< 1 minute readEvery batsman suffers the ebb and flow of form. Most will alter their approach when out of form, taking fewer risks in the knowledge that they aren’t middling it. Shahid Afridi never alters his approach and being as his approach amounts to little more than essaying wild, body-convulsing heaves at
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Rolling the Shahid Afridi dice
< 1 minute readIf there is a point to Shahid Afridi – and really, his genius is all about absolute commitment to joyous, unfocused, futile pointlessness – then it is that he should mishit sixes to win matches. That is what happened today. India and Pakistan have much in common, but they also
Continue readingSo, that Pakistan win, eh?
< 1 minute readOkay, let’s do this. Let’s write a 200-word article in which we somehow find a new way of emphasising how wonderful the third Test match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka was for readers who already know precisely how wonderful it was and who probably followed the match much more closely
Continue readingOrchestration and delusion
< 1 minute readAfter losing the first Test to Pakistan, South Africa captain Graeme Smith said: “It should hurt. But this team has too much ability to make this a habit.” We immediately thought about the distinction between confidence and delusion and how the only real difference is what happens afterwards. These seemed
Continue readingThat Pakistan win over South Africa
< 1 minute readNo-one comes here for the clever headlines, right? As most of you know, Pakistan did indeed win the first Test against South Africa, doing so in typically Pakistani style. Chasing 40 to win, they fell to 7-3. At this point, Misbah-ul-Haq, who continually strives to be the most dour batsmen
Continue readingPakistan cricket likes to stay in balance
< 1 minute readThis is the conclusion we’ve reached. Far from being a see-saw on a roundabout in an earthquake, Pakistan cricket is actually very stable. It’s just that different branches of it have to compensate when there’s upheaval elsewhere so that the whole remains perfectly balanced. Last month, Pakistan lost a Test
Continue readingPakistan Test preparations as smooth as Stickle Bricks
< 1 minute readNext Monday sees a proper Test series – Pakistan v South Africa. Well, we say ‘proper Test series’ but it’s actually just two Tests, so not a proper Test series at all really. The background Pakistan recently managed to lose a Test against Zimbabwe. For any other nation, this would
Continue readingCricinfo scorecard news
< 1 minute readIn the spirit of being a half-arsed website with no clear direction, we thought we’d bring you the news as gathered by looking at a couple of scorecards on Cricinfo. First of all, if you haven’t seen it before, we can confirm how the internet’s foremost cricket website (Cricinfo, not
Continue readingGeneric ‘someone is better than someone else’ post
< 1 minute readSouth Africa are supposed to be playing the Windies today, then India play Pakistan before England play New Zealand. However, we’re away for the weekend with no plans to use the internet, so you’re going to have to fill in the gaps yourselves in the comments section. We’re not really
Continue readingSouth Africa are better than Pakistan
< 1 minute readLargely because Pakistan never actually got round to chasing the target. Instead, the batsmen just sort of stood there and hoped that it would go away on its own. It didn’t.
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