The last person to fall foul of the Adelaide Oval dress code this season?

While the England media contingent downsized significantly after the Ashes series, a few fresh faces arrived to cover the one-day series. One of them, from the Daily Mail , fell foul of the Adelaide Oval dress police, who didn't seem to relax their vigilance one iota on Australia Day, even though the Australian of the Year, Dr Tim Flannery was presented with his award in Canberra wearing attire which, as this photo suggests, would have seen him barred from entry to the Oval.

NZ prevail over England in high scoring ODI

Australia - New Zealand -England: The pecking order of the tri-series is now confirmed after New Zealand defeated England by 58 runs (7/318 v 8/260) in Perth. In truth the margin should have been greater as the Black Caps eased off in the last hour and were very sloppy in the field. Not that England had been exemplary when they'd fielded: once again we were reminded of the gulf between the fielding standards of the Australian and the other teams.

NZ batted first and made rapid progress against an unfamiliar England opening attack of Chris Tremlett and Liam Plunkett, both of whom bowled promisingly (how often has that word been used or abused this summer?) but inaccurately. Lou Vincent (76/111b) continued his form of the weekend while Ross Taylor (71/81 b) impressed again as did Jacob Oram (54/33b) who for once was able to build on a solid foundation instead of having to repair early damage. Monty Panesar was the best England bowler (10 - 2 -35 -2), slowing the scoring when a huge total looked likely, while Plunkett (9 - 0 -54 -3) suggested that he should have played more earlier in the tour. 318 from 50 overs was a good, almost certainly a winning, total but it was inflated by the self-harm of 37 extras (no byes but 22 wides) and some slack fielding (one excellent stop from Bell was wasted when his return went for four overthrows), not to mention ordinary pace bowling.

A rearranged England batting order, with Andrew Strauss at no 4, gave Ed Joyce (66/ 82b) a chance to display his batting talents once again. Despite some ordinary NZ bowling and slipshod fielding, once Bell (31/ 42b) was second out at 99 nobody was able to stay long enough to produce the late order Oram-style assault which was necessary to accelerate the run rate sufficiently. Paul Nixon and Plunkett came together at 7/184 and rode their luck (as well as making some of their own) until Nixon (49/47b) was well caught in the deep by Oram from the last ball of the game.

England now must defeat Australia at the SCG on Friday to have a chance of making the finals. While there were glimmerings of improvement in some departments today I can't see them lifting enough to produce the upset of the season.

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Reading for pleasure when there's not much pleasure to be had

Cricket has a reputation for fostering fine writing, yet most followers of the game probably don't know (or care) about the leading players' reading tastes (or whether they read at all). It therefore comes as a surprise to read on Cricinfo that the troubled England team has set up, apparently at the instigation of Andrew (Freddie) Flintoff, a book club:

"They bring their own books in to discuss and exchange them with the others. Fred has just given me a new book to read," said a team spokesman, "he felt it would be a good idea to help the guys talk and think about things not associated with cricket."

Speaking of good writing, David Fine, the poet of the Ashes, is negotiating with a publisher about producing book of his poems.

[Also posted at Casting a short shadow]

NZ can't stand heat, get out of catching

This title may seem unfair as NZ came within 8 runs of beating Australia in a high scoring match played in Perth today. Yet Stephen Fleming in the post match interview acknowledged the truth of it.

The Black Caps did have the worst of the conditions, having to field first in temperatures which were well into the 40s for the first hour or so, during which time Matthew Hayden was missed twice. Not surprisingly he rode his luck and made a century. Ricky Ponting relied more on skill to record yet another hundred and the middle order hitters Symonds, Hussey and White each accelerated in the final overs to register what looked like, especially after the low scores previously in this tri-series, an unbeatable 5/343 from 50 overs (actually 48 as the first two of the innings were maidens) . Several of the bowlers were unlucky with dropped catches but only Vettori (who blotted his copybook by dropping an easy catch from Hayden before he'd scored) bowled economically.

I doubt whether anyone expected NZ to win, but I reckon everyone hoped that they'd make a reasonable fist of their reply. They certainly did this as Lou Vincent , Stephen Fleming and Peter Fulton brought up 100 in 105 balls for the loss of only one wicket. I don't know why Vincent isn't guaranteed a permanent place against Australia as he always seems to perform well. He did so again tonight with 66/82b (and given out l b w when the replay showed he'd hit the ball). Even so wickets fell at regular intervals, two of them to Michael Clarke, who is clearly being groomed to be at least part of the solution to Australia's spin bowling problem.

