Mitchell Johnson is looking people in the eye again off the field. Before the Test in Leeds he avoided returning stares in the city's centre but after his second-innings breakthrough of 5 for 69 he has started to feel comfortable about his bowling and position in the team. It doesn't mean he's cured.
Johnson is not a blokey fast bowler who swears, shouts and bumps shoulders when he meets people. Away from the middle his voice is soft and uncertain, like he's willing himself to believe what he's saying. As he explained the troughs on his Ashes tour he sighed a lot, sucked in deep breaths and paused, not for dramatic effect but to plan the right words. It was easy to feel sorry for him, an unfamiliar emotion for someone who can be so brutal with a cricket ball. Nobody offered him a hug.
The team had celebrated levelling the series the previous night, which slowed his thoughts, but he brightened when talking about his bowling improvements. Then he shifted uneasily back to dealing with the problems that derailed the first half of his tour: losing his accuracy, having his place under threat and a family dispute which became public.
"It's been a bit different than normal," he said. "The first two Tests especially, I felt a bit more pressure than I have in the past. I've started to handle it a lot more now."
Troy Cooley, an assistant coach, helped with the bowling rebuild and Ricky Ponting and Brad Haddin were the most supportive team-mates. Messages arrived from home as he struggled through the opening games and also had to deal with his mum saying his girlfriend had snatched him from the family.
"It's been different for me, having not been in this situation before in personal matters," he said in between some long breaks to reconsider the severity of the past five weeks. He continues to insist his family wasn't the reason for his bowling slide, but the episode had to affect him. When he was running in at Lord's he was thinking about his wrist position, front-arm pull-down and "everything that I could".
Top Curve
How Johnson has fared in the Ashes
* Cardiff
3 for 87 off 22 overs
2 for 44 off 22
* Lord's
3 for 132 off 21.4
0 for 68 off 17
* Birmingham
2 for 92 off 21
* Leeds
1 for 30 off 7
5 for 69 off 19.3
Bottom Curve
That second Test, when he sprayed 3 for 132 off 21.4 overs, was the lowest point of his trip. "I didn't really know where they were going, to be honest," he said. "I bowled a lot of wide, short balls. That was a pretty tough moment for me. To be copping it from the English crowd, I didn't know how to deal with it at the time, it was the most I've copped it."
He was bowling so badly he thought he could be dropped, a scenario which was unthinkable when he blasted through Graeme Smith and South Africa earlier in the year. "It was in the back of my mind," he said. "Obviously, you're not going well and you start thinking a lot of things, that [being left out] was one of the things that was popping into my mind."
Outside the team hotel he was under threat and suddenly a target for ridicule. During the third game at Edgbaston, where he slowly improved, the England supporters sang "Super Mitchell Johnson" when he got the ball. He kept them quiet in Leeds in the second innings, starting with three wickets on the second afternoon and another two the following day.
When Johnson ended the match by bowling Graham Onions, Ponting, the compassionate captain, ran to the boundary to collect the match ball and presented it to his bowler. "It's great to have that support when you're not at your best," he said. "Now it's great to have a little bit of form and go into the last Test with some confidence." He will enter the game at The Oval on August 20 with 16 wickets at 32.62.
Johnson was used at first-change in Leeds and it allowed him to feel his way into the game instead of being forced to perform straight away. Rather than worrying why the ball wasn't swinging in the first over of the match he was able to field for half an hour while planning ways to embarrass Ian Bell. England's middle order was run through quickly on both occasions and in the second innings he mixed searing short balls with clever inswingers to the right-handers. Bell was a victim on both occasions.
He wants to play the tour game against England Lions at the weekend to continue to fine-tune before The Oval. "I've been on a few tours when it takes me a couple of games to get going," he said. "I'd like to keep the ball rolling."
The next time things go bad he will consult the checklist he made during the games in Cardiff and London and stop reading the papers. He will limit his technical thoughts to the nets and focus on running in and bowling fast. "And keeping puffing my chest out," he said, "getting in the contest with a stare here and there."
That approach doesn't suit the kind Johnson even though he looks like a mid-weight kickboxer when his hair is cropped and cheeks are stubbled. "I don't normally say too much," he said at the end. He was talking about his on-field persona but it reflected his overall personality. By manufacturing this new, part-time character he has eliminated some of his troubles.
want to play bingo games
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cricket. Show all posts
Monday, August 10, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Vaughan confirms immediate retirement
| ||
| Related Links Analysis : A tale of two dream runs News : Pietersen lauds Vaughan's timing News : Vaughan was excellent behind the scenes - Trescothick Features : Michael Vaughan - Six of the best Player/Officials: Michael Vaughan Teams: England | ||
Michael Vaughan has confirmed at a press conference in Edgbaston that he is to retire from all forms of professional cricket with immediate effect. He departs the international scene as England's most successful Test captain of all time - with 26 wins from his 51 matches in charge.
