England's worst ever series performances

[wpdavid]

Inspired by a brief discussion yesterday about whether England had ever batted more poorly throughout a series.

Obviously this one has to be right up there, which is tough on the bowlers, but their efforts are clearly trumped by the batters' ineptitiude. Other candidates.

1999 at home to NZ. The eventual 2-1 defeat flattered England, who barely managed a score against a side that had taken a grand total of 14 wickets in their three match series against SA a few months earlier.

1989 at home to Australia. Again, 0-4 flattered us: it could easily have been 0-6 to an Aus side who at that stage had improved from their mid1980s horrors to 'competent'. This time, with the exception of Fraser, the bowling was as feeble as the batting.

1984 at home to WI. Blackwash - that's 0-5 to the younger readers. English players of the time will tell you that WI did this to everyone. They didn't. England were the only side to lose every test in a series to WI, even in their pomp. English players of the time will also tell you that their four-pronged pace attack left no room to regroup and put up some sort of a fight. True in other series, but not in this one, where the 3rd & 4th bowlers weren't nearly as good as the openers.

2005 in Pakistan. tbf they probably hadn't sobered up after winning the Ashes. Should have won the first test but batted like idiots in the 4th innings. Bluffed their way through the 2nd and gave up without a trace in the 3rd. Given what had gone on during the previous 12 months, this was the rudest of awakenings.

1958/59 in Australia. World Champions, A middle order to die for, ditto the pace attack. Yet they went down 0-4, Even allowing for the chucking row, you have to conclude that this lot of famous names simply didn't have the stomach for it.

India in 1993. Keith Fletcher famously dismissed Kumble after watching him struggle in SA. England, despite this being the 1990's, had done respectably over the previous couple of years. But they lost all 3 tests. Selection was a nonsense, but even so, much more was expected. The most clueless performance against spin seen from an England side before the current series.

India in 1986. Apparently we were shell-shocked after our mauling in the Caribbean three months previously. Even so, a home series against India in the mid 1980s in the first half of the English summer was seen as an easy chance to regroup. It didn't happen, and India cantered home 2-0. Roger Binny ffs.

Have I forgotten any? The hammerings in Aus throughout the 1990's and 2000's were hardly unexpected. Even the 2006/07 whitewash.

[GIMH]

I think Australia 06-07 needs to be on this list. Even though we were beaten by an ATG team, the ineptitude displayed in each Test was beyond belief.

[wpdavid]

Originally Posted by GIMH

I think Australia 06-07 needs to be on this list. Even though we were beaten by an ATG team, the ineptitude displayed in each Test was beyond belief.

I know I'll probably get outvoted on that particular series. I honestly think that Aus side would have thumped just about anyone 5-0, but I know I'm in a minority.

[GIMH]

Originally Posted by wpdavid

I know I'll probably get outvoted on that particular series. I honestly think that Aus side would have thumped just about anyone 5-0, but I know I'm in a minority.

Don't get me wrong I agree that they would have. It is the manner of our defeat rather than the outcome itself that gives me bad memories.

[GingerFurball]

Originally Posted by wpdavid

I know I'll probably get outvoted on that particular series. I honestly think that Aus side would have thumped just about anyone 5-0, but I know I'm in a minority.

Nah, there's a reason the victory at Adelaide in 2010 was my favourite of the last tour. In 2006 we'd been absolutely dicked at Brisbane and fought back well in the first 4 days at Adelaide - end of day 4 we were in a position where a 'winning' draw would probably have been secured, which would have represented a solid fightback and set the rest of the series up quite nicely.

5-0 was only inevitable after the capitulation at Adelaide.

[BoyBrumby]

The non-canonical 79/80 tour of Oz looks to have been something of a disaster too. 3-0 hammering against an Australia who, whilst strengthened by the returning WSC players, were facing what looked a decent English side captained by Prof Brearley and featuring variously Boycott, Randall, Gooch, Gower, Botham, Dilley, Underwood, Lever & Willis.

[wpdavid]

Originally Posted by BoyBrumby

The non-canonical 79/80 tour of Oz looks to have been something of a disaster too. 3-0 hammering against an Australia who, whilst strengthened by the returning WSC players, were facing what looked a decent English side captained by Prof Brearley and featuring variously Boycott, Randall, Gooch, Gower, Botham, Dilley, Underwood, Lever & Willis.

Yeah - it's something of a forgotten tour, actually. Maybe because it was only 3 against Aus, and because the ashes weren't up for grabs. It wasn't well received at the time though. Brearley in particular took a real hammering from the press.

[marc71178]

Kneejerk reaction to this tour in my opinion. Yes, it's been bad, but by no means as bad as others - probably exaggerated by being 3 back to back tests so no time in between for the batsmen to regroup and refocus.

[wpdavid]

Originally Posted by marc71178

Kneejerk reaction to this tour in my opinion. Yes, it's been bad, but by no means as bad as others - probably exaggerated by being 3 back to back tests so no time in between for the batsmen to regroup and refocus.

Agreed that the calls to drop the entire middle order are knee-jerk.
Agreed to differ about their performance though. The batting has actually been significantly worse than most of the other tours mentioned

[smalishah84]

at least there is some positive to take out from this series, notably the bowling.

The batting is god awful tstl. I can't remember when I saw such ineptitude against spin bowling and that too against bowlers not at the Warne/Murali level

[wpdavid]

Originally Posted by smalishah84

The batting is god awful tstl. I can't remember when I saw such ineptitude against spin bowling and that too against bowlers not at the Warne/Murali level

I'm so glad you said that and not me. With all due respect to Ajmal & Rehman, they shouldn't be bowling out sides for these sorts of scores.

[smalishah84]

dude I don't think any Pakistan fan is under the illusion that Ajmal and Co are at the Warne/Murali level

even then they are eating the English batsmen alive (as the bangladesh cricket fans would say lol)

[hazsa19]

The worst defeats I can personally remember have been Multan 05 and the series, Adelaide 06 and the series, and Abu Dhabi 12, and the series.

The batsman must be giving the bowlers advice now. Someone's told Monty to do the opposite of what he did in the first innings

[Flem274*]

Hey, at least Matt Prior hasn't tried to duck a slower ball yorker.

1999 was such a good year.

[Days of Grace]

Still remember watching the 1999 series at my parent's house as a 17 year-old in the middle of the night. May have even listened to TMS as well. Can vaguely remember Fred Trueman commentating.

England's batting was beyond dire. Once Atherton, Thorpe, and Stewart were out, the middle crumbled and they had a very long tail with Caddick in at 8.

Which makes it even more unbelievable that Tudor scored an unbeaten near-ton as a nightwatchman to beat us in the 1st test.


Back to England, the 1958/59 side losing so heavily is one of cricket's greatest mysteries when you look at the two teams on paper.