2 minute readYes, it’s good. There’s a review for you. Okay, let’s do a little bit more. First of all, the title. If It Was Raining Palaces I’d Get Hit By The Dunny Door is quite transparently a bit of Australian slang. It’s a way of saying you’re unlucky even when it’s
Continue readingCategory: England
Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook keep panic at bay
< 1 minute readIt was far from a classic Test match. It felt like it was mapped out from the start and the players were just doing what they were expected to do. Now we’re no strangers to going through the motions, but we don’t put a professional veneer on like the cricketers
Continue readingDid anything happen today?
< 1 minute readSri Lanka looked set for a large lead yesterday and Mahela Jayawardene had scored a hundred. At the close of play today Sri Lanka had a large lead and Mahela Jayawardene had scored a hundred. Very little else appears to have happened. So what shall we all do? A Test
Continue readingMahela Jayawardene not mad keen on getting out
2 minute readPrior to this match there was a bit of discussion as to whether it was best to bat first or second. It tends to be a brave move to insert the opposition upon winning the toss, but The Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Columbo has something of a reputation for
Continue readingBad decisions don’t decide a Test
2 minute readEngland will be pretty disappointed to have only made 351 and they’ll point to a couple of rough decisions as being one cause, but if they’re a serious Test side, they should forget about them. It’s not like they’re going to get overturned after the match. Don’t dwell on it.
Continue readingSpin bowlers: we even love the ones who are complete bastards
3 minute readAre You A Left-Arm Chinaman? will shortly be celebrating its first birthday. In honour of its bias towards spin and to join in the festivities, we’re contributing this. We thought we’d write about our favourite spinner. So who is that? Well, it’s probably Monty Panesar, but this doesn’t quite sit
Continue readingEngland’s English bowlers
< 1 minute readWe hate it when England field a bowling attack which is heavily reliant on what you’d call the traditional English seam bowler. Hoggard, Sidebottom and Anderson are all great bowlers and if we’re honest, we’d probably have gone with that attack if we’d been in charge, but you always end
Continue readingIan Bell can’t see it out
< 1 minute readBoth Ian Bell and Matt Prior withstood the Sri Lankans for quite some time, but they couldn’t finish the job. Muttiah Muralitharan got both of them – with the new ball, no less. Bell had a good match, but if you’re the batsman in form, you need to influence proceedings.
Continue readingWhy we hate the nightwatchman
< 1 minute readWe hate nightwatchmen because we think it’s just a habit. A thoughtless habit borne of tradition. The idea is that if a wicket falls near the end of the day, you put in a lower-order batsman to protect the proper batsman from the strike and martyr himself if there’s a
Continue readingKumar Sangakkara pushes finely-balanced Test over Sri Lanka-wards
2 minute readThings were so well-poised overnight. Sri Lanka had started their second innings really well, but both openers were out meaning their two best batsmen were at the crease. If England had managed to nick them out, they’d have been odds-on favourites. But being the best batsmen in your team tends
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