< 1 minute readWe might have made our point in the title. The first match of a seven-match one-day series nobody cares about. There are plenty of matches in which to recover, even if your team loses. The second match of a seven-match one-day series nobody cares about. There’s still plenty of time
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India v Pakistan in Mohali, Wednesday March 30th
< 1 minute readMake a note. This could barely be a bigger deal even if it had a tumour in its pituitary gland. It’s India v Pakistan. It’s Shahid Afridi v MS Dhoni. It’s Pakistan’s lethal bowling attack against India’s jaw-dropping batting line-up. It’s India’s two-and-a-half frontline bowlers against Pakistan’s two-and-a-half competent batsmen.
Continue readingCricket World Cup storylines
< 1 minute readThe great thing about actual, proper tournaments is the way that narratives develop. Every remaining team already has a good story in place if they eventually go on to become World Champions. Pakistan – Would defy what was a catastrophic build-up to the tournament even by their standards. Being as
Continue readingPakistan v West Indies at Mirpur | World Cup quarter final
< 1 minute readAustralia coach, Tim Nielsen, has described Australia’s match against India as being a “mini-grand final”. We prefer the more traditional term ‘quarter final’ ourself. But that match is on Thursday. Pakistan v West Indies is the first of seven one-day internationals that are actually worth watching. It’s the World Cup,
Continue readingAustralia’s World Cup winning streak bookended by losses to Pakistan
< 1 minute readAustralia lost in the World Cup yesterday. Turns out we were there last time that happened, at Headingley in 1999. That match featured one of the all-time great run-outs with Inzy taking a quick single in the time it took Moin Khan to run two. Nothing unusual in that, but
Continue readingAshes 2011 by Gideon Haigh | book review
2 minute readIf you spend much time reading about cricket, you will know Gideon Haigh. He is the cricket writer whose arse is most frequently kissed by other cricket writers. But why is this? Why is Gideon Haigh so highly regarded? Having just read Ashes 2011, the answer is fairly clear. He
Continue readingKamran Akmal helps Ross Taylor to a hundred
< 1 minute readPakistan’s last five overs went for 100, largely thanks to Ross Taylor. Earlier in his innings, Taylor had been given a couple of lives by – who else – Kamran Akmal. Kamran Akmal amazes us. We hope he never goes away. You’d think the ability to catch might be an
Continue readingSpot fixing bans and second chances for Amir, Asif and Butt
2 minute readPeople are idiots. That’s a rule that pretty much always stands up to scrutiny. Put people in a position where there’s a choice to make and they will naturally veer towards the stupid option by default. Even so, some options are sufficiently stupid that most of us don’t take them.
Continue readingEngland v Pakistan at the Rose Bowl – match report
2 minute readWe told Sam that we would ‘get this one up before the Ashes at the very latest’. Sam writes: I finish work early on Wednesdays, so I dashed home in order to catch the remainder of the final one-day international between England and Pakistan. Being far too brassic to afford
Continue readingKing Cricket’s favourite cricketer
< 1 minute readWe contributed to The Wisden Cricketer’s ‘My Favourite Cricketer’ section earlier in the year (think it appeared in the July issue). Did we ever point you towards it? We don’t think we did. Our favourite cricketer is not who you think it is. It’s actually Waqar Younis. We’re quite proud
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