England resting Swann for final ODIs

Updated July 05, 2012 21:06:50

England's Graeme Swann will miss the final two matches in the one-day series against Australia, allowing him to rest his sore bowling arm, national selector Geoff Miller said Thursday.

Swann, a mainstay of the England side in all three international formats, will be replaced by fellow off-spinner James Tredwell in the squad for the concluding fixtures of a five-match series against Australia at Chester-le-Street and Manchester on Saturday and Tuesday respectively.

England has also called up seamer Chris Woakes, drafted in for Wednesday's abandoned match against Australia at his Edgbaston home ground, where rain meant not one ball was bowled, while Jade Dernbach and Stuart Meaker attended the funeral of their former Surrey team-mate Tom Maynard.

Dernbach will be unavailable for the final two matches as well because of a side strain.

Miller said team management had always intended to give Swann a break after the Edgbaston match, where the wash-out left England 2-0 up with two to play in a series the hosts had to win 5-0 to replace Australia at the top of the one-day international rankings.

Former England off-spinner Miller added the decision had been made with a view to Swann being fit for the upcoming three-Test series with South Africa, where England will put its world number one status on the line.

"We had earmarked the fourth and fifth matches in this series as an opportunity to rest Graeme, regardless of the result at Edgbaston, because we have to consider our preparations for the Test series later this month," Miller said in an England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement.

"Graeme has some pain in his elbow at the moment and we feel that an extra week's rest will allow his elbow to settle.

"Chris Woakes replaces Jade Dernbach, who has been ruled out with a side strain."

All-rounder Samit Patel (Nottinghamshire) and batsman Jonathan Bairstow (Yorkshire) have been released for the Twenty20 match between their respective counties later Thursday.

Bairstow will also be available for Yorkshire's 'Roses' clash away to arch-rivals Lancashire at Old Trafford on Friday and he and Patel will rejoin England in time for Saturday's fourth one-day international.

England squad:

Alastair Cook (capt), Ian Bell, Jonathan Trott, Ravi Bopara, Eoin Morgan, Craig Kieswetter (wkt), Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Steven Finn, James Anderson, James Tredwell, Samit Patel, Chris Woakes, Jonathan Bairstow

AFP

Tags: onedayseries, cricket, sport, england, united-kingdom, australia

First posted July 05, 2012 21:06:50

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Ten-wicket Swann fires England to big win

Updated April 07, 2012 21:16:25

Graeme Swann claimed a match haul of 10 wickets as England roared to a series-levelling win over Sri Lanka in the second and final Test on Saturday to retain its number one ranking.

Swann followed his four wickets in the first innings with six in the second as Sri Lanka was bowled out for 278 at the stroke of lunch on the fifth day at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo.

England, set a modest target of 94, coasted home by eight wickets despite a brief stutter at 2 for 31 following the dismissals of skipper Andrew Strauss for no score and Jonathan Trott for 5.

Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen carried the tourists home with a brisk third-wicket stand of 66 in 69 balls, amid wild celebrations from some 5,000 travelling English fans at the ground.

Left-hander Cook remained unbeaten on 49 and Pietersen, who hit a century in the first innings, smashed 42 not out from 28 balls, signalling his team's emphatic victory with a six off Tillakaratne Dilshan.

"We are still number one, for a while yet, hopefully," said Strauss, who has been under pressure for both his leadership skills and his poor form with the bat.

"The most important thing was winning the game. We did not want to walk away from Sri Lanka having lost the series. I'm delighted by the way the guys reacted to the challenge.

"At the end of the day this will look like a reasonably comfortable victory, but we all know how hard we had to work for that. It's been a tough winter and we're delighted to come through at the end of it."

It was England's first win in five Tests on its Asian sojourn this year after being thrashed 3-0 by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and losing the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle.

The ICC confirmed that England and South Africa were level at the top of the Test charts with 116 rating points, but Strauss' men nudged ahead when the ratings were calculated beyond the decimal point.

Strauss saluted Swann, man-of-the-match Pietersen and seamer Jimmy Anderson.

"Anderson was outstanding on an unresponsive wicket, Swann proved his worth once again and Pietersen showed everyone why he is such a special talent," the skipper said.

Sri Lanka, currently ranked sixth, paid the price for not reaching 300 in either innings of the match and will remain without a series win since 2009, when it beat New Zealand at home.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardene, who ended with 354 runs in four innings at an average of 88.50 with two hundreds and a half-century, was declared the man of the series.

