The Slipstream Century

Ian Bell has finally done it. It took him ten attempts but he finally got there.

Against Bangladesh in the 2nd Test at Mirpur, Bell scored his 10th Test century. And unlike his previous 9, this time around none of the other batsmen in the English lineup had already reached a century. It may have been a mere coincidence but this unique statistics was always highlighted by Bell haters (and there are a lot of them). He has been accused of scoring easy runs (the 9 slipstream centuries, an average of over nearly 250 against Bangladesh). In fact it was suggested that Bell was the best batsman to come in and score runs after the team has reached a total of 400. And there was this tendency to play little elegant innings and get out.

But things may finally be looking up. He did play a fighting innings, generally the kind played by Collingwood, to help save the 3rd test against South Africa. And in the current test also, England werent exactly in a comfortable position when Bell batted them through.

Hopefully this innings would be the start of a new batting era for Ian Bell, cause when he is playing well, he is definetely amongst the better to watch batsman in the present times.

P.S. This blog post was waiting to be written for quite some time. After all, a comment about Bell's batting published on cricinfo was the push I needed to get this blog started.