2 minute readHopefully you’re aware that we (Alex Bowden and Dan Liebke) are doing The Ridiculous Ashes Podcast. Series 1 is about the 1997 series and you can find all six episodes below. The Ridiculous Ashes is an alternative trophy that is awarded to the side that produces the most hilarious and
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Three things India needed for The Storming of the Gabba
4 minute readTo storm a fortress you need three things: numbers, a tenderiser and at least one person who is not averse to progress. This is the story of how India took the Gabba. Not all fortresses are hard to take. England turned up at a fort earlier this week and were
Continue readingThe autopilot: Why Cheteshwar Pujara is unconsciously exceptional
5 minute readPlease can we tell you why Cheteshwar Pujara is so special. It’s too do with how little he thinks. Most of us are waging a war against conscious thought at the moment. Holed up with the same people we’ve been cooped up with for most of the last year, good
Continue readingWhat Ben Stokes, Jack Leach and Headingley 2019 tell us about Test cricket
5 minute readEngland v Australia, third Test, day four It’s six or out… … It’s six! Jonathan Agnew, Test Match Special Have you seen No Country For Old Men? You should watch No Country For Old Men. No Country For Old Men is a striking and excellent film and while the ending
Continue readingAjinkya Rahane and India’s net gains
2 minute readIndia got past Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood bowling with the new ball and lo, they won the Test match. That’s reductive – but then so’s concluding a team can’t bat when it gets bowled out for 36. Ajinkya Rahane made the most obviously telling contribution, run out for 112
Continue readingWhy India’s 36 all out was a one-dimensional effort in the field of collapses
3 minute readIf you’ve ever seen The Perfect Storm, you’ll know that quite a lot of things go wrong in it. The Perfect Storm is a film about fishing, starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and quite a few other people you know. At one point Wahlberg is bitten by a shark. A
Continue readingAustralia might again be poor enough that they’ll feel like they have to pick Shaun Marsh
2 minute readSometimes there’s a man. We won’t say a hero, because what’s a hero? But sometimes there’s a man – and we’re talking about Shaun Marsh here. Sometimes there’s a man… well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s Shaun Marsh. If there’s
Continue readingThe real motivation for Steve Smith’s elaborate pre-delivery fidgeting routine REVEALED
< 1 minute readSteve Smith’s pad-tapping, box-adjusting pre-delivery fidget routine is really quite something. And now, finally, we know why he does it. “I think it’s left pad, right pad, box, one tap in the middle, two behind my foot, look up, two behind my foot, look up, one… good to go.” That’s
Continue readingThe (sole) pro and (many) cons of the Big Bash League’s mad new rules
3 minute readThe videogamification of short format cricket continues with the announcement of a series of BOOSTS and POWER SURGES in the Big Bash League. (Why don’t they ever use genuinely entertaining videogame mods, like Sensible Soccer’s reduced gravity or Goldeneye’s giant heads mode?) The new rules are predictably puzzling and –
Continue readingWhich Australia player was least happy about rewatching their Headingley 2019 nightmare?
3 minute readThe day after Ben Stokes and Jack Leach at Headingley in 2019, Australia coach Justin Langer forced his players to watch the footage. Thanks to Amazon’s documentary, The Test, we can see how that went down. It did not go down very well. Who was least happy about it? Cricket
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