Sweet revenge wide of the mark - Alastair Cook Column

[King]

I have to say I am disappointed by the way the great 'Jelly Bean' saga has been blown up out of all proportion, says Alastair Cook. More... Sweet revenge wide of the mark By Alastair Cook Last Updated: 1:49am BST 01/08/2007 Have your say Read comments In pics: Indian batsmen in buoyant mood Audio: Derek Pringle on jelly beans and sledging Derek Pringle: India outclass England | Trent Bridge scorecard I have to say I am disappointed by the way the great 'Jelly Bean' saga has been blown up out of all proportion. It has ended up overshadowing a hard-fought Test match, in which both teams played some excellent cricket, and the suggestion that it could have affected the final result is quite ridiculous. I am also disappointed to find myself accused in some quarters - including this very paper - of supplying the offending sweets, particularly as I am a fruit pastille man myself. The jelly bean incident, and Zaheer Khan's response to it, has sparked a debate about the spirit of the game. But personally I don't think there was any problem with the way this Test match was played. As a cricket lover as well as a cricket player, I like it when two teams go hard at each other and put everything into the contest. And I don't think anyone has overstepped the mark over the past five days. You've got to remember that every player out there is playing for his country. England have a proud record to defend in Test matches, especially at home, and I think it is right that we should play our cricket with intensity and positive energy and we'll look to continue that at the Oval next week. Simon Hughes: Zaheer's guile gives England a headache Martin Johnson: Jelly bean pranksters suffer sticky end Geoffrey Boycott: Too much talk from England That is part of what Peter Moores has brought to the team since he took over at the beginning of the summer. His methods have been successful at Sussex and they are now beginning to take shape at international level. Perhaps we talk more in the field than we used to, but the intention is to keep ourselves going, to make sure that we are on our toes. Even if the opposition bat a whole session without losing a wicket, we should still be hanging in there, plugging and poking away and trying to get the breakthrough. The real test for us in this match came when India went out to bat on a pitch that was flattening out, in the knowledge that they had already skittled us for a low score. I feel like we stuck to our task really well for the next 160 overs - which translates to the best part of two days. Our job was to make it as uncomfortable as possible for the batters to score runs. To give India credit, they really stuck at their task too. They finished up with 480, but the fact that it took them so long to make the runs shows how well we bowled and how disciplined we were. The guys just kept on running in and the number of times we beat the bat was incredible. No one likes losing, but you have to take the positives from every game. Our challenge now is to improve and lift our performance levels for the Oval Test. Must-win games are always the best games, and even though we got beaten here, I believe our performance has really set us up for that final Test. I clearly have a few things to work on myself, after falling lbw for the third and fourth times in a row. Over the next 10 days I will be having a bit of downtime and then getting in the nets with Andy Flower and Graham Gooch, my old Essex comrades, to work on a few things with the bowling machine. I hope that we will see some improvement, and that I can get rid of this lbw jinx in time to make a major contribution.

[King]

The real test for us in this match came when India went out to bat on a pitch that was flattening out, in the knowledge that they had already skittled us for a low score.

Very convenient I see. How about the 3rd and 4th day pitch England batted on? Despite flattening we saw the great English collapse. Other than Vaughan none of the England were able to chip in with a match saving/winning knock. I can't quite fathom how a pitch was flat just for the time when India batted during the 5 days of the test match:tounge_smile:

[The Outsider]

Very convenient I see. How about the 3rd and 4th day pitch England batted on? Despite flattening we saw the great English collapse. Other than Vaughan none of the England were able to chip in with a match saving/winning knock. I can't quite fathom how a pitch was flat just for the time when India batted during the 5 days of the test match:tounge_smile:

I highlighted that point in my match review article, Ravi. It was incredulous to see the likes of Botham who know more about conventional swing than all of us put together talk about a couple of degrees increase in temperature to explain away the prodigious swing than the Indians got. In fact, by doing so they downgraded the quality of Vaughan's innings. But it's not that wierd. When Indian spinners were outspun by Boje in 2000 our media resorted to similar silly comments.

[Donny]

"And I don't think anyone has overstepped the mark over the past five days." Did he miss Sree's very silly no-ball ? :wink_smile:

[King]

"And I don't think anyone has overstepped the mark over the past five days." Did he miss Sree's very silly no-ball ? :wink_smile:

:D That was my thought too.

[CC1981]

Why is Sree's beamer creating so much hoopla when there is one certain Brett Lee (who's been questioned of a suspect action to boot, unlike Sree) who incidentally specializes in bowling outrageous beamers and has done this Sreesanth kinda beamer atleast half a dozen times against opposition batsmen ? Atleast Sree was decent enough not to bowl a beamer to a tailender like Brett 'accidental-beamer' Lee. As per Cooke's comments- i see he convininently forgets that in the first test, it was rain that screwed over India in the first place- England started batting on a flat Lord's pitch, went along to almost 200 with 7 wickets in hand and then it rained- and lo, the next 36 out of possible 37 wickets fell with another 630-odd runs. Hmmm...Gee Cookie, no comments about the 200-3 for England on a flattish pitch---> *rains*---> next 36 wickets for 630....Hmmm...like..no, England didn't get lucky in the 1st test. I wish current cricketers were banned form having a newspaper column because all they are doing is skewing the opinion of the public instead of presenting a balanced picture.

[Donny]

Sandro, will you please explain why you're going off about Sree's beamer when it hasn't even been mentioned in this thread ?? And (as you've used the old 'I'll throw an Aussie into the argument' ploy) I'll repeat what I've made clear before. I am not an apologist or defender of Aussie cricket or cricketers. I'm a cricket lover, first & foremost. I enjoy a good cricket contest - whoever's playing.