Cricket - England is beaming - Time to suck it up and admit Poms are Number 1
Last updated 8/8/2011 9:33:05 AM
Time to suck it up and admit Poms are Number 1
England are so close to achieving the No.1 Test ranking that her majesty is rummaging down the back of the royal sofa looking for MBEs. After routing India again, they need only maintain their 2-0 lead in the four Test series to plant the flag of St George on the statistical summit.
So, with Australia edging closer to the relegation zone than the notional world championship, how do we reconcile the old enemy's success?
How to ridicule and belittle their achievement, while consoling ourselves about Australia's sorry plight? Alas, it's not easy. Far-fetched as it once might have seemed, finding fault with English cricket right now is like assassinating the Dalai Lama's character - even allowing for His Holiness's appearance on MasterChef.
Uh-hum. England - choke, splutter. Best team in the - errr-hummmm - world.
That is how cricket writer Richard Hinds and the Sydney Morning Herald summed it up as England hammered India in the second test to go two up and provisionally claim their place as the top cricket nation in the world.
How it obviously hurts those Aussies who lorded it for so long until their ageing team eventually fell apart and they tumbled down the rankings, losing home and away to the English team they mocked just a short while ago.
It makes it all the more enjoyable as skipper Andrew Strauss and Director of Cricket(coach) Andy Flower demand even more from their team with two matches left in the series when India could conceivably regain their top spot.
That, however, looks increasingly unlikely as India lick their wounds and tend their injured for the next week before the party moves on to Edgbaston for the Third Test at the end of next week.
India won't fancy it whoever they bring in as England, I understand, have asked the ground staff at Warwickshire to produce a similar grassy pitch to the one Nottinghamshire handed to England's fast bowlers.
What makes England so good is that they are not reliant on two or three players to carve out victory and every member of the squad plays their part, producing the odd gem here and there to keep the ship on course.
This time it was the tail which wagged, particularly wicketkeeper Matt Prior with two big innings, ably supported by that "flop" Stuart Broad who batted, bowled and caught his way to the man of the match award, something not even Ian Bell could argue with despite his supreme 159 in the second innings when the test could have gone either way after the loss of Strauss and Cook.
Broad scored 64 in the first innings; 44 before being superbly run out in the second while taking 6-46 , including a hat trick and a spell of 5-0, when India first batted and 2-30 in the second.
An all-rounder? You had better believe it! A world class all rounder.
On Yorkshire Day (whatever that might be) Tim Bresnan celebrated with a stirring 90 and then took 5-48 as India were skittled out for a miserable 158 in their second innings, leaving them a long, long way behind in every sense.
Jimmy Anderson, 3-51 including Sachin Tendulkar's scalp for the seventh time and this time with the Little Master looking in absolute prime form.
To stop England and delight the Aussies India need to win at least one of the remaining two tests (Birmingham Aug 10-14 or Kia Oval Aug 18-22) and not lose the other.
Quite frankly on what we have seen so far the Aussies worst fears will be confirmed with even a whitewash more than a possibility.