2 minute read We’re approaching the fifth anniversary of The Day. It’s just a little reminder that life’s really all about the little things – little Australian innings that don’t last very long, specifically. That seems unlikely this year, what with them being up against Jason Holder and whatever the poor lad can
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James Anderson’s calf
< 1 minute read James Anderson has been for scans and has been found to be carrying a calf. He may therefore miss the Boxing Day Test unless it is born prematurely. Either that or he’s slightly injured in the leg. This is weird and frightening because as a general rule James Anderson doesn’t
Continue readingMore rehearsals before England face South Africa
2 minute read A friend of ours once played the finest bum note we’ve ever heard while performing Eric Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight at a wedding. It was the very last note and it only sounded so marvellously hideous because he’d played everything flawlessly up until that point. That’s how to get something wrong.
Continue readingAlex Hales isn’t very warm
2 minute read By all accounts, the door to Test selection has now been opened by Alex Hales. Barring injury he will take his place in the England side that will face South Africa on Boxing Day. He could do with warming up a bit though. England’s first warm-up match, against a South
Continue readingThe names and numbers of a modern cricket tour match
< 1 minute read Back in the day, amateurs were given full initials, professionals surname only. Either would be preferable to what we get nowadays: .@thecompdog has an excellent 50 from 107 balls on his return and England have cruised past 100. 128-3 #SAvENG pic.twitter.com/uOQj00385T — England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 15, 2015 Most Twitter
Continue readingT20s, ODIs and Tests – it’s all cricket, so why not treat them as one?
< 1 minute read In an interview with George Dobell for Cricinfo, the outgoing chief executive of the Professional Cricketers’ Association, Angus Porter, suggests that men’s cricket could adopt the points method used in women’s cricket where success in T20Is, ODIs and Tests is combined to decide the best side. Not the worst idea
Continue readingWhen is an omission a rotation and when is it a good old-fashioned drop?
2 minute read There’s a subtlety to England’s current approach to one-day cricket which may have passed some by. It’s not about ball-wallopery or -whangery, it’s to do with that other key aspect of international cricket – man management. Everyone’s agreed that one of the keys to one-day success is a no-blame culture
Continue readingWhen did Eoin Morgan become England’s short format ‘anchor’?
2 minute read Remember when Eoin Morgan was the exciting one. Remember how you used to shout “Morgan’s in!” when he came to the crease and how the person you were shouting to used to respond: “I don’t care. I don’t like cricket.” Remember how you used to flaunt your knowledge by telling
Continue readingLiam Plunkett gets a fractionally undercooked deal
2 minute read Not a raw deal, like Chris Read got, but pretty rare – bloodier than he asked for in the middle. Plunkett was picked to go on the tour to the UAE and then somehow found himself three places down the pecking order for the South Africa tour despite not having
Continue readingJos Buttler and the myth of a batsman’s ‘natural game’
3 minute read After watching Jos Buttler hit over a third of the deliveries he faced for boundaries against Pakistan, it’s tempting to wonder whether maybe, just maybe, he might do well to shelve his watchful, deliberate approach to Test batting. It seems to us that he’s much, much safer at the crease,
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