< 1 minute read Every now and again, Jacques Kallis has an odd day where he suddenly starts thrashing the ball around like he’s been possessed by one of Shahid Afrid’s many personalities. He holds the record for the fastest Test fifty off 24 balls. Yes, it was against Zimbabwe, but plenty of other
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Brad Haddin’s wicket was our favourite
< 1 minute read When they manufacture a girl band or a boy band, they often work on a simple principle: put enough reasonably attractive people in one place and it’s hard to assess the visual merits of any one individual. When it comes to girl bands, we subconsciously take the best features of
Continue readingAustralia’s lowest Test total of all time
< 1 minute read As we write, Australia are 22-9 in 12.5 overs. Their lowest total ever is 36 and the lowest Test total of all time is New Zealand’s 26 (both those scores were against England, incidentally). Bizarrely, Australia are actually 210 ahead, thanks to Michael Clarke’s increasingly spectacular 151 in the first
Continue readingDale Steyn has genuine ambition
< 1 minute read Dale Steyn doesn’t want to be the guy who gets a standing ovation for three wickets in a Twenty20 match. He’s prepared to put in the hard yards. This is what he said before this Test series: ”There’s a lot of guys who can bowl 150km/h when you give them
Continue readingMohammad Amir – don’t mourn the loss of a future great
2 minute read “Please don’t let it be the kid,” said Nasser Hussain at the start of all of this. He spoke for most of us. We wanted Mohammad Amir to be innocent, but it turns out that he wasn’t and believing that he might have become a future great makes no sense
Continue readingNew Zealand were the ones who beat South Africa
< 1 minute read Exceptional cricket. That is how you exploit a weakness. At 108-2 chasing 222, South Africa seemed untroubled, but there was a spot on their face. It was very small, but it was there. With the dismissal of Jacques Kallis, they gave it a little bit of a scratch and took
Continue readingCricket World Cup storylines
< 1 minute read The great thing about actual, proper tournaments is the way that narratives develop. Every remaining team already has a good story in place if they eventually go on to become World Champions. Pakistan – Would defy what was a catastrophic build-up to the tournament even by their standards. Being as
Continue readingWhat’s a good World Cup score?
< 1 minute read England’s 327 wasn’t enough against Ireland, but 171 was enough against South Africa. It’s not a matter of different opponents, it’s different conditions. This is why between-innings analysis is so often virtually worthless. What constitutes a good score varies because a run doesn’t have a set value – it changes
Continue readingSouth Africa ‘choke’ against England
< 1 minute read England could have beaten India and Ireland, but beat neither. They’ve a far better claim to being chokers than South Africa at present. In the last 12 months, Australia have lost a Twenty20 international off the last ball to England; lost a one-dayer by one wicket to Sri Lanka; lost
Continue readingWhen did the South Africa cricket team become exciting?
< 1 minute read Seriously, South Africa have got a worryingly strong claim to being the most exciting team in this World Cup. They pick three spinners, including a devilish leggie and they ask one of them to open the bowling. They have the best player in the world. They have no consistent gameplan.
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