Iain O'Brien tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151 2009-10-12T10:58:09Z Movable Type 3.34 They were the champions, my friends tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.13170 2009-10-12T10:16:37Z 2009-10-12T10:58:09Z It feels like I was just here yesterday. I’m sitting in Frankfurt Airport waiting for a connecting flight. I wasn’t here yesterday or even been here before but just seven days ago I departed the UK for South Africa, going... Iain O'Brien It feels like I was just here yesterday. I’m sitting in Frankfurt Airport waiting for a connecting flight. I wasn’t here yesterday or even been here before but just seven days ago I departed the UK for South Africa, going via Munich Airport, and this airport feels exactly the same. It’s 6.30am, I got off the plane at 5.45am. I’m a bit tired. I managed to get a bit of sleep on the 9 hr flight from Johannesburg but not enough to make up for the previous night’s lack thereof. The night before last, we lost the Champions Trophy. We weren’t good enough, sure we were the underdog, but it still would have been great to have made the match closer. Australia deserved to win; they are the deserved winners of the 2009 Champions Trophy. Dan (Vettori) was ruled out of the match early although not many of us knew anything. His hammy had been bad in the semi-final vs Pakistan and probably shouldn’t have played that one; so the final, after doing a little more damage to it in his Man of the Match performance against Pakistan, was out of the question; although we all knew how much he wanted to play. I was out in the middle with some of the guys kicking a football around before warm-ups started when the coach came up to Jeetan Patel, hand on shoulder, and said “Mate, you’re playing.” It’s always a great feeling getting that ‘chat’ especially when you’ve worked so hard, consistently, to be ready to play. I knew how Jeets was feeling; overjoyed for himself and hugely disappointed for Dan and the team to lose such a player. There was a little bit of ‘shell shock’ when we all realised we were going to be missing a stand-out player and our captain; not an uneasy feeling but we knew our chances of winning had just taken a hit. You need to have the best team possible out in the big matches. We’ve had our injuries throughout this tournament like nobody’s business. I was only there because of one, [Aaron] Redmond and [James] Franklin, both playing, were there for the same reason; late call-ups after injuries. We had our best team on the park that we could field. We had lost [Jesse] Ryder, [Jacob] Oram and [Daryll] Tuffy; all guys who would have been playing had they been fit. The good thing within the NZ setup at the moment is that we have some bloody good players waiting to get their turn (again). The match against Pakistan was brilliant; we knew we had held them to a score we would have been very happy with before the match started. Sure, their tail put on a couple more than we’d like, but we’d take it. And our run chase was superb. Grant Elliott was at his best. The pace of his innings made our chase feel comfortable and when Dan joined him still with over 100 to get, we were still very confident of getting through. Grant and Dan put on 104, a fifth-wicket partnership record for the Wanderers, to get us to within four of the needed runs. They took their time, because we had it, and took their chances, because they were given. A catch at cover, that should have been taken, really put the final within reach. Their partnership was 40 from 70 balls at one stage, if I remember rightly. A little slow but controlled none the less. They then proceeded to up tempo. The hundred brought up from almost even balls. The Powerplay used perfectly! I’m now home and have had a short break in Belgium, Bruges to be exact. Great fun, great city; more about that later. I’ll get this finished and leave some room for another in a couple of days but before I finish I want to have a small dig at the South Africa press. Sitting at the airport in Jo’burg, Franky and I sat reading the paper, the morning after the final. The way the two main stories read on the back page, the main sports page, was that it was unfortunate that the ‘underdog couldn’t come through.’ We both sat there and thought that it was poor media, not for us, we’d have loved to have won, but for the Australians that won the event, the Champions Trophy. They won it, they deserved it. They went through the tournament unbeaten and deserved to win. Unfortunately the tone of these two stories was that it would have been great if NZ had won, against all odds; instead of congratulating Australia for a great tournament. Had we been Australian we would have been very disappointed that our success was not celebrated like it should have been. Hitting the ground running tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.13022 2009-10-03T09:22:50Z 2009-10-12T10:25:51Z If you've been reading you'd know I have had nine days off before coming here; no bowling for nine days. Iain O'Brien

Well, I'm here in Johannesburg, at the Champions Trophy. I didn't think I'd be here. If you've read my last post then you'll know I was expecting a three-week break. I got nine days into that and I got a call from our New Zealand coach, Andy Moles, telling me that I'd be travelling the next day to come into the squad. Daryl Tuffey had broken his hand while fielding in the Sri Lanka game. He bowled after doing it which is an amazing effort, but in the morning his hand was huge. Like one of those big 'foam hands' you wear at the baseball from what I have heard. I feel really bad that Daryl couldn't finish the tournament, it's a terrible thing to be bowling really well and pick up a very unexpected injury that rules you out of such a special competition. I feel really bad for him and wish him as quick a recovery as possible!]]> Stepped off the plane at 9.30 on October 1, straight to the hotel, check in, go and get a hair cut (sorry sis!) off to get some lunch, some biltong and then to training. If you've been reading you'd know I have had nine days off before coming here; no bowling for nine days. I was a little worried about the form I'd take into the nets, but I did know I was fresh and felt great. I started easy and got into it pretty quickly. I felt great and I was very happy with how I bowled. I went for an hour as hard as I could, trying to do as much catch up as I could. It was a very good hour. Lengths were good, yorkers came out well, slower ball needs some work! Yesterday, my second day here, and it was into the nets again for as much as I could do. Again it was really good. My pace is right there and I had it swinging nicely with an older ball too. Very happy! And here we are, game day. We leave in 30 minutes or so to head to the ground to take on a very impressive Pakistan team. The boys are very confident after playing some great cricket against a fantastic Sri Lanka team and England who, apart from last night, have played well and deserved their semi final spot. I will be carry the drinks, and I knew this yesterday morning before training, hence going hard at training to get myself as good as I could and give as much quality bowling in the nets as possible. Wish us well, it's going to be a great semi! Back at the keyboard tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12953 2009-09-29T08:17:57Z 2009-10-12T10:25:55Z Iain O'Brien
I walked because I had dished out so much ‘chat’ to Paranavitana that it was only fair that I ‘practice what I preach’ © Getty Images
