Posted by First up, Pakistan v Australia where the ‘home’ side appear to be doing a reasonable job of putting a score on the board. It’s always hard to tell what’s a decent first innings total, but with Pakistan’s flaky batting, you reckon they’d be pretty happy already.
Stealth
The major contributor has been Younus Khan. It always strikes us that Younus and his former team-mate, Mohammad Yousuf, don’t get the credit they deserve. Both average over 50 with Younus now one ton ahead with 25.
One argument is that they’ve played a lot of cricket on flat Pakistan decks, but Younus, for one, has played only 19 truly home Test matches – surely that should add to his reputation? On top of this, contrast his scores with those of his team-mates in recent times and you can see that he also has to carry some extra weight.
This hundred against Australia completes the set. He’s reached three figures against everyone now.
Siddle
Also of note is the return of Peter Siddle. Having written about overtraining earlier in the year, we were interested to see how he’d go. He’d complained of fatigue and claimed he could recover his pace given a rest and a chance to train properly. Now he’s had that and sure enough he’s back on track.
Fast bowlers in particular need an off season. Just a reminder that England are playing a match in every calendar month from November until September 2017. Hopefully that much-needed downtime won’t be delivered when they’re scheduled to play the Windies.
Celebrations
On a lighter note, we wrote a piece for last month’s All Out Cricket about the lost art of understated celebration. It’s not just handshakes we miss, it’s also quietly retrieving your cap from the umpire as well as ambling about looking at the floor. Folding your arms is another we’d like to see brought back. Beats all that shrieking and fist-pumping hands down.
The article’s now online, but please do buy the mag whenever you get chance. It’s decent.
Social media
And finally, Twitter. Our latest round-up’s just gone up at Cricinfo. We’ve tried to cover the Windies thing. Not easy when you’re relying on the words of others.
I think I have a photo to illustrate the kind of arm folding you’d like to see more of. Here’s me with some old school pals in a charity match waiting for the next batsman to come in: https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/969629_10151402208091472_1453972851_n.jpg?oh=d29941a9b329819017f2771a338a9476&oe=54F1C83B&__gda__=1421363168_6e0288b6229ca8b27bad4b5f757f93a0
Good technique all round there.
There’s four chaps with their arms folded in your photo, and while the arm folding is indeed textbook, the photo illustrates well the importance of leg positioning in establishing the right image. There’s groin-thrusting confidence, hiding but casual, side-knee jauntiness (somewhat reminiscent of Arthur Askey), and then there’s, er, there’s… how to say… er…
Which one is you, by the way?
Perhaps it’s best that I don’t say; I wouldn’t want to influence the critics in any way.
I think what I like most about this photo is that the poses are as much of a give-away of who hasn’t played much cricket as the attire.
I’m not at all sure about the teapot posture from two of your fellows. Frankly I’m astonished that you allowed them to remain on the field of play if that is their attitude.
From the right sort of families, those chaps? Thought not.
Also, that is Peter Siddle, isn’t it?
I smell a high-scoring draw. It smells like stale bread, slightly scorched in the Dubai sun.
Loved the AOC piece. But I was left thinking how wonderful it’d have been had Panesar been in that Laker team.
Extra ‘it’ and missing ‘a’ ? Usually there’s only one typo per post..
Found the ‘it’ but can’t see where to insert an ‘a’.
We did however also find an extra ‘he’.
“whenever you get chance”
I missed the “he” – will try harder next time. Maybe.
No, we meant that one. Maybe it’s dialect. It’s meant to indicate multiple occasions as opposed to just this one particular issue.