Unwitting Morgan strikes another blow for IPL in 戦う／戦い between 郡 and bounty

By Lawrence Booth for the Daily Mail Updated: 16:59 BST, 24 May 2011

The 選択 of Eoin Morgan ahead of Ravi Bopara for Thursday's first 実験（する） against Sri Lanka is a resounding victory for Morgan and a scarcely いっそう少なく かなりの scalp for the Indian 首相 League.

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Let's get one thing （疑いを）晴らす: the selectors had all but made their minds up going into the Lions' four-day game against the Sri Lankans at Derby. Bopara, not Morgan, was the man for Cardiff.

He had been training 団体／死体 and brain to 競う with the red ball in English 条件s; he had been 得点する／非難する／２０ing runs ? not EU butter-mountains of them, but かなりの hillocks, and against the 目だつ-seamed 分割 2 Tiflex ball; and he bowls, which is not to be 匂いをかぐd at when you're going with a fou r-man attack.

At the races: Eoin Morgan's 193 at Derby last week 調印（する）d his 位置／汚点／見つけ出す in the first 実験（する） against Sri Lanka

Then Bopara made a scratchy 17 in Derby and Morgan, who had just flown in from a 一般に unproductive few weeks at the IPL, 衝突，墜落d 193. The selectors' ruthless-ometer got to work, confounding those who ? above and beyond everything else ? had conflated the 明らかな moral rectitude of Bopara's 決定／判定勝ち（する） to turn 負かす／撃墜する IPL bucks with his 準備完了 for the No 6 slot.

And this is where it gets tricky. Several good 裁判官s (plenty of them Indian: just browse the 選択 of articles on Cricinfo's Surfer page if you think this is a white man's lament) worry about what the IPL is doing to cricket. That's an argument for another time, but the point is this: the 長，率いる-to-長，率いる between Bopara and Morgan was too easily 解釈する／通訳するd as a 戦う／戦い between the good old 郡 選手権 and India's brash new Twenty20 league, between cricket and cricketainment.

In one corner was the angelic Bopara, turning his nose up at the dosh so he could make a go of it in the noblest form of the game. In the other was Morgan, a modern-day 新たな展開 on Francis Drake ? conf ident of his ability to finish things off in India before returning to 殺す the Sri Lankans. A narrative took 形態／調整 in which the IPL was somehow 存在 taught a lesson.

Slipped through his fingers: Ravi Bopara (権利) is the unlucky man to 行方不明になる out to Mogan

Suddenly, it was about 忠義. But was it? Kevin Pietersen and Stuart 幅の広い would both have played in the IPL this year had it not been for 傷害. Bopara himself threw his 指名する in the （犯罪の）一味 for the auction, even if ? as he has pointed out ? Paul Collingwood had not, at that 行う／開催する／段階, retired from 実験（する） cricket.

But Morgan's 孤立／分離 as England's one high-profile player at this year's IPL was an 不公平な stick with which to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 him, although it's probably the 事例／患者 he didn't help his 原因（となる） by 説 he would have returned to the Kolkata Knight Riders had the selectors ignored him on Sunday.

The truth is that England want it both ways. They want their players to steer （疑いを）晴らす of a tournament which they feel will 利益 only their bank accounts. Yet they also want to 選ぶ their best XI to 勝利，勝つ 実験（する）s and 上がる to the 最高の，を越す of the world 最高位のs.

Nice KITT: Morgan has just 完全にするd a （一定の）期間 at Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian 首相 League

The IPL can afford to laugh at the 緊張 because it knows there is only one 勝利者 (証言，証人／目撃する, for その上の 証拠, the 事例／患者s of Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo and Kieron Pollard). 忠義, as both the IPL and England's selectors know, does not 勝利，勝つ you 実験（する） matches.

Yet if England are fighting a losing 戦う／戦い in their 試みる／企てるs to cajole their players into giving the IPL a 行方不明になる, then they have つまずくd across the 権利 choice. Geoff Miller was 瀬戸際ing on the disingenuous when he （人命などを）奪う，主張するd the choice of Morgan was in part about consistency of 選択. He was only able to （人命などを）奪う，主張する that after Morgan had made an unanswerable 事例／患者 in Derby.

Consistency of 選択 is an argument used when it 控訴s: often has been the time a bowler 召喚するd 中途の through a 小旅行する has leapfrogged an 初めの member of the party. What Miller and Flower did remind themselves of in Derby, however, was Morgan's unparalleled ? in England, at least ? ability to adapt to circumstance.

戦う／戦いing 支援する: The likes of Stuart 幅の広い would have played in the IPL too were it not for 傷害

Both he and Bopara live for batting, but Morgan may just have the greater knack of 離婚ing his 願望（する） from the 冷淡な 行為／法令／行動する of run-making. If Bopara is 重さを計るd 負かす／撃墜する by 期待, Morgan seems 刺激するd by it.

最終的に, Flower has gone for the man who more closely 似ているs himself: steely but inventive, 熱烈な but not cripplingly so, and 確信して enough to 激しく揺する up for his first first-class innings since December and nigh on 得点する／非難する／２０ a 二塁打-hundred. 存在 a left-hander in an さもなければ 権利-手渡すd middle order helps too.

The IPL will be chuckling, but then that's what it does. Morgan, you see, has unwittingly 現在のd one of its strongest arguments yet.?

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Last week we asked you in which year Sir Pelham Warner captained England to Ashes glory. The answer, as you of course you all knew, was 1903-04 ? but only three lucky 最高の，を越す Spin readers have won a year's subscription to The Cricketer magazine.

Congratulations to Hugh Morris (no, not that one), Andy White and Matthew Wilson, and many thanks to everyone else who entered.

