2 minute readOur loosely-held editorial guideline of “no-one cares what you think” isn’t necessarily one that drives productivity at what is, fundamentally, an opinion website. It means there’s a whole bunch of recent news stories we haven’t covered because no-one cares what we think. The County Championship Let’s start with the latest
Continue readingTag: Mop-up of the day
Root’s Moose Cup Powered by Daraz | Mop-up of the day
3 minute readThree things, okay? Thing 1 Just as with Botham’s Ashes, the 2021 Moose Cup Powered by Daraz seems destined to be forever remembered as Root’s Moose Cup Powered by Daraz. In the first Test, Sri Lanka made 135 and then Joe Root made 228. In the second Test, Root made
Continue readingRain, redesigns and response times | Mop-up of the day
2 minute readNo amount of mopping-up would have been sufficient to ensure the T20 World Cup semi-final between England and India would have taken place. With no reserve day, India went through to the final because they came top in the group stage. Harmanpreet Kaur reckoned India had taken the rules into
Continue readingMop-up of the last couple of days – Angelo Mathews still has work to do
< 1 minute readFor a good long while you could accurately gauge Sri Lanka’s score by whether or not Angelo Mathews was walking out to bat or not. If he was, they were 22-3. If he wasn’t, it was some other score. A couple of recent batting finds had encouraged the notion that
Continue readingMop-up of the day – Steve Smith is the best player in the world
< 1 minute readOkay, first up, our Twitter round-up. Yep, still doing it, so have a read. Nasser Hussain’s in it and there are two absolutely blinding selfies from opposite ends of the selfie-taking spectrum. We still can’t decide which of the two is our favourite. Second on the order of business, Cricket
Continue readingMop-up of the day – Sweet, sour, bitter, savoury
2 minute readA bitter-sweet mop-up of the day today, like someone’s spilt a honey-and-lemon sore throat remedy. Actually, maybe that’s sweet and sour. A sour-sweet mop-up of the day today. Sour James Anderson is out of England’s tour of Bangladesh and probably won’t be back until halfway through the India tour. No
Continue readingMop-up of the day – syllables, spin, short-pitched bowling and size
< 1 minute readFirst to Kandy, where the five minutes when it was both dry and bright enough to play cricket saw Sri Lanka set Australia 268 to win. David Warner’s recently-discovered inability to make runs outside Australia persisted as he was bowled for one, and the tourists also lost Joe Burns and
Continue readingMop-up of the day – Hello and goodbye and are you leaving?
< 1 minute readBuoyed by a first innings display in which he took six for a million, Neil Wagner persisted with his innovative attritional shock tactics in the second. He took 1-60. It’s worth noting that Wagner produced this display despite a broken hand. More accurately, he produced this display despite a broken
Continue readingMop-up of the day – runs down south
2 minute readAfter day-night Tests, the latest innovation in the ongoing Australia v New Zealand Test series has been additional opponents. Sri Lanka and the West Indies have been drafted in to keep things fresh, but they couldn’t tip the balance. Australia still had marginally the better day. New Zealand would have
Continue readingMop-up of the day – warm-ups, schmarm ups
< 1 minute readAustralia obliterated India, England battered the Windies and all for nought. World Cup pressure is not yet here and in fact probably won’t be here until the 18th of March when the quarter finals finally get underway. Even so, these were striking results. England dismissed the Windies for 122 and
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