10 Reasons Why the Cookie Crumbled the Way It Did

The recently concluded Ashes series has been one of the most well-balanced contests of the two oldest test-playing sides in a long time! The series see-sawed all through the five-tests long English summer, and true to its billing, ended in a 2-2 draw. 

The result perfectly reflects a certain historical balance between these two sides. You know, ever since the Ashes took root, the score line between these two nations is just as close: Australia has won 33 series, England has 32 series wins, with the just concluded series being the 6th drawn series, and the first since 1972. 

Well, that’s how the series cookie crumbled. But in this blog, I shall analyse how the cookie crumbled for individual players – the first seven players below saw their fortunes rise, while the next three saw their respective cookies crumble towards a decline!

The risers…

1. Ben Stokes: Undoubtedly the player with a Midas touch throughout the summer! That his exploits won England the 2019 ICC World Cup wouldn’t be an exaggeration, and he further secured his dominance by being the English pillar through the Ashes too. His exploits in the third test at Headingley etched his name next to yesteryear’s greats such as Ian Botham! It was breathtaking how he compiled his tenth wicket match-winning stand of 76 runs, with Jack Leach contributing a solitary run in the partnership.

2. Steve Smith: The genius is back! With an amazing bagful of 774 runs in 8 innings, averaging well over 100, the Bradmanesque Steve Smith is on top of his game, make no mistake about it! He also scored the only double hundred of the series. But it was the sheer character he displayed while amassing these runs that made him look a giant. 

3. Marnus Labuschagne: the sprightly and baby-faced youngster established himself for the coming years in the Aussie top order with 353 runs in 7 innings, with a respectable average of 50.4. He also partnered with Steve Smith many a times to rescue Australia. 

4. Rory Burns: the series saw six openers tried across the two sides, and Burns with nearly 400 runs actually equalled the opening contributions by the other five players (Denly,  Roy, Warner, Harris, and Bancroft) put together. Such were the opening woes, and Burns stood out amongst this carnage. 

5. Jofra Archer: Anderson’s loss turned into Archer’s gain, who got four straight tests after Anderson pulled out early on in the first test itself. Supremely athletic and utterly uncomplicated, Archer proved to be a strong foil to the masterly Broad. Archer’s concussion-causing hit at Smith’s helmet brought in the first-ever concussion substitute in Labuschagne, and made Smith sit out in the subsequent test. 

6 & 7. Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins: The duo showed their class and penetration through the many English tracks, and bagged nearly 50 wickets between them in five tests. Australia can continue to bank on them for years to come. 

…and the strugglers

8. David Warner: With a paltry 95 runs to his credit in 10 innings and a single-digit average of 9.5, this must have been the lowest low for Warner. As they say, playing white-ball cricket where he excelled till recently in the ICC World Cup, is a totally different game from red-ball cricket. 

9. Joe Root: Is his quest for dominance over? Is he still jostling for the numero uno spot with Smith, Kohli and Williamson? Root seems to be tailing off, averaging an average 32.5 runs. 

10. Jonny Bairstow: He had an amazing run of form through the World Cup, but scored just 214 runs in 10 innings at a below par average of 21.4 per inning. 

The collective seven-time champions Australia and India were sent packing from the semi-finals in the ICC 2019 Cricket World Cup by England and New Zealand respectively, with both the qualifying finalists having never won the title in the Cup’s 44-year history. 

Indeed, upsets of sorts!  That’s the way the cookie crumbled! Here are 10 similarities between the two knock-out games:

1. M.S. Dhoni and Steven Smith missing the crease by a whisker – Both are stalwarts of the game and could have taken their respective teams home, but for the freaky yet spectacular run-outs that changed the game at crucial moments.

2. Scoreboard pressure in knock-outs – Only four batsmen each from India and Australia could get into double digits. While Indian batsmen succumbed to the scoreboard pressure, Australian innings never really took off to put runs on the board. 

