< 1 minute read A good first day of Test cricket for England, in the sense that it put them straight. Playing Sri Lanka demands perseverance. It demands perseverance so earnest it comes with a pipe and a scowl. If Sri Lanka’s feisty wins in their warm-up matches hadn’t got the message through to
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Sri Lanka are sneaky
2 minute read If you’ve only been half paying attention to Sri Lanka’s two warm-up matches, you might have got the wrong impression. In the first, against Middlesex, the first day ended with them having conceded 321-5. Andrew Strauss scored a hundred, but so did Dan Housego. “They can’t bowl,” said Robert Baby-Bunting
Continue readingThe Roof at Lancashire
< 1 minute read We didn’t cover Lancashire’s Roses victory over Yorkshire at the weekend because – you know – sometimes you just can’t be bothered. That win took Lancashire to the top of the table and one of the big contributors has been The Roof, Farveez Maharoof, who is rapidly turning into a
Continue readingLasith Malinga’s knee injury
< 1 minute read Lasith Malinga’s knee injury is just about bad enough that he can’t play Tests and just about good enough that he can play one-day internationals and the IPL. Sri Lanka feel that this financially lucrative degree of pain could be sorted with some rehabilitative work back home and has therefore
Continue readingTendulkar v Murali
< 1 minute read We wrote about the various World Cup storylines during the quarter-finals. The stories of Tendulkar and Murali, two ageing greats, seem to be the strongest now, but that’s mostly due to hindsight. All the same, it makes for a good narrative. There’s also a minor subplot that no-one will care
Continue readingSri Lanka owe us a fiver
< 1 minute read Sri Lanka were definitely going to win for most of their run-chase, then they went all cagey and it got interesting and we had to give the match our full attention, then they won anyway. The point is, we had work to do and we couldn’t do it because Sri
Continue readingStrauss v Dilshan sums it up
< 1 minute read When Tillakaratne Dilshan opened the bowling, Andrew Strauss couldn’t get him off the square. This was largely because he couldn’t make contact with the ball. When one of the most experienced batsmen in English cricket finds himself in this position against a part-time off-spinner, you have to ask yourself whether
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 readingAttributes required for a Test batsman
< 1 minute read Test batsmen need to have a number of attributes. Depending on the conditions and the opposition, there will be different requirements. Some are always necessary: A good eye A half-decent technique Good shot selection Concentration In matches like Sri Lanka v India at Colombo, other attributes are also required: Stamina
Continue readingMuttiah Muralitharan’s 800th Test wicket
< 1 minute read We don’t get it. It was only Pragyan Ojha. What’s the big deal? If we’d taken 800 Test wickets, we wouldn’t be jumping up and down about getting Pragyan Ojha out. We’d have been more worked up about dismissing better batsmen, like Ian Salisbury or Chris Lewis.
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