< 1 minute readKevin Pietersen’s out of form. Andrew Strauss has developed a problem against left-arm pace. Those were the stories at the start of yesterday’s play and the evidence came in the form of their recent Test records. When play did occur, Pietersen looked amazing, but he made the grave error of
Continue reading< 1 minute readLots of people have said this, saying Tremlett is more consistent than Stuart Broad and pitches the ball further up. Those things are true, but our point is much simpler: Just look at him. Chris Tremlett is terrifying. It actually doesn’t much matter that he rarely tops 85mph. If you
Continue reading< 1 minute readBut it isn’t recommended. At the Rose Bowl yesterday, Andrew Strauss opted to review a possible edge. This was a ridiculous decision. Not because Paranavitana hadn’t nicked it (he had), but because if Aleem Dar couldn’t detect an edge with certainty, technology certainly wouldn’t be up to the task. The
Continue reading< 1 minute readIt’s not a great film title, but we’d watch. We will watch, in fact. Kumar Sangakkara had two years as captain, but, like Mahela Jayawardene before him, jacked the job in because of the pressure. Unfortunately, Tillakaratne Dilshan’s minced thumb has meant Sri Lanka need a stand-in and after much
Continue reading< 1 minute readCricket has generally got more time for stats than for its own personal hygiene, yet those for Twenty20 are surprisingly useless. A good batting average can be counterproductive if not allied to a decent strike-rate. A decent bowling economy rate can be misleading if it’s just the result of that
Continue reading3 minute readGed writes: Daisy and I happened to be staying near Chennai on the day of the South Africa v Zimbabwe warm-up match. It must have been fate. At least, that’s what I told Daisy. We had arranged to tour Kanchipuram and Mahabalipuram that day, with a recommended early start and
Continue reading< 1 minute readThis is a quote from Australia’s federal defence minister, Stephen Smith. And yes, you read that job title correctly. “Well historically of course there have been a series of atrocities committed by the Australian Cricket Board or Cricket Australia or the Australian selectors against Western Australian cricketers but this one
Continue reading2 minute readSam writes: It was a bank holiday, the latest in what seemed like a never-ending string of bank holidays. The weather was clear and breezy. We put our washing out to dry using a makeshift washing line running from the window of our first floor flat and tied to an
Continue reading< 1 minute readAt the age of 41. Sam emailed to say: “I might write something about how he’s really old and he’s like everyone’s uncle and he’s, like, properly old.” We asked what he might conceivably add to that sentence. Sam concluded that there was nothing to add.
Continue reading2 minute readGot this ages ago. Didn’t dare ask what ‘OnZud’ meant in case it was something cool that we should have known. However, we also don’t want people to think we haven’t done our editing properly, so we’re having to draw attention to our ignorance in this opening paragraph anyway. Jayne
Continue reading