2 minute readBen Stokes makes things happen. Against South Africa in Cape Town on the second day, he made time distort such that England appeared to make 312 runs in just 38.5 overs. At one point the TV commentators were reduced to debating whether the ball had landed on the railway line
Continue reading< 1 minute readBen Stokes greeted the second new ball as if it were a rampaging arcade machine and he were Kung Fury. After five balls with it, he was 16 runs better off. As ever, he had hit the ball hard. The ball knows when it’s been hit by Stokes. It will
Continue reading2 minute readOne of the worst things about Twenty20 cricket is that it’s provided a label for one particular shade of grey. We don’t know which one. Battleship grey maybe. Or gunmetal. It doesn’t matter. The point is, you label something and it becomes a ‘thing’ – something distinct, something fixed. Alex
Continue reading2 minute readOur annual Lord Megachief of Gold award is the highest honour in cricket. The title is recognition of performance over the previous calendar year. Here are all the previous winners. Last year, the Lord Megachief of Gold award was split with both Brendon McCullum and Angelo Mathews honoured. This year,
Continue reading< 1 minute readAfter England had beaten South Africa in the first Test, several pundits remarked that in a weird way Alastair Cook might be quite happy that the win had been achieved without any major contribution from either himself or Joe Root. Root made 97 runs. In a relatively low-scoring game by
Continue reading2 minute readSouth Africa are currently undergoing vivisection. Their press and fans are twanging stretchy bits and gouging their fingers into squishy bits trying to work out what’s caused a death that has yet to take place. An obvious issue is that they’re currently missing half their first-choice bowling attack and having
Continue reading< 1 minute readWith his South African face and his steady South African batting. He also bowls left-arm orthodox in a way that indicates he might believe Roelof Van Der Merwe to be the finest ever exponent of the art. Dean carried his bat today. Well played Dean. We should probably have more
Continue reading< 1 minute readWe’ve always liked Marlon Samuels. He’s mischievous and funny and his favourite cricketer is Nasser Hussain. He’s also skilful. In the 2012 World T20 final, Samuels waded into Lasith Malinga as if he were a particularly inviting jacuzzi. He’s made Test hundreds. He’s looked really good in doing so. But
Continue reading< 1 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. If anything, he appears entirely unaffected by spinal ailments, awaiting each delivery with a relaxed upright stance. We got plenty of opportunities to see this as Compton stuck around for over six hours, doing his level best to ensure he
Continue reading2 minute readWe’re approaching the fifth anniversary of The Day. It’s just a little reminder that life’s really all about the little things – little Australian innings that don’t last very long, specifically. That seems unlikely this year, what with them being up against Jason Holder and whatever the poor lad can
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