2 minute read The problem with giving people names is that we tend to associate certain qualities with those names. This doesn’t happen with bananas. Bananas are interchangeable and are evaluated for what they are. If they’re at peak ripeness, hurray! If they’re bruised and old, we replace them with new bananas. This
Continue readingCategory: England
Jade Dernbach – where do we all stand on this at the minute?
2 minute read Back when everyone was going mental about Jade Dernbach and his ‘variations’ we pointed out that he was essentially half a bowler. He did the eye-catching things well, but he was fairly useless at the everyday stuff that’s equally important. Shortly after that, we argued that he shouldn’t be dropped,
Continue readingJames Tredwell brings more wonders
< 1 minute read When England won a Test series in India, we felt moved to ask: “Will wonders never cease?” It wasn’t a rhetorical question, so in light of England winning a high-scoring one-day international in India, we now have an answer: WONDERS WILL NEVER CEASE. England don’t do high-scoring one-day matches well.
Continue readingTwenty20 cricket darts
< 1 minute read England lost again. According to Cricinfo, the weather was ‘smoke’ and then ‘fog’. Now, onto the important stuff: encouraging cricket to invade other sports. We’ve just learnt about Twenty20 cricket darts and we heartily approve of it. If we had any kind of memory for this sort of stuff, we’d
Continue readingLet’s start as we mean to go on
< 1 minute read By going away, not updating the site properly and then doing a half-arsed round-up post on a Monday morning, even though we don’t really know what happened because we weren’t actually paying any attention. Pakistan won a one-day series against India We did actually watch some of this. And by
Continue readingIndia and England need to strive for more mediocrity
< 1 minute read England hit the new ball well and Jos Buttler played the final over brilliantly, but in between it was like they were running through pudding – plenty of effort, but nothing but the slowest, steadiest progress. With the ball, they mostly bowled wides and then occasionally rattled a batsman. In
Continue readingEngland’s rich and femmer tourists – and also the journeymen
3 minute read We’ve always wondered how an England team could win in India. Winning in Australia always seemed impossible because of how good they were and because a squad on a long tour always seemed to unravel like the stitching in our rucksack. Winning in India seemed equally impossible, but for different
Continue readingFollow this, watch that
< 1 minute read This pitch and this match are being slagged off by many people, but we’ve found it compelling because it’s been so alien. It hasn’t been a match that’s been great to watch, but it has been fascinating to follow because cricketers are so rarely tested in such conditions. As a
Continue readingWhen MS Dhoni was run out for 99
< 1 minute read To fall one centimetre short of a hundred is probably a little bit irritating. MS Dhoni is doubtless wishing he had longer arms. We quite like a 99 and to be run out is the best way to do it. There’s a sort of soiled majesty about it – so
Continue readingCricket owes James Anderson
2 minute read Like most bowlers, James Anderson is frequently up against it. Modern pitches are generally against him, overseas conditions are often against him and the fixture list is always against him. However, like a fat man’s old belt, Jimmy hasn’t buckled in a long, long time. Fit for purpose Most of
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