Matches or series when your team astonished you in a good way

[wpdavid]

Yeah, 84 India was up there for me. I am in firm belief that we were worse in the 80s than the 90s, when we were awful too, other than beating a few terrible Packer deprived Oz sides in spectacular fashion, but we were also missing the likes of Gooch, Underwood, Boycs, and Lever. Foster had one of the great bowling spells as well. Big Gatting fan so his breakthrough was massive for a teenage me, and to do it with our main all-rounder, being the frankly crap Chris Cowdrey was incredible.

I always remember the jokes about religion back then. Q "are you religious?" A "No I'm Church of England"

Poor Tim Robinson went from murdering these and Oz and everyone declaring him the next great English Batsman, to being humiliated by the Windies with a barrage of fast bowling, earned himself the nickname "Michelin man" as he wore so much protection, can't say I blame him mind.

Dead right we were worse in the 1980s than the 1990s. There were a smattering of good performances in the 1990s, even if we did end up bottom of the league table in 1999. But for most of the 1980s we were pitiful.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Also the Phil Hughes' test vs Pakistan in the UAE in 2014.

I'd add the 2014 tour of the West Indies. I expected us to win, but was pleasantly satisfied when we played to our ability as the 2012 tour had been an absolutely disaster and I had a nagging suspicion we'd stuff it up.

Also the 2014 wins over India were good

 

[Kirkut]

I started watching cricket fairly late so I never got to watch 2001 Australia's tour to India.

2007-08 CB series win was genuinely unexpected given the hostile relations between the two teams at that time and Australia put up their best ODI game. It was harder than winning the 2011 World Cup.

 

[SteveNZ]

hahaha it was beautiful, but was it really unexpected? i can't remember whether you were with me and the others on the right side of history in the thread or not, trying to patiently explain to people blowing their lids kane and ross were obviously batting slowly for a reason.

then the rockstars of cricket came on and snick snick snick.

Certainly was unexpected for me. I remember a lot of frustration about the way Ross and Kane played, which in hindsight was about as good as anyone could have played on that deck and their ability to sum up the required total was genius under a lot of pressure and uncertainty.

 

[TheJediBrah]

It was a weird series, I think Australian players dominated most of the individual stats (because of the crushing victory at Headingley) but you couldn't really say that England didn't deserve their series win, because they also had convincing wins at Lord's and the Oval. I think even Marcus North made a ton or two.

Also, Australia's win over SA earlier that year looks like a massive upset in hindsight. Think their bowling attack was spearheaded by Hilfenhaus, Bollinger, Siddle and Andrew ****ing McDonald. SA were really jinxed against them at home until the Sandpapergate series.

Australia were definitely better in the 2009 series, but England were better more often at the right moments, enough to win the series. Bit like the better team can lose 1-0 in soccer despite having a majority of the possession and playing better but the other team happened to get the goal.

 

[honestbharani]

It was a weird series, I think Australian players dominated most of the individual stats (because of the crushing victory at Headingley) but you couldn't really say that England didn't deserve their series win, because they also had convincing wins at Lord's and the Oval. I think even Marcus North made a ton or two.

Also, Australia's win over SA earlier that year looks like a massive upset in hindsight. Think their bowling attack was spearheaded by Hilfenhaus, Bollinger, Siddle and Andrew ****ing McDonald. SA were really jinxed against them at home until the Sandpapergate series.

Didn't Cummins or Johnson do well in that series there in RSA? Or am I mixing it up with their next tour?

 

[TheJediBrah]

Didn't Cummins or Johnson do well in that series there in RSA? Or am I mixing it up with their next tour?

Cummins was the next tour in 2011

Johnson was good in 2009

 

[honestbharani]

Cool... I always thought somehow one of the Aussie pacers tended to have a breakthrough series in RSA and that is what ended up getting them beat. Good that I do recall correctly...

 

[GIMH]

Australia were definitely better in the 2009 series, but England were better more often at the right moments, enough to win the series. Bit like the better team can lose 1-0 in soccer despite having a majority of the possession and playing better but the other team happened to get the goal.

