< 1 minute read Only once you’ve had an experience like this can you be considered a true Test match viewing veteran. What follows is a true story. “I think it’s brightening up.” “Yeah, it is. It’s definitely getting brighter. Look over there, the sun’s trying to break through.” [Time passes] “I think it’s
Continue readingMonth: August 2018
12 questions about that 2019 Cricket World Cup video where Freddie Flintoff sang and a bunch of people followed him
5 minute read In 2018, the ICC released a promotional video for the 2019 World Cup. It starred Freddie Flintoff (definitely Freddie and not Andrew or Andy in this instance) and you can still find it on YouTube here. We have a bunch of questions about it. Is this what Fred does now?
Continue readingIs Ollie Pope poised to go papal on India? Does anyone know what that would involve?
2 minute read We found ourself talking about Ollie Pope quite a bit early this season, way back when they played County Championship cricket semi-regularly. The ability to counter green pitch dobblery in April may not be wholly relevant to the challenge of facing India at the back end of an arid British
Continue readingEngland v Australia ODI at Cardiff – an overview of food, beer and men in odd shirts
2 minute read Tom writes: Having not been to Sophia Gardens before, I was a little unsure what to expect. However, having been to international matches before, I knew that I would be at least £60 less well off before I started. Nevertheless, we got in, only to find out they can’t serve
Continue readingWas that really a good Test match?
3 minute read There’s this odd belief in cricket that people want to see fours and sixes. They don’t. They want to see jeopardy. What is jeopardy? It’s when wickets matter. It’s when everything you see has an impact on the outcome of the game. When one team makes 400 and the other
Continue readingVirat Kohli’s elite levels of obliviousness and delusion
3 minute read There were three phases to Virat Kohli’s hundred. There was the bit where he kept being beaten by the bowlers; there was the bit where the ball wasn’t doing quite so much but he was still shaken up; and there was the bit where everything went back to normal and
Continue readingVirat Kohli ran out Joe Root and then he did a good thing and then he did a bad thing
2 minute read We don’t know if the following is fair or not. You could probably prove it one way or the other using ‘statistics’ or ‘facts’. It certainly feels true though and if modern politics tells us anything, it’s that what feels true is of far greater significance that what actually is
Continue readingTo celebrate England’s 1,000th men’s Test match, we ask: which one was the most mediocre?
2 minute read It’s England’s 1,000th Test match. In honour of this inevitable round number, we thought it would be nice to pick out the most mediocre Test they’ve played. Not poor. Mediocre. Just middling and neither here nor there really. Method We went through all of England’s 999 men’s Test matches and
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