Sellsy's Sunday Supplement

Henry Blofeld, while commentating on the second Test between Pakistan and England, described the desert around Abu Dhabi, as being sandy in colour! Nice one Blowers, and I even hear that you have actually spotted a bus go by in the desert!

What can be said about England’s batting performance in that Test, well I know one thing for sure, they cannot play spin. 19 out of the 20 English wickets to fall were to spin; in fact spinners claimed 31 wickets out of a possible 40 for the entire match.

I could rant on about the English performance, but enough has been said in the pubs yesterday afternoon. The most common criticism flying about was why were England so negative in chasing down that mediocre total of 145 to win? Watching the collapse, I can’t remember one player wanting to take the attack to Pakistan.

Saying that, even though England’s batting was abject to say the lease, you cannot take it away from the Pakistan bowlers who bowled magnificently, it seemed that every ball coming being sent down was going to claim another victim.

I wonder what Pakistan will do for the next Test, as their opening bowler, Junaid Khan, contributed absolutely nothing to the match. He bowled a total f eight over for the entire match, going for about four an over (a lot in this low scoring match), had a duck in both innings, and to cap it off he dropped an absolute dolly in the England first innings. Somehow I think he may be dropped for the third Test.

As for that annoying wicketkeeper, Adnan Akmal, don’t you wish one of the England batsmen inadvertently wrapped their bat around him? I know there is no harm in appealing, but every ball being bowled?

What makes thing worse, I see the Aussies completed a whitewash against India, winning the series 4-0. I can already hear our antipodeans friends start to get excited about the next Ashes series in 2013. But don’t forget it was England that softened the Indians up for them last summer; I believe we won that series 4-0 and also don’t forget the Indians can only seem to play their cricket in India. So keep calm down under.

That’s enough about that, onto Somerset. Can anyone shed any light in why Roelef van der Merwe won’t be joining Somerset from June 1^st? It does say in the media that it is something to do with not being able to gain a work permit, but there must be more to it than that. And will he be unavailable for the whole of the season? So if that is the case who will be Somerset’s overseas player for 2012?

Somerset have signed Albie Morkel to replace van der Merwe, a worthy replacement if anything of his statistics are to go by - he has played 157 T20 games, taking 136 wickets at an average of 27.4, and has smashed over 2,000 runs - but , along with Chris Gayle, this is for the T20 competition only. Also, Somerset has signed Vernon Philander, only for the first part of the County Championship season, and that’s if he doesn’t get picked for the IPL.

I am sure that Brian Rose has got a few ideas who he would like to sign as an overseas player for July, August and September if van der Merwe is unable to gain Home Office clearance. Saeed Ajmal wouldn’t be a bad pick.

On a more positive note, I see that Somerset’s Jos Buttler and Craig Kieswetter are having a smashing time playing for the England Lions out in Sri Lanka. In the 1^st unofficial ODI, Jos hit an unbeaten ton, of just only 56 balls, which included 13 four’s and five maximums, as England racked up 335 and thus winning the 1^st ODI.

Not to be out done, Craig followed up his half century in the same match, with a century of his own in the 2^nd ODI, a bit slower than his Somerset colleague, as it came off 94 balls. Well done you two.

Unfortunately the Sunday Supplement for next week will be a bit late, as I am away in London, something to do with the Olympic Games. So, anyway, it is now 10.57, time for a pint!