who he says was "magnificent" on Monday the 20th July. He also admits to a bit of indecision about whether to enforce the follow-on. Flintoff grabs one of the stumps and acknowledges the crowd, gets hugs from all his team-mates after what can only be described as a match winning spell this morning, in his last Lord's Test. Fittingly, it's Flintoff who leads England off the field, clapping a stump and the ball together and he gets a standing ovation.
Look at the way Pakistan team is “playing” with bat and ball in Sri Lanka soon after their glorious Twenty20 innings in London becoming world champions by outclassing all the best available teams, while the former champs India lost their way very early. Here, England dominated for the vast majority and was the deserved winners with Strauss and Flintoff the stars. For Australia, well, they have plenty to work on before the third Test at Edgbaston. They may not have lost a Lord's Test since 1934 but the good news for Australian fans is it looks that they went on to win that series. The loss of their sole centurion while still 165 runs in arrears of England appeared the death knell for Australia’s aspirations of a world-record run chase. And when Nathan Hauritz was bowled shouldering arms to Flintoff the next over, an England victory was all but assured.
3.
Match fixing is nothing new to England, the fatherland (or motherland?) of cricket. There seem to be several codes and techniques of match fixing. One is to support the losing team by prolong the match and offering them some more runs.. The English boys could have prolong the match to the fifth day as well since they were almost on the victory stand, but they some how decided not to fool the poor spectators and quickly finished the match on the fourth day itself.
The matches were prolonged July 20 by England after the seeing the victory right in front of the team, to complete the days allotted that way. After that the match between Australia and England at the Lords offers full justification for any appeal and endorsement for allegations of “adjustments”.. The way the English boys prolonged the match to the fourth day testifies that fact beyond any iota of doubt that there just want to “play” with the pre-paid spectators. England could have easily won the match with a big lead one day earlier because they had big lead and secured the important wickets rather quickly. When the spectators - and not the commentators who are post paid- were expecting to get up as early as possible as the end point is already in sight and it was only a matter of minutes, and not even an hour, to close the Second test, the English bowlers just played mischief by prolonging the match extending it to the next day as well. If time had permitted they could have extended the match to some more days. That is indeed the art of fantistics!
Pakistan has set a new world recordin Twenty20, but the genocides of Muslims in Pakistan by GSTs state terror forces supported by the Islambad regime seem to have troubled the cricketers as well and they seems to have lost their form collectively now, although they managed to win the last two, inconsequential, matches, rather comfortably after loosing the series to the hosts in Lanka. Skipper Younis Khan said they won both at the end because of the day-night match shift (Was he just joking? please ask him if day/night matches alone suit Pakistan).
England has won the Test series after 2005, fine. But why the English boys could not win Test matches against Australia for 75 long years? How are they going to fair in ODIs and 20/20s? I mean, will there be some “friendly” understanding?
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Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
Specialist on State Terrorism
India
abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com
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