< 1 minute readSo Yuvraj Singh finally gets a Test match. It’s a fairly rare occurrence. Ridiculously rare. He arrived at the crease with India 61-4 and proceeded to smear 28 fours and a six, finishing with 169 off 203 balls in a partnership with Sourav Ganguly that was worth 300. It was
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More centurions than the Roman army
< 1 minute readBecause there were only five centurions in the Roman army, weren’t there? There were six in the second Test between India and Pakistan. Younis Khan was the latest. High-scoring draws are what India v Pakistan’s all about. Fear of losing led to some classic exhibitions of stone-walling in series gone
Continue readingWasim Jaffer gets a big hundred
< 1 minute readRahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar were fairly predictable thorns in Sohail Tanvir’s side, but Wasim Jaffer was a thorn the size of a pickaxe handle. Jaffer actually made his Test debut back in 2000, when he was looked on as the latest great batsman from Mumbai, the town that brought
Continue readingSohail Tanvir is Pakistan’s ‘go to’ bowler
< 1 minute readBecause if you go to anyone else, you have to enter an isolation unit and get decontaminated afterwards. We don’t know for definite, but we imagine that Sohail Tanvir’s in a bad mood. Sohail’s one quarter of a four-man attack and one of the other quarters, Shoaib Akhtar, has got
Continue readingSourav Ganguly looking really quite pissed off
< 1 minute readWhile wearing a stupid hat. [This post used to contain a picture of Sourav wearing an East 17 hat while signing autographs at this point. Annoyingly, we can’t find it now.] No joke. We just really like this picture. Don’t make eye contact, Sourav. Write something dismissive as well. That’ll
Continue readingIndia get home
< 1 minute readIt may have got to 93-3 chasing 200, but with Sachin Tendulkar there, it never really felt in doubt. The man’s a pro. Shoaib Akhtar did his best, taking 4-58, but this was the right result. If India’s tailenders had managed to stick around for even a moment in their
Continue readingMisbah-ul-Haq ready and positioned
< 1 minute readWell, here we are again. The first Test between India and Pakistan is still poised, it could still go either way and again so much depends on Misbah-ul-Haq, who’s one of the not out batsmen. Man of the match awards hardly ever take account of context. You’ve got one batsman
Continue readingAnil Kumble leads from the front
< 1 minute readWe have a friend who follows from the front. It’s not very productive when you’re trying to get somewhere and you realise that the person you thought was leading the way is in fact shuffling along with no clue as to where he’s going. India’s new captain, Anil Kumble, took
Continue readingMisbah-ul-Haq run out failing to ground his bat
< 1 minute readOr himself for that matter. If you didn’t see Misbah-ul-Haq getting run out for 82, you’ll get an idea as to what happened from the accompanying picture. Misbah was about to make his ground after a quickish single. The throw came in from Dinesh Karhik at backward point and Misbah
Continue readingMisbah-ul-Haq in Test cricket
2 minute readWe labelled Misbah-ul-Haq a Twenty20 specialist during that format’s World Cup. That was a bit misleading because we don’t particularly believe in being a specialist in one format or another. The best cricketers play the match situation and the best batsmen weigh up what to do to score runs against
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