< 1 minute readThe cliché is that cricket is a religion in India, which has always seemed to us to greatly overstate the importance of religion in a country where such things are basically ten a paise. Pakistan’s pretty keen on the sport too. It’s good to find things you have in common.
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England go with a bit of right-arm fast-medium
2 minute read‘Will four right-arm fast-medium bowlers be sufficient?’ England apparently asked themselves before the opening match of the ICC Champions Trophy. ‘No, better make it five,” they concluded, for reasons that were clear to no-one. It was very odd. One of the few things we said about England’s likely strategy for
Continue readingEngland need some E45 cream
< 1 minute readAfter snatching the second one-day international, England decided to test the notion that they can now win from any position by giddily launching themselves towards 20-6 in the third. Now 20-6 is definitely a score you can win from, but ideally you’d be fielding when it occurred. South Africa got
Continue readingSo Kumar Sangakkara’s in form then (and not even put off by snapping his bat in half)
< 1 minute readKumar Sangakkara’s last five County Championship innings have been 136, 105, 114, 120 and 200. Today’s double hundred came in a team total of just 369. And he wasn’t even put off by snapping his bat in half. SNAP. Sanga’s bat ends up in two pieces off the bowling of
Continue readingCambridge MCCU v Middlesex CCC – match report
2 minute readEdwardian writes: Cambridge is heaving at the best of times, but taking the quiet back streets from the station to Fenner’s was very pleasant. A few ‘good mornings’ and I was there by 10.30am. I was there to meet my wife’s uncle Spike who said he would do his best
Continue readingSouth Africa have already choked
< 1 minute readWe were quite keen to be first off the mark in using the word “choked” to mean “lost a cricket match” in reference to South Africa this summer. Hopefully we have achieved our aim. When you see the term deployed by others in the weeks to come, be sure to
Continue readingA featherbed of Roses – The County Championship round-up
< 1 minute readThey bothered playing some of the County Championship this week. Need they have? The Roses match After little more than a day, Jimmy Anderson had succumbed to groin knackage, Jack Brooks had made a hundred and this match already seemed like it was no longer a going concern. All that
Continue readingThe pressure builds – a four-Test story of two opposing batsmen
3 minute readOne is English, one is Pakistani. One is young, one is old – or at least he is in cricketing terms. For much of last summer’s Test series between England and Pakistan, Alex Hales and Younus Khan trod a similar path. Come the last Test, their journeys diverged markedly. Hales
Continue readingAn acceptable way to finish a cricket match and an unacceptable way to report on one
2 minute readWe’ve been having some absolutely belting weather for the last week or so in these parts – but only on the sly. The gale force winds that have been partially masking things finally abated today and the lull revealed one of those perfect spring days that make you slightly less
Continue readingEngland’s bowling and some clarification on the current condition of Aleem Dar’s lower face
2 minute readYesterday morning, our cat Monty did a more than passable impersonation of Mark Wood’s backwards press run-up as he exited the house. Despite his unutterably poor track record of predicting cricket matches, we took this as a clear sign that England would beat Ireland. And so it proved. We’ve just
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