  It’s a day short of a month since I last blogged. I had written a piece to finish off the Sri Lanka tour the day after I got back to the UK and somehow lost 700 words into the ether. It frustrated me, a lot, to the point where I just couldn’t be bothered writing. It was a strange response really, especially as I have enjoyed writing the blogs even when I’ve been tired, sore and after we’ve been defeated. I’m back blogging and will aim to get a couple out a week, albeit smaller pieces as I’m not playing cricket for a while. It’s break time. It’s time for some time off bowling; no more warm ups for a while. I say ‘warm ups’ because you’ll find that warm ups are the part of the day that most cricketers dislike the most. Towards the end of the season, it is often counted down not in playing days but by warm ups remaining. I’ll let you in on another secret; we actually don’t mind the rain, and some guys are actually different people because of it. It’s been nine days since I last bowled, a Championship match, played vs Kent in Canterbury, and I’ve enjoyed every day of it. This was my last game for Leicestershire this season; there was still one more Championship match and a Pro40 left. In the original plan with Leicestershire County Cricket Club (LCCC) I wasn’t supposed to be playing after the Sri Lankan tour. Between us we sorted out a two-week extension that took in two Champo’s and two Pro40’s. I had already booked a week’s holiday with my wife, which took in the last couple of matches and thought it best if I keep those dates for our holiday rather than another week with Leicestershire. In my last match I didn’t bother the scorers much, at all. Made a duck and then wheeled through 21 overs without a wicket. I actually bowled really well and was especially happy to finish a long season with that kind of pace and consistency. I just didn’t take any wickets; there was a dropped catch, but they happen. We finished that match with a draw, a pretty good result from the position we got ourselves in. ]]> I should touch on the SL tour and how that finished. I left the night the Test finished, a group of five of us, Test only players for this tour and headed off at 10pm. After a couple of beers in the bar, a meal and then a quick pack it was off back to England for me. We lost the second Test, but you already know that, but we put up more of a fight than maybe some would have predicted. It was improbable that we’d successfully chase down what SL left us and the only real way forward was the draw. And that was especially the thought going into the last day; can we survive the day with just four wickets in hand? We did better than we thought, so well in fact that, even in my head, and that can be a pretty dark place, I could maybe even see us reach the nearly 500 target we were set. I was batting with Dan (Vettori) and a number flashed up on the big screen -144. Don’t ask me why, but I know that’s a square number (12*12) and it sort of come to me that between Dan and I, however silly it might sound, we could put together 12 little partnerships of 12; I’d get a couple of singles, maybe a boundary here and there (probably an edge, but who cares) and Dan would contribute more frequently and substantially. We had maybe put on 30 at the time and it was something that I tried to keep going in my head. The only problem was that my scoring had dried up. I didn’t have a clue on how to score off Rangana Herath. I could keep him out, defend and defend, but to score off him, for me safely, was near on impossible; so I just kept keeping him out, “Dan’ll have to score a double-ton to win it!” In our partnership of 69 I scored off 75 balls in 77 minutes. This was easily my best innings. Not my highest score but it was what I had been trying to do for a long time. I had a batting target to face 50 balls; I knew if I got to 50 balls the partnership would be at least 50 and the time batted can only be good for the team, no matter how many runs I score, or don’t score! This target I have mentioned in previous blogs but not quite revelled. It’s not really anything big but just a target I’ve been trying to reach. And I got there. My innings wasn’t quite without controversy though. Here’s an excerpt of my dismissal in Cricinfo: “104.5 - Herath to O'Brien, no run, lunges forward to defend and the ball appears to land just before silly point fielder Paranavitana who takes it and appeals for a catch ... umpires confer .. Sanga has a chat with the umpires who go upstairs .. and verdict is not out ... ... replays suggested it bounced clearly ...” Paranavitana appealed and no one else around him even moved. [Kumar] Sangakkara who had as good a view as me, Dilshan (at slip) the same view too. No one else went up; Paranavitana appealed again, and again. Throwing the ball up and continuing on. I got pretty angry at him; I said a few words towards him suggesting that he shouldn’t appeal. He actually copped some abuse from me; I got proper stuck into him. The ball bounced about a foot in front of him, clearly and he continued on with the appeal. Sanga and Dilshan both asked me if it bounced and I said “yeah, about a foot short”. Umpires went upstairs and “not out”. I continued to ‘chat’ to Paranavitana, as I said, I was angry about him appealing for something that was clearly not out. And this was the reason why, when I got the faintest of edges on a ball from Herath, that I walked. Often I will look up at the umpire to see his finger go up; as there was an innings in the past when I walked for one I thought I nicked, but actually didn’t; so, most of the time I leave it to the umpire. I walked because I had dished out so much ‘chat’ to Paranavitana that it was only fair that I ‘practice what I preach’. I’m not sure the finger would have been raised but I knew I had done the right thing. Ask me though if there were only 20 runs left what would I have I done... I don’t know if I could answer that one! I was gutted to be out, proud of how long I’d been out there, proud to have put on a partnership of 69 with Dan, proud to have got Dan through to his 100 (not quite like what I did to Jesse Ryder in Hamilton vs India) but so damn disappointed to be walking off the park. So here we are, a month on from that Test, and I’m back in Matlock. I’ll be here in the UK for another couple of weeks with one lovely week’s holiday under my belt and two to go. Catch you soon... Cheers Dan tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12433 2009-08-28T16:55:09Z 2009-10-12T10:25:59Z Iain O'Brien
I almost got stuck out in the middle when the covers came from all corners, I had to get a bit of a sprint on to avoid being trapped in the middle in the pouring rain! © Cricinfo Ltd
  On Day Two, Dan [Vettori] joined a very, very special club. He became just the eighth player to reach 3000 runs and take 300 wickets. I know this meant a lot to Dan but you wouldn’t have known that by any of the actions Dan makes. He goes about his business, reaching his own milestones, sometimes some of them go unnoticed, and doing his job without the ego lesser players carry. He doesn’t carry on after taking wickets like some; he doesn’t run about pumping the air after scoring a ton. He is Dan, he is what you see; strongly motivated to be the best player he can be and take this, and the next NZ team to the top of our sport. And while being a great player, team-mate and captain, has made me a better bowler and it’s still a great thrill to walk out alongside him. This morning, again, didn’t go to plan. Five down overnight and we needed to bat and bat and bat. We were back in the field just before lunch 182 behind. I was pretty angry, angry at getting out how I did and also about having to be back out fielding before lunch. I took the new ball straight after lunch and went as hard as I could. I put my anger into the ball and bowled a good spell. No wickets but the intent I was trying to bring was something I hoped we could keep going with. 157/2, 339 runs in front when the rains came. I almost got stuck out in the middle when the covers came from all corners, I had to get a bit of a sprint on to avoid being trapped in the middle in the pouring rain! We could sure do with a bit more of it!? ]]> A tale of two Tests tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12411 2009-08-27T16:42:08Z 2009-10-12T10:26:03Z My legs decided that they didn’t really want to carry me and I had to fight to get to the wicket let alone try to get into my jump. Iain O'Brien

