A fine start for Mascarenhas
has always been highly regarded in – and by in particular – but until at The Oval last summer, he had failed to make an impression in an England shirt.
But . Coming in to bat with England teetering on 117-5 in the 14th over, he carted , the off-spinner, for four successive - and increasingly towering - sixes over long-on. His 31 came from only 14 balls, and although England’s total still looked potentially vulnerable because of the unusually small boundaries at , he did at least set a challenge.
scored 43 from just 23 balls, but fell in only the 10th over, also aiming a big hit off Patel. This was a pity, and hopefully Pietersen will reflect that he should have looked to bat for another four or five overs before being quite so reckless.
Nothing has such a dramatic effect on the scoring rate as taking wickets, and New Zealand suffered from the same problem. looks highly dangerous at the top of the order, but fell needlessly as he literally punched a catch from to midwicket. Sidebottom then trapped lbw in the same over, and New Zealand were already in trouble.
On came Mascarenhas with his innocuous-looking dobbers, but his cunning variety earned him 2-19 from four overs, and New Zealand simply couldn’t get after him.
The only resistance came from – what on earth is he doing batting at number seven? He is the most dangerous hitter in the New Zealand line-up, but ran out of support. Surely New Zealand will look at his position when the two teams meet again in on Thursday.
England looked very busy and enthusiastic in the field – and are dynamite inside the circle, and took an excellent catch in the deep. As far as this tour goes, these are early days, but this effort represented a fine start.
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Nice to see KP punished for not backing up properly (4 overthrows) by being forced to do 3rd man both ends.
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Bit of a tired Aggers me thinks... Chin up, at least you're in a beautiful country where the air is sweet. Wayne - Harare.
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well done England, hope this will be the start of a memorable tour.
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i've never really been a fan of bits and pieces cricketers for England but i think Dimi has been a revelation.
It was also refreshing to see an England wicketkeeper actually keep!
However, we will always look good on these type of pitches so won't get to carried away. we all know our attack is a bit toothless on flat batting tracks.
Good start though.
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Nice to see him getting some praise after like you said us in Hamphire know what he is capable of
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Ratings
Mustard - 7
Wright - 4
Pietersen - 8
Bell - 6
Collingwood - 7
Shah - 7
Mascarenhas - 9*
Swann - 7
Broad - 7
Sidebottom - 8
Anderson - 7
Discuss?
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I'm a Leicester lad, and I think Dimi has been pretty highly regarded outside Hampshire too. I also remember some very tight spells from him in an England shirt - bowling is his main suit after all.
I'd suggest he is far more than your average bits'n'pieces player. His List A average of 24.77 is bettered only by Flintoff (23.03) and Gough (24.12) (from all the player's I've just checked). He should have been in our team for years.
His first class average is a highly respectable 28.08 and I'd even be tempted to try him in the test side - especially when other all-rounders get injured...
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i'm not an england fan but thought mustard kept well. he made some good stops and that will help the bowlers confidence no end.
another sign of how good county cricket can be put to good use in the international arena. sidebottom looks englands best bowler and dimi was man of the match.
as a note on KP. good player but selfish. the top score is EXPECTED from "one of the world's best batsmen" but Ponting, Clarke, Hayden, Sangakarra, Jayawardene give much more all round to the team than just scoring (a lot of) runs.
NZ look very weak. against a better batting line up the 188 might not have been so comfortable!
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Spot on Dave Bird. Aggers, please don't get caught up in the Duncan Fletcher argument that pace is everything. Despite his brilliance in the last 18 months, Brett Lee has only just got his Test bowling average under 30 (it's now 29.97). He's always been fast, but he used to be an average bowlers. It's only since he added much improved accuracy and swing to his armoury that he has become so potent. Aggers ought to know only too well that the tearaway young Richard Hadlee was quick but not very good and the older, wiser, slower Richard Hadlee was one of the best bowlers of all time due to his accuracy, movement and cunning. Those three things are what Mascarenhas has in spades.
Give me a clever, accurate medium-pacer who moves it both ways over some wildly inaccurate fast bowler (the dire Saj Mahmood springs immediately to mind) any day of the week.
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It's nice that England are beginning to have some success in the limited overs game. It was always a mystery how such a talented side could make such an utter horlics of one day cricket. However, the improvemente in the limited-overs game has coincided with a collapse in Test match results: that is not an acceptable exchange! Is it too much to ask that we have moderate success in BOTH forms of the game at once?
With 6 successive Tests against New Zealand to come the MINIMUM acceptable result should be 4 wins and no defeats, followed by a narrow win in the series against South Africa.
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Spot on Dave Bird. Aggers, please don't get caught up in the Duncan Fletcher argument that pace is everything. Despite his brilliance in the last 18 months, Brett Lee has only just got his Test bowling average under 30 (it's now 29.97). He's always been fast, but he used to be an average bowlers. It's only since he added much improved accuracy and swing to his armoury that he has become so potent. Aggers ought to know only too well that the tearaway young Richard Hadlee was quick but not very good and the older, wiser, slower Richard Hadlee was one of the best bowlers of all time due to his accuracy, movement and cunning. Those three things are what Mascarenhas has in spades.
