It was a magnificent knock from him in the second test, somewhat making up for the two failures in the previous match. It went a long way to winning the second test, in what many consider England’s finest victory in India.

But would it really have mattered a bit what he scored if England’s bowlers couldn’t take 20 wickets?

That’s what won the match. Monty and Swann. The former predominantly.

Anderson and especially Broad, on these last two performances, aren’t going to do much, wicket taking wise. Patel isn’t going to do much and neither is any pace bowling all-rounder. Finn may do more but you can’t see him running through the hosts on the pitches they’ve had prepared. And on the the previous test here it doesn’t look like Swann on his own will either.

Two specialist spinners and a thumping victory where between them they took 19 of the 20 wickets. Somehow these seems like rocket surgery to the England selectors.

Still don’t know who slipped whoever gave the man-of-the-match award a fiver to name Pietersen so he felt loved by his team-mates.

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With a Kevin Pietersen orchestrated mess. Though in classic Andrew Strauss style he played down the chance to stick the knife into someone who totally deserves it right between the shoulder blades.

It was from the debacle of Kevin Pietersen’s 3 test tenure as England captain, alongside Peter Moores as head coach that Strauss was finally given the job he should have got some time earlier.

It came as a shock to no one that Andrew Straus stood down as England cricket captain yesterday, after the hastily arranged press conference, the fact he was giving up the game completely did come as somewhat of a surprise. Had Pietersen’s antics caused Strauss to fall out of live with the game that much?

Well he claimed the decision had been in the making well before any texts were sent to the visiting South Africans. The last six to twelve months in fact. The period when both he and the team had been struggling after reaching the number one spot in the Test rankings after stuffing India last summer. His form had dropped over the last year, really struggled in this last series as the top spot was taken from them and that seemed one of the overriding reasons.

Funny that Sir Geoffrey was criticised a bit back for having a go at Strauss in his column a few days before this announcement – from a reader whose address was in Middlesex. Surprise, surprise – but Boycott wasn’t sticking the boot into Strauss. He was pointing out that it’s easier for a captain to get away with a loss of form when the team are winning but it’s much harder to get away with averages around the 20 mark in lost series. He also pointed out two, small, areas where Strauss could make the changes that would probably turn things around. Simple front and back foot movements. getting closer to the pitch of the ball with the front foot and covering up the stumps more with the back.

It’s a shame that he didn’t feel like fixing things and carrying on at least through the tour of India later in the year.

Maybe he had been thinking about giving up the captaincy for a while and the whole Pietersen thing just made his mind up to go the whole hog and pack it in completely. A seemingly honourable man, from the outside, you could tell over the last few weeks what went on in and around the dressing room with Pietersen had left him looking miserable. Of course the results didn’t help either.

Again it’s a shame Strauss has gone out like this, Losing the test series to South Africa, meaning also the loss of the number one ranking spot, a poor test with the bat and that awful way of getting out in his last ever at bat as a professional, in his 100th test.

So where does he stand in the great scheme of things. Well first off it’s strange to think he was only in the job for three and half years and as I said earlier it should have been longer than that as he should have got the job rather than Andrew Flintoff after his successful first stint in 2006 – 3-0 victory over Pakistan in 4 tests. And should have been the safe hands to take over after Flintoff’s failure rather than the left field choice of Pietersen. from the off he was far better suited to the role than either of them.

Only Michael Atherton and Vaughan has captained England in more games. He certainly ranks above Atherton. Alongside Vaughan it can be split between type of captain and success. Vaughan along with the likes of Mike Brearley are above him with regards on field tactics, Strauss was a pretty conservative captain, fields spread early if runs were coming but then maybe he didn’t have the players at his disposal.

But when it comes to success his win percentage was just below Vaughan’s and while Vaughan was in charge as England won the Ashes for the first time in nearly 20 years Strauss won the Ashes home and away which only two other captains have managed. Brearley and Sir Len Hutton. You can almost discount Brearley’s as most of the best Australians of that era had joined the Packer exodus and weren’t in the official test team.

So while not maybe being the first choice as England’s best ever captain he had a record that put him up there with 50 matches in charge winning almost half of them, leading England on a great run of series wins including those two Ashes series which stand out above everything. While being a man most respected inside and outside the dressing room.