"We knew England would come hard at us because good players and good teams always step up to the plate," Jayawardene said.

"We made a few mistakes. It was important to get a big first-innings score, which is always so important in our part of the world. We probably fell 100 runs short.

"And then KP (Pietersen) came and turned the game around. His century shifted the momentum of the Test match. We were outplayed on the first two days and that proved the big difference."

Jayawardene paid rich tribute to Swann, saying he was one of the best spinners he had faced.

"We knew going into the series that Anderson and Swann would be the main threats because they can bowl well in any conditions," he said.

"It was a hard-fought series. We made mistakes and we have to learn from that and become more consistent going forward."

AFP

Tags: cricket, sport, sri-lanka, england, united-kingdom

First posted April 07, 2012 21:11:56

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Swann edges England close to win

Updated April 07, 2012 08:15:08

A double strike by off-spinner Graeme Swann in the penultimate over of the fourth day put England within reach of victory in the second and final Test against Sri Lanka in Colombo.

England needs to win the match to square the series and retain its world number one ranking.

Having safely negotiated the second new ball, Sri Lanka appeared to be relatively safe at 4 for 215 before Swann sent back Thilan Samaraweera (47) and nightwatchman Suraj Randiv for a duck in the space of three balls to swing the Test England's way.

At the close, Sri Lanka who trailed England by 185 runs on the first innings, was 6 for 218, an overall lead of 33 runs.

Sri Lanka's hopes of saving the Test rest on the shoulders of captain Mahela Jayawardene, who was unbeaten on 55 with Angelo Mathews on 3.

Swann, who also dismissed Tillakaratne Dilshan (35) and Kumar Sangakkara (21), ended the day with figures of 4 for 82.

Dilshan, who was fined 10 per cent of his match fee for excessive appealing, was unhappy after he was given out, caught at slip by James Anderson.

The batsman asked for a review but with no Hot Spot technology available, there was no conclusive evidence to overrule the on-field umpire's decision.

Swann then removed Sangakkara, who had struggled for nearly two hours before edging a catch behind the wicket to Matt Prior.

Sri Lanka lost both openers in the morning session when the English pace bowlers removed Dhammika Prasad (34) and Lahiru Thirimanne (11) but not before the visitors paid for some sloppy fielding.

Anderson got rid of the shaky Thirimanne, who edged a catch to Andrew Strauss at slip with the total on 23.

Prasad, sent in as a nightwatchman, justified his promotion and hung around for 87 minutes before he pulled Steven Finn straight to Tim Bresnan at deep square leg.

It was some relief for Finn, who had dropped Prasad at mid-off when the batsman was on 21.

The missed opportunity was a second heartbreak for Swann, who earlier saw Prior gift Thirimanne a reprieve by wasting a simple stumping chance.

Bresnan also dropped Jayawardene on 20 when he lofted Samit Patel but the fielder, at deep mid-wicket, could get only a hand to the ball as it sailed over his head for four.

Reuters

Tags: cricket, sport, sri-lanka

First posted April 07, 2012 08:10:07

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Broad, Swann put England in charge

Updated January 26, 2012 07:21:49

England's Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann were the scourge of Pakistan as they picked up six wickets to reduce the hosts to 7 for 256 on the first day of the second Test at Abu Dhabi Stadium on Wednesday.

Pakistan captain Misbah ul-Haq remained unbeaten on 83 at the close but England, the world's top-ranked team, made a good start to the match following their 10-wicket drubbing in the first Test and Pakistan opener Taufeeq Umar admitted the tourists had the upper hand.

"I think they are in a better position because we lost a couple more wickets we were not expecting," Umar said.

"If we were at the same score at five (wickets) down, then I think we would have been in the better position. If we cross 300 runs that would be great."

Umar defended Pakistan's decision to bat first, saying that it meant England must bat last on what is likely to be an increasingly difficult wicket.

England's Monty Panesar, recalled in place of injured seamer Chris Tremlett for his first Test appearance since 2009, said his team were happy with their start.

"Come the start of the day, we would have taken seven wickets," Panesar said. "You're going to get some chances taken, some chances dropped, but overall we're very pleased with the day."

The touring side looked like they might rue a hat-trick of missed catches as ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq put on a fifth-wicket stand of 100 to reach 4 for 203 but Swann and Broad struck in the final session to tip the balance in England's favour.

Pakistan, who play home matches in the Gulf region due to security problems in their country, started confidently.