It’s been a while and I don’t really know where to start. Firstly, I guess, we lost the first Test. Old news really, but it wasn’t a strong enough performance from us. To go down as we did in the fourth innings was, well, weak. While in Galle, 12 of the 15 guys got sick. It seemed like it was just a matter of time before the whole travelling party got sick. Over the course of the match a few of the guys were so ill that they couldn’t even get themselves to the ground. It wasn’t pretty. The thing about whatever we got was that it lasted less than 24 hours but the side-effects of being sick meant that energy was hard to find for the next few days afterwards.]]> I got sick at the end of day three. We had come off for tea and Sri Lanka had declared; it was about an hour after that that I started to go downhill. Soon after I was vomiting and feeling very average. The timing of the onset was as good as it could have been, if there is ever a good time to get sick. I knew that I’d be back at the hotel soon and be able to spend as much time as I had to that night going back and forth from my bed and the toilet; and there were quite a few trips. I felt okay in the morning; I had the option to stay at the hotel for the morning and come down to the ground at lunch. I wanted to watch the boys bat and be a part of the changing room so I headed down with the team. Recovering from it has taken longer than I thought. Putting the weight back on and getting energy back has been tough. The two days training before the match were a little subdued, still getting through what I needed to be ready for this Test. I was a little nervous about selection for this Test. I hadn’t had a great game in Galle, three wickets that cost me around 60 a piece and going for almost six runs per over. Not good at all. So on the one hand I was prepared to make way for Tuffey and on the other I was thinking that before that Test I had been a pretty good performer and deserved the next Test. I think, so far in this Test, I’ve generally performed up to the standard I’ve set myself in the previous 12-18 months. We really wanted to bat first in this match and when, from the changing room, we saw Kumar head to the toss interview first, we knew we were bowling; no one needed to ask Dan to make sure. I had a good first spell, sweat pouring off and my face getting redder and redder. I managed to keep Dilshan quiet, something I couldn’t do at Galle, with better lengths. My first spell of six overs went for 10. That’s 30 runs less than my first four overs at Galle!!?? It was in my second spell when I picked up a wicket. The first ball of my eighth over Dilshan smashed one back to me, I guess I have to call it a dropped chance, but if I had caught that one you’d still be hearing me celebrating it. It hit me hard; I hardly had time to move my hands even in self defence. I followed through and asked Dilshan “is that all you’ve got, you’re going to have to hit it harder than that!” I do say some silly things sometimes. Next ball, it didn’t quite come out of my hand quite right and was shorter and slower, it held up and a leading edge back to me with a whole lot pace on it. I grabbed it with delight; it was a big one for me and the team. My third spell for the day was not good. I came out after tea and really wanted to consolidate the work I had done up until here and get through three or four good overs. I didn’t. My legs decided that they didn’t really want to carry me and I had to fight to get to the wicket let alone try to get into my jump. I really had nothing in the tank for this spell and bowled poorly. I went off just after drinks to get my hand looked at (the one I tried to catch that Dilshan shot with earlier) but before I left the park Dan wanted a quick group chat. He gave it to us, it’s not often Dan gets angry, but he let us have it. The hour after tea had been poor, not even close to the standards we need to achieve to win a Test match. It was deserved and it’s fair to say from there to the end of the day we were better. I got three overs with the new ball before the day was over. The energy came back, my jump was strong and I bowled a lot better. It was good to come off the park finishing with a good spell. I was knackered though, it was going to be a meal and a very early night. I opened up this morning and continued on where I left off last night. Things felt pretty good. I had got through four overs and I could feel that Dan was toying with replacing me, I tried to get into the umpire and give him my hat and glasses before he had a chance to, I got a fifth over. Mahela had hardly played a bad shot in his innings, and the cover drive he played in this over was as good as any. I was then rather happy when he nicked one through to Baz for a catch and his wicket when he was on 92. Happy days, a breakthrough and it would then open up an end. Kapugedera and the keeper Jayawardene hung about with the very in-form Samaraweera for a couple of very good partnerships. After they both were dismissed it was then a fight for the ball. I couldn’t get it and it was left to Jeetan and Dan to clean up the tail. Jeets finished with a well deserved four-wicket haul and we picked up the last seven wickets for around 150 and the last five for just 27. Brilliant. More tomorrow...... Picking Murali's doosra tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12261 2009-08-20T16:49:18Z 2009-10-12T10:26:07Z I’ve got a target I’d love to get to, not a run target but a balls faced target. If I get close then I know Dan and I will have put on a partnership of note Iain O'Brien

Well, there’s no excuse for me not to blog tonight. It was a day with the feet up, one to rest and recover after a couple of hot, hard days in the field. It wasn’t quite as I’d have preferred it though. I’d have rather not had to put the pads on let alone get out there and bat. I love batting, don’t get me wrong, I was just hoping that we’d bat strongly throughout the day and we could have another ‘batting’ warm up tomorrow. Not to be though, we’ve got ourselves in a little bit of trouble, and are going to have to work hard to get ourselves out of it. It might also be fair to say we haven’t quite had the ‘rub of the green’ in a couple of the decisions; you take the bad ones with the good and that’s just the way cricket is. The rain this morning was amazing. If you had of said we would have got through 70-odd overs today at 10am this morning I would have laughed at you! There was no way that was going to happen; but it did. The groundstaff have done a great job with the ground; covering and uncovering. They’ve worked as hard as we have in the middle and it’s paid off in us being able to play.]]>
Mowing the outfield: He was doing about 30kmph aorund the outfield © Iain O'Brien
  It became my turn to bat around 5pm. The light had just started to deteriorate and SL had quite a new ball; brilliant, just brilliant!? I had been watching the pace of the quicks, both on TV and live, and was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be their pace that was going to be my undoing. In fact I wasn’t really too worried about the quicks; it was these two spinners that were causing me some head problems. Before bad light stopped play on the third day I had faced nine balls and scored three; a good start. I faced two balls from Murali; I picked them as an offie first and then the doosra. When I got back upstairs to the changing room I re-watched the footage to see if I had got it right. In fact I got them both wrong. It was the other way around. I’ll work had on trying to pick him tomorrow, but more importantly work had with Dan and try to bat for as long as possible. I’ve got a target I’d love to get to, not a run target but a balls faced target. If I get close then I know Dan and I will have put on a partnership of note. Check out this blog with more photos at: http://iainobrien.co.nz Follow on twitter: iainobrien]]> Gazing at the covers tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12246 2009-08-20T04:25:28Z 2009-10-12T10:26:11Z We walked off after day one at 293 for 3, as I said, not the best day in the field; that’s obvious. Day two was better though. We picked up the remaining seven wickets for 159 with Dan (Vettori)... Iain O'Brien

