2 minute read2023 World Cup, Game 13, Afghanistan v England England are still 2-1 up on Afghanistan in 50-over World Cup matches. Expand the head to head to include all one-day internationals and England are… 2-1 up. You wonder what sort of damage Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mujeeb Ur Rahman would have done
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2 minute readWhen will Dawid Malan (six hundreds in 23 innings, average of 63.15, strike-rate of 98.44) finally prove himself? “I’m desperate to do well in this format and prove a point that I deserve to be in there,” said Malan today, after his latest ton. Two games ago, Malan hit another
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2 minute readNot to get all Meatloaf about this, but England would do anything to save a run. But they won’t do that. No, they won’t do that. If you haven’t already seen, England are due to play in Dharamasala tomorrow. It’s possibly the most beautiful ground in the world if you
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2 minute read2023 Cricket World Cup, Game 1, England v New Zealand There’s not much sign that New Zealand have many batters in form, while two of the three we’ve seen are clearly peaking too soon. England, in contrast, are pacing their ascent to top form beautifully. Starting here at ‘dogshit’, they
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5 minute readAin’t no bad news like the retraction of previously issued good news. Jason Roy had already given his relieved response to being included in England’s World Cup squad when he was later excluded from it. How are you feeling since the change of heart, Jase? Not great, we’d wager. Squad
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2 minute readA few weeks ago we asked whether Ben Stokes was definitely a better pick than Harry Brook in England’s World Cup squad. We drew no firm conclusions. Smashing 182 off 124 balls to break the record for the highest score by an England batter in a one-day international (ODI) probably
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2 minute read“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” said Daniel Norcross on BBC commentary. “The throw’s come in at the non-striker’s end and there is dawdleage.” It’s hard to improve on that assessment. What was so remarkable about this dismissal is that it felt like the textbook, “yadda yadda yadda… and there’s
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2 minute readWe’re in the era of the boundary juggler. It was therefore quite refreshing to deploy an ‘oh wow’ for a good old diving catch yesterday, as Glenn Phillips briefly turned into a glider to dispatch Moeen Ali. England levelled the one-day series against New Zealand yesterday and in so doing
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3 minute readBen Stokes came out of one-day retirement and immediately got picked for England’s World Cup squad. Of course he did – he’s Ben Stokes. Except he’ll be playing only as a batter. While he’s obviously extremely good at batting and capable of innings few others are… is he definitely, definitely
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6 minute readAnd so the greatest Test batter of all time has departed the game just four ducks short of Courtney Walsh’s all-time record with 39. To put that in context, the next highest tally by someone with a Test hundred to their name is Marvan Atapattu’s 22 – and that was
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