Annika’s plotting a Solheim surprise
ANNIKA SORENSTAM hopes her vast experience and attention to detail can help Europe defy the odds and regain the Solheim Cup this weekend.
The United States are odds-on favourites to win the biennial contest for the 10th time at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, having ended Europe’s bid for an unprecedented hat-trick of wins in Germany in 2015.
Sorenstam’s careful planning was thrown into disarray by the withdrawal of Suzann Pettersen on Wednesday due to a back injury, with her assistant captain Catriona Matthew stepping in as the Norwegian’s replacement.
Europe’s top-ranked player, world No 13 Anna Nordqvist, has also been suffering from glandular fever and it remains to be seen if she will be able to play two matches in one day today or tomorrow.
However, Sorenstam, 46, has seen it all before in eight appearances as a player and assistant captain in the last three contests, including Europe’s first win on American soil in 2013.
“I’m very analytical,” said Sorenstam. “I take my time making decisions, but once I make a decision, I stick to it. I try to be thorough. I try to have good communication with the team. And you just have to be yourself.
“Certainly I bring experience to the table. I’ve been in every single role. I’ve been a player; I’ve been a vice-captain, and now the captain.
“So I can relate literally to any situation – at least I feel that way. I have a great leadership team around me that certainly pick up my weaknesses.
“This is about having fun and I want to spread that through the team and just show them that I believe in them; that’s why I’m here.”
Sorenstam revealed her pairings for the foursomes and fourballs had been decided by the players themselves.
“We’re going with feel,” she said. “The pairings are 99 per cent the players’ choices. I want them to be happy. With happy players, there’s hopefully good golf.” THE jury is still out on whether day-night Test cricket will catch on in this country. But what is in no doubt is the enduring class of England captain Joe Root.
This may have been an historic day, the first pinkball Test in the UK providing plenty of talking points before the match and adding some much-needed excitement into a series that threatened to fall flat before it had even started thanks to the poverty of the opposition.
However, even if the opening Test in this threematch series against West Indies is shaping up to be as one-sided as most had feared, Root added a touch of class to proceedings by posting 136 to further enhance his authority as captain.
South Africa were impressively dispatched 3-1 in his first series leading the team, Root laying down a marker with a fine 190 in the opening Test at Lord’s. He YORKSHIRE’S Adam Lyth smashed the domestic T20 record with an incredible 161 off 73 balls in their 124 runs win over Northants at Headingley.
Lyth, who hit seven sixes in beating Brendon McCullum’s mark of 158, was 14 runs short of a world record. followed it up here with his 13th Test hundred during an innings that saw records tumble.
Supported ably by Alastair Cook, his predecessor, Root rebuilt an innings that had initially stalled at 39-2 early on following the dismissals of debutant opener Mark Stoneman and Tom Westley.
By the time Root and Cook were parted in the final session, England’s skipper playing a tired shot to Kemar Roach during the dangerous twilight period, their partnership was worth 248.
That was a record for the third wicket by any team in a Test at Edgbaston. It was also the highest partnership so far in day-night Tests, albeit with this being only the fifth one that has ever been played.
Root had earlier reached a significant personal milestone when he reached his half-century early in the afternoon session.
This was the 11th successive Test in which the Yorkshireman has scored at least 50, surpassing John Edrich’s England record of 10 consecutive matches established between 1969 and 1971. He is now just one
This is about having fun
behind South African AB De Villiers’ world record of 12.
Cook, another batsman used to bringing up landmarks, will resume the second day unbeaten on 153 after posting his 31st Test hundred.
That is already more than any Englishman in history. Yet the Essex batsman, whose 10th innings of 150 or more helped England reach the close on 348-3, may yet believe that at the age of 32 he has a chance of hunting down Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 51 Test tons.
One man who will also start the second day in a positive frame of mind is Dawid Malan, who was unbeaten on 28 at stumps – his highest Test score after four failures in his first two matches against South Africa.
Whether or not he is the man to fill England’s No 5 position for this winter’s Ashes tour of Australia remains to be seen.
The serenity of Cook and Root’s batting against this West Indies attack was in stark contrast to what had occurred earlier in the day when the pink ball triggered yet another top-order collapse for the hosts.
Stoneman, Cook’s 12th opening partner since the retirement of Andrew Strauss in 2012, would have hoped to have seen off the new ball and cash in. Instead, he lasted just six deliveries before he was bowled by a near-unplayable delivery from Roach.
That wicket brought Westley to the crease. The Essex batsman has been tasked with solving another problem position at No 3 and despite positive signs in his first two Tests against South Africa, he was trapped lbw on review after missing