< 1 minute readBrendon McCullum is a positive person; the kind of irritating, upbeat character who can’t understand everyone else’s entirely logical can’t-do attitude to things. When he was joined at the crease by BJ Watling in the second Test against India on day three, he’ll have thought: ‘Okay, if we can just
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MS Dhoni to be investigated for toss fixing
< 1 minute readThat’s a reference to his name cropping up in talk of IPL match fixing and the fact that he’s won 12 international tosses in a row, including all of them on this tour of New Zealand (without yet winning a match). Top tossing, Mahendra. Top tossing. Even if the perfect
Continue readingNew Zealand surrender almost all of their advantage
< 1 minute readLeading India by 301 runs after the first innings, New Zealand frittered away all but 40 of them in the second innings to ensure an unexpectedly exciting finish to the first Test. If you’re in an almost unassailable position and want to make things interesting for yourself, get bowled out
Continue readingMeanwhile in cricket…
< 1 minute readIt’s a week in which teams have been relying on their big name, 30-something batsmen. This isn’t a coincidence. That’s just the way Test cricket works. Kumar Sangakkara has indulged in some average bolsteration by hitting 424 runs in the second Test against Bangladesh. For their part, Bangladesh managed two
Continue readingWhere are we up to with ‘the draft proposal’?
< 1 minute readWe ask that not even knowing whether it’s still a draft or not? When does a draft proposal become an official proposal? When they actually come to vote on it? Presumably that’ll only happen once everything’s been thrashed out, in which case official proposal status will be a transient and
Continue readingReturn of the bits and pieces cricketer
< 1 minute readIndia picked Ronnie Irani. Hurray! The Ronnie Irani in question is Stuart Binny. Speaking at the toss, MS Dhoni said that he would give India a lower order batsman and an additional bowling option. Needless to say, Binny bowls a bit of medium-pace. How appropriate that he should make his
Continue readingWhy relegation for India would be a good thing
2 minute readA draft proposal regarding the structure of international cricket will be presented to the ICC Executive Board during its quarterly meeting in Dubai on January 28 and 29. One of the elements is a two-tier Test system in which India, England and Australia would be protected from relegation. (So a
Continue readingSouth Africa are bloody annoying to play against
2 minute readWe’re a day late with this and have little to add, but since when has turning up late and contributing little stopped us? Just over a year ago, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers combined to play out an unlikely draw against Australia. Du Plessis made 110 not out
Continue readingIshant Sharma is the mole in the living room
< 1 minute readSometimes we really feel for Ishant Sharma. Whenever we see him, he appears to be bowling on a flat pitch in a one-day international with the batsmen going hell-for-leather and fielding restricitions in place. In reality, that isn’t the only time we see him bowl. It just feels like it
Continue readingVirat Kohli is officially up and running
< 1 minute readNot sure what organisation or body deems a player to be ‘up and running’. We’re going to try and decree it ourself and hope that it sticks. But what do we mean by ‘up and running’? Virat Kohli’s just about the best one-day batsman in the world and he’s been
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