< 1 minute readThanks to Sir Allen Stanford, England will play a West Indies XI for a £10 million prize every year for the next five years. Each player on the winning team will get £500,000. Wish we had the job of picking the England side. “You’ll get half a million quid. You’ll
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Young India thrash Pakistan
< 1 minute readTwo things struck us about India’s defeat of Pakistan today. Actually, no things struck us. Two things gently bobbed towards us after we’d stared at the scorecard blankly for what seemed like forever. Firstly, India fielded quite a lot of youngsters. Yusuf Pathan’s 25 and most of his team mates
Continue readingNew Zealand’s Test team
2 minute readWe’d be very irritated if we were a New Zealand cricket supporter. We’re very irritated anyway. Admittedly, we get irritated by all of humanity on an hourly basis, but this is different. This is with reason. Bowling Shane Bond would add fire to any attack and the sooner this ICL
Continue readingThe state of England’s bowling
2 minute readOn the face of it England’s bowling’s strong, but New Zealand’s batting’s been occasionally dire and the last six Test matches have been in home conditions or in New Zealand – which is hardly the land of dust bowls or steepling bounce. It’s increasingly evident that England can rely on
Continue readingThe state of England’s batting
< 1 minute readWinning a Test by an innings is not to be sniffed at. What exactly would you expect to smell? England didn’t exactly dominate the series like they dominated this last match though. Overall, the team looks okay, but there are quite a few flaws, the most glaring of which is
Continue readingJimmy Anderson: swing bowler
2 minute readAnd batsman. Who knew? Well, we all knew about the swing bowling. Trent Bridge might be the home ground of Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad, but Jimmy Anderson’s the best swing bowler in this England side and he duly played a blinder, taking all six of the New Zealand wickets
Continue readingHopefully it’s just a series of flukes
< 1 minute readWe said that due to the swing-friendly conditions Kevin Pietersen’s hundred might prove handy. For similar reasons we picked James Anderson as England’s top wicket-taker and Kyle Mills to bowl most overs in this match. In the last Test, we picked Daniel Vettori and Monty Panesar to be the top
Continue readingIs James Anderson a nightwatchman?
< 1 minute readAre we right in thinking that James Anderson came in as a nightwatchman in order to protect Ryan Sidebottom? This is beyond reason. Our feelings about nightwatchmen are perfectly clear, but this warrants further comment. If James Anderson is functioning as the nightwatchman, it’s been his job to protect Ryan
Continue readingKevin Pietersen out waving slightly fatiguely
< 1 minute readThat’s what Simon Hughes said on Channel 5’s highlights programme, so that’s what happened. It’s probably wrong to mock commentators’ slips of the tongue when you yourself forget 98 percent of your vocabulary whenever you have to talk in front of more than one person, or to a stranger, or
Continue readingEngland’s middle order shows signs of improvement
< 1 minute readWe all know how important it is to look to the positives. England’s players and coaches have taught us this for years now. Ian Bell batted at five and made a three-ball duck. Paul Collingwood batted at six and made a four-ball duck. England’s middle order batsmen are making tangible
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