So Cook is the new man, no surprises the ECB went in that direction. Not exactly having the best time himself with the bat, slightly overlooked because the eyes being on Strauss but will now be under the microscope because he holds the top job – have a word with Sir Geoffrey, he knows where you’re going wrong Cooky. All honesty was there really any other contenders? No, not really. But hard to tell if he’ll be a success.

A finally a number think with Strauss’ departure it makes it easier to reintegrate Pietersen into the side. It shouldn’t. No matter what Strauss said to the contrary Pietersen’s behaviour has lead to the breakdown of this team and the captain to stand down. It should signal the end of Pietersen’s involvement with England totally. He can bugger off to the IPL or any other meaningless Twenty20 slog about going on round the world until each of the teams he’s involved with get sick of him and his baggage and bin him off like so many have done previously without a regret.

I suppose it’s yet again a shame that this post along with so many other articles about Strauss, thanking him for his great service, should even mention Pietersen.

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Flicking through the channels and there’s no handball, no water polo, not even two heavy, hairy, Eastern European blokes wrestling. Is it Greco-Roman or freestyle? Oh they’re women, right, and she’s wrapped around the others leg so it’s freestyle.

The travesty of the closing ceremony – where was the celebration of 50 years of British music? – and the lifeless corpse of Jaques Rogge during his grudging speech – the woman that carried the sheet of paper out with his speech on it, at least Coe could do that for himself, was she working Rogge with her foot? – can’t take away from the success of the London games.

Many top moments that have all been given top 5, top 10 status by many broadcasters and media outlets so figure might as well join the party with my own. In no particular order…

Bradley Wiggins: Storming the road time trial, to destroy the field in front of a huge crowd, then perched on that throne – in front of Hampton Court Palace or that castle as he called it – unzipped and holding up two V signs. Victory or peace?

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Dani King, Laura Trott, Joanna Roswell: Three young women who took to the velodrome track three times in two days and each time destroyed their own world record in the 3k team pursuit – making it six record breaking races in a row – to win gold. It’s as many world records by one small team in 2 days as the athletics saw in the whole games.

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Katherine Copeland and Sophie Hosking: As with above the pair destroyed the field in the women’s lightweight double sculls. So far ahead of the rest that Copeland couldn’t believe what they’d done looking around, open mouthed, for another boat to be in front of them. Then as her partner turned around it dawned and she gave one of the best reactions in the whole of the games we’re going to be on a stamp.

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Nicola Adams: The smile on the face of the little fighter from Leeds, as she celebrated after the final bell had gone, turning to each side of the ring and giving a punch as she knew she’d won the women’s flyweight boxing gold was priceless. You can’t imagine she’s stopped smiling yet.

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Sir Chris Hoy and his mum: Third moment from the cycling, well there was just so much to chose from but Sir Chris’ second gold of these games, his sixth overall, in the keirin as he put everything he had left into making sure the second placed German couldn’t get over the top of him deserves the spot because of what it meant. And because of the reaction of Hoy’s mother who switched between having to watch and being unable to watch the unfolding events. Flinching, turning away, looking through her fingers until finally she could relax. You could see what a hell of a relief it was for her.

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Of course there was far more than that, all those medals in the velodrome after all and then the non sporting parts of it. Such as France. Though I suppose laughing at France is a national sport. First they have the hump because we beat them in the bid process then their new Napoleon, Francois Hollande got a bit too smug a bit too early talking about winning medals. Where did you finish in the table again dwarfy? Seventh, 34 in total, hell we almost got that in golds alone.

Then there was the Frogs whingeing about Britain cheating at cycling. What with Wiggo’s amazing year, Cav the best sprinter ever and another dominating Olympics on the track. Weren’t the UCI meant to have stopped that? Ah ze magic wheels. As Chris Boardman dead batted away in his deadpan style the same wheels that they’ve used since Athens, eight years ago. Ah, ze are in bags. Er, yes to keep them clean. Ah, ze bikes, yes which you can buy via the website and check out to your heart’s delight, but strangely haven’t.

I suppose in their national sport, taking the Tour de France which they haven’t won in a quarter of a century, along with 7 golds, one silver and bronze to just three silvers will do that to them.

And now we can add laughing at the Aussies as a national sport. Their cricket team is crap, we smashed them in the medal table and London games are now universally considered better than the Sydney games.

