2 minute readWell that was bad, wasn’t it? Unless you’re Australian, in which case that was great, wasn’t it? For a bit. And then maybe not so much. Maybe just a bit hollow by the end. But still slightly great because, you know, residual sense of the Ashes’ importance still. Just about.
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Chris Woakes with the old ball, Mark Wood for his third Test in three weeks – dissecting England’s latest omission of a spinner for a day/night Test match
3 minute readThere is no right answer when it comes to England’s Test team selection right now. But there are different types of odd decision. The omission of a spinner for a day/night Test is the most predictable one. England picked five right-arm fast-medium bowlers and no spinner for the day/night Test
Continue readingFast bowling: County cricket’s diesels and the unprepared Test batters they create
3 minute readIn the wake of England’s Ashes failings, there’s been a lot of talk about how the County Championship is played on pitches that encourage medium-pacers. Pitches are not the big problem. There was a good recent piece about county pitches by CricBuzz’s Rob Johnston. The overly-reduced version of that article
Continue readingIn praise of the tense final hour of a drawn Test match
2 minute readWe’ve said it many times before. Test cricket can offer something that no other sport can. You can’t have a tense hour in a football match because it’s two thirds of the game. In a Test match, 60 minutes can be a tight finish. In a five-day match, everyone’s got
Continue readingIt’s been so long since Jonny Bairstow made a Test hundred he almost forgot to roar
2 minute readOne of our favourite things about Jonny Bairstow Test hundreds – second only to their existence really – is how he celebrates them. Jonny Bairstow is a pretty fiery hundred-celebrator. Before today, the last time Bairstow made a Test ton was in November 2018 in Sri Lanka. On that occasion
Continue reading17 of the best, worst and weirdest cricket moments of 2021
7 minute readHere is a bunch of stuff that happened in 2021. It is not an exhaustive list, because an exhaustive list chronicling the activities of multiple people across an entire year would take far longer than a year to read. It is just a selection of striking cricket moments from the
Continue readingMore cricket: A story of mediocre batters pushed too hard and the collective burnout of a not-great England side
5 minute readIf you’re really going to turn the heat up and cook a sauce for quite some time, you need plenty of good stuff in the pan to begin with. If you haven’t, you’ll end up with a bitter-tasting charred sticky goo that’s no good to anyone. England are different gravy.
Continue readingThe 2021 Festivus holding page: The Boxing Day Tests and ancient Ashes
< 1 minute readA few years ago we hit on a suitably half-arsed approach to covering the Boxing Day Tests. We flag what matches are taking place in advance, wish everyone a happy Festivus and then leave you all to cobble together a kind of fragmentary, disjointed log of any major developments in
Continue readingShould England have rocked up without a plan? Were they mentally exhausted before they even began?
3 minute readWe’re not lodging this as an official criticism. More just raising it as something to think about. How much does England’s insane obsession with tours Down Under drain the players before they’ve even arrived? It was Jos Buttler’s first innings dismissal in Adelaide that made us think of this (and
Continue readingJos Buttler took some fine catches and made a double ball hundred but all we’ll remember is the terrible drop and when he trod on his stumps
2 minute readHistory is not just written by the victors. When it’s a particularly bad defeat, the losers make doubly certain to note down all the really awful moments too. Jos Buttler made a fourth innings double ball hundred in Adelaide. In a series where England have so far displayed almost zero
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