Oz battered is twice. We battered them twice. The other draw (Edgbaston) we were the better side for most of.

Pretty interesting to say Australia were definitely better really.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Oz battered is twice. We battered them twice. The other draw (Edgbaston) we were the better side for most of.

Pretty interesting to say Australia were definitely better really.

Oz battered you a lot better than you battered them

just look at the player stats

edit: actually Aus wasn't as dominant as I thought. looking at the scores England averaged 34.48 runs/wkt and Aus averaged 39.52 runs/wkt.

Aus were definitely superior (as aforementioned, purely talking statistically, England won the important moments), but not by as much as I thought. It would have to be unusual for a side to lose a Test series despite having relatively significantly higher runs/wkt for the series.

 

[GIMH]

Oz battered you a lot better than you battered them

just look at the player stats

edit: actually Aus wasn't as dominant as I thought. looking at the scores England averaged 34.48 runs/wkt and Aus averaged 39.52 runs/wkt.

Aus were definitely superior (as aforementioned, purely talking statistically, England won the important moments), but not by as much as I thought. It would have to be unusual for a side to lose a Test series despite having relatively significantly higher runs/wkt for the series.

Take Cardiff out of those stats and see what happens

and yes yes I hate such manipulation too but if you're talking about a side being better across a series it is important to understand the impact one match makes.

At best the series was even

 

[Gob]

13/14 Ashes by far

 

[Lillian Thomson]

The First Test of the current series was a pleasant surprise. Anything other than defeat in the Second would be even better.

 

[Immenso]

Slim pickings for NZ unfortunately.

But 1992 world cup.

We were just awful all through 91/92 season until literally that first game of the tournament. Never seen such an instant reversal of form and confidence like that

 

[wpdavid]

The 2-0 win in SL last month. I don't remember many folks predicting and England win, especially without Stokes and, on paper, with a much weaker spin attack than when we won there in 2018. Enter Root in godlike mode, Bairstow playing some of his most important knocks for the test side and Bess demonstrating his ability to take more wickets than the quality of his bowling appeared to deserve.

 

[Burgey]

That game in the UAE where the Pillow actually performed under pressure and batted Aus to a draw against Pakistan stands out a bit for me, rather than any particular win. Probably because, consistent with cricket history, I expect Aus to win every match they play anyway

 

[Line and Length]

I was born in Sussex and, naturally, they were the county side I followed. In 1985 they were up against Leicestershire - a team that included test players in David Gower, Peter Willey, Jonathan Agnew and Chris Balderstone (better known for his football) as well as Phil de Freitas who subsequently also represented England.
Thanks to a fine 5 for 41 by Garth le Roux, Leicestershire were all out for 171 with Willey undefeated on 74.
In reply Sussex was dismissed for 209 with Willey returning the outstanding figures of 4 for 8 off 12.4 overs.
Batting a second time Leicestershire declared at 9 for 326 thanks to a brilliant 128 by Gower.
Chasing 289 off 67 overs Sussex were in all sorts of trouble at 4 for 65. However captain and wicket-keeper Ian Gould made a fine 101 despite an injured finger. There were only 3 balls left when the tailenders scampered through for a leg bye and Sussex won by 2 wickets - a win I never expected.

 

[honestbharani]

The 2001 BG series. I had given up on watching the Indian side circa 1999 and early 2000 and with the match fixing scandal.

 

[nightprowler10]

It'll probably have to be the 1-1 draw in India followed by 2-0 win against the Ashes heroes in 2005. After that I think the 2-2 draw in England was pretty special.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Border gavaskar 2020/21 first by miles obviously

Honourable mentions:

2001 v Australia

3 wins in SL (01 Kandy chasing a big score vs peak Murali, 08 Galle against Murali Mendis and 2010 when VVS chased a big score down) were all massive surprises to me. Especially the first two because we usually got owned by Murali every other time plus Sachin and VVS were absent for Kandy.

2014 Lords was a shock because of how inexperienced the team was and the fact that they were send in to bat on arguably the greenest pitch in half a century, rest of the series was more along the lines of how I expected it would go.