< 1 minute read Brisbane’s Courier Mail floated the possibility of not mentioning Stuart Broad by name at all during this Test. Does anyone know if they did actually go with this front page in the end or was it just a canny publicity stunt? The newspaper suggested that they were only going to
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Mitchell Johnson’s back
< 1 minute read As in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. Although that would go some way towards explaining why he’s forever spearing balls down the leg side. We find ourself conflicted about Johnson’s recall. He has looked like a proper fast bowler of late, which is a good thing. However,
Continue readingWhat’s driving run inflation in one-day cricket
4 minute read Yesterday, the man they used to call Nohit Sharma made a one-day double hundred, but even eight wickets down, Australia seemed in with a chance of chasing their 384 run target. Ludicrous totals seem to have become the norm in one-day internationals (ODIs) and even India’s captain has been complaining
Continue readingOpening fixture of Ashes tour now going swimmingly
< 1 minute read It’s okay. Panic over. England are once again the greatest team in history. That whole ‘going for five an over’ bowling performance is over and the England batting machine is running perfectly. The second day’s play saw England intimidate the Western Australia Chairman’s XI into declaring at 451-5, batsmen eight,
Continue readingWe’re lying about the Ashes already
< 1 minute read But only by accident. Yesterday we wrote about the reception England used to get upon arriving Australia for Cricinfo; how they’d be rubbished in print and beaten in the warm-up matches. Our point was that this didn’t happen any more. But lo, England have had quite an embarrassing day against
Continue readingGeorge Bailey v David Warner
2 minute read We haven’t really given much thought to Australia’s other five batting slots which means we can pitch Bailey v Warner as being a battle for the sixth one. They’ll almost certainly both play in the first Ashes Test, but let’s gloss over this so that we’ve got something to say
Continue readingAustralia beat India 12-11 at sixes
< 1 minute read So, technically, one-day cricket isn’t ‘all about hitting sixes these days’ because India won. Australia made 359-5 and India skittered to 362-1 in 43.3 overs in reply. Rohit Sharma hit a hundred and looked quite angry about it. Virat Kohli hit a 52-ball hundred and looked extraordinarily angry about it.
Continue readingWeather forecast for the first Ashes Test at Brisbane
< 1 minute read Cricinfo is meteorologically ahead of the game. “Clarke under cloud for Brisbane Test” Clearly England should do away with Tremlett, Finn and Rankin and replace them with Mark Ealham, Mike Watkinson and Alan Igglesden to take advantage of overhead conditions. Yes, we have been reduced to this. What of it?
Continue readingWhen Mr Cricket became Mr Anecdote
< 1 minute read If you’re thinking of reading Mike Hussey’s autobiography, you’d better HOLD ON TIGHT. Published excerpts reveal that after his final Test, the team were all going to have a boat party, but that Hussey didn’t want to go because his children wouldn’t have been allowed. Apparently some players wanted to
Continue readingThe international summer is over
< 1 minute read It went out with a bang, on a cold, damp, September evening with the run-rate slowly climbing beyond being chaseable and a few drunk people chanting discordantly at a handful of lower-order England batsmen most of them hadn’t really heard of. Even watching on TV, it felt a bit like
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