Davydenko - Photo Emmett Hume CCA
Mercury rising… and falling and rising again
English cricket continues to baffle. Last week we looked at the mercurial nature of the side that could be slain for more than 240 in 20 overs and then restrict South Africa to almost the same over 50 overs and knock off the runs with panache. This weekend the South Africans scored 355 in 50 overs and won with a huge amount to spare, then two days later James Anderson, whose 7 overs went for 55 on Friday, takes 5-23 in 10 overs and South Africa are all out for 119, and the game is won in half a day. On the plus side, it makes a change from the days of one day internationals in which England had only lows.
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Where the standards are always high
The end of year tournament at the O2 Arena has been a wonderful advertisement for the standards of men’s tennis at the moment. At the start of the year the thoughts were of the scramble between the world’s top four - Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Murray - for the major honours of the year. All four have had their triumphs at various stages of the season, but this year the battle has been emphatically joined by the rest of the sport. Consider Roddick at Wimbledon, Soderling at the French Open, Del Potro at the US Open. The meeting of the world’s top 8 players in London has produced one high quality match after another, with players separated by the finest of margins and few games not taking the full three sets, and an unlikely final played out by Del Potro and Davydenko and won by the latter. Add to the mix players such as Gael Monfils and Jo Wilfried Tsonga and the 2010 season promises to be more exciting still.
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And where they are so often low
What to make of the winter internationals, then? Rob Andrew says that they show England are improving - comprehensive defeats to Australia and New Zealand coupled with a desperate effort against the Argentines were hard to use as evidence. There was not the near whitewash that the northern hemisphere saw this time a year ago - the off-key South Africans were beaten by Ireland and France, while the Australians were overturned by Scotland and held by the Irish. Nonetheless, the North is still trailing behind the south, even in home conditions, and with the 2011 World Cup taking place in New Zealand there is an extraordinarily long way to go before any of the home nations might call themselves contenders.
