< 1 minute readA top score of 31 and a third of the team getting run out? A fielding side that dives around after everything like it’s tanked-up on E numbers? It’s under-11s cricket, isn’t it? There was a disappointingly small number of wides and the match wasn’t decided by the one kid
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Marston’s Pedigree Six
< 1 minute readMarston’s have brought out a new beer because they sponsor England. It’s called Pedigree Six on account of it being 6%. Mmm, boozy. We’re going to drink four ‘Sixes’ in honour of Dimitri Mascarenhas’s four sixes the other day (and with perhaps a nod towards our own alcohol dependence as
Continue readingTwenty20 takes 22 players
< 1 minute readWe really like Twenty20, but it can be difficult to report on. It’s more difficult to identify that one, stand-out performance from a player. Twenty20’s more of a team game than you might think. With only 20 overs, it makes sense that one big innings from a batsman decides the
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Dimitri Mascarenhas is handy down the order
< 1 minute readEngland don’t often find batsman who are pretty good. They have good and great batsmen at the top of the order and they have rubbish and not awful batsmen down the order, but there always seems to be a number eight-shaped hole in the batting card. In one-day cricket at
Continue readingEngland v New Zealand – masterful cricket scheduling
< 1 minute readGreat news for fans of England v New Zealand matches – today’s Twenty20 match was the first of 19 consecutive international fixtures between the two sides. Surely what everyone’s hoping is that one team gets on top early on and shows itself to be vastly superior to the other team.
Continue readingAlastair Cook in one-day cricket
2 minute readAlastair Cook hit a hundred in England’s latest warm-up. The bowlers he had to face might not have been the world’s finest, but he hit 138 not out off 140 balls and every time he does that he’ll be getting a little bit more comfortable with one-day cricket. There are
Continue readingEngland Lions: five for Panesar, Flintoff to appear at boundary edge
< 1 minute readFive wickets for Monty Panesar – there’s a sentence that’s been conspicuous by its absence of late. He only did it for England Lions though, who we’re going to start calling England Second XI, because that’s much more accurate. If you’re going to name one of your national teams after
Continue readingEngland’s number six for New Zealand
2 minute readWe want Ian Bell back at number six in the batting order. He’s shown promise and he hasn’t disgraced himself at three, but he’s so good at six and that’s an important spot too. England forget this sometimes. An England batting line-up with Bell at six looks a lot more
Continue readingTwenty20 wicketkeeping
2 minute readDo you want the better batsman or the better wicketkeeper behind the stumps for your team? That argument’s been represented by any number of individual duels over the years. Recently though, we think you’ll all agree that the better batsman’s been winning out, in general. Blame Adam Gilchrist. He’s a
Continue readingMatt Prior dropped like an edge from Ryan Sidebottom
< 1 minute readMatt Prior’s been discarded like a greasy pizza box. That’s fair considering his erratic wicketkeeping, but harsh for a man averaging 40 in Test cricket. Tim Ambrose of Warwickshire is his replacement and you’d imagine he’d be in the first XI ahead of Phil Mustard, who’s still providing back-up. It
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