3 minute readOur friend who was once known as Uncle Jrod has written a piece for Cricinfo about the impact of the IPL on India’s Test performances. We can’t work out whether he’s been done up by the site’s subeditors or whether the headline and teaser are part of the general mischievousness
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MS Dhoni and the will to be in India’s best eleven
2 minute readThe normal reaction when one of cricket’s biggest stars retires from Tests is a kind of pained collective whine, mourning their departure. Never again will we get to see them do all those things that we’ve only just realised we took for granted. But MS Dhoni is different. Everyone –
Continue readingAustralia protect some bowlers so that some different ones can get injured
< 1 minute readIf the Gabbattoir is seeing anyone slaughtered, it’s not the Indians but the home team’s bowlers. Ryan Harris was rested because he’s slightly injured and while Peter Siddle was flat-out dropped, he might be back for the next Test because the Aussie bowlers who actually are playing have been attempting
Continue readingVirat Kohli applies the icing – but the cake’s a piece of crap and soon collapses
< 1 minute readLet’s leave Alastair Cook until tomorrow and instead take a quick look at how India’s run-chase went in the first Test. The tourists lost and Nathan Lyon alone took as many wickets as they did, but somehow it doesn’t feel like it was that bad a performance. India somehow managed
Continue readingIs MS Dhoni the problem? A fourth innings hypothesis test
2 minute readIf you get the daily email from this site, you’ll already know whether India have made a decent fist of day five of the first Test against Australia. We’re writing this at the end of day four and have conflicting feelings about how things might pan out. On the one
Continue readingThey call Rohit Sharma ‘Nohit’ – the meaning of big numbers
2 minute readThat nickname seems a tad unfair, no? The guy’s just made his second one-day international double hundred. In 50 overs, that demands a phenomenal scoring rate, but it’s interesting to note that Rohit Sharma played himself in. Here’s the breakdown of his innings: 50 off 72 balls 100 off 100
Continue readingMop-up of the day – bones, Bangladesh batsmen and battery
< 1 minute readIs MS Dhoni’s arm made out of just one super fast-growing bone? We’re imagining an ever-extending protuberance that requires regular pruning based on the following from Cricinfo: “On the eve of the meeting, a BCCI insider revealed that Dhoni was recovering from a “right forearm” injury. By the time the
Continue readingAbandoned West Indies tour is not in the spirit of cricket
2 minute readWe consider the Spirit of Cricket – the branded, upper-case initial letter creation of the MCC – to be a nebulous pile of bollocks. You can quote us on that. However, that isn’t to say that there is no such thing as the spirit of cricket. The Spirit of Cricket
Continue readingName England’s first choice one-day bowling attack
< 1 minute readMoeen Ali made 44, 10 and 55 in his first three one-day internationals (ODIs). He was opening the batting. Then they dropped him. Today he made 67 batting at seven. Chris Woakes opened the bowling at Cardiff and took 4-52. He also opened the bowling in Nottingham. Today he was
Continue readingSuresh Raina v England – what this means for the World Cup
2 minute readBefore today, Suresh Raina had made three ODI hundreds in 193 matches. He made them against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong. But Raina bats in the middle order, so that doesn’t tell us a lot. Let’s look at fifties instead. Against New Zealand, he has one in 11 innings;
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