Alistair Cook's bowlers went back to Plan B and it worked perfectly against some helpful batting
Old hat, one-paced – and in the final: not bad going for a team who are apparently bent on seeing out the summer playing their own travelling revivalist John Player League match. For England, who beat South Africa by seven wickets to reach the final of the Champions Trophy, this was a match in which the tactical orthodoxies of the group stages were inverted.
On a humid day Plan B, which was previously Plan A, once again became Plan A as the new white balls swung early on and the old ball – in England's hands, subject of much insinuation – did very little. Instead, it was a high-pressure performance in the field, interspersed with some moments of sputtering, gasping South African self-suffocation, that effectively decided this semi-final before lunch.
There will be talk about South Africa again choking in a knock-out match, but they are at least in the habit of actually playing in them. For England this was the third post-group-stage 50-over match since the 1992 World Cup, and a second victory. Never underestimate Alastair Cook seems to be the message. A self-made ODI player who has built a team in his own pragmatic image – a Tredwell-ish, Trott-flavoured thing, with its own dedicated ball-maintenance man in Ravi Bopara – might yet end up being the first England side to lift a 50-over trophy in the coloured-clothing era, the adventures in Sharjah in 1997 aside.
England's husbandry of the ball was the subject of some discussion before this match, and it swung in Jimmy Anderson's first over, the fifth ball of the day snaking in to evade the forward push of Colin Ingram and make the score one for one.
It was that kind of morning. England may have set out with half a mind on their favoured routine of ageing the ball prematurely – Bopara got his hands on the new Kookaburra before anybody else, saying hello with an introductory lick and a rub – but it was Anderson's old-fashioned new-ball bite that made the difference.
Not that Bopara was ready to relinquish his duties just yet: in the early overs pretty much every delivery was funnelled back to the bowler via his assiduous attentions at mid-off. At one point during a break in play Bopara even placed the ball on the turf next to him and proceeded to perform a scissor-kicking yogic warm-up routine above it.
There was some luck for England too. The day tipped decisively their way with Hashim Amla's dismissal five balls after Ingram departed, but it was a rare moment of penetration in the middle of an ordinary spell from Steven Finn, a ball that seamed rather than swung and took the toe of Amla's bat as he looked to leave.
South Africa sent in the pinch-hoicker Robin Peterson, but this was a morning for proper batsmen and an innings of swats and leading edges only seemed to add to a general sense of jitters. In the end Peterson's old-school dismissal provided the high point of the morning. Beaten wafting outside off stump by a pair of Anderson away-swingers, he was then struck in front by one that swung from leg to off so late that Peterson even considered reviewing it, still utterly baffled by its trajectory.
It was a lovely piece of skill, reminiscent – just a little bit – of Martin Bicknell's famous swing-bowling three-card trick against Jacques Rudolph here in 2002.
That was the backbone of South Africa's batting gone. JP Duminy, a man for the small occasion, was bowled by James Tredwell in the middle of another fine spell. Even Rory Kleinveldt and David Miller's hard-hitting counterattack from 80 for eight as the ball ceased to move might have chimed with the more committed conspiracy theorist as a moment of tactical misdirection. What reverse swing? What prematurely aged ball? This is not the controversial premature abrasion you are looking for.
When England batted AB de Villiers completed his own terrible day – the world's No1 ODI batsman was caught behind playing a horrible carve – by throwing the ball to his spinners, thereby disregarding the evidence of the morning. Bearing in mind his pre-match comments De Villiers might be better off asking for an ICC inquiry into his own decision to open the bowling with Duminy.
While for England this was a day for the more familiar virtues, it must be said that in helpful conditions they also found some very helpful opponents. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.
Old hat, one-paced – and in the final: not bad going for a team who are apparently bent on seeing out the summer playing their own travelling revivalist John Player League match. For England, who beat South Africa by seven wickets to reach the final of the Champions Trophy, this was a match in which the tactical orthodoxies of the group stages were inverted.
On a humid day Plan B, which was previously Plan A, once again became Plan A as the new white balls swung early on and the old ball – in England's hands, subject of much insinuation – did very little. Instead, it was a high-pressure performance in the field, interspersed with some moments of sputtering, gasping South African self-suffocation, that effectively decided this semi-final before lunch.
There will be talk about South Africa again choking in a knock-out match, but they are at least in the habit of actually playing in them. For England this was the third post-group-stage 50-over match since the 1992 World Cup, and a second victory. Never underestimate Alastair Cook seems to be the message. A self-made ODI player who has built a team in his own pragmatic image – a Tredwell-ish, Trott-flavoured thing, with its own dedicated ball-maintenance man in Ravi Bopara – might yet end up being the first England side to lift a 50-over trophy in the coloured-clothing era, the adventures in Sharjah in 1997 aside.
England's husbandry of the ball was the subject of some discussion before this match, and it swung in Jimmy Anderson's first over, the fifth ball of the day snaking in to evade the forward push of Colin Ingram and make the score one for one.
It was that kind of morning. England may have set out with half a mind on their favoured routine of ageing the ball prematurely – Bopara got his hands on the new Kookaburra before anybody else, saying hello with an introductory lick and a rub – but it was Anderson's old-fashioned new-ball bite that made the difference.
Not that Bopara was ready to relinquish his duties just yet: in the early overs pretty much every delivery was funnelled back to the bowler via his assiduous attentions at mid-off. At one point during a break in play Bopara even placed the ball on the turf next to him and proceeded to perform a scissor-kicking yogic warm-up routine above it.
There was some luck for England too. The day tipped decisively their way with Hashim Amla's dismissal five balls after Ingram departed, but it was a rare moment of penetration in the middle of an ordinary spell from Steven Finn, a ball that seamed rather than swung and took the toe of Amla's bat as he looked to leave.
South Africa sent in the pinch-hoicker Robin Peterson, but this was a morning for proper batsmen and an innings of swats and leading edges only seemed to add to a general sense of jitters. In the end Peterson's old-school dismissal provided the high point of the morning. Beaten wafting outside off stump by a pair of Anderson away-swingers, he was then struck in front by one that swung from leg to off so late that Peterson even considered reviewing it, still utterly baffled by its trajectory.
It was a lovely piece of skill, reminiscent – just a little bit – of Martin Bicknell's famous swing-bowling three-card trick against Jacques Rudolph here in 2002.
That was the backbone of South Africa's batting gone. JP Duminy, a man for the small occasion, was bowled by James Tredwell in the middle of another fine spell. Even Rory Kleinveldt and David Miller's hard-hitting counterattack from 80 for eight as the ball ceased to move might have chimed with the more committed conspiracy theorist as a moment of tactical misdirection. What reverse swing? What prematurely aged ball? This is not the controversial premature abrasion you are looking for.
When England batted AB de Villiers completed his own terrible day – the world's No1 ODI batsman was caught behind playing a horrible carve – by throwing the ball to his spinners, thereby disregarding the evidence of the morning. Bearing in mind his pre-match comments De Villiers might be better off asking for an ICC inquiry into his own decision to open the bowling with Duminy.
While for England this was a day for the more familiar virtues, it must be said that in helpful conditions they also found some very helpful opponents. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.