< 1 minute read We’ve always asked that England become more ruthless. Now it seems to be happening and by the jackal head of Anubis it’s a good feeling. England have been good before, but in continually passing 500 and repeatedly recording innings victories over the course of the 2010-11 Ashes, they’ve added something
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You’ll miss Paul Collingwood more than you think
< 1 minute read We’ll do a proper Paul Collingwood retirement post in a few days. For now, the cricket comes first. Which is as it should be. Anyone feeling sad that he’s fallen into retirement after diminishing returns with the bat would do well to remember the kind of man he is. He
Continue readingIan Bell, James Anderson and doing a bit better when things aren’t in your favour
2 minute read It’s always tempting to judge players on their best days, but with anything long-term – a cricket career, a relationship, an overnight stint watching the Ashes on TV – a better form of evaluation is to look at what happens when things aren’t in your favour. You learn a lot
Continue readingCake having and eating
< 1 minute read Most of us find that part of the joy of cricket is that there’s always something to talk about. When a match is in the balance, you can pick it apart for hours trying to work out which team’s more likely to win. In the past, we’ve also found it
Continue readingEngland cricketers’ Ashes sprinkler celebration
< 1 minute read This is another good way of celebrating the retention of the Ashes. If you don’t know about ‘the sprinkler’, it’s become the England cricketers’ official dance of the tour. It’s a stupid dance and they’re all awful at it, but you can’t help but warm to them even more when
Continue readingTim Bresnan is two players in one
< 1 minute read More specifically, Tim Bresnan, England’s fifth-choice seamer, is Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle rolled into one. Bresnan has the fitness, pace and accuracy of Siddle. He also bowls away swing with the new ball and reverse swing later on like Ben Hilfenhaus. Oh, and he can bat. Bresnan’s reputation as
Continue readingJonathan Trott – unarsed England number three
< 1 minute read Generally being unarsed about stuff is a fantastic quality for a Test batsman to have. Jonathan Trott’s got it in spades. You can have all the shots and the best hand-eye co-ordination, but if you wobble when things don’t go perfectly, you’ll never make it as a Test batsman, because
Continue readingDo the English not enjoy winning?
< 1 minute read Sometimes we feel utterly disconnected from this great nation. The attitude towards beating Australia at cricket being a case in point. A week or so ago, it seemed like a number of England fans were feeling sorry for Australia. This is mental. Never feel sorry for Australia. Now there are
Continue readingDifferent ways to lose a Test match
< 1 minute read Never write off the Aussies. They’re never down for long. When England lose this Test match, the score will be 1-1, but you can lose a match in different ways. You can affect opposition players to the extent that they’ll have a different outlook in the next Test and a
Continue readingEngland’s innings victories in Australia
< 1 minute read There will be younger England fans who have seen their team win two of the last three Ashes series who really won’t get the significance of a win like this. For England, Ashes series down under aren’t ordinarily cricket. They’re more like visits to a lab where they can carry
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