We walked off after day one at 293 for 3, as I said, not the best day in the field; that’s obvious. Day two was better though. We picked up the remaining seven wickets for 159 with Dan (Vettori) and Tommy (Chris Martin) both thoroughly earning their four wickets each. Dan bowled tightly throughout the innings and it was just a matter of time before he’d pick up wickets. Dan and I normally, in the past, have bowled well together, we’ve both been able to control the runs and then put scoreboard pressure on the batters to score. The ends we like to bowl from normally works that it suits us both too. I couldn’t hold up my end in the way I’ve been able to do enough in this first innings. So it took a change of ends for Dan so that he and Tommy could bowl together. And it worked, perfectly; the last four wickets for just eight runs, all of them off Muralitharan's bat. We love the way he bats, we all wish we could be that free. It’s raining right now, it’s almost 9am and we’d normally be at the ground by now. An amazing storm came through around 5am this morning, thunder banging about and lightning as bright as I’ve ever seen; with it, torrential rain. The rain has eased but is still steady and doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. We’ve watched the covers go on and come off, an amazing mission by the lads at the ground. The whole ground gets covered; I don’t know if there are that many covers in New Zealand, I’ve never seen anything like it. As we’ve watched them being taken off we know that it’s about a 90-minute even so there is no point going to the ground until the rain stops completely. There’s nothing we can do about it so it was a longer breakfast than normal and most of the boys will be in their room resting up some more. ]]> Yesterday afternoon we got through to stumps two down and 87 on the board. McIntosh played a traditional Test match openers role. He blunted the bowlers and scored where he could; quite the opposite of how Dilshan played. Dilshan attacked us and put us, bowlers, on the back foot. His style comes with risk but when it comes off, and he’s good enough, it is a tough style to work plans to. The thing about the way Dilshan played, especially in a first innings is that it gives the fielding team a chance of an early wicket and some early momentum. Obviously if he comes off it’s the opposite, but as we saw yesterday we know that if we can get early breakthroughs in the top order then the tail isn’t going to add as many as some line-ups in the world. As I type this a big black cloud has worked its way over the hotel and heading its way to the ground, the rain has just got heavier and it looks like we’ll be at the hotel for a while yet. Sehwag redux? tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12217 2009-08-18T16:45:23Z 2009-10-12T10:26:15Z This will be a quick one as I’m pretty tired after a tough day on the park. We arrived at the ground with rain in the air and the covers still on. And I mean covers still on; the... Iain O'Brien

This will be a quick one as I’m pretty tired after a tough day on the park. We arrived at the ground with rain in the air and the covers still on. And I mean covers still on; the whole outfield was covered. They were battening down the hatches yesterday afternoon while our training session was wrapping up and there must have been almost a hundred ground helpers out there putting the sheeting down on the wicket, the block, the surrounds and the whole outfield. Start was delayed till 11.30 and we got first opportunity to bowl first on it after Dan won another toss. It had been mentioned that he wanted to lose the toss as we really weren’t sure what to do first. The pitch felt a little tacky after being under the covers, but how long would that last; we weren’t sure but Dan decided to have first use of it. And it paid off straight away. Tommy (Martin) with his third ball picked up Tharanga Paranavitana and then in his second Kumar Sangakkara flicked one to Flynn at square leg for two wickets inside three overs. That, alas, was where the wickets ended for that session. Tillakaratne Dilshan was outstanding. I felt like I was bowling very close to our plan for him although, unfortunately for us, it was to be his session. I bowled four overs in my first spell and it really was like a highlights package. I went for 40 in those four overs; not good enough but also there was some very good batting. ]]> The next session I was a bit better, my five-over spell, in comparison, only going for 25; hardly economical, but it was better than my first spell. I picked up Dilshan in my third over of this spell; he cut a rather short, and shall we say, rank ball onto his stumps on 92 from 72 balls. A collective sigh of relief from us! It was like seeing the back of Sehwag! This spell I found really tough. I was okay in my third over but the 4th and 5th I really started to overheat and was finding it really tough out there. I got through that spell and normally I’d cool down after a couple of overs in the field. I wasn’t. In fact I was starting to feel really average. I don’t like leaving the field but I had to today. My radiator wasn’t quite working right. I was off for around 20 minutes and in that time I had an ice jacket on, an ice pack on my head, neck, shoulders and feet. I was drinking everything in sight and sucking on ice cubes, doing all I could to cool down. After about 10 minutes I started feeling normal(ish) again and headed over to my seat to change my clothes. Fresh socks, trousers and a shirt, this time without the under layer vest top I had been wearing. I got back out there as soon as I could and felt a lot better by the time I got on the field. At tea, Dan asked me how I was, and if I wanted to go again soon after the break. Of course I wanted another crack, “I got some figures to fix!” My third spell was probably my best one of the day although it was still more expensive than I’d want. The ball now was reversing a little and I was looking forward to see what I could get out of it. It went for me a bit and I was feeling pretty good; this was going to be my spell. I bowled as hard as I could and got some good bounce from good lengths, beat the edge a few times, got the edge a couple too; but not to hand. I went as hard as I could to change my day. A great partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera got Sri Lanka through to early stumps as bad light set in. We are going to have to work harder and smarter again tomorrow to pull this innings back in our favour. It was an ice bath at the ground straight after we finished and then back to the hotel for a massage; eat, type this and now bed time. On to stormy Galle tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12181 2009-08-16T10:04:18Z 2009-10-12T10:26:21Z The second warm-up match, played at NCC finished in a tame draw. Three days is really not enough time to secure an outright win unless one team has at least one very poor innings with the bat. That said,... Iain O'Brien

The second warm-up match, played at NCC finished in a tame draw. Three days is really not enough time to secure an outright win unless one team has at least one very poor innings with the bat. That said, the SL XI took a first-innings lead into the second half of the match. We’ve now travelled to Galle, further south and smack bang on a currently rampant coastline. We were supposed to train this morning but that has been put off due to the ground-flooding rain that hit here at about 6am. So it’s going to be a long day stuck in our hotel without the weather we were expecting. A day like today isn’t the worst thing for us though. It gives us a good chance to get another gym session in and most importantly a very good opportunity to watch more footage and study our plans for this upcoming Test series. I finished the match back at NCC with feeling pretty good about my form. I got through 16 overs (2 for 60) and scored 18 (off 52). Not the worst game, not the greatest game but pretty good in the conditions. I could have, maybe, had another couple of wickets had things gone my way, but overall I am happy with where I am at.]]> Dinesh Chandimal with my second delivery with the new ball and then Seekkuge Prasanna with the fifth ball. Chandimal played a beautiful innings, a great hundred, and he’s only 19. His patience and the ability to stick to his game plan was amazing for someone of his age. A very special future player for Sri Lanka; he took the gloves in the second innings too.


