< 1 minute readLast year, we were going to watch a cricket match with a friend who hadn’t watched the sport in many years. “I only like it when we bat,” he said. We’re off work today and we’re a bit disappointed that England are batting. We prefer cricket when England are bowling.
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Australia have found the new Warne
< 1 minute readSouth Australia off-spinner, Nathan Lyon, has been called up to the Australia Test squad after just four first-class matches. Can we be the first to brand him ‘the next Shane Warne’? You have to get that in early with your Aussie spinners these days, what with the rapid turnover and
Continue readingEngland beat the eight men of India
< 1 minute readHyperbole, but not entirely unwarranted. Sometimes a pint of dour dissatisfaction and a willingness to take the negatives doesn’t do you any harm. India had the misfortune of having three players handicapped by a perennially twangy hammy, a pock-marked elbow and the wild shits. This wasn’t their fault. They also
Continue readingEngland need to take their chance
< 1 minute readWe well remember the first Test of India’s last tour, which is weird, because we were in Canada for all but the final day. But it’s that final day that’s important here. Nine wickets down, MS Dhoni blocked the shit out of it and for England, that was the difference
Continue readingGet The Wall on the board
< 1 minute readIt’s not the usual way round, but it makes a lot of sense if you follow cricket. Rahul Dravid should be on the Lord’s honours board. And now he is. After Dravid made his hundred, there were a lot of people implying that he has played in the shadow of
Continue readingWas Kevin Pietersen out caught at leg slip for 49?
< 1 minute readIf you answered ‘yes’ to that question, you’re wrong. Kevin Pietersen was not out on 202 when England declared. The consensus seems to be that Pietersen probably should have been given out when he tucked the ball down to Rahul Dravid, but we care more about what happened after that.
Continue readingZaheer Khan Operation Greggs latest
< 1 minute readBert has just left a comment drawing attention to Zaheer Khan’s performance this morning, pondering whether Operation Greggs has been put into practice. Operation Greggs involves plying Zaheer with meat and tatty pies until he’s bowling at Praveen Kumar pace. Bert is right to raise this possibility, but it is
Continue readingTendulkar has been better than Bradman
2 minute readOver at The Cricketer, John Emburey has made the point that Sachin Tendulkar has been tested in ways that Bradman wasn’t. It’s a fair point. Different eras In Ed Smith’s damn fine book, What Sport Tells Us About Life, there’s a whole chapter dedicated to Bradman’s average. Someone somewhere did
Continue readingFeeble headline of the week
< 1 minute read‘Sachin Tendulkar is arguably the best batsman of my generation’ The Guardian have set the bar low. Can anyone stoop lower?
Continue readingDoes the England cricket team need a cartoon baker?
< 1 minute readYou need opening batsmen, you need a wicketkeeper, you need a spinner. You don’t always need a guy who looks like a cartoon baker. That’s not to say that such a person isn’t of value though. Sometimes the captain will look round the field and think to himself: ‘Oh for
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