< 1 minute readFour years after we tipped him for greatness, Shakib Al Hasan hit his first Test hundred. New Zealand were on the receiving end and while they won the match, their bowlers took some stick. After dawdling along on nought for an age, Shakib Al Hasan suddenly engaged the long handle
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And the number one Test side is…
< 1 minute readTwo frigging Tests. Whose bright idea was it to have a two-Test series between India and South Africa? Don’t tell us that originally there were no Tests scheduled. If you fancy a sandwich and there’s no bread in the house, you don’t go out and buy a single slice of
Continue readingHarbhajan Singh defies his series bowling average
< 1 minute readOn the first day of the second Test between India and South Africa, we were being fed series bowling averages. Harbhajan Singh’s was really bad. He was in dire form was the insinuation. To be fair to Harbhajan, South Africa had only had one innings in the series up until
Continue readingMahmudullah – Bangladesh number eight
< 1 minute readNumber eights have played on our mind in recent months. At Cricinfo, we pointed out that there are some serious batsmen at eight these days. At The Wisden Cricketer, we identified Bangladesh as being a prime culprit in this regard. Bangladesh’s number eights have averaged more than the batsmen who’ve
Continue readingSachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag
< 1 minute readComparison’s probably inappropriate, but Virender Sehwag is more eye-catching than Sachin Tendulkar these days and people get infatuated with the way he plays. As we asked this morning: which is more memorable, a Virender Sehwag double hundred or a Virender Sehwag 15? His achievements are high profile. A couple of
Continue readingVirender Sehwag’s batting average
< 1 minute readAfter this latest hundred, Virender Sehwag has a Test batting average of 53.52. That’s very high, but in this day and age, not outlandishly so. You expect Sehwag to average more than that. This is largely because when he’s in form, he’s REALLY in form. He scores twice as quickly
Continue readingGood attendance at Eden Gardens
< 1 minute readIt might not have been the Test with the highest attendance at Eden Gardens (thought to be in excess of 120,000), but the second Test between India and South Africa has seen busier stands than Nagpur where the spectators were generally waiting to bat. There are a few stands down
Continue readingThe South African way of taking wickets in India
< 1 minute readThe South Africans generally get their wickets by having fast bowlers knock the stumps over. This is not the way it’s supposed to work in India. Aside from Dale Steyn’s efforts this week, there was the 2008 match where India were dismissed for 76. On that occasion, Steyn and Ntini
Continue readingEveryone’s favourite type of cricket news: branding news
< 1 minute readWe’ve read enough about the Royals branding thing to know that this is classic marketing news: a lot of column inches are being devoted to nothing of any real consequence. Rajasthan Royals are an IPL team. Some other teams are also going to be known as ‘Royals’. They’re going to
Continue readingBy the gods of Olympus, Dale Steyn can swing a cricket ball
< 1 minute readStumps. Everywhere. Shaun Tait might have notched 160kph this week, but Dale Steyn’s shown that if you add swing to the mix, you’re sorted. In fact, he didn’t even need to resort to scorching pace against India. It’s good to have scorching pace to fall back on when you aren’t
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