< 1 minute read Are we right in thinking that James Anderson came in as a nightwatchman in order to protect Ryan Sidebottom? This is beyond reason. Our feelings about nightwatchmen are perfectly clear, but this warrants further comment. If James Anderson is functioning as the nightwatchman, it’s been his job to protect Ryan
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Kevin Pietersen out waving slightly fatiguely
< 1 minute read That’s what Simon Hughes said on Channel 5’s highlights programme, so that’s what happened. It’s probably wrong to mock commentators’ slips of the tongue when you yourself forget 98 percent of your vocabulary whenever you have to talk in front of more than one person, or to a stranger, or
Continue readingEngland’s middle order shows signs of improvement
< 1 minute read We all know how important it is to look to the positives. England’s players and coaches have taught us this for years now. Ian Bell batted at five and made a three-ball duck. Paul Collingwood batted at six and made a four-ball duck. England’s middle order batsmen are making tangible
Continue readingAndrew Strauss repairs his stats
2 minute read Fortunate to be given the opportunity to do so, Andrew Strauss saved his Test career with a whopping 177 in the third and final Test of the tour of New Zealand. Since then, he’s hit 63, 60 and now 106 and suddenly there doesn’t seem to be much of a
Continue readingMonty Panesar at Old Trafford
2 minute read It’s been three years since we last went to the Old Trafford Test and didn’t see Monty Panesar take five wickets. Actually, that’s not strictly true. We went to two days of last year’s West Indies Test and on one of the days he only took four wickets. In 2006
Continue readingDaniel Flynn’s lost tooth
< 1 minute read Jacob Oram and the short ball: You pair are going to be great friends. It may have been Daniel Flynn’s tooth that James Anderson removed with a bouncer, but Jacob Oram looked the more uncomfortable against short-pitched bowling. Of course Flynn’s bloodied mélange of flesh and teeth went way beyond
Continue readingJames Marshall gets asked a stupid question
< 1 minute read “So, are you any relation to Hamish Marshall?” Writing in his Cricinfo diary, Ross Taylor says someone asked James Marshall that. James and Hamish are identical twins, if you didn’t know. This was either the most admirably, pig-headedly stupid and obvious joke of all time or it was asked by
Continue readingThe Old Trafford pitch
< 1 minute read Sportsfreak are running a cricket tipping competition about the England v New Zealand series. We are currently equal second out of 12. For the last Test we used reasoning for precisely one of the questions and got it right. Michael Vaughan has scored bucketloads of runs at Lord’s, so we
Continue readingJacob Oram and his face
< 1 minute read Most teams struggle for all-rounders. In New Zealand they’re ten a penny. If only they could find a couple more half-decent specialist batsmen, they’d be a force to be reckoned with. This new batting line-up’s missing a few of the bigger names, of course, but even those batting absentees dabbled
Continue readingBad light stopped play
< 1 minute read It’s not often we agree with Mark Nicholas, if only because we don’t float through life spouting words like ‘divine’ and ‘exquisite’ every second sentence, but we think he had a point this one time he was commentating over Channel 5 highlights of cricketers walking on and off the field.
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