Malan backed to rediscover his touch in series decider
10-3 Held up towards rear, headway into midfield 4th, steady progress before 13th, stayed on under pressure to chase leader 2 out, led approaching last, stayed on strongly flat, won at Fontwell 3m 2f hts chs (6) sft in Feb beating Sametegal by 12l, 16 ran.
5-4fav Chased leaders on inside, went 2nd 15th, soon led, clear before last, stayed on well, won at Wetherby 3m hts chs (6) sft in Feb beating Snow Castle by 10l, 12 ran. 6-1 Held up, headway approaching 10th, not fluent 3 out, chased winner after 2 out, not fluent last, no impression, stayed on, 2nd of 10, 2l behind Kilkishen at Kelso 2m 7f hts chs (5) sft in Feb. 13-2 Mid-division early, 6th from 8th, headway and effort straight, chased winner and kept on without threatening run-in, 2nd of 10, 3 1/2l behind Mick The Jiver at Navan 3m hcp chs in Dec ‘19.
Going: Good to soft (32) B Case 8 11-12 ............................. K Woods 140
(23) J Farrelly 8 11-8 (D2) ....... M Bastyan (3) 134 (62) N Henderson 6 11-7 (BF) ............. N De Boinville 94 (45) Noel Williams 7 11-4 (D) ............................ A Coleman 132
(31) A Honeyball 5 11-3 ................... R Dingle 137 (16) A Irvine 9 10-8 ....................... Page Fuller 136
11-1 Pulled hard, tracked leaders, led 4 out, ridden after 2 out, stayed on well, won at Newbury 2m 4f hcp hdl 0-110 (4) gd beating Song Of The Hunter by 3 1/2l, 13 ran.
11-4 Kept out wide, slight lead until after 3rd, pressed leader, challenged 2 out, led narrowly last, driven out, won at Exeter 2m 2f hcap hdle (3) sft in Feb beating Lily The Pink by nk, 5 ran. 6-1 Held up in rear, steady headway from 8th, went 3rd before last, driven flat, no extra towards finish, 3rd of 14, 4l behind Rose Of Arcadia at Wincanton 2m 5f mares NH nov hdl (4) hvy in Feb.
1-1fav Held up in mid-division, lost place and towards rear over 5f out, trying to squeeze through on bend over 2f out when tightened up clipped heels and fell, in a race won by Lucky’s Dream at Lingfield 2m NH flat (4) std in Jan, 9 ran. 25-1 Led until 4th, led again after 3 out, pushed along and headed on long run before next, weakened quickly, blundered 2 out, pulled up before last, in a race won by Anythingforlove at Sandown 2m 4f nov hdle Grd 2 (1) hvy in Feb, 8 ran. 7-1 Chased leaders, ridden and weakened after 3 out, tailed off, 5th of 8, 48l behind Royal Claret at Hereford 3m 1f hcap hdle (3) sft in Feb.
ENGLAND are backing Dawid Malan to relocate his world-beating Twenty20 form in their series decider in India.
Yorkshire man Malan is ranked as the format’s number one international batsman, having put together a phenomenal sequence of scores between his recall in November 2019 and the end of 2020, but has been quiet over the past four games.
The 33-year-old has failed to get going against India with 80 runs in total and at a less-than-explosive rate of 103.89.
Malan’s habit of feeling his way into an innings before exploding into life has retreated at an awkward time as England look to finalise their plans for the T20 World Cup later this year.
But assistant coach Paul Collingwood has every faith Malan is ready to do damage, with a 2-2 scoreline providing the perfect stage heading into Saturday’s ‘final.’
“Dawid hasn’t quite found his rhythm on this tour but you’ve got to remember where he is in the world rankings,” said Collingwood.
“What he’s done with an England shirt on in T20 cricket is pretty much exceptional up until this series. He’ll be the first person to say it hasn’t gone quite as well as he’d like in the first four games but he’s got an opportunity again to do something special.
“He’s been unbelievably consistent, to the point where you know fine well once he gets in he will go on and get a big score. Sometimes it only takes one shot that comes out of the middle of the bat that gets you going again.
“Hopefully (this match) is the day. One thing this team has done in the past four years, this new era of white-ball cricket, is back their cricketers.
“As a player you need security of knowing you’re not going to get dropped after a couple of games because we do ask a lot of them. They go out there and are expected to score at strike-rates of up to 140. If you look at his record, Dawid Malan does exactly that for us.”