2 minute readThe exact location of ‘The Line‘ is extremely easy to identify if you’re an Australian cricketer. Everybody else needs a bit of a steer. Fortunately, we are here to help you out. Welcome to Linewatch. As we all know, the Australian cricket team is responsible for dictating the location of
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When did Keaton Jennings turn into Napoleon Dynamite?
< 1 minute readThis is a rhetorical question, because even without research we know the answer is ‘during lockdown’. Isabelle Westbury reckons Keaton Jennings has gone Gower, but that isn’t quite right, is it? Keaton’s mane is more luxuriant than Gower’s. The truth is that Keaton has thought to himself: ‘Girls only like
Continue readingOur very favourite thing about Netflix’s Cricket Fever: Lasith Malinga lurking in the background of every scene like a highly conspicuous ghost
3 minute readWe’ve finished watching Cricket Fever, Netflix’s documentary series about Mumbai Indians’ 2018 IPL campaign. It’s good, and personal experience revealed that even people who don’t especially like cricket may well enjoy it. It’s not a huge and revelatory experience or anything, but we’d say that people who don’t normally enjoy
Continue readingWhich England all-rounder has the worst record as captain – Botham, Flintoff or Stokes?
6 minute readTony Greig captained England 14 times and managed three wins – all of them in India in a series victory. But we’ve already said too much, because there is only one rule when you talk about England all-rounders, and that is that you must always neglect to mention Tony Greig.
Continue readingWas it tantamount to cheating for Essex to have Alastair Cook in the Bob Willis Trophy final?
2 minute readEssex won the Bob Willis Trophy because they scored more first innings runs than Somerset in the final. Essex made 337-8 and Somerset made 301. Alastair Cook scored 172. Only one other Essex player passed 30. There is something satisfying about this; the idea that the best players are very
Continue readingYou can watch (and rewatch) the whole of the Bob Willis Trophy final for free – including rain delays
2 minute readThe Bob Willis Trophy final between Somerset and Essex is taking place this week. There were only 44 overs yesterday, but that’s okay because it’s a five-day game. The big news is that you can watch it. Sky Sports, the England and Wales Cricket Board and the BBC are all
Continue readingLet’s use Ken Nordine’s word jazz album ‘Colors’ to work out who’s going to win the 2020 IPL
5 minute readIf there’s a simple and obvious way of predicting the 2020 IPL that for some reason hasn’t yet been done, it’s this… We’re going to look at all of the team kits; we’re going to establish the main colour of each one; and then we’re going to listen to what
Continue readingAdil Rashid and the art of lofting the ball over backward point
2 minute readWhen we wrote about how Adil Rashid is almost as good a batsman as Stuart Broad the other day, a number of people saw this as some kind of slur. Maybe they misinterpreted our words because they for some inexplicable reason do not believe that Stuart Broad is a quite
Continue readingAdil Rashid is almost as good a batsman as Stuart Broad
2 minute readStuart Broad is the greatest batsman in the history of cricket. Everybody knows that. What people don’t know is that Adil Rashid is almost as good. One of the great tragedies of England having loads of bowlers who can bat is that fans very rarely get to catch a glimpse
Continue readingThe weight of being Ian Bell finally takes its toll
3 minute readAs Ian Bell retires from first-class cricket, let’s talk about a player whose Test record was plenty good enough but whose technique honestly left us kind of cold. Ian Bell was player of the series in a 3-0 Ashes win. Can we just state that first before we get into
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