2 minute read Let’s exploit this gap in England’s Test series to get up to speed with this year’s County Championship and the very top of the table specifically. Currently, that means Sussex. In their first five innings of this year, the individual members of Sussex’s top five passed 50 just four times
Continue readingMonth: April 2015
When is an England squad not an England squad?
2 minute read This is probably the weirdest England squad we can remember. It’s not quite a B-team, but nor is it a real A-Team. It’s a 2010 cinematic rehash A-Team. Some of the names are about as familiar as that of Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson as well (the guy who was passed off
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Why we pay no attention to the second division of the County Championship
2 minute read Earlier in the year, someone-or-other expressed their reservations about adding three teams to England’s four-day competition and dividing it into three divisions of seven. They said that it would be hard to maintain the quality. We can’t remember who it was, but this comment seemed to us to betray a
Continue readingJimmy Anderson makes a delicious omelette
2 minute read We stand by everything we said yesterday. We never said England lacked eggs, only baskets. There have always been plenty of oeufs in the new ball basket and Jimmy Anderson is adept at using them. Take three wickets for one run and additional receptacles seem superfluous – particularly if you
Continue readingThe pitch may well be unacceptable…
< 1 minute read But complaining about it is even more unacceptable. If England didn’t have quite so many eggs in the basket marked ‘steady accuracy’ things might be rather different. A truly fast bowler would be nice. A leg-spinner going for runs but making the occasional breakthrough would be handy. A bit more
Continue readingJoe Root makes a hundred on The Day of Inevitable Fifties
2 minute read For a while it seemed as if no-one would make it all the way – even if it had felt inevitable that several of them would get halfway. Trott was out for 59, Cook for 76 and then Ballance for 77. They were creeping closer and it was Root who
Continue readingStuart Broad has left the building
2 minute read Or at least last week’s Stuart Broad has. Everyone get their stuff so we can move somewhere else lest he returns and finds us again. We did suggest in the comments to that piece that the real Slim Stuart might again stand up. He had bowled a handful of quicker
Continue readingWest Indies v England, second Test, day one – anger and amazement
< 1 minute read It’s been a long time since we reduced the broad spectrum of human emotion down to either anger or amazement. Let’s bring back that flawless rating system to assess various aspects of day one of the second Test. Angry England’s bowling attack. We’re perfectly happy about the return of Bowling
Continue readingWhat we got from working with James Anderson
2 minute read They always say of Twenty20 cricket that it’s ideal for modern lifestyles because we’re all so busy these days, as if everyone’s got oh-so-many important things to do all the time and all those labour-saving devices have had no impact. It’s probably true though. We are busier. We’re busy watching
Continue readingAlex Hales makes use of the door handle
2 minute read They always talk about players ‘knocking on the door’ when it comes to England selection. Then, when a player makes a really compelling case, they say he pretty much knocked the door down. Alex Hales seems inclined to take an even more straightforward route into the team. He’s just going
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