3 minute read This morning, Sam pointed us towards this story. It seems Kevin Pietersen suspects some of his team-mates of running a parody Twitter account in his name. Is this the modern sportsman’s equivalent of “he’s calling me names behind my back”? It seems very, very unlikely that Graeme Swann, Jimmy Anderson
Continue readingMonth: August 2012
Kevin Pietersen versus the ECB
< 1 minute read We spent quite a while writing the previous post, but now we’re having to write this one because all anyone will want to talk about is Kevin Pietersen’s post-match interview: “I can’t give any assurances that the next Test won’t be my last. I’d like to carry on but there
Continue readingA bit of posturing from England and South Africa
< 1 minute read Graeme Smith’s second innings declaration had a whiff of safe aggression about it. It was like swearing at a pedestrian from the top deck of a moving bus. England could have run and climbed aboard at the next stop, but it was never likely. They settled for doing a half-jog
Continue readingKevin Pietersen abuses South Africa and buys England some time
2 minute read Up until today, South Africa have been appropriating England’s Test template. They’ve batted for bloody ages and wearied the opposition batsmen in the process, sapping their concentration and vitality. Their first innings 419 wasn’t a monstrous score, but 139 overs was plenty to put into England’s legs and minds. It
Continue readingMorkel, Trott and digger wasps
2 minute read Jonathan Trott’s guard-marking routine is infamous. He has a series of things he NEEDS to do before he’s happy to face a delivery. Morne Morkel’s turn at the start of his run-up is less well-known, but is seemingly just as deeply ingrained. It seems he can’t run into bowl without
Continue readingToo few ales at the England bar
< 1 minute read South Africa looked so vulnerable against right-arm fast-medium bowlers during the first Test that England have added a fourth. Our feelings on this are well-known. You should always play a spinner. It’s not just about having a specialist should the pitch offer significant turn later in the match (although that’s
Continue readingJames Taylor’s height again
< 1 minute read You wait and wait for a drawing of the diminutive James Taylor batting with gangletastic Will Jefferson and then you get two in two days. Angy was responsible for this one: Hope everyone’s starting to get a decent sense of just how small James Taylor is. Sorry if it’s still
Continue readingHow tall is James Taylor?
< 1 minute read He’s about three-foot-one, three-foot-two maybe. There’s a very striking photo of James Taylor when he was batting with the grossly oversized Will Jefferson once. Sam sent it to us asking us to publish it. We said we couldn’t because of all that copyright stuff that no-one pays attention to when
Continue readingHow will England beat South Africa in the second Test?
< 1 minute read Let’s ask England coach, Andy Flower: “In international sport you’ll have huge ups and downs and our make-up has to deal with those ups and downs.” So there you go. No plans for success. Just waterproof mascara to deal with the effects of defeat.
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