Give me a clever, accurate medium-pacer who moves it both ways over some wildly inaccurate fast bowler (the dire Saj Mahmood springs immediately to mind) any day of the week.
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Mascarenhas had to score the runs but, to be fair, the Patel over when he hit the 4 sixes was an offering on a silver salver.
Ryder had just bowled a cracking over from that end, 2 runs and a wicket, but was then taken out of the attack, goodness knows why?
That one Patel over, 26 runs in total, was the only real difference between in the match; so here's hoping that both teams have a lot of scope for improvement or the whole series could be dire.
Right now it's like looking forward to Bolton v Fulham from last week, 0-0 and both happy not to lose.
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An interesting piece Jonathon. However you seem to have glossed over yet another mistake made by the umpires.
I've checked the scorecard and despite your statement that "Macallum literally puched" the ball to midwicket he seems to have been given out caught rather than handled the ball.
Surely its time that all decisions are reverted to the third umpire in order to rule out these mistakes once and for all?
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Mascarenhas had to score the runs but, to be fair, the Patel over when he hit the 4 sixes was an offering on a silver salver.
Ryder had just bowled a cracking over from that end, 2 runs and a wicket, but was then taken out of the attack, goodness knows why?
That one Patel over, 26 runs in total, was the only real difference between in the match; so here's hoping that both teams have a lot of scope for improvement or the whole series could be dire.
Right now it's like looking forward to Bolton v Fulham from last week, 0-0 and both happy not to lose.
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so what was the score?
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Bravo spud. I have checked other match reports and cannot find any record of collingwood and bell exploding on the field in these. Surely we should be told if two of england's premier cricketers have suffered injuries of some description?
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Come on Aggers, for the last several posts from you it seems you have always got a downer on England. Some facts to ponder. We are rubbish at the short game and a win at 20/20 should be looked at as a good thing. Cricket is played with batting and bowling skills and England proved not to shabby at either.
Suggets old chap that you keep away from those aussies and start to believe that Mr Moores is building a pretty good team here.
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Sorry Spud, but I think you'll find that a ball hitting the glove that is touching the bat counts as a shot played off the bat and thus Aggers and the scorecard were both correct. He was out caught because he 'literally punched' using his clenched fist on the handle of his bat.
Again though an excellent article Aggers, and I look forward to a potentially gripping tour. With so much of the result of a Twenty20 pending on momentum, and the Tests following so close after the ODIs a good start could really set up England well.
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Being a huge cricket fan it is always nice to see England win whatever the competition. One has to be realistic though. New Zealand were without some of their star players and but for the big hitting by Maascarenhas at the end, it could have been a different result. Yes the fielding was better and bowling more disaplined. The batting I felt was more solid. I am not trying to put England down, far from it, the media are to good at doing that, but all I am saying is take everything in context. Three wins in three matches should set the tone for a very good series as far as England is concerned. Confidence should be high. I tend to agree with the comments of Seamus in his comments passed at 02.41 pm
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An interesting piece Jonathon. However you seem to have glossed over yet another mistake made by the umpires.
I've checked the scorecard and despite your statement that "Macallum literally punched" the ball to midwicket he seems to have been given out caught rather than handled the ball.
Surely its time that all decisions are reverted to the third umpire in order to rule out these mistakes once and for all?
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Dan Risk,
all your rankings seem fair enough to me except for Wright. Maybe it's just me but i wouldn't give someone 4 out of 10 for getting out for 1 and then bowling 1 over for 13
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Well a win is a win but far from perfect from England. I'd be tempted to promote either Bell or Shah to open with Mustard and then have Wright coming in lower. I get the feeling Wright for whatever reason is far more comfortable lower down the order and undoubtedly if he fires he is an asset for England in the limited overs versions of the game.
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As a pom living in NZ I was pleased with the professional perfomance England put out ...
You can only beat whats in front of you .. yes NZ had a few injuries and were a little experimental but both Southee and Ryder had played well in domestic 20/20 over here so they were no mugs despite not being 'big names' ...
England bowled very well considering the short boundaries ... Taylor has been on fire recently and McCallum smashed 50 odd off 25 odd balls Vs a weak Bangladesh side recently .. don't under-estimate getting them out cheaply on such a pitch
It is only 20/20 but its hopefully bodes well for the tour .. confidence is a massive thing and the guys seems to be really pumped up and committed to me ...
Cmon the poms .. give me somthing to give back to the kiwis ...
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Why when England win with an outstanding performance from one player - in this case Mascarenhas - do people say things like in this thread: Without him we would have struggled.
Fact is we had him, he played well and we won. So it is a total irrelevance to take your man of the match out if the equation and say that it could have been different.
