< 1 minute readOther than a fast bowler, feisty lower order batsman and a medieval knight of the outfield. These are, of course, major reasons why Mark Wood is currently our favourite cricketer, but it’s not just that. He’s also unfamiliar, so there’s a wonderful uncertainty about what he might yet be. It’s
Continue readingCategory: Australia
Moeen Ali likes to feel bat on ball
< 1 minute readOr, in English, he likes to hit the ball. It always strikes us that ‘feel bat on ball’ sounds altogether too sensual for something that’s actually quite percussive and violent. After all, you wouldn’t say about a drunken brawler: ‘He loves the feel of fist on face and the sensation
Continue readingJoe Root survives the pea-rollers to welly a hundred despite not remotely being ‘due’
< 1 minute readThe 2015 Ashes started with a hail of bouncers. Double-bouncers, triple-bouncers and a few outright grub-hunters. It was intimidating stuff from the perspective of an ankle – although the puddingness of the pitch did at least simplify things for the bowlers, allowing them to both pitch it short and hit
Continue readingIt’s time for some new source material
< 1 minute readEngland’s players have been treated to an afternoon of Beefy rest day anecdotes, while Michael Clarke’s babbling on about ‘the line’ for the billionth time (“I think everyone knows where the line is,” he said this week – if not, we certainly know where we can hear about it). It’s
Continue readingRetirement – when the time comes, you just know
< 1 minute readThat’s what cricketers always say, as if they received some mystical message from the cosmos informing them it was ‘time’. Ryan Harris has retired because he’s broken his leg by bowling with a knee devoid of cartilage. You might therefore think it was ‘time’ slightly before now, but apparently not.
Continue readingRyan Harris is out
< 1 minute readAs in ‘out of the warm-up match against Essex due to a recurrence of his long-standing knee problems’. Not as in ‘dismissed’ or in that other sense. “My body itself feels really good,” said Harris last week. ‘Good’ for Ryan Harris apparently means ‘at least a few days away from
Continue readingThe lessons Mitchell Starc doesn’t need to learn
2 minute readWe remember seeing a story in the local paper once where a woman had come second in some sort of vegetable growing competition despite being the only person to have entered that particular category. Let’s say she grew a broccoflower – which is apparently a thing. In a world class
Continue readingMagazine aimed specifically at Michael Clarke’s Australia team launched
< 1 minute readAsked about ‘the line‘ earlier this month, Michael Clarke responded: “I probably say this every series but we respect there’s a line you can’t cross. Both teams might head-butt that line, but I’m confident we won’t overstep the mark.” Everyone knows that Clarke would never breach a line, which is
Continue readingSteven Smith is destined to fail says Michael Clarke
2 minute readMichael Clarke has launched an astonishing broadside against his team-mate Steven Smith ahead of this summer’s Ashes series. The Australian captain claims that Smith will struggle to make any sort of impact this summer despite now being ranked the best Test batsman in the world. Responding to Graeme Swann’s assertion
Continue readingHow New Zealand kept their distance from ‘the line’
< 1 minute readNew Zealand’s performance against England in the recently-completed Test series was the most relentlessly aggressive we can remember. There have been examples of individual players adopting a persistent attacking approach before now, but look back on those series and you’ll tend to find obdurate batting and dry bowling from a
Continue reading