So what have we got now after these last two weeks. Well there’s one loathsome, self centred, egomaniac, sticking up for another loathsome, self centred, egomaniac, as Piers Morgan says Kevin Pietersen has been badly done by. Oh do us a favour and both bog off hand in hand into the sunset.

And the return of football. Snarling, cynical, again loathsome, everything that’s wrong with sport after we’ve seen everything that’s right about it all summed up as just a few days after U.S. sprinter Manteo Mitchell ran the final 200 metres of his 4×400 relay with a broken leg, Theo Walcott pulls out of the England friendly with a slightly bruised thigh. Yes, really. You couldn’t make it up.

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Just imagine what an embarrassment for the number one ranked team in the world it could have been if the visiting South Africans were on top form.

England might not have taken the whole two South African wickets they did in the 189 overs bowled. Might have conceded more than the 637 they did in those overs. They might not have scored 625 runs in the 223 overs they faced. Luckily they couldn’t have lost any more wickets in those overs than they did.

That number one crown hasn’t exactly sat well on the heads of Strauss’ team. The fact that they’e lost five of the nine tests since gaining the crown from an inept Indian side last summer, two of the three victories they’ve managed were against an equally inept West Indian side, points to a somewhat false position at the top of those rankings. Did FIFA come up with the formula to rank teams?

Comprehensively found out at the Oval.

Funny how all winter we were told that Anderson was the best bowler in the world. Ah he can do it when the conditions aren’t perfect for him. Funny he couldn’t here. Especially as Steyn, Morkel and Philander could.

Something’s not right with Broad, he was pretty woeful during the recent one day series with Australia, much the same here. No zip. No spark. Nothing.

But of course the one they all want to drop is Bresnan. Been in a losing test side now, no need to keep him. Media don’t like him, never have and want him gone as soon as possible, this is their perfect excuse.

Swann is not the Swann we know – his six wickets this summer are costing 72, this was his third wicketless inning – having trouble with his elbow, pain killer injections not an ideal situation.

And then there’s the batting. From the moment Pietersen got out in the first inning it was downhill. Did anyone really believe England could bat a whole day to save the game? Certainly knew Pietersen wasn’t going to save the day. It’s the way I play. Being suckered in by Morkel, getting him chasing a couple of bouncers then try the straight length ball. It’s the way he plays don’t ya know.

Comes a point when the circus surrounding Pietersen has to be jettisoned and he’s told if he wants to be available for the full length of the IPL he an be because his services are know longer required by the international team that made his name, serving his mercenary desires.

Ah but Bell was still to come and he’d batted all day before against South Africa and they’ll respect him because of that. Or they’ll look at the rest of his innings when he bottled it and see it as the one off it was. Oh how beautifully he batted, we were told. Was he there at the end? No. Did he at least bat long enough to make South Africa have to pad up again? No. Did he meekly dangle his bat to a wide ball with a shot that was more at home in batting practise? Yes.

But wait again wasn’t there another saviour in there? Does anyone and I am including the player himself along with all members of his family really think Ravi Bopara is a test player? Does anyone really think that a few knocks against a poor Australian side in a one day series is an indicator of how he will fare against a side like South Africa in test matches?

Do us a favour before he really does become another Mark Ramprakash and ends up with 52 caps before someone finally figures it out.

And what is it about leg spinners. Ever since Shane Warne’s ball of the century, nearly 20 years now, you just have to call someone a leg spinner, doesn’t matter how good or bad they are they’ll have England tied up in knots.

But good news the pitch at Headingley should be better for the bowlers. Though anything that benefits the bowlers who got two wickets might also be slightly helpful for those that got 20.

Got to win at least one of these remaining two tests and hope for at least a draw in the other or that number one ranking is number three and the Aussies are joining South Africa above England.

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It was really highlighted on the morning of the second day of the latest Test match at Trent Bridge, when he had just got both of the West Indian centurions out and barely rated a mention from the commentators, who were more interested in bigging up the media darling who took a catch.

Before this game and the previous outing at Lord’s it was all about how he shouldn’t be picked. Others would be better, he doesn’t do enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same after this game even though he took the most wickets in each innings, most in the match and was England’s third top scorer in the first innings.

It did come a surprise he was named man of the match and Strauss didn’t get it for his ton. Thirteen games, thirteen wins, MotM and they’re still talking Finn, Onions and Tremlett.

