2 minute read Late in the morning session of day two of the second Test between England and the West Indies, Dom Sibley once again awoke from his fitful batting slumbers and actually hit the ball. This particular diversion from his default approach of not hitting the ball took him to a 312-ball
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Looking back on the rarely-that-highs and not-especially-lows of Joe Denly’s Test career
4 minute read Joe Denly is an unbelievable Test cricketer. You’ll note that we’re saying ‘is’ and not ‘was’ there. That’s because of the specific way in which Joe Denly is/was unbelievable. Sometimes you only need to do so much to get the gig. And sometimes you only need to do so much
Continue readingChoose Your Weapons with Ben Stokes and Jason Holder
4 minute read Let’s talk about picking bowling attacks. Let’s use the first Test between England and the West Indies as a case study and, for an extra frisson of excitement, let’s do this halfway through the game – that way any specifics we use can turn out to be very wrong. Because
Continue readingHow much more responsibility could Jason Holder possibly take on?
< 1 minute read The answer is ‘none’. None more responsibility. Jason Holder is a parsimonious line bowler of immaculate line and length. He is also a two-metre strike bowler, who seams the ball plenty. He’s a decent bat too, not to mention an absolutely peerless anti-Lumbergh of a captain. Now it turns out
Continue readingBBC2 Test highlights: First impressions
2 minute read Tonight was the first episode of the BBC’s new Test highlights show. It’s called Today at the Test, which is a great name (although given today’s rain and its 45-minute running time, this first one should probably have been called Today at the Test Plus Quite a Bit of Other
Continue readingThe cult of digging in: The almost impossible psychological trick the batsman must pull off when you want him to play a rearguard
4 minute read Do you know the only way you can successfully ‘dig in’ as a batsman? Completely and utterly mindlessly. Any other approach is far too much mental hard work and means you’ll make a bad decision sooner rather than later. We wrote a long thing for the Nightwatchman, Wisden’s quarterly publication,
Continue readingThree things to watch out for when England play the West Indies this week
2 minute read Cricket’s back. As in ‘returned’. It hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. England play the West Indies at the Rose Bowl, starting tomorrow (Wednesday). It’s on Sky Sports (which you can get one month at a time via Now TV) with highlights on BBC2 at 7pm. Here are three things
Continue readingEvil v Good, day 4: Match skitters to a conclusion
3 minute read We’re pitting an England XI comprising the players we invested in the most against an Antagonists XI using International Cricket Captain’s ‘All Time Greats’ mode. England made 202 runs and lost four wickets on day three. It was very boring and far and away their most successful day. Australia still
Continue readingEvil v Good, day 3: England’s best day so far
3 minute read We’re pitting an England XI comprising the players we invested in the most against an Antagonists XI using International Cricket Captain’s ‘All Time Greats’ mode. Taken in isolation, day two was less rubbish than day one. However, the nature of Test cricket is that it cannot be taken in isolation,
Continue readingEvil v Good, day 2: Australia capitalise
3 minute read We’re pitting an England XI comprising the players we invested in the most against an Antagonists XI using International Cricket Captain’s ‘All Time Greats’ mode. Day one was a colossal and predictable catastrophe for England. Australia resume on 50-1. Morning session Jimmy Anderson opens the bowling and Matthew Hayden hits
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