Not orthodox, I agree, but it is part of the repertoire I have worked on. It was my job to get another, as it will be next time I go out to bat for England – if there is a next time The winter touring teams are announced this week. I hope I’m there.Reflecting on the two one-day innings – and, yes, it is flattering to be told that I am the first batsman to score separate hundreds for England on successive days – I was perhaps too expansive too early in the first.You have to take chances in the first 15 overs and I took them and got away with them. Start thinking you are in any way settled and you can expect to start failing. If you have scored runs it is natural to feel more comfortable. But there is a significant difference between that and feeling cosy.
This was my attitude last Sunday. I had made a century the day before in the second one-day international against Pakistan but that was history.
It is heartening to have scored three international centuries this season. I am proud of that, but I am also aware that consistent levels of performance are required. The last innings is always the one to put behind you; the one you are about to go out to play is the only one that matters. But I’ll still have no chance at all of being in the Western Australian side for the Sheffield Shield when I go back to Oz this winter.”.
This cosmopolitan cricketer (he was born in England of Sri Lankan parents who emigrated to Australia when he was 18 months old) said: “It’s been quite a week for me which I didn’t expect I came over here to play club cricket like I do in Perth. As the record is likely to include Don Bradman playing piano numbers like “Every Day Is A Rainbow Day For Me”, demand should surely ensure general release.One-man standDmitri Mascarenhas, who took nine wickets in an extraordinary debut for Hampshire last week, made a telling disclosure afterwards. He is already one of 22 players who have been captain of their countries in more than 30 Tests. Giving two points for a win, one for a draw, he has a success rate of 42.8 per cent, putting him ahead of only three in that list: John Reid, the Nawab of Pataudi and David Gower. He is, so far, 52nd in the list of all 71 England captains.Disappointing information about the compilation album of cricket songs being produced to raise funds for the Lord’s Taverners.
Scheduled for private release in six months, it will not be on sale for a year, if at all. Nothing similar happened last week, but Derbyshire only drew, which both in a historical and contemporary context may be a bad omen.BY the time he returns from the winter tours, Michael Atherton will have led England in 40 Tests, one behind Peter May’s record. Sixty years and a week ago, during a tense run-in, Somerset beat Derbyshire for the second time that summer. Derby lost only four times in all, only Somerset did the double.In that second contest, Arthur Wellard drove the reserve left-arm spinner Tom Armstrong for five successive sixes, then “a feat considered a record”, said Wisden.