Openers Mohammad Hafeez and Umar added 50 as Broad and James Anderson struggled to make an impression with the new ball.

Captain Andrew Strauss then turned to spin duo Swann and Panesar, with England fielding a four-man attack including two slow bowlers for the first time since 2003, and the decision was soon vindicated.

In the 19th over, Swann bowled Umar for 16 with a straight delivery the batsmen foolishly left to clip his off-stump, reducing Pakistan to 1 for 51.

Panesar then dropped a stooping caught and bowled chance, but he made immediate amends, dismissing Hafeez for 31 with his next delivery which squeezed between bat and pad to strike the leg stump as Pakistan reached 2 for 73 at lunch.

Broad returned to the attack after the interval and the all-rounder dismissed Younus Khan and Azhar Ali in quick succession, sending their off-stumps flying with searing deliveries.

Ul-Haq and Shafiq fought back, cheered on by a small crowd in the Sheikh Zayed stadium, an oasis of green in the industrial outskirts of the UAE capital.

Both batsmen had lucky escapes. Ul-Haq survived a fierce lbw appeal on nought, umpire Bruce Oxenford deciding the captain's bat hit the ball before it struck his pads, and he again escaped on 30 when Anderson put down a catch at slip off Panesar.

Alastair Cook at short-leg also failed to snaffle an edge from Shafiq before it hit the turf as the batsmen recorded his fifth Test 50.

Swann then trapped Shafiq lbw for 58 as he attempted a sweep shot, leaving Pakistan on 5 for 203.

Strauss was found wanting as Anderson let rip with the second new ball, dropping an easy catch at slip after Adnan Akmal sliced an outside edge.

Broad then claimed his third wicket, Akmal falling for nine after being trapped lbw, and Abdur Rehman went for a duck as Swann snared him with a ball that turned sharply past the left-hander to hit off-stump.

Reuters

Tags: cricket, sport, england, united-kingdom, pakistan

First posted January 26, 2012 07:11:38

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KP fine with 'not clever' Swann book

Updated December 21, 2011 10:56:07

Kevin Pietersen has labelled Graeme Swann's recent autobiography as "not a clever book" after the off-spinner went into print to criticise his brief tenure as England captain.

Pietersen insists he has a good relationship with Swann and that the fall-out from the off-spinner's book would have no bearing on England's team spirit ahead of its upcoming series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates.

Pietersen was briefly England's captain across all formats but resigned in January 2009 after questioning the credentials of then-coach Peter Moores, who was sacked from his post.

In his book, Swann said Pietersen was "not a natural leader" and that him losing the captaincy was the best thing to happen for England as it paved the way for the successful alliance between current Test captain Andrew Strauss and coach Andy Flower.

The pair have led England to number one in the Test rankings after winning the Ashes 3-1 in Australia and, at home, whitewashed India 4-0.

"Things are absolutely fine," Pietersen said.

"It was Swanny. Swanny likes to talk. It's not a clever book in the middle of your career, but it's not affecting anything that's going on in the team for sure.

"The team spirit we've got at the moment ... a book won't change anything like that.

"When we go to Abu Dhabi and Dubai in a couple of weeks time, the team will be as united as ever and that's not going to change for one second because of a book."

But the side's one-day form has been far less impressive, with England struggling to get into the knock-out stages of this year's World Cup in Asia before being well beaten by eventual finalist Sri Lanka.

And in October a one-day series in India saw England thrashed 5-0 by the 50-over world champions.

Pietersen said England's inability, in contrast to the Test team, to find a settled one-day side was behind the Twenty20 world champions struggles in the 50-over format.

"We've used so many players, whether it be through injury or rest," Pietersen said.

"I've played seven years of one-day cricket for England, and it's round about 35 players that we've used.

"To get that consistency and roles in the team can be quite hard.

"Things didn't go according to plan in India two months ago but we have made great strides in one-day cricket, certainly here (in England).

"The World Cup was a tough one because it came at end of that long Australian trip. (England's one-day record) is something we are focused on improving."

Swann, writing in his Sun newspaper column in October, played down talk of a rift with the South Africa-born Pietersen.

"People have claimed my observation that KP is not a natural leader and should not have captained England has caused dressing-room divisions and a breakdown in team spirit," he wrote.

"Well, anybody who thinks that does not know this England team.

"The reason we lost the one-day series 5-0 to India is because we've been outplayed in conditions which suit the home team."

AFP

Tags: cricket, sport, england, united-kingdom

First posted December 20, 2011 07:04:40

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