Now I like Finn, he’s certainly one for the future but when you look at the stats as they stand right now after both of them have played 13 Tests it makes for interesting reading…

Bresnan comes out on top in most categories with his main competitor for the bowling spot. Having bowled one innings more Finn has one wicket more so you could say that’s Bes’s s there’s only strike rate where Finn has the advantage. Yet when you factor in it’s only less than two overs better but Bres goes for near on a run less per over and his wickets cost nearly a run and a half less. You then add the clincher nearly ten times as many runs scored in three innings less, bringing a batting average that currently stands just over 40.

And when compared to England’s stand out all-rounder of the last twenty years, Freddie Flintoff, the latter has of course amassed greater numbers due to the fact he played 6 times as many matches but all Bresnan’s averages are better. Would be interesting to see the stats of Flintoff’s first thirteen matches, I bet they just don’t stack up to Bres.

What more does Bresnan have to do?

So no they’ll keep counting Bresnan off while complaining that Anderson was unlucky. How can he be classed as unlucky when so many of his previous wickets have come from rank bad long hops?

As for the Test match it matched the first one. West Indies having the upper hand for small periods of the game, when Sammy and Samuels were putting on their centuries and some of the bowling spells, but they just can’t keep it up for any great length of time and so let England off the hook time and time again.

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But they couldn’t just manage it because as with 11 previous Test matches when they have Tim Bresnan in the side they just win, even if he doesn’t do that much.

England gave every go at losing this one from a commanding position, while all the media types booked out of their digs just a little earlier than they should. But while the West Indies team is probably better than we’ve seen on these shores for a few tours now they’re still not brilliant, as the pitiful number in the win column over the last few years can attest.

They can compete for parts of the game, get on top for some parts of it, but can’t do it for a whole match and when they drop off they’re easy pickings for either runs or wickets. It was all highlighted by who scored the winning runs. Ian Bell. When bottler Bell is there at the end you know the opposition is quite poor. Yet again in both innings he rode on others coattails, First up when Strauss got his ton – while the gathered media types kept screaming they hadn’t talked up a witch-hunt against Strauss the fact they never mentioned that Bell was completely inept of the winter and should have been binned highlights what a media darling he is – then in the second when following the commanding Cook. So they were all back cooing over Bell, who is again bigging himself up against a mediocre side.

During all that there was the usual “it’s the way I play” reckless shot from Kevin Pietersen. Funny because West Indies paceman Shannon Gabriel who played in this match, and looked a decent prospect, well it seems slim pickings for the Windies as he’s gone home with a back injury to be replaced by Tino Best. Pietersen’s wild swipe was somewhat reminiscent of Tino back in 2004 at Lord’s when Freddie Flintoff wound him up with a bit of sledging – “Mind the windows, Tino”.

But through all the patronising of the Windies performance in this match if Best is the best they can come up with, it really is a dire situation. A player who hasn’t featured for them since ’09 and has a bowling average knocking on for 50. So now with him and Fidel Edwards they’ll have pair with short-arse syndrome in place of wicket taking ability. Gabriel and Roach look to have something about them, can ruffle batsmen, can take wickets but as shown on the last day of this Test match can also just cough up far too many easy runs in between the good deliveries.

Funny that through the 70s and 80s it was probably a case of wishing the West Indies weren’t so bloody good, now it’s a case of wishing they were a damn site better.

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What’s that now four straight Test Match defeats after gaining the number one ranking in the world. Only England. Blowing it like they did in ’05.

Facing a team with a dismal recent record, eight straight home defeats and only won one match home or away since Muralitharan retried. And that was the thing yes England had to reach a higher fourth innings score to win than they’ve managed since the 1920s or something like that but they had days to do it and weren’t facing anything to suggest they couldn’t.

With Muralitharan and Malinga bowling at them you could almost forgive such a result. In this company you can’t.

Application, that’s all it should have taken. Unfortunately as we’ve seen so often in the past there’s only two of them that have such at their disposal. Cook and Trott. Here there was none from Cook, only Trott applied himself, getting 112. Prior showed some when they were in together and was unlucky to get out, if they has stayed together it looked to be England’s as soon as Prior went you figured that’s that. Then when Trott tired, no chance.

Oh my god Bell actually top scored in an innings. Of course when it came to the crunch he bottled it.

