The Ashes: Cardiff Test, Day Four

Day four of this intriguing contest sees England chasing 10 wickets to take a 1-0 lead in this Ashes series. Australia being Australia will do their best to make an effort in chasing down the mammoth target of 412, but on a wearing pitch and with the Welsh weather set surprisingly fair, there's only one likely outcome.

Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad open with the new ball for England. Here's the action from day four down in the Welsh capital.

The Ashes: Cardiff Test, Day Three

This Test continues to canter along at quite a pace. England have arguably had the better the opening two days - could they grab the initiative on day three? Australia begin the day on 264-5 with Shane Watson and night watchman Nathan Lyon at the crease. Mark Wood and Stuart Broad open the bowling for England. Here's all the action from day three at Cardiff.

The Ashes: Cardiff Test, Day Two

And so, to day two. A fairly even opening day to the Ashes (feels like a long time since that's been said), would anyone grab the initiative on day two? After the wicket of Jos Buttler the previous evening, England begin the day on 343-7, looking to get as close to 400 as possible. Australia, meanwhile, search for some bowling consistency. Here's the action from another enthralling day down in the Welsh capital.

The Ashes: Cardiff Test, Day One

Here they are, the duck England squad. Front row (L-R): Finn, Anderson, Root, Cook (C), Broad, Bell. Back row (L-R): Lyth, Ali, Wood, Stokes, Buttler, Ballance, Rashid. Unfortunately I couldn't find a team photo to mock up for Australia, so you'll have to bear with me for them. 

Crikey, I didn't expect to be doing this again, but here we are. The reason for bringing back duck cricket is, as you would expect, quite odd. But that's duck cricket for you. Anyway, having spent the past three years gathering dust on my various bookshelves, the ducks have been dusted off and are ready for a summer of representing the Ashes action.

And so, to the action. Like six years ago, the first Test is taking place in the rain sunshine of the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff. Six years ago, the Test finished in a pulsating draw as the last wicket pair of Monty Panesar and Jimmy Anderson held out for 11.3 overs. What will this Test bring? Here's day one...

England v The West Indies: The Lord's Test, Day 1

There's something magical about the first Test of the international summer in England. It might be the muffled applause of the gloved hands, echoing around a three quarters full stadium. It might be the fact that champagne bottles adorn the boundary as those adorned in red and yellow stripes decide that 11 in the morning is a superb time to crack out the alcohol. It may just be that long suffering England fans are finally able to watch international cricket in their own time zone. Anyway, Test cricket's back and it's at Lord's.

Who would be England's third seamer? Well, after a comment from Mike Atherton about Strauss being "long in the tooth", it was revealed that Tim Bresnan had made the cut. Yorkshire's Jonny Bairstow was to make his Test debut and was presented with his cap by close family friend, Geoffrey Boycott. For the West Indies, Ravi Rampaul had a stiff neck so it handed a Test debut to Trinidad quick (I'm just going from reports here. I didn't quite reach West Indian domestic cricket in my winter exploits) Shannon Gabriel.

Still, cricket's back, rubber ducks are back and awful puns may or may not be back. Here's day 1 from Lord's:

The Galle Test: Sri Lanka v England, Day 4

At the close on day three, England need 229 runs. To stop themselves from losing their fourth Test in a row, they will also need a large dollop of patience, skill and a bit of luck. Sri Lanka will need 8 wickets and know that if they put enough pressure on the English batsmen, their current mental state will cause them to play a risky, or in some cases just plain dumb, shot and throw away their wicket on a pitch that once you get in, it's important to stay in and accumulate. 

"History's there to be rewritten, isn't it?" said Graeme Swann yesterday evening. If you were on Twitter earlier in the day, you'd have seen that Bob Willis was trending in the United Kingdom, which usually means either you've missed a classic rant about Steve Harmison or England have been heavily defeated.

Steve Harmison could breathe a huge sigh of relief as it was, sadly for the huge amount of England fans in the ground in Galle and perched on top of the fort, the latter. England's final innings total was their second highest for a fourth innings in Asia (their 8th highest total in Sri Lanka itself), but their awful batting exploits on day 2, mistakes in the field and nobody else learning from their horrible exploits in the first innings to stick around with Jonathan Trott in the second, meant that England were on course to lose their fourth Test in a row.

At a point during the afternoon session, there was hope. It was slim, but there was hope because there was a decent partnership. But this was all but extinguished as key wickets fell in a collapse before the tea interval. Enough talk, here's the ducks with what happened once play began on day 4:

The Galle Test: Sri Lanka v England, Day 3

And so, to day 3 of the Galle Test, where England continue their phenomenally bad form against anyone who can spin a ball. Part of me imagines someone like Swann walking into the changing room and saying hello, only to find that the top order are cowered in a corner, desperately playing air sweep shots in an attempt to try and keep him away from them.

