Tim Bresnan could be the yeoman

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Yo, manEngland haven’t had a bowler who commentators can patronisingly refer to as a ‘yeoman’ since Matthew Hoggard got the boot. Tim Bresnan’s from Yorkshire and bowls a bit of swing. Maybe he can step in and be a doughty northern caricature so that the English cricket establishment can reinforce their perceived superiority through the use of hackneyed unflattering nouns.

Tim Bresnan is a quietly productive cricketer. He’s the bowler casual England fans are quick to identify as being representative of English cricketing mediocrity. He’s not really our sort of bowler, but that’s harsh.

We made Tim Bresnan one to watch in both 2008 and 2009 for the fairly straightforward reason that he always takes wickets and he always scores runs. He did a little of both for England today. He took 1-20 – which is a pretty damn fine return off four overs in Twenty20 – then he larrupped 23 not out off 11 balls. England won and Tim Bresnan did as much as anyone to ensure that.

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18 comments

  1. That was his 4th wicket in 10 games at an average of 57.5. He goes for about 8 per over and his batting is usually pretty poor. Not a great fielder, bring back KP!

  2. I like Bresnan. What’s the point in having lethal star bowlers if you don’t use them properly? (I’m looking at you, South Africa).

    Bresnan plays with his brain first and his arm second. His variations today routinely outfoxed the leading T20 batsman in the world.

    He’s not likely to be the star of the show. He just does his job.

  3. There’s a paradox in T20 cricket. It is designed and marketed as the ultimate form of fast-and-loose cricket – devil-may-care and hold-on-to-your-hats and scream-if-you-want-to-go-faster and so on. And yet where bowling is concerned it is the fine artist that comes to the fore, with no place for the forty-yard run up, hair streaming in the wind, 90mph superstar.

    In other words, all of the sport’s playboys (the fast bowlers) are confined to test match cricket, whereas T20 is the home of the medium-pace tactician, playing with “his brain first and his arm second” (not one of the IPL’s advertising slogans, I would think).

    T20 Batting – Exciting
    T20 Bowling – Subtle and considered
    Test Batting – Subtle and considered
    Test Bowling – Exciting

    (Your young Indian friend, KC, had already come to this conclusion without having to analyse it.)

    So I guess you pays your money and makes your choice. If you want big batting, go to a T20. If you want big bowling, go to a test.

  4. That reflects how you win matches.

    T20 is won by the team that scores most runs. Runs are the aim.

    Test matches are won by the team that takes 20 wickets while conceding the fewest runs. Wickets are the aim.

  5. He doesn’t do any of that pouting, petulant crap that seems to infect both Broad and Sidearse.

    Just gets on with it. That has never seemed so appealing.

  6. He should also inherit the ‘big backside’ tag from fellow Yorkshire man Darren Gough.

    I’ve also got this sneaking suspicion that Bresnan might actually be really really good in a Graeme Swann kind of way. But we shall wait and see.

  7. can anyone “larrup” or do you have to be a yeoman to do it?

    You didn’t mention Ian Austin or reference a northern brewery in this article which I think is mandatory when discussing Bresnan.

  8. That’s definitely the first time we’ve been criticised for NOT mentioning Ian Austin.

  9. I love the way Reverse Sweep finds a way to gatecrash onto all of your posts with thoughts of his own

  10. do KC and e-m have a secret room where they meet? I’m lost:, is there a suggestion that Bresnan is a butch woman?

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