When Clarke bowled Ross Taylor NZ were 5/198 in the 36th over. That looked to be the end of the contest. Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum thought otherwise and launched a sensible assault, as they'd done against England in Adelaide, starting relatively slowly but accelerating (in Oram's case dramatically) in the final overs. Unfortunately the asking rate always looked to be just out of their reach, and so it turned out. A brief pause for rain didn't help them to maintain their momentum either. Nevertheless it was an impressive attempt, and one which exposed a few frailties in the Australian bowling and fielding . In his post match interview Ponting acknowledged this.

For their part NZ must keep working on all aspects of their game. Oram has now had two excellent innings: his highest two in ODIs, with tonight's being the fastest ever century by a New Zealander. He's no longer, as The Australian patronisingly described him last week, "the poor man's Chris Cairns", but he can't be expected to keep producing batting like these last two innings each time he goes to the wicket.


NZ now are clear favourites for the second spot in the finals. It's hard to see England, even if Michael Vaughan returns to bolster the troubled batting, regrouping sufficiently after their recent drubbings to be sufficiently competitive.

Scorecard.

Bad hair days forbidden under new Zimbabwe dress code

Cricinfo reports that three Zimbabwean cricketers: Keith Dabengwa, Tawanda Mupariwa and Christopher Mpofu, have been ordered to have their hair cut as part of a new board dress code. Given the country's recent international performances it's reminiscent of the old adage "if you can't be a cricketer, at least look like one".But then I wonder what's behind a lot of much more important things that happen (or don't happen) there.

PS If the miscreants start to perform like Andrew Symonds (or even Hamish Marshall) will they be allowed to grow their locks again?

Lights never go on as England continues its decline

England 10/110, Australia 1/111 (quadruple Nelson) Words fail me, so I'll just link to the scorecard and disclose that, as I had an overlapping engagement, when I heard (which didn't take long) the direction in which the match was heading I decided not to go to see the inevitable Australian victory.

England save energy and allow lights to go out early

Another low scoring ODI played in Adelaide today in ideal conditions saw England give short measure to the
spectators and their supporters as they capitulated for a pathetic 120 in 37.5 overs. As the picture above shows, darkness had not completely descended (except upon England's confidence) when the match concluded with Jon Lewis tamely snicking Shane Bond to Stephen Fleming at slip for his fourth catch of the innings. Yes, it was the kind of match we don't often see in this form of the game in Australia (though this season has produced some exceptions): one where the ball dominates the bat.

Only one batter - NZ's Jacob Oram - was able to impose his footprint on the match with a well-constructed (solid platform, later aggression) 86 which enabled his team to come off the ropes of 5/67 to reach 210 all out of the last ball of the 50th over. Each England bowler, except for Jamie Dalrymple (3 overs for 22, inc 2 wides) bowled well, though probably the Black Caps scored 20 -25 runs more than they should have.

Why? Because the England fielding was substandard. One or two chances were put down, but there were several instances where fielders did not even try to catch balls hit in the the air which the Australians and, on today's showing, many New Zealanders, would make an effort to dive or leap for. Ed Joyce was the main, though it must be said not the only, offender. At least twice Oram lofted balls towards midwicket, but each time Joyce tamely slowed down and waited for them to bounce and, on another occasion, to reach the boundary. An Australian - Symonds, Ponting, Clarke, perhaps Hussey - would have dived, and more often than not completed the catch. Paul Nixon, who is very visible on TV for his aggressive wicketkeeping, also has some odd habits: he bounces up and down on his haunches like a jack in the box as the bowler delivers and, when taking returns from the outfield, stands in front of the stumps, not behind them as the textbook (and commonsense) advises.

When England batted the NZ went into boa constrictor mode, squeezing the breath out of the top order. With five specialist bowlers, none of whom was hit out of the attack, there was no need to fall back upon the dibbly dobblers Astle and McMillan. First Franklin, then Vettori, Oram and Bond harried the English, except for Joyce (47/70b), into submission, with magnificent support from the field. If there was a faint hope that Joyce could muster the tail it was shattered by a magnificent catch in the outfield by Mark Gillespie. Shortly after this Nathan Astle caught Panesar with one that was almost as good (the photo doesn't really show how difficult it was, but the caption is a good description). I can't imagine any England player in today's team today who could have matched either of these efforts. That's one of their problems, and one which they'll need to think hard about before Friday's confrontation with Australia.

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