3. Exemplary fielding – Jadeja was amazing for India,and so were Bairstow and Stokes on sweeper boundaries for England, but it was Butler for England and Guptill for New Zealand who struck with crunch moment run-outs.

4. Lacklustre openers and poor starts – Australian and Indian openers heavily underperformed. India’s top three got out at 1, 1, and 1. That was the knock-out punch in a knock-out game!

5. Low scoring affairs – Not surprisingly, the pressure of the knock-out games got to the teams. All four semi-final innings ended between 220 and 240 runs. Moreover, there were no century by any batsman in these matches.

6. Supposed match-winning “emperors had no clothes” – Virat Kohli and David Warner are both destructive match-winners, but both are now consistently showing butterflies in their stomach when they head out for knock-out games. Virat has 9, 1, and 1 in his last three ICC trophy semi-finals. Warner too has made only 12 and 9 in the last two World Cup semis. 

7. Bowlers won the games – India and Australia were both title contenders and were bowed out cheaply. While the maximum individual wickets were three for 20 runs by Chris Woakes, many more bowlers such as Jofra Archer and Rashid Patel for England, and Matt Henry, Boult and Santner for New Zealand made a mark on their team’s win. 

8. Wicket-keeper batsmen sheet anchored, but couldn’t finish – MS Dhoni and Alex Carey did well to try and anchor the respective innings, but that didn’t prove to be enough. 

9. Troublesome middle orders proved to be the undoing – Dinesh Kartìk, Marcus Stoinis were unimpressive, and Pandya and Maxwell flashed to their peril. Need we say more?

10. Guaranteed a new winner – Both semis were won by teams searching their maiden title, and one of England and New Zealand would emerge as the winner for the first time! 

India made it 7-0 in the ICC World Cup matches between the two countries.

Three cheers!

That’s the way the cookie crumbled! Here are 10 reasons why.

1. Pakistan fielding was of pedestrian quality. They must have leaked 15-20 extra runs. They just didn’t seem sharp and focused on the field.

2. It seemed to me that the Indian team plays these high-stakes and tension-filled games with a lot of aplomb. On the other hand, the Pakistani players seem to take stress, fearing they will invite the wrath of their fans and establishment back home, should they lose.

3. While Indian spinners were on the mark, with Kuldeep bowling the “ball of the tournament” to get rid of Babar Azam, the Pakistani spinners were listless.

4. Pakistan team seems to be a divided camp, with reported factions inside the dressing room. The senior players such as Shoaib Malik are just not rising to the occasion. He has made 8 runs in the tournament so far in his 3 innings. 

5. Most Pakistan players seem to be out of form. Hasan Ali, on whom Pakistan team heavily relies, has leaked 256 runs in 33 overs in the tournament so far, at an economy of 7.8, while purchasing just 2 wickets. This has added pressure on Mohammed Amir to carry the bowling. 

6. Pakistan middle order was as fragile as egg shells. They lost 5 wickets for 45 runs, when the game was as good as sunk for Pakistan.

7. Rohit Sharma was the big difference between the teams. He went on to pile up 140 runs, while no Pakistan player got close to scoring a ton.

8. Despite the southpaw opener Shikhar Dhawan missing the fixture, and India having to open with KL Rahul, India registered an opening stand of 128 runs. Pakistani openers struggled to make a dent. This has been a tournament dominated by openers – the average opening partnership so far has been in excess of 50, while the average opening stand in 2015 World Cup was 31 runs only!

9. India is blessed with Dhoni’s infinite experience at the back of stumps who controls the game from there, a rarest of rare skill that is not matched by the Pakistan counterpart Sarfaraz.

10. Did Pakistan also goof up at the toss? In such high pressure games, runs on the board always command a premium. Chasing the target down is never easy!

 

Well, South Africa (SA) succumbed to their second straight loss in the ICC WC 2019 league stage, this time in an upset to Bangladesh.