< 1 minute readThe Pune pitch on which Australia beat India was rated poor on the grounds that it gave too much assistance to spinners. This is a paradox. Australia made 260 and 285. Australia did. Australia. Australia, with their leaden hands and their be-aggressive-but-patient-and-show-a-bit-of-mongrel-and-play-in-this-one-specific-way-but-find-your-own-method approach to facing spin bowling. They managed to
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Australia and spin bowling – all of their problems are completely solved
< 1 minute readIt’s hard to see how India’s batsmen could possibly learn to play Steve O’Keefe any better than they did on the one occasion they’ve faced him. Compounding this is the 100 per cent true fact that they’ve already committed to playing on pitches identical to that used in the first
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Matt Renshaw retires hurt because of the wild shits
< 1 minute readMatt Renshaw might think that ‘while batting during day one of a Test match’ is the worst time to realise that you’ve been struck down by a case of the wild shits. All we’d say is at least it wasn’t the start of an overnight train journey with no hotel
Continue readingWhy did Tymal Mills go for so much at the IPL auction? Because he’s fit for purpose
2 minute readTymal Mills has been signed by Royal Challengers Bangalore for £1.4m. In response, many have felt inclined to ask what Ian Botham, Viv Richards or Ian Austin might have gone for. This seems to us to be somewhat missing the point. In the UK, the phrase ‘Twenty20 specialist’ still has
Continue readingBangladesh three long sessions away from Test series victory over India
< 1 minute readRelatively speaking. Escape with a draw and that’s basically a win for the tourists, isn’t it? And being as it’s a one Test series, that would also mean a Bangladesh series victory. Again, relatively speaking. Three sessions seems an awful long time when you’ve only got seven wickets left though.
Continue readingVirat Kohli dealing in daddies and doubles
< 1 minute readIs ‘supersizing’ still a thing or did it die out after that Morgan Spurlock film? We’re old enough now that we should probably research our knee-jerk cultural references to see whether they still apply. Let’s not bother and just assume that this one’s still current. Virat Kohli had never hit
Continue readingMS Dhoni is officially capable of scoring a fifty in a T20 international
< 1 minute readAh, bless. He’d made a few in club cricket, but this was MS Dhoni’s first fifty in T20 internationals. Hopefully this is a first step towards a successful career on the big stage. Speaking after the game, Dhoni may or may not have said: “This was my first fifty in
Continue readingEngland will pray for nip or tail at the Champions Trophy
2 minute readThe early stages of England’s one-day cricket revolution saw the team transform from one that scored about 250 on average to one that score about 250 on average. The difference was in the range. They went from making 240-260 and losing every game to making 100-400 and winning half the
Continue readingWhy waste your best bowler in the final over?
< 1 minute readThe idea that England might try and bounce out Virat Kohli proved as wide of the mark as a Devon Malcolm loosener. They decided to pepper him with half-volleys instead. And it worked. They adopted a similar method against Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, occasionally mixing things up with a
Continue readingR Ashwin: Lord Megachief of Gold 2016
3 minute readOur annual Lord Megachief of Gold award is the highest honour in cricket. The title is recognition of performance over the previous calendar year. Here are all the winners. A nod for Ben Stokes’ relentless Test excellence (904 runs at 45.2 and 33 wickets at 25.81); a second nod for
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