Cow Corner Blog

Roiling, rolling, rolling - Theme from Moor hide

Wed May 28 02:36PM

Peter Moores was about 2½ tons away from appearing on the back of a broadsheet with a turnip on his head.

On the same night Avram Grant was sacked for coming second in everything, England looked to be down the Khyber without a Grey Nicholls against New Zealand.

But due to that heavy roller which turned a bunsen of an Old Trafford pitch into the M3 after Monty Panesar's heroics, things are looking rosy again.

Moores, shortly after asking Monty to pull his finger as shown in the picture, is certainly talking a good game: "The team has changed a lot and is developing and it's finding itself. To win along the way creates a bit of space, but the sign of an emerging, good team is when you win games you shouldn't win and when you win games scrappily."

But this shouldn't disguise that England have been playing pretty average cricket against the seventh ranked team in the world.

Three times in the last four Tests, the England coach has watched his side emerge victorious from positions where New Zealand were favourites.

The Black Caps kindly repeating what the All Blacks have done in every World Cup since 1991 and making a real mess of it.

Take Australia out of the equation for now and the barometer must be to win all your home series whilst a draw in away series in the sub-continent is acceptable.

With a home defeat to India and away defeat to Sri Lanka even if Moores completes the double over the Kiwis after the cruise past the West Indies last summer, in golf parlance he is still two over par after five holes.

England have not managed a first innings total in excess of 400 in 11 successive Tests and there are tougher tests to come.

A 2-0 defeat to South Africa and the Telegraph and the Guardian may be ready to give Moores the same treatment infamously handed to Graham Taylor by The Sun.

Indeed there are some parallels between Moores and Taylor.

Taylor's playing career consisted of spells at Grimsby Town and Lincoln City and his coaching success was based on doing well with unfashionable Watford and then guiding Aston Villa to a runners-up finish in the old First Division.

Moores started at Worcestershire and only earned his county cap at Sussex at the age of 27. He never even got close to an international call and after guiding Sussex to their first title in their 164-year history in 2003 succeeded Duncan Fletcher.

But while Taylor ultimately fell foul to a dodgy refeering decision in Rotterdam, a piece of garden machinery has Moores still looking pretty.

- - - 

Bad news for the people who run the players lounge at the Riverside, Edgbaston, County Ground, Bristol, The Oval and Lord's yesterday.

Both Andrew Flintoff and Jesse Ryder were ruled out of the forthcoming one-day series.
 
Cowers has been known to check its' investment portfolio every morning and sees Greene King Brewery drop five points with the news Ryder won't be hitting these shores.

Confederated Slaveholdings, Transatlantic Zeppelin, Amalgamated Spats, Congreve's Inflammable Powder, UK Hay and the Kidderminster Opera Hat Company are also down for your information.

- - -

Middlesex's South African all-rounder Vernon Philander has been disciplined by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

Philander was reported by umpires Peter Willey and George Sharp for unacceptable on-field behaviour.

You just can't trust a Philander.

- - -

TALKING POINT: Is Peter Moores doing a good job or do England need someone with an international pedigree?

CRANKY SIMON HUGHES QUOTE OF THE DAY: "The witchcraft of Daniel Vettori was removed. The day before he had made the ball jump, whistle a rhyme and vanish past the bat. Now it was just a plain Jane. The occasional delivery still spun, but the England batsmen subtly denied him a stranglehold with cleverly angled singles."
 
LIVE TODAY: Eight games in the Friends Provident Trophy as the group stage comes to an end and it's also the end of the group stage in the IPL - nothing to play for except large pots of money.

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