Tomorrow it may be KP that scores 100 off 40 balls and Mascarenhas is out for a duck and goes 0-80 off 4 overs!
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Thoroughly enjoy this form of cricket but wonder if it affects players when they play the longer formats of the game?
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Dimi - Class Cricketer but boy he cannot drink for toffee so will never achieve Gough greatness, he is from Barnsley after all!
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It's a measure of how much this tour excites everyone that after 2 days there are just 25 posts and some of those are duplicates.
One issue alluded to by one poster above is that of Luke Wright. In the warm-ups he batted down the order and played a blinding innings at the death. England though are insisting on opening with him and playing him as a specialist bat (I believe that the single over in the first 20-20 was his first for England). As an opener he has failed every single time. Why continue to play him out of position? Surely Cooke should open and Wright should bat at 7 or 8 where he is far more likely to make a major impression, particularly if he is not going to bowl.
Apart from that, New Zealand seem to be imploding nicely. Apart from the row over players who have signed IPL contracts and retirements, they have lost first Vettori and now Oram to injury. New Zealand have now lost most of their best and most experienced players. England really do need to be ruthless against this weakened side and set down a major marker for the rest of the tour.
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I think you need to give Wright some time, people complained about England being too safe previous 20/20 matches. Therefore I think we should allow Luke Wright time and keep Cook for the ODI's and test matches. Afterall Wright was fantastic for Sussex last year in the 20/20 opening up. One thing is for sure with him and Mustard opening there will not be many dot balls !
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Wright is an interesting case point in that we all saw his ability last year in the 20/20 format but he is struggling at the top of the order at international level. Only last week he smacked 40 odd in 15 balls coming in lower down. why not keep him there at the expence of Shah and use Cook at the top. Wright can be promoted if needed. He has a very modest first class record with the bat and ball but then again so to did Trescothick and Vaughan before Fletcher saw something in their ability. Wright needs 20 or so games under his belt in this format (Like Collingwood did) for him to truely be judged.
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For the record Wright did not open for Sussex in last season's 20/20 - he batted three.
But he doesn't appear quite good enough to pinch-hit international opening bowlers so should probably bat lower down.
The issue is of course you annot expolit the fieling restrictions later in the game.
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Luke Wright has opened 3 times with scores of 0, 0 and 1. He's been sent in at 3 twice, with scores of 0 and 3. That's 5 innings up the order with 3 ducks and a total of 4 runs.
In his other 3 matches he has batted at 7 and scored 50, 24 and 16 at a strike rate of over 130.
Not conclusive, but highly suggestive that his talents are being wasted. He has also bowled just 3 overs in 8 ODIs, so he either bats or he is just wasting his time.
Maybe he will come off in the end batting up the order. Or maybe the management will just look at his returns after a few more matches and decide that he's been a failure and a promising young player won't get a proper chance to make his mark.
It seems to be coming almost impossible to post here again...
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Dear Jonathan ,
I wonder if you and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ sports editor take up the problem of poor umpiring (and refeering in Football )....and cover it if necessary even on the national news...
In cricket for LBW decisions the umpire could quickly look if the ball indeed was within the limits before striking the pad , etc..
There have been too many bad decisions in both these sports lately.
Gary Lineker does not seem to raise it in his interviews either as he is a former player and in league with the players and would never say anything that results in a red card being issued to a player
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Well won England. Thanks too to the commentary team. Aggers, as for your atricle above, you made me chuckle with,
"On came Mascarenhas with his innocuous-looking dobbers,..."
'...dobers...' is new to me Aggers. Just as well Mascarenhas was able to add ... cunning variety... to give him mastery over the Kiwis.
Thanks for my chuckle, and here's to the next match.
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At comment 32, referring to umpiring (and football-referee) decsions, Gopal Srinivas wrote,
"There have been too many bad decisions in both these sports lately."
Gopal also (I think) suggests that ´óÏó´«Ã½ sports and news should focus on the poor decisions. In any such focus I urge balance by ready recognition that international cricketers and umpires are, as we all are, human how will be in error from time to time. What will credit cricket (and sport generally), are; respect for participants, celebration of great performance, and good grace in dealing with mistakes. If umpires are belittled and, at international level, then, in schools and 'parks' at the grass-roots of cricket, should umpires also be dispensed with? Should they be similarly ridiculed by 'younger' cricketers?
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At comment 32, referring to umpiring (and football-referee) decsions, Gopal Srinivas wrote,
"There have been too many bad decisions in both these sports lately."
Gopal also (I think) suggests that ´óÏó´«Ã½ sports and news should focus on the poor decisions.
In any such focus I urge balance. International cricketers and umpires are human - , as we all are - and will be in error from time to time. If umpires are belittled, at international level, then, in schools and 'parks' at the grass-roots of cricket, should umpires also be dispensed with and ridiculed at schools and club level?
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