So finally people are talking change. As was mentioned on TMS in the bad old says the team was changed to quickly and often, whereas now no matter how poorly someone performs they’re kept in. Just like the England football team the usual suspects are in the comfort zone. Don’t have to perform because they aren’t dropped. Bell of course should be first up.

Ah but where are the replacements coming from? Who is there? Well weren’t those the questions posed before Trott came in. Anyone have him down as an international success? Nope, didn’t think so. Give someone a go, who knows they might just grab it with both hands.

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England in subcontinent conditions against a side that had lost one of their previous 15 one day internationals and had just stuffed them three zip in the test series. I think those odds will have been pretty high.

And the return of the ego. Now I was proved right that getting rid of Bell was good for England but Pietersen finally did something to merit his place. Things made easier in the third game as his nemesis Rehman was out though back for the fourth and final game the ton Pietersen got when he was missing probably went some way to negate the mental effect of a left arm spinner coming on.

What also helped was the lack of close fielders in modern one day cricket. It was a thought brought up by Simon Hughes in commentary on TMS during the fourth game. England struggled when the Pakistan spinners were on and they were crowded by close catchers. Couldn’t hit over and couldn’t knock singles, things just got bogged down and they got themselves out. But with the stereotyped one day captaincy the field in this series was spread as far wide as possible within the fielding restrictions.

So much of the pressure is removed. You just wonder what would have happened if they’d played it like one of the test matches. It would have removed any sort of comfort zone from batters who had really struggled like Pietersen. ODI cricket needs a captain to do something like that or they’re just gonna keep changing the laws to combat it becoming predictable and stereotyped, played by the numbers – so many overs do this, next do that, every game.

On that basis, though Cook did well with his two tons – as did Pietersen – they were match winning in a way I would have given the player of the series to Finn. His bowling was outstanding when you consider the last game was his worst statistically when he only took two wickets and went for a whole 4.2 runs per over. Thirteen wickets for 134 runs in 40 overs – so only 3.35 runs per over and wicket average 10.3 – for a paceman on those pitches. Think that might deserve it a bit more.

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What’s going off out there?

Could it just be that you get rid of Ian Bell and fortunes just swap 180˚. No snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, even with the odd batting collapse.

Still can’t play spin that well and of course the ego of Kevin Pietersen has to be appeased by shoving in at the top of the order so he can face more pace and maybe get in before the spinners come on to get him out. That worked well, especially with it demoting Kieswetter down the order.

Great ton by Cook. It just shows at the top if you play properly you can succeed.

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England really put on the style to be whitewashed by Pakistan in the recent three match test series in the UAE.

I mean they really had to go some to lose the final rubber after skittling the hosts for less than 100 in the first innings. What’s it been over a hundred years since a team did that and still lost. This England side they don’t mess about, grad defeat from the jaws of victory and then go the whole hog.

But they’ll take the positives.

Well it looks like one has already come about Ian Bell being dropped from the one day squad. So in reality this test match should be the last time we see him in an England shirt. Never mind he couldn’t pick Ajmal’s doosra it was just there was no one’s coat tails to ride on. Without Strauss, Cook, Trott or Pietersen softening up the attack he was never gonna do anything that would require leading from the front. Actually being a leader, never gonna happen.

Never mind this he’ll have to sort it out before Sri Lanka, he’ll have to get used to being back in the county game and realise that’s his level. Milk some easy runs like Ramps and Hick.

What are the chances? After all his media chums even though have actually been honest with the 2/10 he’s been getting will be screaming for him to be back. Pietersen is someone who should be joining him, for a bit not permanently. Unlike say Cook when he was going through his bad patch before the purple one it’s not form or class that’s KP’s problem it’s head and ego and that needs slapped down with a dropping to get it back in shape. If you don’t kick it into shape it’s gonna be more and more that’s the way I play in that godforsaken whiny voice.

So that and Broad’s bowling in difficult conditions for a pace bowler, 13 wickets at just under 21, and the return of Monty with two five-fors in his 14 wickets at just under 22 apiece – in the 25 overs more he bowled than anyone else in one game less.

Was funny hearing/reading crowing Indian fans going on about England not winning away from home. Well they can -Ashes in Australia anyone? – just not in subcontinent conditions. Whereas India don’t win anywhere bar home.

Is international test match cricket up to much if the world number ones can be whipped so easily in two series like this and England’s last?

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