3 minute read“I’ve always enjoyed 50-over cricket,” said Jos Buttler this week. “It’s always been one of my favourite formats.” Really, Jos? You don’t say. One of your favourites? Would it make your top three? Speaking of third-bests, the Champions Trophy looms, well, not large exactly, given its status as very much
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3 minute readDid England drop seven chances today because the British idea of beach sport is going down the arcades and spending half an hour on one of those penny pusher games? Probably not, but there must be some reason why they’ve arrived at the wheelless phase of an Ashes tour. Lack
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3 minute readWe’re not sure this is the effective rebuttal he thinks it is. England have been criticised for their fitness both before and during this Ashes capitulation, but head coach Jon Lewis says they didn’t lose because of that – there are in fact loads of other reasons why they’ve lost
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3 minute readEngland don’t change captains too often. The previous one, Charlotte Edwards, made her international debut in 1996 and served as captain from 2005 until 2016 when current captain, Heather Knight, took over. Knight has previously said she’s grown more relaxed as a leader over time because she believes that’s what
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5 minute readWe may or may not have caught up with Mark Wood to talk about his interest in wood. It’s a little known fact that England fast bowler Mark Wood is in fact called Mark Rudd. Team-mates began calling him Wood near the start of his career in mocking acknowledgement of
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2 minute readAt the end of the day, England just wanted it more. Australia showed serious appetite for defeat when they shipped their last eight wickets for 49 runs, but England responded well and crucially held their nerve at the death. Having already successfully lost the first Ashes match (an ODI) by
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3 minute readIt’s amazing to think that this week brought England’s first Test win since 2014 and even more amazing to think they haven’t beaten South Africa since 2003. The amazement then takes on a slightly different hue when you learn that they’ve also preserved their unbeaten record against the same opposition.
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3 minute readWe appear to be back to what we call the Gaylian definition of ‘momentum’ where there’s a hard reset every Test match and recent history is more or less bunk. (Unless you’re Zak Crawley, of course, in which case momentum is very real and you’re almost certainly going to get
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2 minute readThis is the way careers are supposed to end: messily and unsatisfactorily. No wicket with your final ball and six with your final shot. No nonsense exhibition match seemingly played solely for your benefit. Tim Southee has a chance here to lessen the grief for his team-mates and countryfolk by
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3 minute readBack in the mists of time, whenever the digital rights for Test matches were last agreed, someone decided that the free YouTube highlights for a day’s play should be just 10 minutes long. That was when a day’s play was a fifth of a Test match though. Surely now they
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