England / Sri Lanka

One pole needed but no cherries left

2 minute readThat’s a reference to something Shane Warne said late on day five. “59 cherries left. Four poles to get.” Okay, you’re Australian, we get it. Just speak normally, okay. The cherry shortfall Following the nine wickets down draw between England and Sri Lanka, it’s hard to avoid pointing to the

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England / Sri Lanka

A stumpy trying to apply pressure

< 1 minute readThis latest England team is a stumpy. It’s not completely without tail – there’s an Anderson-shaped nub there – but there really isn’t much. Presumably, should he return, Ben Stokes would replace Liam Plunkett, which would only strengthen the main spine further. Lower order batsmen rarely contribute on tougher days

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England

England’s reactive batting

< 1 minute readTwice last May, we wrote about England’s overwhelmingly reactive batting approach. First we described Kevin Pietersen as being England’s only proactive top order batsman; the only one prone to trying to set the field while at the crease. A week later, Pietersen wasn’t playing and Jonny Bairstow took on the

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England

England will play a fairly fast bowler

2 minute readWe all knew that Sam Robson was going to get picked. He’ll play sensibly and probably quite well. If so, we’ll be quite happy about that while simultaneously wishing that we didn’t have to endure hilarious Australian ‘banter’ about his place of birth every time he gets a half-decent score.

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England

The opposition are allowed to play well

< 1 minute readIs anyone else starting to find this kind of thing grating? “Sometimes you just have to put your hands up and say the opposition were better than us with the bat.” So said Alastair Cook after the fourth one-day international. There’s been an awful lot of ‘accepting that the opposition

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