Left field

England on the brink of famous triumph

Ricky Ponting made the long, lonely walk back to the dressing room after another Ashes failure on Tuesday as England moved to the brink of a famous triumph at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)

The sight of Ponting’s wickets shattered after he had scrapped to 20 runs in 73 balls summed up his own personal decline and that of his once-dominant team.

England, still leading by 246 runs after their first innings 513,  just need to take four more Australian wickets on Wednesday to ensure they become the first England team to return home from Australia with the Ashes in 24 years.

Mick Tsikas took the picture.

England enjoy a perfect day at MCG

England gave the perfect response to those who had written them off  after the 267-run drubbing in Perth with a day of absolute dominance in front of 84,345 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday.

The first day of the “Boxing Day” test at the MCG is one of the great fixtures on the Australian sporting calendar but Andrew Strauss and his team were superior in every area of play to skittle the hosts for 98 runs and reach 157 without loss at the close of play on day one of the fourth Ashes test.

Without a doubt, writing off either of these teams in this closest of  test series was a mistake and the momentum is now firmly back in the tourists’ camp. 

Mick  Tsikas’s picture shows the excellent James Anderson celebrating the cheap dismissal of Mike Hussey, Australia’s totemic batsman in this series so far, along with skipper Andrew Strauss.

Does sporting immortality still beckon for Pietersen?

A casual remark from Pakistan fast bowler Wahab Riaz last week illustrated how swiftly life moves on in elite sport.

Riaz was asked which of the five England wickets he had captured in his test debut at the Oval had given him the most satisfaction.

The answer was not Kevin Pietersen, England’s premier batsman with more than 5,000 test runs and 16 centuries. Instead Riaz nominated Eoin Morgan, scorer of 234 runs with one century.

Even six months ago such a statement would have seemed inconceivable.

One transcendent innings at Lord’s in the final test against Pakistan this week would silence the doubters but something is clearly something amiss with Pietersen, who has not scored a test century since March last year. He dropped out of the 2009 Ashes series with injury and averages 28 in the current series against Pakistan, including 80 at Edgbaston where he was dropped three times.

The decline dates back to the start of last year when Pietersen, then the England captain, called for the removal of coach Peter Moores before a series in the Caribbean. Moores did go but Pietersen, misreading the implications of his stance in a highly political role, also lost his job.

Pietersen is currently without a county, finding the demands of playing for Hampshire incompatible with his decision to live in the upmarket west London suburb of Chelsea. It is an instability that has marked his cricket career.

The importance of keeping talent in reserve

Maintaining the strength in depth to cope with injury crises is as crucial for the management of a top-class team as it is difficult to master, writes William James.

The recent experience of England’s rugby team is testament to this after being forced to pick a squad without twelve regular members.

Similarly just 10 games into soccer’s Premier League season, managers of the big four clubs have been forced to field reserves. Liverpool handed big-game debuts to Daniel Ayala and Jay Spearing, while injuries forced Arsenal to thrust goalkeeper Vito Mannone into the Champions League spotlight.

The challenge for any team is to keep a pool of talent bubbling underneath the first team that is both able and experienced enough to step up to the next level. Teams invest vast amounts into scouting young talent, but experience is harder to buy.

Managing the gulf between the first team and the reserves is key to ensuring the consistency that brings league titles and secures international trophies. What this soccer season has shown already is that this issue warrants much greater attention.

Second-string teams competing in football’s reserve leagues are given over largely to youth and those returning from injury, while more senior players lose match sharpness bench-sitting for the first team.

The loan deals that provide young players with the experience to slot back into first team action are too inflexible to work; lower-league sides demand season-long loans and control over players.

Ashes analysis: Just how much will England miss Flintoff?

A stunning spell by Andrew Flintoff saw Australia’s last five wickets tumble for just 93 runs as the tourists came under an intense barrage of brutal deliveries from England’s retiring talisman, who secured his side their first test victory over Australia at Lord’s since 1934 by 115 runs.

If anybody ever questioned what England would be missing once Flintoff retires at the end of this series, they got their answer in spades as Lancashire’s finest bowled unchanged for nine overs from the Pavilion End, returning figures of 3 for 33, and completing his first five-wicket haul in an innings for four years.

There was heightened tension at the start of play as Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke resumed their partnership, with Australia 313 for five overnight and threatening to overhaul a world record run chase and steal a 1-0 lead in the series. But Flintoff had other ideas.

Haddin was the first to go, failing to add to his overnight score of 80 as he could only edge a vicious lifting delivery from Flintoff to Collingwood at second slip, in the England man’s first over.

The wicket tangibly eased England’s and their supporters’ anxieties, leading to a sense that Australia were finally there for the taking.

Realising England were going for the jugular, and with only the bowlers left to bat with, Clarke bravely went on the offensive, repelling England’s vulture like fielders with some attacking stroke play.

But Australia’s only centurion in the match ended up perishing for 136 going for one positive shot too many, missing a Graeme Swann off-break, which rocked back the Aussie’s off stump.