His achievements also include leading England to their first Ashes victory against Australia for 18 years in 2005; a first Test series win in South Africa for forty years - also in 2005 - and presiding over eight consecutive Test wins in 2004.
As a batsman, he scored 18 Test hundreds for England following his debut in 1999 and was ranked the number one batsman in the world following the 2002-03 Ashes in Australia in which he made 633 runs including three centuries.
Vaughan said: "After a great deal of consideration, I've decided that now is the right time to retire from cricket. It has been an enormous privilege to have played for and captained my country and this is one of the hardest decisions I have had to make."
Vaughan added that he reached his decision two weeks ago during Yorkshire's County Championship fixture against Worcestershire at New Road, when he realised that he was starting to hold back the younger players in the Yorkshire dressing-room. "Senior players have to be enthusiastic and I wasn't that passing on," he said. "I want to give them the chance to play first-class cricket and go on to play for their country."
 | |||
| |||
 |
"Playing cricket has been my life for 16-17 years, so to hand it over without a chance to play again is hard," he said. "I've given it my best shot, I wanted to give it one last hard effort to get into the Ashes squad, but I haven't been playing well enough and my body hasn't been holding up. But this is where my life starts, so it's an exciting time for me."
"I'd like to record my sincere thanks to the England fans and the ECB and the members and supporters of Yorkshire County Cricket Club for their unstinting backing throughout my career as well as my wife Nicola and the rest of my family who have been equally supportive."
"I'm also extremely grateful to all of the players, managers, coaches, media and administrators I've worked with, who have all contributed to making my career so enjoyable and fulfilling.
"I'd also like to wish Andrew Strauss and the current England team success in this Ashes series. I know they have the drive, ambition and abilities to repeat the success from 2005. Winning that series was most definitely the highpoint of my career, because we not only won the series, but captured the nation, which cricket hasn't done for a long, long time."
"I want to be remembered as a nice player on the eye to watch, and as someone who gave my all. I leave with no regrets. I captained with an instinctive nature and I was fortunate to lead a determined team that played with an aggressive style."
Commenting on his decision, ECB chief executive David Collier said: "Everyone associated with cricket in England and Wales will be forever grateful to Michael Vaughan for his immense contribution to the England team's success. His achievement in leading England to victory against the number one ranked team in the world, Australia in 2005, was arguably the finest by any England captain in the modern era."
Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket, said: "As an international captain Michael ranks among the very best and the way in which he and Duncan Fletcher forged a team capable of winning six consecutive Test series stands as testament to his ability to inspire and motivate those around him.
"He was also a marvellous ambassador for England cricket off-the-field as well as on it and someone who genuinely appreciated the generous support he received from the thousands of England supporters who follow the team at home and abroad. No-one who saw his magnificent hundreds in Australia in 2002-03 will forget the contribution he made to the team as a batsman either - he will be rightly remembered as a player of the highest class."
England's captain, Andrew Strauss said: "I count Michael as a good friend as well as a team-mate and I know what a tough decision this will have been for him as he took so much pleasure and pride in representing his country.
"I learned a great deal from watching him captain the side for five years at close hand and his ability to identify a new strategy for outwitting the opposition or bring the best out of his own players was a priceless asset.
"But more than anything we as players will miss the enormous sense of fun and enjoyment that Michael brought to the dressing room. He will be missed by everyone connected with the team and we wish him every success in his future career."
Yorkshire's chief executive, Stewart Regan, said: "Michael Vaughan is a class act and will be remembered by Yorkshire members and supporters around the world for his beautiful stroke play and of course his success in leading England to Ashes glory in 2005.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Vaughan expected to announce retirement
Michael Vaughan, the man who led England to more Test victories than any other captain, is expected to announce his retirement from all cricket this week. A press conference has been scheduled for 11.30am at Edgbaston on Tuesday, at which it is widely anticipated that he will call time on his 16-year first-class career.
Vaughan has struggled with injuries to his right knee which kept him out of cricket for over a year between November 2005 and May 2007. In January, he withdrew from the IPL auction to concentrate on getting back into the Test side in time for the Ashes, but still lost out on a place in the 16-man pre-Ashes squad.
| |||
| |||
|
It had been speculated that Vaughan's final appearance for Yorkshire would take place in Sunday's Twenty20 Cup fixture against Derbyshire at Headingley, but he was omitted from the starting line-up for that match. According to Stewart Regan, Yorkshire's chief executive, any official announcement is on hold until Vaughan has met with the ECB, to whom he is still centrally contracted.
"There is a meeting between Michael and the ECB scheduled for tomorrow, and after that it will be up to the ECB to make any formal announcement," Regan told Cricinfo. "Michael has obviously not been selected in the squad today, his place has been taken by Anthony McGrath, and we are very much concentrating on what is a very important game for Yorkshire."