I’ve just been to the gym, core session and then a sweaty 20 minute cardio run. I think I’m sweating more here in Galle than we did in Colombo. Last night we were invited to visit a NZ family here in Galle. Everywhere we go we get the full police and military escort which people stop and stare to watch as we go past. It makes the trips a lot quicker but the attentions it attracts sometimes also makes it feel a little over the top. It’s great that we’ve got the security though, don’t get me wrong, it just seems such a mission to organise a two-hour outing from the hotel. It was a good, albeit short, evening out of the hotel meeting Kiwi’s here working and living the Sri Lankan life. Also there were a combination of other westerners that have joined together to make a tight little friend group. It was great hearing the stories how people came to live here and how they are making it work for them. Thanks Simon and Eric for putting yourselves out for us. Appreciate it a lot! The highlight of today will be a 2pm trip to a supermarket. It doesn’t sound like much but a chance to peruse the shelves and pick up some needed supplies is something to look forward to. Again, I’m sure it will give the security guys a bit of a headache!]]> Sweating it out in Sri Lanka tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.12115 2009-08-12T15:25:44Z 2009-10-12T10:26:25Z And here is the first update from Sri Lanka ... Oh, and for the record, it’s hot. Honest! Sweating is probably the easiest thing to do here. We all arrived here a week ago yesterday. So eight days here... Iain O'Brien

And here is the first update from Sri Lanka ... Oh, and for the record, it’s hot. Honest! Sweating is probably the easiest thing to do here. We all arrived here a week ago yesterday. So eight days here to acclimatise, train and play some warm-up games. We had three days before the first warm-up match to try, as much as possible, to get used to the heat and humidity. We all struggled to a certain extent with overheating, some more than others. Guppy [Martin Guptill], at the first training, was the first one to feel the effects, his fair skin and ginger hair not helping, I’m sure. It wasn’t anything serious but he did have to stop training and get the ice bags on to cool down. It was my turn yesterday to have a few issues during training. The combination of the heat and humidity is so hard to combat. Getting enough water on board is hard. It often feels like you are sweating as quick, if not quicker, than you can drink the water. It is so important to keep a water bottle nearby. Our first warm-up match, at the Colombo Colts ground, pretty much went to plan. I wasn’t to play; I had this game off, mainly because my bowling loads have been good while at Leicestershire. We lost the toss and were asked to bowl first; not the worst thing as the pitch felt a little tacky. We bowled well and knocked them over for 159. Tuffey, in his first match back in the NZ shirt, picked up three and it was good to see him bowling quick picking up wickets. Our boys in reply racked up 493 with some real good looking innings in hard conditions, Dan’s [Vettori] century being the highlight. Dan came in when the score was 258 for 6, the innings in the balance, and put together a couple of strong partnerships with Baz [McCullum] and then Jeets [Patel]. In the overs left in this three-day match we couldn’t quite knock them over for the full win. A good outing first up especially as we don’t have a great record in warm-up matches. ]]> second warm-up match. Dan won the toss and we batted first; always the option in games like this, it should mean we get two at bats. We didn’t quite have it all our way today though. The day finished with us 283 for 8 and I’m not out. I’m pretty happy with it too. Jeets and I have put on 50 so far, I’ve scored just nine of them, but it’s the partnership that counts. I’ve been working hard in the nets with Saqlain Mushtaq, who’s come on board with us as a spin bowling consultant, on playing spin and also facing a lot of bowling machine and the quality net bowlers we’ve been privileged to have help us out. Yesterday’s batting was good. I got a load of tennis balls fired out of the bowling machine; short and at me. It was what I needed; I felt pretty good playing, ducking and weaving. Of course I got pinned a couple of time but it just reinforces the positions I must not get into. Out in the middle today I got the opportunity to use all the things I’ve been working on. Nine runs off 41 balls which included the new ball being taken and I get to open the batting in the morning. And in other cricket news, my predictions for the Ashes are, so far, spot on. One draw, one weather-affected draw, and one win each. If England win this last Test, I’ve picked it right. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are currently going head to head in the Twenty20 over my left shoulder. Interesting battle; Afridi just out, good for SL, he’s an amazing player! Keep more up to date on twitter: iainobrien ]]> First visit to the Umpires room tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.11910 2009-07-29T09:56:54Z 2009-10-12T10:26:29Z Time for another catch up.. I didn’t quite get out the post I wanted to last week during the Essex match for which I do apologise for. I said I would and I didn’t get them done; I’m starting to... Iain O'Brien Time for another catch up.. I didn’t quite get out the post I wanted to last week during the Essex match for which I do apologise for. I said I would and I didn’t get them done; I’m starting to wonder how I have managed to get my blogs done after a day’s play during the nine Tests that I have blogged through. Somehow I have got each day's play round up and thoughts down and got it posted before the next day’s play has started. I have to admit it’s getting harder to keep it fresh and keep it interesting, although I’m sure you’ll let me know if what I’m blogging isn’t up to scratch. I’ve got a couple of things I want to start doing during this two Test tour to Sri Lanka, and with Suneer’s (a guest blogger) thoughts on other things happening in world cricket, I’m pretty sure I be able to keep it fresh, interesting and most importantly a good entertaining insight into this world and my head. We (Leicestershire) had a Pro40 match at Northants last Sunday, which I quickly previewed in my last blog. I had been looking forward to this match for a bit as the pitch there is one that I knew would suit me. The pitch has been, over the last couple of summers, a belter, a good deck with a bit of pace and bounce. Unfortunately, I only got to bowl one over on it and I was maybe lucky to have even managed to get that one in. Rain was forecast and the rain came. We lost the toss and we were put in and got off to a great start; Allenby (who has been in brilliant form throughout the summer) and Cobb (a current England U19 player) both scored 43 in two completely different manners. Allenby has been the ‘bully’ in the past, this time it was Cobb who took the sword. We sat in the changing room, on the edge of our seats watching a young confident player play some audacious shots, one in particular, a straight bat through wide mid on from a length that probably should have been worked to square leg for a single; seriously one of the best shots I have ever seen, that’s no hyperbole either! We were on and off a couple of times and ended up losing a couple of wickets at tough times with the stop start nature of a rain affected innings. It’s always tough batting first when the innings is interrupted because a good score is a mystery and it was a good partnership by New and Dippenaar at the death that put a handy score on the board. More rain then came and it cut the chase to a 17 over, 122 run affair. We got into the 5th over before the rain finished us off for the day and both teams shared a rained off point each. I then turned into an Uncle for the first time. My ‘big sister’ had a healthy eight and a bit pound boy. Happy days, he’s a beauty and got a great ‘appeal’ on him