< 1 minute readThis England team isn’t the most popular, but you can’t fault Jimmy Anderson for that. He’s waging a one-man willow-wielding war on unpopularity this summer. You wouldn’t think it possible to improve on his efforts against Sri Lanka, but at Trent Bridge, against India, he may well have managed it.
Continue readingMonth: July 2014
Great insight about Ishant Sharma gleaned from having spent a day watching him bowl
< 1 minute readWe were at the Test yesterday. It was… steady. Or at least it was until Stuart Broad came in. The main thing we gleaned from our side-on vantage point is that Ishant Sharma has two different running styles during his approach to the crease. First, he jogs normally. Then, halfway
Continue readingRhythm, timing and a diverse bowling attack
2 minute readThis starts off as a Twitter story, but stick with it because that’s merely the setting. The point we’re about to make has nothing to do with that. Firstly, let us just say that we don’t make predictions on Twitter. No-one really cares what we think and it’s too easy
Continue readingMurali Vijay’s straight bat against England’s ‘worthy’ bowling
< 1 minute readThere’s been a fair amount of whinging about the slowness and lowness of the pitch – and not without cause – but it strikes us that really good bowling attacks don’t happen across dead pitches very often. England’s is not a really good bowling attack. The point of Test cricket
Continue readingAll Out Cricket fantasy game for England v India series
< 1 minute readIf you don’t already know, All Out Cricket magazine do a fantasy league thing. We’ve entered and set up a mini league. If you want to join and compete against us, it’s called The Kingdom and the not-so-secret key to gain access is ‘Rob Key’. Our team’s called The Courtiers.
Continue reading“People want to see runs”
< 1 minute readPeople are always saying this. It drives us mental. They say it like it’s a fact. Stuart Broad’s the latest. “I think Test wickets should be flat, no doubt, because the crowds want to come and see runs scored.” No we don’t. The most boring days we’ve ever seen have
Continue readingArticle about English county cricketer fails to dwell on his chances of playing for England
< 1 minute readThere is more than one thing to celebrate regarding Andrew Flintoff’s return to competitive cricket, but surely this is the greatest. A county match report which doesn’t go on and on about how some no-mark is ‘pushing for selection’ is a rare thing indeed. Okay, so in this instance the
Continue readingAndrew Strauss lets rip about Kevin Pietersen
< 1 minute readApparently Andrew Strauss has been caught calling Kevin Pietersen ‘the C-word’ during a commentary stint. He thought he was off-air, but they were actually still broadcasting in Australia. Being as this is Strauss, we’re presuming that the word used was ‘cad’. We’re quite taken aback by this. Our guess would
Continue readingBefore we get into England v India
< 1 minute readCan we just remind you that we also write a Tour de France website. The race starts tomorrow and the first three days promise to be ‘a big deal’ because they’re in the UK. Stage two on Sunday is the one we’re most looking forward to, but we’ll be covering
Continue readingWhich fast-medium all-rounders should England pick?
< 1 minute readShould they pick the batsman who bowls slippery fast-medium (Ben Stokes), the fast-medium bowler who can bat (Chris Jordan), the faster fast-medium bowler who can bat (Liam Plunkett) or the fast-medium bowler who really can bat (Chris Woakes)? All are good players, but even an eskimo may from time to
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