England cannot underestimate Australia’s new mix

The selection of Australia’s Ashes squad has compounded England’s worst fears. This is a team more than capable of successfully defending the little urn.

There may be no Shane Warne, Adam Gilchirst or Glenn McGrath in the lineup but what the squad lacks in star quality it makes up for in depth.

Players were picked on form and not reputation. For the first time since the golden generation retired, Australia’s selectors chose a side without having to panic.

They now possess one of the longest batting lineups in recent test history with Mitchell Johnson, who bats at eight, averaging 34.70 and coming off the back of an unbeaten century against South Africa.

Australia’s two new exciting openers, Simon Katich and Phillip Hughes, are in great form. Both are left-handers and play for the same state team although they could not be more different.

Katich is 33, always deadly serious, and in his second stint in the side after returning last year following a three-year absence. Like so many other Australian batsmen who have been through that same experience, he has re-emerged as a much tougher player.

England cricketer Anderson holds unlikely record

When England nightwatchman James Anderson smashed West Indies seamer Lionel Baker for four late on the first day of the second test he extended one of the more surprising records in test cricket.

The fast bowler has now played 48 test innings without being dismissed for a duck, three more than his nearest rival Yasir Hameed of Pakistan.

However, before anyone gets too excited about the fact that a genuine tail-ender with a test average of 13.77 holds this record, it needs a bit of explanation.

A glance down the list Anderson heads does not reveal many illustrious names and merely proves that good players do regularly get out without troubling the scorers.

Other statistics are a bit more revealing.

South African AB De Villiers went 78 test innings before registering his first duck, three more than the great Sri Lankan Aravinda De Silva.

Swann could be key to England Ashes hopes

At 30 years old England spinner Graeme Swann is no spring chicken, but since his first taste of international cricket ended up with him oversleeping and missing the bus this story could have a bit of a fairytale feel about it if things continue to go well … Not so much Swann Lake as The Ugly Duckling, perhaps?

The focus heading in to England’s second Test has been on local hero Graham Onions, and latterly the West Indies captain Chris Gayle, after he said he would “not be so sad” if Test cricket were to disappear.

While Onions bowled well at Lord’s I suspect Swann has the capacity to have the greater impact during the Ashes series and it’s vital for England that he maintains his form against the WIndies this week.

Swann bagged six wickets and a maiden test half century, earning him the player of the match award in England’s 10-wicket win last week.

There’s no doubt that England will need a solid bowling unit this summer. But equally important is the inclusion of a lower order batsman such as Swann to shore up the innings like he did at Lord’s on Wednesday and Thursday.

England’s Ashley Giles ‘The King of Spain‘ did an important job in that respect in the 2005 Ashes when he averaged 15.5 from 10 innings. That might not sound a lot, but it’s the staying in that counts and he managed that very well, enabling specialist batsmen to compile bigger scores at the other end.

England need Swann to do that sort of job against Australia. Another performance like the one he gave in the first Test would give the English the perfect pre-Ashes boost

Fleet Street tucks into Onions with relish

We speculated here last week how Fleet Street’s finest headline writers would be sharpening their pencils in glee at the prospect of the splendidly named Graham Onions playing for the England cricket team.

True to form, Britain’s newspapers have gorged themselves in a veritable feeding frenzy after the Durham seamer marked his debut with five wickets in his debut test match at Lord’s on Thursday.

‘Raw Onions flavour of the day as West Indies collapse in tears’ chortled the Guardian’s effort while the Independent stuck to the lachrymose theme with ‘Onions gives West Indies five reasons to be tearful’.

Having failed so palpably to keep their powder dry with the gift horse of the Onions name, one wonders how they can possibly keep it up if the Durham seamer is regularly among the wickets.

‘Onions off to a sizzler’ roared the Daily Mail, picturing the bowler prostrate on the Lord’s track after his fourth wicket.

Bottom marks went, surprisingly, to the Sun for their rather nonsensical ‘String of Onions’ adding the technically incorrect ’5 in the Onion bag’ on its back page for good measure. What happened to the glory days of ‘It’s Paddy Pantsdown!’.

We know our Onions, but what about other foody names?

I defy anyone to read the name Graham Onions without letting off a short, poorly subdued snigger. It’s a brilliant name that brings out the schoolboy humour in all of us.

The Durham seamer’s call-up into the England cricket squad propelled him to the pantheon of headline writers’ dreams alongside Usain Bolt, Ian Rush and Mardy Fish.

Onions relishes show of faith (The Times) They’re crying out for Onions (The Mirror) Onions makes Harmy weep (The Sun)

The Onions household will never have groaned so much over their cornflakes as when assessing Thursday’s newspaper headlines.

Mr Onions (I’m still smiling), however, got myself and Reuters sportsdesk colleagues thinking of other great sportspeople’s names, namely those related to food.

A strict set of criteria was quickly established: the name must be spelt correctly (Patrik Berger, sorry mate but you just don’t cut the mustard), Frankie Bunn also fell foul of the rules.