already! Next up was Essex in a Championship match; I trained really well for this one and had one of the best bowls of my summer in the nets the day before the game. I felt great and a small change I have been making to my thumb on the ball was working and my release was as good as ever. Unfortunately this form in the nets didn’t quite transfer to the middle after we won the toss and bowled first. I bowled ok but as I so often write; ‘it’ wasn’t just quite there. Whatever ‘it’ is, I didn’t have it. We had lost the first day to rain, a complete wash out so after winning the toss the pressure was on to take wickets and get the game moving forward. I picked up one early, again with a yorker, and if you’ve been reading my weekly updates, you’ll know that they’ve been really successful for me in the last three weeks here. If you’ve seen any of the Sri Lankan-Pakistan series you would have seen that the yorker has been a good weapon. Obviously then I needed to make it more of a part of my ‘red’ ball bowling plans and so far it’s going great. And that wicket was the only one I picked up in the innings. I had a catch dropped but nothing else really happened for me. I missed the rhythm I had had in the last couple of weeks and in reflection I tried too hard to get it back. I need to just let it come sometimes, relax, breath and just run in and bowl. I’ve spoken about this before a couple of times before too and it is probably one of the hardest things for me to work on. Technical things, no problems, I can feel where my body is and can generally fix those things by myself, but the ability to just drop it all from my head and to run in and bowl is hard. I didn’t bowl badly, I just set high standards for myself and as my own worst critic I am very hard to impress; which is part of the above problem. I know I can’t bowl the perfect ball every time and I have to accept that more than I do. This match also saw my first ever visit to the Umpires room for anything but picking a new ball. I got in trouble for the first time on the park. I’m no angel, sure, but I’ve always managed to stay within the guidelines and rules set. Not this time though. And it happened when I was batting, is that irony!? I’ve been working hard on my batting and I’ve got the bruises to prove it, I’m always doing stuff I hate in the nets, trying to get better at the parts of batting no one likes. So when I was given out caught behind on a surface that I felt great on and was really looking forward to batting for as long as I could, I was a little miffed (well, maybe miffed is an understatement!). I didn’t hit it, I don’t know if I can actually say that, but I have. The strange thing is, I thought it had bowled me. Good length ball, just swung away a touch, I missed it and heard that horrible sound, the ball clipping the off stump. My head went down straight away and I then realised they were appealing; what for??? It had bowled me?? I looked up at the Umpire and he raised his finger. He doesn’t need to raise his finger for a ‘bowled.’ I looked at the stumps, the bail hadn’t come off. It was at this point I made the mistake of showing ‘dissent.’ I hung around, I didn’t walk off like I should, I then told the Umpire that the ball had clipped the stump. I’m also not allowed to do that either. I didn’t swear or show any real anger and I’m guessing that is what helped me to not be penalised greater. Lesson learnt! I didn’t like the feeling of ‘getting in trouble’ and am disappointed that my clean record has been tarnished. It was, though, fair that I be reprimanded for my actions, I have no problems taking my medicine if I’ve done wrong. I did get in a bit of bother for this blog though going back a bit(http://iainobrien.co.nz/node/67); that was the blog that a couple in the media with nothing to write about picked up and ran and grossly blew out of proportion my comments about the crowd. Oh and then there was the dismissal of Ponting at Adelaide that the media again reported stuff that wasn’t there which I covered in this post: http://iainobrien.co.nz/node/60. So hopefully that’s the end of that, my first real on-field digression, I’m not saying that it won’t happen again, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll react better next time anything like this happens. Next time you’ll hear from me I’ll be in hot and humid Colombo with more regular updates. Hopefully it’ll stay interesting and I’ll keep my nose out of trouble! Back to the basics against Owais Shah tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.11767 2009-07-18T09:30:35Z 2009-10-12T10:26:33Z Right then, where to start... I had a really good couple of days in Prague with my parents who have come over to visit my sister and me. We walked miles and saw virtually everything there was to see there.... Iain O'Brien Right then, where to start... I had a really good couple of days in Prague with my parents who have come over to visit my sister and me. We walked miles and saw virtually everything there was to see there. A great city for sightseeing and enjoying a cheap beer. There was a small break in our schedule that allowed the quick trip away and it was nice to spend some time with Mum and Dad and also away from the game for a couple of days; after getting back there was time for a good training session and then into another Championship match against Middlesex. Last time we played Middlesex we held on for a very good draw after being in some trouble. A really good maiden hundred from James Taylor made sure we didn’t lose. The team we faced then, at Southgate, was, in the batting department anyway, stronger. Strauss (England) and Hughes (Australia) opened up and put on around 180 for the first wicket; they batted brilliantly and I bowled poorly in this game, no rhythm and no direction. Both these two are facing off in the Ashes and that was a good thing for us. After looking at the wicket I was hoping for a toss win and have the feet up watching the batsmen do the work. It looked a good deck to bat on, and I’m still undecided as to if it was. Dippenaar lost the toss and we were having a bowl. I’m never too disappointed to have a bowl first up in a four-day or Test match; if it’s going to do anything for you, it’ll be now, so I wasn’t too displeased to be ‘rocking and rolling’ first up. And we got off to a pretty good start. We controlled runs with some pretty good bowling and after nine overs we had a breakthrough. I probably don’t bowl enough yorkers in ‘red’ ball matches, I have been bowling them well with the ‘white’ ball so I thought I’d try more, and it worked first time up. It wasn’t quite the best yorker I’ve ever bowled; it hit Compton just below the knee on the full dead in front. Either way my first wicket of the match and a really good start to my birthday. Next in was Shah, this was the guy I felt was going to hold the key to the Middlesex innings. I wanted to get him early and make some big inroad. The previous night I had had a really good evening with a mate from the team, not currently playing, but he’s got a few good ideas on some of the batters around. We came up with a plan for Shah and I tried it right from ball one; it didn’t quite work. It was if Shah had been sitting with us when we were discussing the plan. First ball, smash, four. Second ball, smash, four. Not what I was hoping for. The track didn’t quite suit that style of bowling so I was going to have to go back to a standard plan. Smash, four of a good ball. That’s 12 off my over, damn. That sort of start can really propel a batter onto a great innings and it was now very important that we drag it back, bowl tight and play the waiting game. Next over I went back to bowling line and length to Shah. I played a little with where I delivered it on the width of the crease and had success. I got him to leave one that nipped back in just a little and it clipped the top of the off stump. That’s where I should bowl, that perfect delivery which is so elusive. The day continued like that for us, wickets and boundaries. Sure it’s nice picking up wickets