2 minute read Same as 2010. In fact, it’s probably worth reading that article again because much of it still applies. We don’t try and overthink the Lord Megachief of Gold award. We don’t get too fancy with it. It was business as usual for Dale Steyn in 2013 and business brought him
Continue readingCategory: South Africa
The case for Kallis to be considered the best of the lot
3 minute read Before we begin, let us just say that we don’t believe in comparing players or ranking them. We’re now going to do precisely that as a kind of academic exercise, primarily to piss off a load of people who will always hold Jacques Kallis in somewhat lower regard than many
Continue readingSouth Africa are bloody annoying to play against
2 minute read We’re a day late with this and have little to add, but since when has turning up late and contributing little stopped us? Just over a year ago, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers combined to play out an unlikely draw against Australia. Du Plessis made 110 not out
Continue readingFaf du Plessis – incompetent but not immoral
< 1 minute read We can thank Faf du Plessis for inadvertently giving us the fantastically earnest Cricinfo headline: ‘No zips on cricket kit by 2015’. This brave new world is to be created because he was caught raking the ball across a zip on his kecks, presumably in a bid to rough it
Continue readingOrchestration and delusion
< 1 minute read After losing the first Test to Pakistan, South Africa captain Graeme Smith said: “It should hurt. But this team has too much ability to make this a habit.” We immediately thought about the distinction between confidence and delusion and how the only real difference is what happens afterwards. These seemed
Continue readingPakistan cricket likes to stay in balance
< 1 minute read This is the conclusion we’ve reached. Far from being a see-saw on a roundabout in an earthquake, Pakistan cricket is actually very stable. It’s just that different branches of it have to compensate when there’s upheaval elsewhere so that the whole remains perfectly balanced. Last month, Pakistan lost a Test
Continue readingWas Graeme Smith overprepared?
< 1 minute read We assume this was why he was just dismissed for 15 in the first Test against Pakistan. Last week, in the only warm-up match for this series, Smith made two against Pakistan A. The innings before that was for Surrey in May. You might think he’d have wanted a bit
Continue readingApparently, the BCCI are waiting
2 minute read Have you been following this India-South Africa brouhaha over the last few weeks? Just because something’s reported as if it’s not massively childish, doesn’t mean it isn’t massively childish. Basically, there’s a whole load of politics going on, which is sod all to do with cricket and everything to do
Continue readingEngland are better than South Africa
< 1 minute read You know what? We knew this. We intimated as much this morning. This South African team hasn’t choked, it just isn’t really all that good. This particular XI had a couple of good batsmen and no bowlers. You don’t win much with a line-up like that. You may point out
Continue readingBoring, boring England
< 1 minute read This seems to be a common assessment at the minute, but it’s a bit unfair. They’re more polarised, polarised England – steady upper order batting and then the three dementos at five, six and seven. Admittedly, two of the dementos – Morgan and Buttler – have mostly failed in this
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