< 1 minute readVery slowly. He’s not yet at a point where he’ll accept that his final Test was in January last year. Earlier this week, de Villiers made himself unavailable for selection for the upcoming Test series in New Zealand in March. Today he ruled himself out of the Test series against
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Shakib al Hasan’s Test double hundred and its perfect ending
< 1 minute readSometimes we forget that you haven’t all been reading this website since day dot. It’s been over a decade since we tipped Shakib al Hasan for greatness so chances are a great many of you won’t know what a big deal it is that he made a Test double hundred
Continue readingVideo: Mitchell Johnson playing tennis right-handed
< 1 minute readWell, looks like we’ve got to the bottom of that whole ‘bowl to the left, bowl to the right’ thing. Turns out Mitchell Johnson is right-handed. Here’s some expert coaching advice, Mitch: bowl with your other hand. Better late than never with these kinds of tips. You may already have
Continue readingHas Alastair Cook stood down as England captain yet?
< 1 minute readOnly we’ll have to get something up about it pretty darn sharpish if he does. Our readers will doubtless have much to say about such a development. Maybe we could publish some sort of ‘holding post’ instead, floating the possibility that Cook might stand down without actually stating that this
Continue readingWhat does Australia’s Test series win over Pakistan actually mean?
2 minute readDoes it amount to a hill of beans? A fell of discarded iPhone covers? A mountain of offcuts of plasterboard? Just before Christmas, we said that Pakistan are, essentially, a swing bowling side, and therefore pretty much always do terribly Down Under. There has been more to the series than
Continue readingVernon Philander is there if you need some seasoning
2 minute readWe’ve spent much of the morning trying to work out what kind of a vehicle Vernon Philander is. After much thought, we’ve concluded that he’s not a vehicle at all – he’s a pepper grinder. South Africa have a lot of whizzy, fancy kitchen gadgets. Dale Steyn is the luxury
Continue readingR Ashwin: Lord Megachief of Gold 2016
3 minute readOur annual Lord Megachief of Gold award is the highest honour in cricket. The title is recognition of performance over the previous calendar year. Here are all the winners. A nod for Ben Stokes’ relentless Test excellence (904 runs at 45.2 and 33 wickets at 25.81); a second nod for
Continue readingDid Australia win or did Pakistan lose? YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE
< 1 minute readOne of the rules of cricket coverage is that Australia, England and India have results and the other teams are merely inactive participants. In 2016, India beat New Zealand, Australia lost to Sri Lanka, and England drew with Bangladesh. Technically, this also means that New Zealand lost to India, Sri
Continue readingDavid Warner’s “lean” 2016 in Test cricket
< 1 minute readSome of you may have both noticed and cared that David Warner was apparently having a relatively mediocre year before this Test. His 2016 one-day record is exceptional, but his long format returns had been little more than ‘all right’. Against Pakistan Warner edged a load and also became what
Continue readingMop-up of the last couple of days – Angelo Mathews still has work to do
< 1 minute readFor a good long while you could accurately gauge Sri Lanka’s score by whether or not Angelo Mathews was walking out to bat or not. If he was, they were 22-3. If he wasn’t, it was some other score. A couple of recent batting finds had encouraged the notion that
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