regularly but we gave away too many runs at the same time. Something we would really have to address in the second innings. We bowled Middlesex out for 159, and on my birthday, I picked up six wickets. That was my second six wicket haul in as many games, the first time I have done this. I got my action right, the rhythm, the direction and the results came. A very happy boy went back up to the changing room to put my feet up for the afternoon. It wasn’t quite like that, the wickets kept tumbling and by the end of the day I had my pads on. I don’t think the pitch was that bad looking back; it was a ‘patience’ pitch, wait for a bad ball and put it away, and in between times keep the good ones out. A young lad, Finn impressed me bowling for Middlesex, a tall kid with a strong action and good pace caused our boys some problems. He wheeled through 24 first innings overs, a real good effort for good reward. Our tail did a great job in grabbing a very handy 86-run first innings lead. Cobb and I put on 50 for the eighth wicket and then a 49-run tenth-wicket partnership between Harris and Gurney really added some salt to the wounds. As I said in my last blog ‘any first innings lead is good’ and this one had gone from being slight to something that we were hoping to pick up four wickets before Middlesex would get in front. It all didn’t quite go to that plan though; it went a whole lot better. We ended up only bowling them out for 91. We needed seven to win; brilliant. This innings we bowled a whole lot better, we kept their scoring to just 2.25 runs per over and this pressure brought us wickets. We dried up the boundaries, bowled really good lines and reaped the rewards; four for Harris and three for me. Both of us were chasing milestones heading into the 3rd day. I had one wicket, needing three of the four to pick up four and therefore 10 for the match, which would have been just the second in my career. Harris was after the same, three of the four for a five wicket innings. We cancelled each other out by both picking up two and wrapping up the innings like a good bowling attack should. A very good win for us and the first Championship win of the season. It was great sitting down to lunch after already having a cheeky celebratory beer in the changing room with the lads. I missed out on the ODI and Twenty20 team that is to continue the tour of Sri Lanka after the Tests. I am pretty disappointed about this. I was in the last ODI eleven to play and am now not in the 15 for the series. I asked why I had missed out and got the reason that I had been too expensive and I couldn’t really argue with that too much. The the only thing is that, in the last ODI series, apart from Dan and Millsy, we all were expensive. I just have to keep working to get myself back into that team, there is a Champions Trophy coming up which I want to be a part of and hopefully after a good Test series in Sri Lanka I’ll have done enough to get myself back into the team. I have a Pro40 match tomorrow at Northants, a pitch that I had a good look at last summer during a match we played there in between the 2nd and 3rd Tests, although not playing that game, it looked a real good surface. Then starting on Tuesday a Championship match vs Essex at home. It’ll be a busy week and I’ll get a couple of more posts out during the week. You can hold me to it!! 2-1 to England tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.11631 2009-07-07T20:31:51Z 2009-10-12T10:26:37Z If England can keep their bowling attack on the park, I think they go into the series as favourites Iain O'Brien Right then, currently in Prague in the Czech Republic. I'm just having a quick couple of nights here with my parents who came over to England to visit myself and my sister. I thought a good taste of European sightseeing was in order, so Prague it is. It's been a great couple of days and even the weather has played ball; today was supposed to be heavy showers, only a couple of light ones turned up later in the evening. Brilliant! And as it's only a quickie I just thought I'd have my two cents worth on the upcoming Ashes series: If England can keep their bowling attack on the park, I think they go into the series as favourites. Two very good spinners who have both won matches for England plus some very much in-form quicks who swing it, especially Jimmy Anderson who has won matches for England. So there, my pick is England and if I had to pick a score line: 2-1 with two draws, one rain effected. And like that, I’m out of here. I’d be interested in your views for the series. Oh, and yeah, of course I’m disappointed in missing out on the ODI team for the Sri Lanka tour, very disappointed. But that’s for the next blog! And don't forget to add me on 'Twitter' – iainobrien. Fine up wind, not so downwind tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.11572 2009-07-03T11:14:52Z 2009-10-12T10:26:41Z It was a better feeling going home last night with a good bag of wickets but I still have to work on my downwind rhythm and control Iain O'Brien Since I was last here I’ve played three T20’s and currently in a four-day Championship match for Leicestershire. We had a day off after the Lancashire T20 and played Nottingham at Trent Bridge, a ground that I’ve played well at in the past, well the one time I played there I went ok. We got a pasting from Notts, we only scored 120 odd and that’s never enough to defend. It was not a great effort from us; that meant that we would have to win our last two matches to reach the quarter finals. Home game vs Yorkshire, in what turned out to be Michael Vaughan’s last match, a game that we probably should have lost. We scored 160 batting first and Yorkshire got to roughly 100 without loss; 60 off 10 with 10 wickets in hand. They should have cruised it, and didn’t. We ended up scrapping it out and wining by 11 runs in the end. A really amazing result and that just shows that this is one very silly game at times. The crowd at Grace Road was brilliant, an almost full house, vocal and energetic and they were rewarded with a great win from the jaws of defeat. It was Durham at home next, a win for either team would put them into the quarters; and it wasn’t going to be our day. We just haven’t been consistent enough throughout the whole team. Jimmy Allenby, throughout the T20’s, has been brilliant, he’s been our stand-out player. No one really came close to replicating what he did. There were moments of brilliance, but not enough to get us through to the next stage. I bowled ok, stats maybe don’t quite tell the whole story. I had a really good day at Liverpool and then the three next games I felt like I bowled well without being great. You need luck sometimes and I didn’t get it. That’s fine, I am happy with what I’ve learnt, my ability to bowl yorkers has got a lot better and the thinking process behind one-day and T20 cricket is a whole lot better than it was before. Which brings us to this championship match against Derbyshire at Derby. I spent quite a bit of time training with a couple of the Derbyshire lads last summer before I headed to India and then Bangladesh on the Test tour. I had bowled out in the middle and had enjoyed the pitch and was looking forward to a good bowling deck. We lost the toss and were put in on a deck that we were going to bowl first on as well. As a championship team we have not scored enough runs in the first innings, we had a great first day; 348-5 after being put in was a great result. Unfortunately we didn’t kick on to the giddy heights of 500 and were dismissed for 412. I contributed just five of that in a rather poor display from me; really angry with myself in how I got out. I’m better than that; I nicked a shortish ball through to the keeper kind of fending it away from my body; really not good enough. My chance to get back into red ball-bowling, the different pace of the game, the different altitudes from batters, bowlers, different field positions and working to different plans. I just wish I could have bowled as well on day two as I had felt going into