Yes, England are good, but who'd have thought India were are this bad at Test cricket?

England 3/456 (115 ov, A Cook 182*, A Strauss 87, K Pietersen 63) lead India 224 by 232 runs on 1st innings with 7 wickets in hand: T#3 D2 at Edgbaston

Have there been many more one-sided Test matches? The scorecard says a lot , especially about the high quality of England's batting, with Alistair Cook's 182*/339b (26x4) poohpoohing those who thought his Australian Test summer was a five Test wonder, but it doesn't reveal how feebly India have played. The bowling, Praveen Kumar from time to time excepted, has lacked bite and the fielding has been sub-optimal: often below parkland cricket standard.

The match has already been, unless the weather intervenes, decided.India...though once upon a time there was a Test, when three of the current Indian team were shorter in the tooth, when what looked inevitable didn't turn out that way .




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Double vision: good day for both England (in Test) and Australia (in ODI)

Overnight, courtesy of the Foxtel/ Fox sports red button (a well kept secret which deserves to be more widely promoted), I was able to keep an eye on two intriguing international fixtures at the same time. If you didn't opt via the button to watch one match on full screen, you could watch two parallel, albeit smaller, pictures showing vision from England v India T#3 at Edgbaston and Sri Lanka v Australia ODI #1 at Kandy.

I didn't last the night or, for that matter, far into it, but I did watch the highlights earlier today which confirmed my early opinions of English and Australian dominance in the respective fixtures.

England 0/84 are bearing down on India's paltry 224 while Australia regrouped after Sri Lanka got out of the blocks and, with the mercurial Mitchell Johnson in top form, won comfortably.

England still have a way to go, but it's hard to see them losing the match from here. Australia will be hoping that (and wondering whether) Johnson can reproduce his form in the remaining matches. I'd prefer to see him do so in one or two (three is asking too much) of the Tests but will take whatever he can produce to paper over the cracks in the current Australian ODI and Test teams.

England 0/84 (25 ov, A Strauss 52*) trail India 224 (62.2 ov, MS Dhoni 77, S Broad 4/53, T Bresnan 4/62) by 140 runs with 10 1st inns wickets in hand: T#3/4, D1/5 at Edgbaston [England leading series 2-0].
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Australia 3/192 (38.1ov, S Watson 69/, M Clarke 53*, R Ponting 53) def Sri Lanka 191 (41.1 ov, M Johnson 6/31) by 7 wkts with 71 balls remaining: ODI#1/5 at Pallekele Stadium, Kandy. Australia lead series 1-0.
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Costcutting at Fox Sports? Month old boxing match replaces live Test cricket coverage

Cricket followers who are looking to check out the form of Australia's next Test opponents Sri Lanka will need to be glued to the box tonight, because it's the only day (of five scheduled) when Fox Sports, which has traditionally relayed the full live UKSky TV coverage of England's home Test matches, will be showing live coverage of the first Sri Lanka - England Test.

And the cricket isn't being replaced by live coverage of other sport: on Friday night Fox Sports 1 has scheduled (see http://www.foxsports.com.au/tvguide), a boxing match fought last month followed by a two hour kickboxing documentary and repeats of AFL games. Not one minute of live coverage there.

Terry Jenner dies

Terry Jenner has died at the age of 66. The Advertiser/ Adelaide Now report includes a video of him in action with the ball.

Yet I remember him best for his gutsy 74 on a damp Adelaide Oval pitch in the 1975 Ashes Test against Derek Underwood in full flight his element (Derek never flighted the ball much but he earned his nickname "Deadly" on a turning wicket).

In between his first class playing days and his later rise to coaching eminence Jenner lived a somewhat chequered life, which included trouble with the law and at least one season playing in the Adelaide Turf CA (though not with or against me).

Update 27 March

Ian Chappell has written an excellent appreciation of TJ for Cricinfo

The sun also rises

Adelaide Oval decision day

Well, at least for SACA members, only about half of whom, according to Adelaide Now/ The Advertiser , are expected to vote either by proxy or at this evening's Special General Meeting which will, we are told, determine the future of the Adelaide Oval.

The issue has been widely canvassed in the local media, including the online Indaily and
the News Ltd outlets: Adelaide Now has just posted , complete with misidentification of the speaker ("Ian Ravenscrost" should be "Ravenscroft"), a last minute plea for a Yes vote.
I have some serious misgivings, notably

• whether the cost (which will certainly be greater than the already revised amount) can be justified

• whether the market for AFL (especially in the light of the recent TV rights deal and the decline of Port Power) and cricket (the recent upgrade accommodated everyone - including those with free tickets - who wished to attend the Ashes Test) will justify the upgrade, and

• whether cricket which, for all its relatively small local support, gives Adelaide Oval (and thus Adelaide) global recognition and ambience (eg this), will be sidelined over time: the suggestion that Sheffield Shield matches will be moved 12km to Glenelg when SACA has previously indicated that a refurbished Adelaide Oval No2 would be used concerns me.

To judge from the amount of heat (and light) the issue has generated in the local media it will be difficult to get the 75% of the votes cast in favour of the special resolution required for SACA to join the AFL interests in a Stadium Management Authority.

What is more likely is that there'll be a majority of less than the required 75%. This will presumably launch Plan B, or C...or Z.

So I'll go to the meeting, listen to what is said, and cast my vote. At the moment I'm leaning, despite my misgivings above, by voting in favour.

India win World Cup deservedly and comfortably

India 4/277 (48.2 ov, G Gambhir 97, M S Dhoni 91*) beat Sri Lanka 6/274 (50ov, M Jayawardene 103*, K Sangakkara 48) by six wickets: CWC 201 final at Mumbai ( aka Bombay). India win tournament.

Well done, India. Your victory confirms you as the top world team in the two major forms of the game: Tests and ODIs. T20 has taken a back seat for the moment and the future of the 50 overs (or thereabouts) a side game looks assured for the next few years, not only because India are both world champs and the financial powerhouse of world cricket but also because, despite the protracted length of the tornament, there were many good matches played.

The final was one of these. Sri Lanka, who for some odd reasons made four, not all forced, changes to their semifinal eleven were competitive thanks initially to Mahela Jaywardene's elegantly aggressive 103*/88b (13x4). Lasith Malinga's dismissals of Virender Sehwag 0 and Sachin Tendulkar 18 made India's road look rocky but then Gautam Gambhir 97/122b (9x4) and Virat Kohli 35/49b (4x4) steadied the ship before MS Dhoni took advantage of the second string bowlers to power his side home.

Dhoni's 91*/79b (2x6, 8x4) was the quintessential captain's knock. He hadn't had the best of tournaments with the bat but on this really big occasion backed himself to win, and did so imperiously. I'd sometimes thought he was an overrated cricketer, but no more.

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