< 1 minute read We’ve told you before how we once saw a story in the local paper where a woman had come second in some sort of vegetable growing competition despite being the only person to enter something in that particular category. The judges decided that her entry was only worthy of a
Continue readingMonth: July 2017
Toby Roland-Jones: first look in Test cricket
< 1 minute read We don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from players’ debuts – but we report on them anyway. We suppose that if people call you Toblerone, you’re kind of duty-bound to provide the odd peak. 4-39 is pretty useful for a kick-off. Toby Roland-Jones seems to bowl at around 80mph.
Continue readingWhat Ben Stokes’ erratic boundary-hitting says about his batting
< 1 minute read Kevin Pietersen’s career strike-rate was 61.72. Matthew Hayden’s was 60.10. For all that these are batsmen with a reputation for intimidating bowlers, they chose their moments. This is a large part of the art of Test match batting. It’s about letting bowlers know that you are willing to hit them
Continue readingTom Westley: first look in Test cricket
< 1 minute read We don’t believe you can draw meaningful conclusions from debut performances – but we report on them anyway. If there’s one thing we’ll say for Tom Westley, it’s that he appears to have a pleasing preference for the workmanlike side of the ground. Legside nurdlery has always worked for Alastair
Continue readingEngland pick some wheat and chaff and postpone their separation until later
< 1 minute read As a result of Cricinfo’s redesign, we don’t actually know that a Sri Lanka v India Test is taking place and therefore cannot comment on who has scored hundreds and who has been dismissed for three. We will instead restrict ourself to an observation that England will be picking at
Continue readingIn what sense was JP Duminy “released”?
< 1 minute read JP Duminy had initially been sentenced to a full Test tour of England but has been released early due to good behaviour and bad batting. Duminy has been around a while. He made his one-day international debut in 2004 and his Test debut in 2008. Somehow he has played 46
Continue readingMonumental rant about Anya Shrubsole narrowly averted
< 1 minute read We properly went off on one there for a minute. Internally. An onlooker wouldn’t have noticed a thing, but inside we were seething. Anya Shrubsole took 6-46 (plus a run-out) to win the World Cup for England and she wasn’t even player of the match. They gave it to a
Continue readingCricinfo’s new home page looks really amateur
< 1 minute read Cricinfo have redesigned their website so that it looks like one of those ones that scrapes your content and republishes it in breach of copyright. The home page in particular looks like some sort of template from GoDaddy.com. The home page was dreadful before, in all honesty, but in an
Continue readingNeed to bring solidity to your top order? You need a Stoneman
< 1 minute read Gary Ballance’s pink, fat lips let go a scream. His left index finger was fractured. He isn’t made of stone. England will therefore call up someone who might be in a bid to solidify their top order. Mark Stoneman, now of Surrey – but on some level eternally of Durham
Continue readingThe natmeg was the difference
< 1 minute read Just a single sighting of the natmeg in the World Cup semi-final by our count – but it secured two runs and was therefore, by all measures, decisive. England passed South Africa’s total with just two balls to spare. You can’t honestly suggest that the natmeg wasn’t the difference. With
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