Besahara England at the Oval

When two best Test sides in the world battle for supremacy then you will certainly expect a mouthwatering contest. South Africa and England are the two most dangerous sides in Test cricket at present and before the Test series started they created enough hype of a thrilling and exciting contest.

My mind was focused on Oval and was dying to watch some daring attitude from both the sides. But sadly, I ended up watching one side’s total supremacy and the other’s timid surrender.

South Africa, since the second day of the Test match till the final day, dominated in total command to leave the English plenty to ponder for the second Test match. In one of the most scintillating display of power cricket, South Africa nailed England with gritty batting and then broke their backbone with venomous fast bowling.

England were digested an innings defeat.

England did dominate on day 1 and when the Proteas bowlers came back with a bang on day 2, I was happy thinking that an exciting Test match is coming up. But it was not to be. For two days the world witnessed a fine exhibition of sturdiness, grit, perseverance and artistry of Smith, Amla and Kallis and the venomous pace bowling of Steyn and Morkel which simply drowned England.

Oval offered a one sided contest which was not supposed to be. To essay a gritting contest both the teams must show the same kind of intention and attitude to make the contest simmering.

Where was England? Why they failed to live up to their reputation? Why did they fail miserably?

There were reasons behind this flop show.

Poor display by the English bowlers:

The Oval track was flat earlier and in course of time it got slow and low. A fast bowler needs to show intensity, hostility and aggression to crack down a batsman’s grit on such tracks. The English bowlers lacked the intensity to pitch the ball up to the batsmen and bowl on a fullish length; they lacked the aggression to generate a consistent pace and the hostility to put shiver down the batsmen’s spine – Anderson, Broad and Bresnan were impotent. You can’t blame the track as on the same track Steyn and Morkel were instrumental.

Again, the track was tailor made for Swann to execute his guiles. But to the surprise of all he proved a total flop – a lot of off-spin without a doosra. As Mark Nicholas pointed out, “On slow pitches the doosra is the trump card simply because the batsmen cannot play back so safely. The doosra is the unknown: it is the fear of the unknown.”

I just feel the addition of Monty Panesar could have given the English attack some added variety given the fact that the Proteas aren’t good against spin and the track was on the slower side. A spin duet of left and arm combination might have proved fruitful. 

Absence of a Paul Collingwood at slip, gully and backward point:

Over the years the English have squandered plenty of chances at slip, gully and backward point positions. In the past such positions were guarded by Paul Collingwood and for which dangerous partnerships were broken most often by some athletic fielding display. On the second day Andrew Strauss dropped Hashim Amla while fielding at slip and in the end it proved too costly.

Poor batting temperament:

Resistance was the order of the day when England came out to bat in the second innings. But in turn they kept on losing wickets after wickets. Other than Ian Bell none of the batting stalwarts exhibited the kind of grit and perseverance shown by Amla, Smith and Kallis. Steyn and Morkel were sharp and pacy but while batting for the number 1 Test side in the world you should apply application rather than poor temperament.

No doubt the Proteas had dished out a master class to rattle the English, but it looked even more dazzling due to lack of bite in England’s performance. I am hurt as a cricket fan as I was expecting a simmering contest. This defeat hurt not only me but all Test cricket lovers because England were too dismal and they have denied us from a classic contest, they have denied us from ‘The Clash Of The Titans."


Thank You
Faisal Caesar