it. I chose to bowl downwind, not a big wind, but still it was there and felt great to have it at my back. It’s probably fair to say that I am not as good a downwind as I am upwind, and it was no different here. I’m trying to get better at other parts of my game that I need to be better at to be a more ‘whole’ player. I bowled both sides of the wicket, my lengths were not bad, just my lines. I did have it swinging nicely, except it was into the two left-hand opener’s pads. Grrrr! Day three was a better one for me, although again my downwind spell, first up, wasn’t as good as I should be. Dipps came up to me and asked me if I wanted a go up wind, “why not, I can’t be any worse.” Three overs before lunch and I found what I had been looking for; a) some nice rhythm and b) a wicket. It was good to finally have one in the wicket column and go to lunch feeling a bit better about things. At lunch I said to Dipps I wanted to keep going, he had already asked Jimmy Allenby to start up into it. I wanted to keep bowling, do my job and take a couple more wickets. I ended up with six for the innings, all in one spell, with lunch in the middle, into the wind, and did the job I am here to do. It was a better feeling going home last night with a good bag of wickets but I still have to work on my downwind rhythm and control. Not much chance of play today to finish off this match which was set up for an interesting last days play ... A thriller in Liverpool tag:blogs.cricinfo.com,2009:/iainobrien//151.11439 2009-06-23T16:06:56Z 2009-10-12T10:26:45Z At a really lovely ground, Aigburth, Liverpool, with loads of temporary seating set up it wasn’t long till I couldn’t see a spare seat. Well, that’s a bit of a fib as the queues to the beer tent were massive. It was going to be a fun afternoon with an excited and expectant crowd. Iain O'Brien



Took the risk and it paid off © Getty Images
What a great feeling it is to be back playing after so many net sessions. During the World Twenty20 I think I netted every day bar two; one because my back was tight and the other was a day off. Netting is fine when you get to go out and put it into play. Netting is very hard work when you want to play, but can’t get selected. It felt like that after my six balls against Scotland. I got to play yesterday for Leicestershire over in Liverpool against Lancashire. I had one net with the Leicester lads on Friday; I got in and bowled hard for around 40 minutes. I felt good and knew I didn’t need much more before playing yesterday. I also wanted to spend some time away from cricket, so I cleared it with our coach, Tim Boon, so that I could miss Saturday’s net session and have the weekend off. Ended up being a very good weekend away with the wife and got to see some amazing animals at the West Midland Safari Park, well worth a visit (loved the Cheetahs!). I made sure I got to the ground early so that I could do a bit of extra bowling before we started warm-ups proper. Just on the side of the block I got into some work, testing out the body, working on part of my load up and getting into the grove. I warmed up really well here and got to full pace pretty quickly, thanks also to a lovely day in Liverpool. It had been rumoured last week that it was going to be a sell-out – it was for real. At a really lovely ground, Aigburth, Liverpool, with loads of temporary seating set up it wasn’t long till I couldn’t see a spare seat. Well, that’s a bit of a fib as the queues to the beer tent were massive. It was going to be a fun afternoon with an excited and expectant crowd. ]]> We won the toss and batted first. No real reason, it just looked a good deck and we wanted to bat first. We got off to a great start, 66 for the first wicket; some real good hitting from Jimmy Allenby set us on our way to a possible score of around 160. His form in this competition has been brilliant. We didn’t get to 160 though, after being 96-1 in the 12th we didn’t kick on to what would have been, on the deck, a very competitive score. Lancashire bowled well in the second half of their bowling effort and pulled us back to just 146; the unfortunate thing though, for them, was that it showed us how to bowl on the surface. It was a tough deck to score rapidly on if you bowled in a very containing manner, as opposed to bowling good lengths in the theory that good bowling and wickets will stop the runs. This was one thing I had learnt from Kyle Mills during the World Twenty20; stopping them scoring the big runs will often bring the wickets anyway. I bowled the third over and it didn’t start quite as I hoped; second ball sailed clean over the midwicket boundary. I went straight into damage control for the over - get the guy hitting the runs off strike, Croft in this case - and bowl to the other guy and try to limit the blow to as few more runs as possible. It worked and I also picked up a wicket with a ball I held cross-seam that just bounced a little more than it would have normally, an easy catch to midwicket. I wouldn’t say I felt amazing, but it felt good to be back out playing and doing the things I had been practicing so much. My next over was better, apart from my first ball. It didn’t have enough on it in terms of energy and it went back past me at a rate of knots off Flintoff’s bat. I stuck a leg, and kind of a hand out and unfortunately, or fortunately for me, I didn’t get anything on it. The next ball, another cross-seamer, and with a bit more behind it, picked up our second wicket and an important one for us if we were to defend this total. New batter and I went to length first ball, left alone, a slower ball same length next, defended to the off side. My third ball was an effort ball which I was aiming for length hoping to squeeze out another dot. This one kicked really nicely off a length and grabbed an edge through to Niko behind the stumps. A ball that I wish would come out more often, one of those where you’re just happy that you bowled it and not having to face it. I bowled one more over in the spell, my third and last ball - a short one that I was planning for a dot was pulled out to square leg and taken by White. That was the set Croft gone - 58 for 4 and we were sitting in a good position but it wasn’t over yet. Laxman and Chilton, the fifth-wicket partnership, dragged Lancashire back into the match and if they had won, this fight would have been where the game changed. Our catching had been great but our ground fielding hadn’t, and in this stand we let at least three balls get to the fence that should have been stopped. Our catching stayed fantastic, Dips taking a great catch to remove VVS and breaking that partnership. We bowled well through the middle with Claude and White going for just five runs each off their fourth and third overs respectively, and picking up two and one a piece. This left 32 off three and I had one of those overs to bowl. Nine off the 18th and I came on with 23 from two with three wickets in hand. My over went for six and I picked up my fifth wicket, my best haul in a Twenty20 game, one pretty happy boy! Seventeen off the last and a six off the first ball is not what you want. AJ had his first wicket next ball though, with White’s third catch, at long-on. Anything could still happen here, it only takes one big shot, one edge, to turn things on its head. A dot ball then a two which could have been a run out had my throw hit from long on. Nine off two and as long as this one doesn’t go to the fence we should be fine. It comes to me at long-on and I’m in two minds; run in hard for the catch and finish the match while taking the risk of making a mess and conceding more runs, or take it on the bounce and keep them to one, knowing they can’t score eight off one ball. I took the catch, comfortably in the end and finished it. A very good win for us and it sets up a good week of Twenty20 cricket when we play tomorrow at Trent Bridge. Get updates on when I put a blog up by adding me on ‘twitter’. iainobrien is who you need to search for. You’ll get other little tidbits on what I’m up to there too....