2 minute readHat-tip to Marlon Samuels for coining Big Man Cricket, a term that really does sum up the might and majesty of the longest format rather well. 1. The Great Neil Wagner First and foremost, make sure you watch The Great Neil Wagner, whether on live coverage or via the tiny
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Let’s see if we can sum up Kevin Pietersen’s entire career by looking at one innings – but no, not by using that one
6 minute readTerry’s been with the firm for 30 years, but he’s not retiring; he’s going part-time. A couple of years down the line Terry reduces his hours further and then a bit later still he says that he’s going to be available for jobs he’s already done a bit of work
Continue readingShould England play Chris Woakes or Mark Wood?
4 minute readChris Woakes is a very good and admirable cricketer. He didn’t have the best of time in the last Ashes but has since bounced back in the shorter formats. If he were to play a Test match, he would not doubt take a bunch of wickets. Nevertheless, England should pretty
Continue readingFrankly, you might as well open the bowling with Mark Wood
< 1 minute readThe big news from England’s warm-up piss-take of a match against a New Zealand XI is that they’re thinking of having Retired Hurt open the bowling. Accounting for three batsmen, he was England’s most successful bowler after Jimmy Anderson, who took 4-56. Root deployed just the nine bowlers and even
Continue readingYou’ll never dismiss Jonny Bairst- oh…
< 1 minute readJonny Bairstow had made 104 runs off 59 balls when this happened. Two things to note. One, the bail is illuminated. Two, the position of Bairstow’s back foot. Pondering the former with reference to the latter, you might like to consider the path his bat took. Still, the job was
Continue readingA second Kane Williamson would have been handy
< 1 minute read“This game is not over until you get Kane Williamson out,” said Nasser Hussain when the New Zealand captain reached his fifty. Entirely untrue. England never did get him out, but still won. Kane Williamson scored getting on for a quarter of the runs in the match. No-one else passed
Continue readingAndy Flower’s review of the England Lions tour
< 1 minute read“The Tour has allowed us to learn a great deal about the players….” That’s good. Learning is good. Knowledge is power and all that. “… but the results are obviously extremely disappointing.” Imagine how you’d feel having Andy Flower express his disappointment in you. Andy Flower strikes us as being
Continue readingEngland are back to loving 50-over cricket again
< 1 minute readIn the wake of their victory in the second one-day international against New Zealand, England have forgotten about Test cricket again and are back talking about the 50-over World Cup. Having officially changed policy after the first match, they’ve now officially changed back again. Ben Stokes or someone may or
Continue readingReece Topley postpones overuse injury for a year
< 1 minute readReece Topley’s not going to play first-class cricket this year. He’s been injured a lot – stress fractures mostly – so Hampshire asked the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) what they should do. The ECB pretty much said that there’s altogether too much domestic cricket for a pace bowler
Continue readingEngland revert to talking about the importance of preserving Test cricket as “the pinnacle of the sport”
2 minute readIn the wake of their defeat in the first one-day international against New Zealand, England have reverted to their traditional position that Tests are the main thing and they don’t really care about anything else. A 4-1 Ashes defeat followed by a 50-over series win encouraged an unprecedented change in
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