2 minute read Ben Stokes played a handy innings yesterday. With his team, Rising Pune Supergiant, chasing Gujarat Lions’ 161, Stokes made 103 not out, batting at five. Cricinfo said that Stokes “owned the MCA Stadium” – although their use of the past tense implies that he’s since sold it or perhaps had
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Virat Kohli is basically livid about beating Australia
2 minute read Virat Kohli must be the dictionary definition of hard-to-please, for no-one on earth is an enraged by their own success as he is. When Kohli makes a hundred, he’s angry. When his team wins a series over Australia – even though he’s not actually playing – he’s positively enraged. We’ve
Continue readingThe India v Australia sitcom
< 1 minute read Embed from Getty Images This series has finally bucked its ideas up. We’re not sure at precisely what moment things turned – possibly when Steve Smith played on – but at some point somebody pressed the lever on the View-Master, the slide wheel clicked round and the picture changed. The
Continue readingSteve Smith woefully out of form in the nets
< 1 minute read That’s what we’ve heard. We’ve heard that Steve Smith can’t find the middle of the bat when he’s batting in the nets. Smith may or may not have commented: “I’ve been hitting it really well out in the middle, so I don’t think I’m out of form. If I can
Continue readingDavid Warner is totally bossing net cricket
< 1 minute read David Warner says: “I couldn’t be hitting the ball any better but it’s just that the runs aren’t coming for me at the moment.” In this week’s Cricket Badger, we point out that this runs counter to Temba Bavuma’s matter-of-fact observation that, “you can’t be playing well and not scoring
Continue readingMop-up of the day – the batsmen in and out of form
< 1 minute read Australia drew with India, but let’s not focus on how admirably they’re performing. Who the hell wants to read about that? Let’s instead concentrate on tangentia. David Warner has said that “it will turn around” for him with regards to his recent poor form. We agree. If he keeps being
Continue readingSteve Smith’s brain fades still further, Bangladesh do the reverse
< 1 minute read Bangladesh have won nine Tests and we make this their second win. The convention is to remove matches in which Bangladesh feature from all Test statistics. This seems unduly harsh at the best of times, but it seems even more so when it’s them who you’re measuring. Nevertheless, in the
Continue readingRemember what Test cricket in India used to be like?
< 1 minute read Embed from Getty Images Big innings, bigger innings, small innings, smaller innings. That used to the be the sequence for a Test match taking place in India. Declarations happened a lot. Australia just made 451 and it seems a good score, but it wasn’t so long ago you’d be thinking
Continue readingVideo: Steve Smith tries to counter Wriddiham Saha’s ball-delving
< 1 minute read Day one of the third Test between India and Australia. Glenn Maxwell played cricket and made runs, Steve Smith uglied yet another hundred and Wriddiham Saha went snuffling around in the Australian captain’s crotch in an attempt to pluck out a ball. Here’s a video. Wriddhiman Saha & Steve Smith
Continue readingThe India players have started faking injuries
< 1 minute read Pat Farhart news! About time. It’s been almost a decade. Farhart is of course the physio who not-all-that-famously helped Australia spinner Beau Casson’s groin “respond”. He hasn’t got down to any of that sort of business with India yet, but he’s working towards it. Mark our words. He’s giving neck
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