England must use World Cup warm-ups to fine-tune rather than overhaul

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/08/england-cricket-world-cup-australia-new-zealand

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The temperature was clambering its way into the 30s as England went through their drills and practices at the Sydney Cricket Ground in preparation for their two warm-up matches (warm-up does not quite seem the appropriate word) against West Indies and Pakistan before decamping to Melbourne for their World Cup opener against Australia on 14 February. Australian journalists are already looking for new angles on Valentine’s Day Massacre.

The practice was measured though. Half a century ago, Coronation Street aficionados might recall, Chris Sandford, who played Walter Potts, had a minor hit with Not Too Little, Not Too Much which might serve as the theme tune for the preparations necessary at this late stage. As with a sensible approach to examinations, where last-minute cramming is not considered the most effective method, Peter Moores and Eoin Morgan know the team who will be playing at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and this last week is all about fine-tuning and keeping things ticking over.

In any case, the value of these matches, to England and no doubt to Australia, India, New Zealand and Sri Lanka, is questionable. They are being played, not at the behest of the competitors, but the ICC. Entrance is free and unrestricted, so there is an opportunity to spectate for those who might otherwise not get to see some of the world’s top players.

But really the games are superfluous. Each of these teams – the first three in Australia, and the other two across the Tasman in New Zealand – have spent the past month playing ODI series against each another.

Two of the teams, India and Sri Lanka, have already been forced to call on the ICC technical committee to sanction replacements for injured players: for India, Ishant Sharma has not recovered from a knee injury sustained in the Boxing Day Test and is replaced by Mohit Sharma; for Sri Lanka, the pace bowler Dhammika Prasad fractured his left hand during practice over the weekend, with a replacement expected. Australia are still waiting, breath bated, on the fitness of Michael Clarke and James Faulkner. No team surely will do anything but tread lightly through these precursors.

How England approach the games remains to be seen. James Taylor, who is nailed on it seems to bat at three at the MCG (an experience he might find different to Grace Road where he started out), was adamant the determination to win both matches and move on in good spirits, runs right through the squad.

There is a balance to be drawn here. These are not official international matches, so will not count in the records, and are not necessarily 11-a-side, although that is certainly the way England would like to play them. There is no chance they will field the same team in both matches, with Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad, for example, unlikely to be asked to play three times in six days, particularly given the temperatures.

One aspect of England’s cricket that still needs attention and which could yet cost them if they cannot get it right, is the bowling at the end of an innings: the death overs. Almost every practice has featured David Saker’s yorker bar – a scaffolding pole supported some inches off the ground along the batting crease beneath which the bowler has to try to send the ball – so this is not a discipline that does not get due diligence.

It is the most difficult of deliveries to get spot on, the bowlers requiring to land the ball in an area no more than a foot long, with a change of length (from what is termed a good length) of around 20 feet, or a third of the pitch. Even then the batsman can sit deep in the crease or stand out of it to disrupt the length. If the bowler gets it absolutely right it is one of the most difficult balls from which to hit boundaries; get it even slightly wrong and it becomes one of the easiest.

Statistically, England’s most proficient bowler of yorkers in recent times has been Tim Bresnan but he has been a rarity; there is a feeling that for them, the yorker is not necessarily the best percentage ball.

Remove the exceptions, though, such as Lasith Malinga (who is a special case: his low arm, barely legal, means his length is not actually the variable, his real skill coming in his remarkable control of line) or those with express pace, and again the statistics will show that the most difficult delivery from which to hit fours, or more pertinently, sixes, is the slow-ball bouncer sent down outside off stump. Whether England have bowlers capable of delivering this is another matter.

What is certain is that anything from just short of a good length, to a misdirected yorker or full toss is right in the area from which modern batsmen (let us call them death batsmen) can wreak havoc.

Paul Collingwood, here to coach Scotland, and who led England to their only success in a global competition, believes they should instead target the rib cage, with fielders out on the leg side, which is actually a strategy they have used (to the frustration of commentators).

A worry, though, is the similarity in the attack, in terms of style and pace. Without the special tricks it becomes predictable and it is this lack of variety that ultimately could cost England. If they work on nothing else they could work on this, even at the cost of the games.