< 1 minute readLast year, we were going to watch a cricket match with a friend who hadn’t watched the sport in many years. “I only like it when we bat,” he said. We’re off work today and we’re a bit disappointed that England are batting. We prefer cricket when England are bowling.
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England beat the eight men of India
< 1 minute readHyperbole, but not entirely unwarranted. Sometimes a pint of dour dissatisfaction and a willingness to take the negatives doesn’t do you any harm. India had the misfortune of having three players handicapped by a perennially twangy hammy, a pock-marked elbow and the wild shits. This wasn’t their fault. They also
Continue readingEngland need to take their chance
< 1 minute readWe well remember the first Test of India’s last tour, which is weird, because we were in Canada for all but the final day. But it’s that final day that’s important here. Nine wickets down, MS Dhoni blocked the shit out of it and for England, that was the difference
Continue readingWas Kevin Pietersen out caught at leg slip for 49?
< 1 minute readIf you answered ‘yes’ to that question, you’re wrong. Kevin Pietersen was not out on 202 when England declared. The consensus seems to be that Pietersen probably should have been given out when he tucked the ball down to Rahul Dravid, but we care more about what happened after that.
Continue readingDoes the England cricket team need a cartoon baker?
< 1 minute readYou need opening batsmen, you need a wicketkeeper, you need a spinner. You don’t always need a guy who looks like a cartoon baker. That’s not to say that such a person isn’t of value though. Sometimes the captain will look round the field and think to himself: ‘Oh for
Continue readingZaheer Khan and James Anderson
2 minute readWe’re all pretty lucky, you know. For the next few weeks, we’re going to get Zaheer Khan one innings and then James Anderson the next. It’s like our metabolism has suddenly allowed us a curry-pizza-curry-pizza diet. No muesli. What follows isn’t really meant to be a comparison. It’s more about
Continue readingAlastair Cook still proving people wrong
< 1 minute readNo comments as yet on our latest Cricinfo article. We predict that at least one of the first ten will be about how Alastair Cook isn’t actually all that good and how Virender Sehwag’s better. The other nine will be asking whether the article is supposed to be funny or
Continue readingEngland’s one-day opening batsmen might stay the same
< 1 minute readFor us, this is the biggest positive to have come out of England’s one-day series win against Sri Lanka. In one-day cricket, your opening batsmen are pretty much your most important players and England have rarely had a decent, settled partnership. The run-up to the last World Cup was pretty
Continue readingAlastair Cook broadens his range
< 1 minute readMany of you will say Alastair Cook proved us wrong by hitting 95 off 75 balls against Sri Lanka. Our point was actually that you shouldn’t open with an anchor in one-day cricket. We say that your sensible batsman, your banker, should come in at three or four. Wrong pigeonhole?
Continue readingThe anchor role in one-day cricket
2 minute readThis isn’t repeat until funny. This is repeat because you haven’t said it in a while and people seem to be missing something pretty obvious about one-day cricket – English people mostly. It’s about anchors and openers. A batsman’s ‘range’ No batsman likes to be stereotyped, but let’s be honest,
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