Sellsy's Monday Supplement (SMS)

Douglas Jardine, two words that sends shivers down the spine of all cricket loving Aussies, will always be remembered for the infamous “Bodyline” series in the 1930’s. However, little may you know, he was the first captain to lead England to series win in India.

The present England side, led by Alastair Cook, are on the verge of history in India. They are 2-1 in the series, with one to play and with the present Indian side (and the cricket mad nation) in utter disarray, surely a series win is England’s to throw away.

A lot of credit, and rightly so, will go to Cook. He has led from the front, not only scoring hundred’s for fun, but lifting his side after a crushing defeat in the first Test. Boy, how the others responded, great batting, excellent bowling and this has been matched by wonderful support in the field.

The final Test starts on Thursday and England will travel to Nagpur aiming to win the series 3-1. Now this start date will mean that I may miss the third and fourth days, due to some festive celebrations going on, so my only hope is that the cricket goes in to the fifth day so that, hopefully, I will see some cricketing history.

With the Indian media putting the majority of the present team out to dry, including MS Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar, the English media are heaping praise in every department, a bit different than what it was three weeks ago. I can’t foresee many changes for Thursday, if any at all. Steven Finn is now fully fit and will keep Stuart Broad out for sure, and with Ian Bell’s cameo to win the game on Sunday his place is now safe. The only possible change would be to drop Samit Patel for another batsman. Samit has contributed little with the ball, apart from a few overs so the front line bowlers can have a break, and his batting doesn’t inspire whatsoever. His saving grace is that he has been playing in a winning team, whereas bringing in a batsman like Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root or Eoin Morgan could be tricky as they have had no or very little time out in the middle to prove their worth.

This is just a minor detail compared to what Indian team will be selected for Thursday!

All this and not one word about Somerset’s Nick Compton! Just goes to show what an impressive start he has made to his Test career, averaging about 42, I am sure he will be delighted with this return, plus he has been in the middle when the winning runs have been scored to win the last two Tests. Expected he is absolutely thrilled to bits about proceedings.

Ok, enough superlatives about England, lets talk about the other end of the scale, Australia. Well, in fact Ricky Ponting. You may be aware that Punter has now hung up his international boots and with that all the tributes started to poor in. This included his international captain, Michael Clarke, who I am led to believe broke down in his own personal tribute to Ricky. Haven’t we seen this before with other Australian captains?

Ponting, for me, will be remembered for a few things. His utter brilliance in playing for Somerset, scoring runs for fun and the introducing the likes of Justin Langer to the county, where, then after, Somerset never looked back. His three Ashes defeats as captain and lastly the look on his face as he was caught out in the first Test in 2005 at Lord’s, as it was Somerset’s James Hildreth who took the catch, and he was only on as a substitute fielder! Thank you for the memories Ricky.

Right, 5.57, time for a few Thatchers before skittles.