2 minute readMore often than not, an out of form batsman needs to be treated sensitively and given reassurance. If their confidence returns, they tend to discover it was actually all that was ever absent. Then again, sometimes a batsman needs the bracing reality check that comes with having someone’s lace holes
Continue readingCategory: England
Acquiescence and the art of securing an unremarkable defeat
< 1 minute readEngland scored not-enough-runs and then India made slightly more. England’s wasn’t so much a one-day innings as an impression of a one-day innings; an approximation involving steady accumulation and later acceleration, only without either segment being quite what it should have been. We get the impression that Alastair Cook had
Continue readingEngland seam bowling stock-take
2 minute readThe 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 readingJade Dernbach – where do we all stand on this at the minute?
2 minute readBack 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 readWhen 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 readEngland 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 readBy 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 readEngland 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 readWe’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 readThis 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
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