Contrasts

Nice to see England, whose first two games were played at the superbly named 'Village Green' Ground, coping so well with something more familiar to the likes of us mere mortals - namely a funny shaped ground for their Twenty 20 victory today. It seemed like a widened coffin with the 'feet' at coin de vache. The contrast was that whereas we look at the short boundary and worry about protecting that, the pro seems to look at the odd shape as a benefit and reckon that the batsman might not reach the deeper corners so puts men there for the catch (see Anderson's excellent example) from today's game.

The other contrast is that whereas we bowl slow bowlers into the wind ostensibly because it's supposed to help them (and more to the point the faster man doesn't want that end) England seemed to bowl Swann with the wind at his back so that the batsman hitting straight had to hit against the conditions - canny !