For cricket-関係のある snippets feel 解放する／自由な to go to twitter.com/the_topspin.

The secret of Graham Napier's success

Sod moves in mysterious ways. After spending Wednesday watching Surrey and Essex 株 honours at Whitgift School, the 最高の，を越す Spin decamped to Derby the に引き続いて day to watch Eoin Morgan 攻撃する，衝突する a futile 156 not out that 明確に （機の）カム too late to 影響する／感情 his 選択 for the Cardiff 実験（する）. Eh? Oh.

一方／合間, on the second day of the game 支援する at leafy Whitgift, Graham Napier was going berserk, pummelling 16 sixes in a 130-ball 196. For your intrepid columnist, your classic tell-the-grandkids 'I wasn't there' moment.

Whatever, the sheer freedom of that knock reminded me of a poolside 雑談（する） with Napier in Cape Town during the 2009 Indian 首相 League, when he 明らかにする／漏らすd that, ーするために 規模 the 高さs, he had 軍隊d himself to, 井戸／弁護士席, 規模 the 高さs.

Climbing 5,600m above sea level to reach base （軍の）野営地，陣営 at エベレスト, Napier 達成するd the fabled sense of 視野 that most successful sportsmen (妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 Geoffrey ボイコット（する）) crave.

'Seeing poverty on a 山腹, and the way they live their lives and get on with things, reminded me that the silly things we worry about day-in, day-out don't really 事柄,' he told me. 'That's where it all started.'

When you put it like that, 死なせる／死ぬing in search of a world-記録，記録的な／記録する 17th six doesn't seem so important after all…

Trott's fault

When the world stubbornly 辞退するd to end at 6pm on Saturday, many 観察者／傍聴者s were content to 非難する Harold （軍の）野営地，陣営ing, the 89-year-old former engineer from California, for getting his sums wrong. Again.

But cricket's Twitterati know better. Our 惑星's 延長／続編 and the attendant 欠如（する） of rapture are, in fact, the fault of Jonathan Trott, whose 正規の／正選手 duffing-ups at the 手渡すs of （頭が）ひょいと動く Willis on Sky have 誘発するd Twitter uses to hash-tag anything that goes wrong as #trottsfault.

Which is fair enough: after all, who else to 非難する for England Lions' 敗北・負かす to Sri Lanka on Sunday after they 施行するd the follow-on?

Ijaz Butt's masterplan

Last week we 報告（する）／憶測d the happy news that Pakistan Cricket Board big cheese Ijaz Butt had 'taken strict 活動／戦闘s to eradicate' player 力／強力にする in his 味方する's never-いっそう少なく-than-tumultuous dressing room. This week we 設立する out 正確に／まさに what he meant: Butt 解雇（する）d Shahid Afridi as one-day captain and 取って代わるd him with Misbah-ul-Haq.

It's catching: Misbah-ul-Haq is Pakistan's new one-day captain, the ninth during Ijaz Butt's 統治する at the PCB

It's not the first time Butt has taken strict 活動／戦闘s. In fact, it's the ninth. As Osman Samiuddin points out on Cricinfo, Butt's three-year 統治する as the PCB's 長，率いる Clown has 含むd nine changes of captaincy in 実験（する）s and one-day internationals, with the 最新の switch making about as much sense as the previous eight.

Afridi may be outspoken, but he had just taken Pakistan to the World Cup 半分-決勝戦, where his hopes of （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing India were scuppered by a mysterious innings from … Misbah-ul-Haq.

We may have について言及するd this before, but watch this space.

It's (not just) a man's game

Dinosaurs, 持つ／拘留する on to your hats ? then doff them to Arran Brindle, who last week became the first woman to 得点する／非難する／２０ a hundred in men's 首相 league cricket when she 攻撃する，衝突する 128 for Louth CC against Market 深いing CC in the Lincolnshire 首相 League.

Such moments 現在の our male-支配するd world with a conundrum. Is too much 賞賛する patronising? Is not enough sniffy? What the heck. Just look out for the 指名する.

The 29-year-old Brindle, who has a 実験（する） century to her 指名する, was recently reselected by England after a six-year absence from the 国家の 味方する.

警告する: the fitting finale

Like the man himself, Shane 警告する's script-writer must be 公正に／かなり shameless. How else to explain the nature of his definitely-maybe 別れの（言葉，会） to cricket?

別れの（言葉，会）, Shane... until the next time: 警告する played his final match last week for the Rajasthan 王室のs

First, there's the woman (Liz Hurley, in 事例／患者 you've been holidaying on Neptune). Then there's the 罰金: $50,000 for 落ちるing out with a Rajasthan 公式の／役人. Then there's the last-over wicket: Rohit Sharma, stumped for 58 by Pinal Shah. And then, of course, there was the tantalising prospect of one final, definitely ultimate, no coming 支援する after this oh no, 割れ目 in the Big Bash.

The man is incapable of doing anything 静かに.

Tiger stops play

Or, to be 正確な, a life-size stuffed toy of a tiger stops play. Spotted in a field on Saturday 近づく Junction 7 of the M27 近づく Southampton, the inanimate 反対する 原因（となる）d play to be 停止（させる）d for around half an hour at the nearby Rose Bowl, where Hampshire 学院 were playing South Wilts.

Tony Middleton, the Hampshire 学院 director, was impressively blas? about the prospect of 存在 eaten alive by the cuddly creature: 'Rumours （機の）カム 一連の会議、交渉／完成する that there was a tiger on the ゴルフ course and we just carried on playing until a policeman （機の）カム over and told us to （疑いを）晴らす the area,' he told the BBC.

'I assumed there was [a tiger] with everything that was going on, but we felt やめる 安全な here.'

God forbid if the next 無作為の tiger turns out to be real…