Enough about what goes on inside my head. Day 3 began with Sri Lanka at the crease and 5 wickets down already. They were looking to build on their 209 run lead and give England a target that would probably make them go into said corner and whimper without having faced a ball. England, meanwhile, were hoping to pick up the remaining 5 wickets quickly and chase down a total of around 250.
Here's what happened on an intriguing and close day 3 in Galle:

The Galle Test: Sri Lanka v England, Day 2

So, day 2 in Galle. After such an evenly contested and hard fought first day, there's not really much else I can do to introduce a day that saw 17 wickets fall, most of which were caused by such monumental brain farts that it made Brad Haddin's shot at Newlands in the 47 all out seem almost the Test cricket standard.
Mahela Jayawardene's superb unbeaten century as the others around him crumbled was one of the highlights of day 1, as was James Anderson's performance on a pitch not giving him much help. Here's the highlights of what happened on an eventful day 2 at Galle.

The Galle Test: Sri Lanka v England, Day 1

After a disastrous tour of the United Arab Emirates, next up for England was a trip to one of the toughest places to tour, Sri Lanka. England will return in September for the Twenty20 World Cup, but for now, in the heat and humidity of Galle, Sri Lanka and England play one of those annoying two Test series.

England, still number one after the Middle East humiliation thanks to the weather of New Zealand, include three spinners in their line up, handing a Test debut to Samit Patel at the expense of Eoin Morgan. Sri Lanka have Mahela Jayawardene back at the helm and after having played so much limited overs cricket for the past three months, it'll be interesting to see how their players adapt back to the longer format.

In the scenic ground of the Galle International Stadium ("expertly recreated" in my back garden), the scene of England's horrendous 81 all out back in 2007. By mentioning that, I've probably tempted some horrific fate for when England bat, but that's a matter for a different day. Here's day one in Galle, in the format that made a delivery man look weirdly at me as he appeared in my back garden.

The First Test: Pakistan v England, Day Three

Facing a 100+ run deficit, a good spinner and the history of England in the subcontinent, will England show fight and pull off a Brisbane 2010, or will they reassure us that the England we grew up watching from behind a cushion, probably weeping whenever the grainy statistics came up with the words "slow" in the bowling action column, is still in there, somewhere?

Here's what happened on a quite eventful day 3 from Dubai way back in mid January.

The First Test: Pakistan v England, Day Two

About a month late (so I'm going to pretend that it was published in January), here's the second day of the first Test v Pakistan. I had a laptop malfunction, but a new hard drive and a lot less money later, here's some ducks playing cricket. If you don't know what happened, you've been living in a cave for the past month.

A very disappointing day for England on day one, as their batting capitulation had put Pakistan in a relatively strong position at the beginning of day two. Could England's bowlers pull it back?

Here's day two from Dubai.

The First Test: Pakistan v England, Day One

They've been gathering dust on a book shelf ever since they were put away back in October, but England are back, so guess what? The ducks are back too. Welcome to my desk Dubai, for England's first Test of 2012, and first test of their number one status, against a rejuvenated Pakistan side.

Despite early chatter about England breaking character and going with five bowlers, England went with the usual four. Despite concerns over Broad and Bell being injured by their own compatriots, Tremlett came in for the injured Bresnan. Had Bresnan not been injured, perhaps they would've gone with the five, but you can't ponder too much on injuries.

Here's what happened on day one from the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

England v India: Only Twenty20

With the Test series over, all Indian eyes turned to the limited overs format. Both the Twenty20 and the ODI series can expect to draw in large, noisy and passionate crowds. The Twenty20 happened almost a week ago, but again I've been all over the place and have only just got round to being able to duckify it. Here's what happened at the cricket in t'north west:

England v Ireland: Only ODI

This happened over a week ago now and it was a pretty pointless ODI that was ravaged by rain. Still, I told Andrew Strauss that I did duck recreations of every match England had played this summer, and I'm not going to lie to the captain of the England cricket team. Here's what happened in sunny Dublin last week:

Eoin Morgan, captaining the England side for the first time, loses the toss. William Porterfield decides that he wants to field first. 

The first boundary of the day comes to Jonathan Trott, who is playing his first match since recovering from the shoulder injury he picked up at Trent Bridge. 

He glances it to fine leg for a four.

Kieswetter gets all in a tangle to Rankin...

