Five- star Vernon crushes Kiwis
ENGLAND begin a fresh chapter in their chequered one- day history today with a new head coach who captain Alastair Cook used to call ‘ The Dad’.
Ashley Giles starts his reign as one- day coach in place of team director Andy Flower with what on paper is the toughest of assignments in India.
England arrive in Delhi for a five- match ODI series having lost the last three in India 5- 1, 5- 0, 5- 0 – the most recent of those being in October 2011 under Cook, who had just taken over from Andrew Strauss.
Flower was in charge off the field then but, as with the captaincy, England have decided to ease the workload and split the coaching duties.
After success at Warwickshire, Giles, the former Test spinner, has the job of running both the 50- over and 20- over teams.
For Cook, it is the first time he has played for England under anyone other than Flower but he knows Giles, 39, well from his rookie days as a reserve batsman, starting with the 2005 Pakistan tour.
“He was a senior citizen of the side when I first went to Pakistan,” said Cook. “He was really good to me, he was called ‘ The Dad’ due to the way he looked after people. He was that gel in the middle of the team always looking after players.
“He had a very strong relationship with [ then coach] Duncan Fletcher and he was a bridge between some of the players and him.”
Unlike their Test form for the majority of 2012, England’s results in one- day games were on an upward curve as they won 12 out of 15, suffering only two defeats.
That improvement will be sorely tested against India, the current world champions who will be looking to avenge their embarrassing Test series defeat before Christmas.
Given the success of the IPL, India has become a country where one- day cricket is now considered of paramount importance and the hosts are desperate to take the chance to restore some lost pride.
While Flower retains overall responsibility, Cook says he and Giles will run the side their way to make the chemistry between coach and captain work.
“I think things will change,” said Cook. “Ashley has to do it his way, but we have had some NEW ZEALAND fell to their third lowest score, a paltry 45, in the first Test against South Africa as seamer Vernon Philander took 5- 7.
On the opening day of the two- match series, New Zealand quickly regretted choosing to bat as Philander tore through the early order. He took the first five wickets to fall, before Morne Morkel and Dale Steyn wrapped up the innings in just 19.2 overs.
Morkel finished with 3- 14, while Steyn took 2- 18 to pass 300 Test wickets. He has the best strike- rate of any bowler in the 300 club.
Things did not get much better for New Zealand in the field, with Alviro Petersen hitting an unbeaten 103 and Hashim Amla ( 66) and Jacques Kallis ( 60) taking the hosts to 252- 3 at the close.
Philander, who recovered from a hamstring tweak to play, said: “Hearing on Monday that I was fit to play really spurred me on, and I always love playing at Newlands. It’s my home crowd and my home venue, and this is where I love to play my cricket.”
It was also a memorable day for Kallis, who became the fourth man to pass 13,000 Tests runs, putting him in an elite group with Sachin Tendulkar ( 15,645) Rahul Dravid ( 13,288) and Ricky Ponting ( 13,378). “I love playing at Newlands so it was nice that I could get that achievement here. The public have been fantastic to me. These are very special moments that will live with me forever,” said Kallis.
“I’m probably batting as well as I’ve ever batted in my career, and hopefully I can carry on with that form for a little while longer and help win games of cricket for South Africa – or any team I play for.
“When I feel that I’m not contributing to the team in the way that I think I should be, or holding some youngster up, then I’ll definitely start thinking about retirement.
“But that’s certainly the furthest thing from my mind at the moment.”