2 minute readThe modern Test series is more about endurance than ever before. It may feature fewer matches, but with little pause between them, it is more like one ongoing slog than a sequence of distinct skirmishes. We’ll see this vividly in the third and decisive Test between Australia and South Africa
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Michael Clarke can give it a rest now
< 1 minute readOkay, we get it – you’re amazing at batting. It’s getting a bit old now. This wasn’t Michael Clarke’s first double hundred of the year. It wasn’t even his first double hundred of the year in Adelaide; it was his second, and he has four of the buggers in total.
Continue readingSouth Africa don’t really get spin bowling
< 1 minute readDo you see what happens, Larry? Do you see what happens? This is what happens. This is what happens when you pick an all-pace attack. Always pick a spinner. No matter how good your fast bowlers are, if the batsmen get into a rhythm, you can find yourself on the
Continue readingAustralia stick to their plans against Amla and Kallis
< 1 minute readThe plan was to target Jacques Kallis with lots of short stuff. Kallis has now faced lots and lots and lots of short stuff. Meanwhile, we dread to think how much verbal aggression Hashim Amla’s had to counter over the course of his 207-ball unbeaten innings. We imagine that verbal
Continue readingBrace yourselves – Australia have a dossier
< 1 minute readAnd it’s been leaked! We don’t really know what a dossier is. Is it just a piece of paper with a list on it? Whatever it is, it contains some staggering revelations: Australian bowlers are going to bowl some bouncers Australian cricketers are going to call an opponent names Apparently,
Continue readingAustralian cricketers need English balls
< 1 minute readAmbiguous headline, you say? Don’t know what you’re talking about. In their painfully desperate attempts to compete with England, Australia are going to use good, solid, dependable, manly Dukes balls in some Sheffield Shield matches instead of the fey, effeminate Kookaburra ball. The idea is that Aussie bowlers will maybe
Continue readingWhat did Matthew Hayden call Damien Martyn?
< 1 minute readApparently Jimmy Anderson once hit Michael Clarke in the head with a pad because Clarke was being a knobhead. It’s a slightly disappointing story overall, but made faintly interesting by the subplots revolving around Damien Martyn. Apparently, Jimmy was sitting in the changing rooms and Michael Clarke was giving off
Continue readingPakistan’s spin bowling all-rounders exploit a weakness and the Twenty20 format
< 1 minute readAustralia faced two overs of pace bowling during their defeat today. Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez saw that it was not broke and therefore declined the opportunity to attempt repairs. It’s interesting how a very specific batting weakness can be exploited in Twenty20. If spin causes some damage, the incoming batsmen
Continue readingWhat’s Damien Martyn up to these days?
< 1 minute readYeah, we know Matthew Hayden’s retired again and that there’s a batch of nonsense to savour as a consequence. You can enjoy that without our having to contribute these days. Instead, we’ve got something new. It’s Damien Martyn’s confusingly named ‘Marton Distribution’. Read their ‘about us‘ page before you go
Continue readingCricket’s schadenfreude production line
2 minute readCongratulations, South Africa. Prepare for people to delight in your fall. In recent years, the Test rankings have been a kind of schadenfreude production line. One nation gets to the top and promptly celebrates and then everyone else celebrates even more heartily when the team in question drops down again.
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