Vaughan, 34, captained England in 51 of his 82 Tests, and won a record 26 of these, including most famously the two matches that enabled England to regain the Ashes in 2005. But he hasn't played international cricket since stepping down from the captaincy during the home series against South Africa last year, and this season he has made only 159 runs at 19.88 for Yorkshire. The last time he scored a century in a competitive match was for Yorkshire in a 50-over game against Surrey in Abu Dhabi this March.
Aside from the growing acceptance that he will never play international cricket again, not least since Ravi Bopara burst onto the scene at the beginning of the season to nail down the No. 3 slot, Vaughan is believed to be wary of hampering the opportunities of young talent at Yorkshire - among them Jonathan Bairstow, the 19-year-old son of the former England wicketkeeper, David, who made his debut this season.
"If Vaughan really is packing it in I can understand his decision, though it's a sad day for all of us who played in 2005," Steve Harmison told The Mail on Sunday. "He was a great leader on the field. He knew how to get the best out of me, by telling me I was the best bowler in the world. Maybe he was lying, maybe it was kidology but he knew how to press the buttons and we all wanted to play for him."
Vaughan scored three centuries out of a tally of 633 runs in the 2002-03 Ashes that preceded his 2005 triumph, and was one of the few English cricketers whom Australia hold in the highest regard. "I was slightly shocked about Vaughan not getting the inclusion [in the current Ashes squad]," said Brett Lee last week, "more so from what he's done against us in the past, he's got the utmost respect from all our players."
If, as expected, he does call it quits this week, the timing of Vaughan's retirement will serve to spare the current Ashes team endless speculation about his chances of a recall, should early results against Australia go against them. One of his finest achievements as captain was to shield the side against panic in 2005, after a heavy defeat in the first Test at Lord's. The same side was retained for each of the first four matches of the series.
Vaughan is highly likely to remain close to the action this summer, however, as he is sure to be welcomed straight into the Sky commentary box, alongside his former team-mates and fellow England captains, Mike Atherton and Nasser Hussain, and his most formidable Ashes foe, Shane Warne.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
West Indies labour in huge chase
England's batsmen took their turn to set up an emphatic victory as the home England has scored 328 for 7 wickets prior was played excellent perfumes in the team total game his performed was good and its amazing shots are played some time is played a some shots in this game and is career-best 87 and is given a good partnership with Owais Shah and shah also played a greate shots in this game and is playd 75 runs. powered England to an imposing 328 and once Chris Gayle fell early there was never any chance of West Indies getting near.
end of the game 328 was the highest ODI total at Edgbaston, and their sixth highest of all time and westindies players was really underpresser afetr Andrew Strauss,in his last international outing before the Ashes, and Ravi Boppara was opend with a stand of 81.England's use of the batting Powerplay has often come under scrutiny, but here they made full use of it by adding 55 in five overs as Prior and Shah cut loose and clean late striking meant 98 off the last 10.
if they were to have any realistic hope of chasing down for 329 score, West Indies needed a big innings from their captain and good score required from the power play, but after two early boundaries Gayle fell in the third over when he spooned an attempted pull to mid-on. After a brief shower, Sarwan opened his account with consecutive fours off Stuart Broad only to fall in the next over when he miscued a drive to cover where Strauss held a smart one-handed catch jumping to his left this is a greate catch for strauss.
Bravo at least provided a momentary spark with two sixes off Dimitri Mascarenhas, but his fun ended when the deserving Tim Bresnan trapped him on the back foot. From there the game drifted towards a soporific finish, a suitable climax to a tour that won't linger long in the memory. It must be hoped that the ICC World Twenty20 can spark the summer into life.
England can't be blamed for making it a one-sided contest and a one-sided series They have done all that could have been asked of them in the opening weeks of the season, following up their convincing Test wins with efficient displays of one-day cricket and strauss is played good game wit shah and prior and batting first was a useful experience as it meant they had to pace the innings and assess what a decent target would be.
end of the game 328 was the highest ODI total at Edgbaston, and their sixth highest of all time and westindies players was really underpresser afetr Andrew Strauss,in his last international outing before the Ashes, and Ravi Boppara was opend with a stand of 81.England's use of the batting Powerplay has often come under scrutiny, but here they made full use of it by adding 55 in five overs as Prior and Shah cut loose and clean late striking meant 98 off the last 10.
if they were to have any realistic hope of chasing down for 329 score, West Indies needed a big innings from their captain and good score required from the power play, but after two early boundaries Gayle fell in the third over when he spooned an attempted pull to mid-on. After a brief shower, Sarwan opened his account with consecutive fours off Stuart Broad only to fall in the next over when he miscued a drive to cover where Strauss held a smart one-handed catch jumping to his left this is a greate catch for strauss.
Bravo at least provided a momentary spark with two sixes off Dimitri Mascarenhas, but his fun ended when the deserving Tim Bresnan trapped him on the back foot. From there the game drifted towards a soporific finish, a suitable climax to a tour that won't linger long in the memory. It must be hoped that the ICC World Twenty20 can spark the summer into life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
