2 minute readIndia have named their squad for the four Test tour of Australia. It’s not totally straightforward. We’ll talk about the bowlers separately, but batting-wise the big news is the return of Virender Sehwag. We’ve read that India can’t pick Sehwag in the squad and not play him, which is technically
Continue readingAuthor: King Cricket
Otherwise known as Alex Bowden, a lapsed cricket journalist who has written for ESPNCricinfo, wisden.com, Cricket 365, The Cricketer and plenty of other places.
Links to some non-cricket writing and a bit more background here.
Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook keep panic at bay
< 1 minute readIt was far from a classic Test match. It felt like it was mapped out from the start and the players were just doing what they were expected to do. Now we’re no strangers to going through the motions, but we don’t put a professional veneer on like the cricketers
Continue readingLuke Pomersbach is a lucky son of a gun
< 1 minute readTell you what, you’ve got to be pretty darned lucky to be branded ‘a son of a gun’ on this site. Luke Pomersbach is that lucky. Pomersbach plays for Western Australia, but he’s currently serving a ban because he’s a big ole booze hound. Rumour has it that he was
Continue readingDid anything happen today?
< 1 minute readSri Lanka looked set for a large lead yesterday and Mahela Jayawardene had scored a hundred. At the close of play today Sri Lanka had a large lead and Mahela Jayawardene had scored a hundred. Very little else appears to have happened. So what shall we all do? A Test
Continue readingMahela Jayawardene not mad keen on getting out
2 minute readPrior to this match there was a bit of discussion as to whether it was best to bat first or second. It tends to be a brave move to insert the opposition upon winning the toss, but The Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Columbo has something of a reputation for
Continue readingHow to get Mahela Jayawardene out
< 1 minute readHave a tantrum. That’s what we’d do. Have a real, world-class, multi-award winning, all-time-hall-of-fame hissy fit. A proper toy-flinging, teary-eyed shamefest. The key is to act so insufferably badly that Jayawardene can’t look at you for embarrassment. You want to make him think: ‘This is intolerable. I literally can’t bear
Continue readingMisbah-ul-Haq – another glitteringly sedate hundred
< 1 minute readMisbah-ul-Haq’s one of those players who gets his own post even if we’ve got nothing to say now. He got 133 not out in a match where runs are as inevitable as weekend overeating. He did his best to stand out from the crowd though – for much of his
Continue readingBad decisions don’t decide a Test
2 minute readEngland will be pretty disappointed to have only made 351 and they’ll point to a couple of rough decisions as being one cause, but if they’re a serious Test side, they should forget about them. It’s not like they’re going to get overturned after the match. Don’t dwell on it.
Continue readingSourav Ganguly’s double hundred
2 minute readWell, at least his highest Test score’s higher than his highest one-day international score now. We saw his highest score in one-day internationals, 183 against Sri Lanka in the 1999 World Cup, and there are similarities with yesterday’s knock. On both occasions Ganguly was largely overshadowed by his batting partner
Continue readingYuvraj Singh in Test cricket
< 1 minute readSo Yuvraj Singh finally gets a Test match. It’s a fairly rare occurrence. Ridiculously rare. He arrived at the crease with India 61-4 and proceeded to smear 28 fours and a six, finishing with 169 off 203 balls in a partnership with Sourav Ganguly that was worth 300. It was
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