1 minute readIndia couldn’t have won the first Test without Sachin Tendulkar’s contribution, but we’re a great believer in sportsfolk affecting the opposition and influencing matches that way. We wrote about how Virender Sehwag’s approach to batting turns bowlers into smeared-panted long-hop machines, but we reckon he transformed the whole England side
Continue readingCategory: England
Sachin Tendulkar wins the Test match
< 1 minute readWatching Sachin Tendulkar bat is always a disappointment for us. It’s not his fault. He’s had the decency to be a batting genius and we can’t really ask much more of the man. The fault lies with our own expectations. When you watch Sachin Tendulkar at work, you expect to
Continue readingA fun cricket game
< 1 minute readWhat a match. A victory for cricket being about hitting a ball with a bat as well, not it being about some middle-aged men in suits planning what car to buy next – which is what the game can often feel like these days. Nobody cares about your status symbols,
Continue readingVirender Sehwag’s batting approach
2 minute readWhen Virender Sehwag bats, bowlers go to pieces. It’s a good approach. Viv Richards used to do something similar. He’d blaze away when he first came in and then when the field went back, he’d change his approach. The fielding side were on the back foot, he’d got his eye
Continue readingAndrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood in partnership
< 1 minute readIt doesn’t make the heart race, but it is brilliant. Andrew Strauss now averages 61.85 in Tests in India. Paul Collingwood averages 68.20. Kevin Pietersen averages 27.62. Sometimes you need to clog your way to success and Strauss and Collingwood can bunt singles with the best of them. Strauss has
Continue readingZaheer Khan – average record belies his class
< 1 minute readZaheer Khan deserves better than 2-36 and we won’t begrudge him if he gets more wickets. There are talented bowlers out there who have unflattering career records and Zaheer’s one of them. It seems wrong to watch a bowler unveil such a range of skills and then see that he’s
Continue readingGraham or Graeme Swann?
< 1 minute readGraeme Swann’s selection for England has opened up an old, rancid can of worms. Worms of spelling. Spelling worms. To rid the world of these vile spelling worms once and for all, Graeme Swann is a Graeme, not a Graham. Here are some more famous cricketing Grahams/Graemes: Graham Gooch Graeme
Continue readingAmjad Khan of Kent, Denmark and now England
< 1 minute readThere haven’t been a great many Danish cricketers. We’re not sure Amjad Khan’s exactly a great – but by Danish standards he can’t be far off. Amjad Khan’s what we’d deem a solid practitioner, which smacks of faint praise, but isn’t meant to. It’s actually more an acknowledgement that England
Continue readingSafety concerns when touring India or Pakistan
2 minute readWe didn’t want to say anything on this subject, because we feel fairly certain it will show up our ignorance and that’s something we can comfortably highlight without remotely stretching ourself. This issue is monopolising the cricket news though, so it deserves comment. Feel free to put us straight on
Continue readingWest Indies fill the gap
< 1 minute readThe West Indies will tour England next year, kindly helping the latter fulfill their Sky television obligations. A spokesperson for the West Indies Cricket Board may or may not have said: “We’re honoured to be the ECB’s third choice after Zimbabwe and then Sri Lanka. Since winning the Stanford Twenty20
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