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Michael Clarke and Ian Bell. Two munchkin-faced, thimble-sized men who’ve made knowledgeable cricket folk go all quivery with their batsmanship. They’re much the same age and apparently both have “natural talent” instead of a skeleton.
However, one’s dithering along the same as he always has done, while the other’s a cussed run machine. No prizes for guessing which one’s which – not because it’s easy, but because we never have prizes.
Michael Clarke’s career can be neatly split in two. His first 22 matches defines a period of Ian Bell ditheration, where he played some blinding innings and got himself out a fair few times. In the next 22 matches, he averages 63.3.
Clarke’s not as much fun to watch any more and he’s turned into a bit of a holier-than-thou puritan, but you’d want him in the side. He’s now hit a hundred in each of his last seven series following the relatively sluggish 138 he made over the weekend.
Michael Clarke’s taken the same approach as Gautam Gambhir. He’s an attacking batsman who doesn’t feel he HAS to attack. Those are always the best batsmen. They’ve got range.
That caption is brilliant, but I never want to think about that ever again. Off to bleach my brain.
Much the same age? As opposed to a little bit the same age?
i prefered him when he had spiky blonde hair.
he was more fun.
maybe bell should shave his head. maybe then he would score more runs.
but it didn’t work for pietersen.
oh. this is a minefield.
yeah…but has he scored anything outside australia? i guess in that respect he is still the same as ian bell.
Lets see how does he fare in hostile conditions away from straya
well he did do well in india
“No prizes for guessing which one’s which – not because it’s easy, but because we never have prizes”
You did have a prize once, didn’t you? Not for guessing whether Clarke was better than Bell, but for something.
That thing that turns apostrophes into accented As and trademarked Euros is really annoying.
Someone knows what it is. It’s not us though.
We gave away some books once and also advertised a cricket bat competition at a lingerie website. Think that’s it though.
Clarke is not fun anymore. AB de Villiers is not fun anymore. Pietersen too, though that last hundred was a bit of a throwback to 05.
I don’t think Bell is especially talented at all. Yes, his shots look very nice on the rare occassions he gets them right, but that’s it.
Can you tell me how the “cricket bat competition at a lingerie website” worked please?
Ed, all I can remember is that Miriam won it. That was a long time ago.
I did indeed win the cricket bat competition at the lingerie website! Said bat is now in my lounge, along with the signed Sachin Tendulkar cricket boot that I got for Christmas.
WHA? how about some pics?
Now there’s an idea for a new KC series – photographs of sad locations for cricketing memorabilia in people’s homes.
And/or short features on same.
I’d gladly submit a couple of pics/features for that.
I love your word “ditheration”. I’m going to use that today.