Posted by There aren’t many media outlets where this would be headline news. It is here though. New Zealand’s fourth seamer isn’t flawless. Stop the press!
It may only have been the day before yesterday, but it already seems a long, long time since we suggested that Neil Wagner never lets you down. The ‘never’ was always an exaggeration; rhetoric, if you will. Now it’s hollow, empty rhetoric that doesn’t really seem to make much sense. The Wagnermeister, as no-one calls him, took 0-49 off seven overs on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka. That, ladies and gentlemen, is gash.
So not content with merely failing to back up our claims, it seems Wagner went out of his way to actively disprove them. He didn’t even manage to run in all day. Brendon McCullum didn’t let him, what with all the runs he was conceding.
Similar deliveries:
Neil Wagner sacrifices the opportunity to run in for a small fragment of the final session
Neil Wagner never lets you down
While Neil Wagner might occasionally let you down, he does frequently pick up a few wickets from a long and determined spell when no-one else is really making any inroads
Who will be the next great 82mph bouncer bowler now that Neil Wagner has retired?
Anagram time!
‘Neil Wagner’ is an anagram of ‘Neil Wanger’.
Also ‘Enlarge Win’, a Sri Lankan cause he’s aided generously thus far.
After this reverse-ferret, I’m looking forward to Neil Wagner destroying Sri Lanka in the second innings with 8-37, to go with his maiden test double century tomorrow.
Did we mention that Dale Steyn, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers never let you down?
Steyn’s back! He’s been through all kinds in passing a fitness test:
http://zeenews.india.com/sports/cricket/south-africas-dale-steyn-passes-fitness-tests_1836052.html
He even ran sprints! Very kind of him to supervise the team athletics training.
My point about Wagner that I think I failed in making is that players who are talked about as ‘reliable’ are often described as such as a euphemism.
There seems to be a feeling that people who get 3-75 on a good day are more likely to have good days more often, as though all players just sort of even out eventually. I think it’s to do with the reasons people think batsmen are ‘due’ as well. Gambler’s fallacy or some such.
But Wagner averages 35 because his good days are both limited and not actually very frequent. Some players are, or at least have been, a bit meh.
We know what you mean. Although 35 ain’t so bad in this day and age. It’s probably slightly better than you expect from a bowler like Neil Wagner, which is perhaps the point we were trying to make.
Quite why we felt it necessary to make that point is another matter entirely.
Neil Wagner always lets you down
You beat us to it.