But still ends up getting a six that he doesn't know much about.

But, in what seems to be the standard Kieswetter international innings, he gets a start but then gets out.

John Mooney picks up the first wicket as Kieswetter edges behind to be caught by Niall O'Brien. England are 24-1.

He goes for 14.

The Leicestershire batsman, James Taylor, is the next one in, but he departs for a single.

He top edges a pull...

And is caught by Wilson. England are 34-2.

Soon after Taylor's wicket, the rain started to come down. (In er... bright sunshine, clearly.)

In comes Eoin Morgan. He decides that with Trott anchoring one end, it's his job to put some impetus into the England innings. 

He hits a four that causes the Irish DJ to bring out 'That Don't Impress Me Much'.

In a shock to everyone, Trott gets a boundary with a reverse sweep.

Morgan brings up his 50 with another four.

He raises his bat and shares an old fashioned shake of the wings with Trott.

Trott also brings up his half century.

He reaches it with a single...

And also raises his bat. The Sky commentary box is not as appreciative. 

Paul Stirling finally gets the breakthrough for Ireland. 

Morgan manages to get a leading edge...

And Stirling takes the catch. Morgan goes for 59 and the Irish know how important that wicket is. 

In comes Bopara...

And out he goes. He looks to guide a Jones delivery down to third man, but instead guides it into the gloves of O'Brien. 

Ben Stokes comes in.

But Paul Stirling strikes again as he takes the return catch. Stokes goes for 3 and England are 148-5.

Patel comes in and gets a couple of boundaries, but then goes for the big shot.

Kevin O'Brien takes the catch at long off. England are 172-6 in their reduced overs innings.

Trott departs a couple of overs later.

He decides to try and hit out...

But instead only finds Jones in the deep. He goes for 69 off 105 deliveries and it leaves England on 172-7.

Scott Borthwick gets dropped by Joyce after a paddle sweep. 

After these drops, Borthwick hits Mooney straight down the ground for a 6.

Borthwick attempts to go for another big shot...

But can only find Stirling. Borthwick goes for 15 off 9 and England are 197-8.

England's innings closes with a 4 and they reach 201-8 off 42. With no more rain, the match could potentially get interesting.

Woakes takes the first over, Finn takes the second. He begins with a wide and then Stirling smashes him over the ropes for a 6.

Stirling attempts to go for another big shot...

But instead can only sky it. Bopara sets himself for the catch.

Which he takes. Ireland are 6-1.

The wicket seems to boost Finn's confidence a bit. Both he and Woakes are bowling well and Finn soon picks up the wicket of Joyce.

He's caught behind by Kieswetter for 10. As Joyce departs, it's still raining.

And eventually, with Ireland 42-2, the rain forces the players off for a rain delay of over an hour. When Ireland return, they need 129 off 23 overs. 

Their chase doesn't start off well. Porterfield goes for a single that was never there...

And does not get back into his crease fast enough. 

He gets run out by Borthwick and Ireland are 43-3.

In comes Kevin O'Brien and here you have to make a mandatory World Cup reference. He takes a couple of deliveries to get his eye in...

And then hits Borthwick for one six...

And then another.

Niall O'Brien gets a slower ball bouncer...

Which he pulls, but cannot keep down.

And Finn takes the catch. 66-4.

Bopara joins in on the wicket taking. He bowls Nigel Jones for 2 to reduce Ireland to 71-5.

A lot is riding on KOB. He's got 25 off 13, but then gets a yorker from Dernbach...

And gets bowled leg stump. It's a huge wicket for England and a massive blow to Ireland. It reduces them to 77-6 and that's probably Ireland's challenge over.

Or is it?

Mooney hits a six off a Dernbach slower ball and Ireland need 36 off 22.

With the last ball of the over, Mooney goes for another big shot...

He almost gets a hold of it...

But Stokes takes a good catch on the boundary. Mooney goes for 15 off 8 and Ireland are 97-7.

Wilson goes to Patel a couple of overs later. 

He looks for the boundary, but instead can only get an outside edge on a flighted delivery and is caught by Bopara. 108-8.

Ireland need 19 to win off the last over and young George Dockrell faces the final three deliveries. He needs a six...

He smashes a full toss down the ground...

But it bounces before the rope and goes for only four.

Ireland need 13 off the final ball. Dernbach doesn't bowl a wide or a no-ball...

And Ireland scamper through for a bye. England win by 11 runs. 

The stand in captain of Eoin Morgan is named man of the match. England don't really learn much from the match and Trott gets all the negative media again. A standard ODI game really.