< 1 minute readDavid Warner says: “I couldn’t be hitting the ball any better but it’s just that the runs aren’t coming for me at the moment.” In this week’s Cricket Badger, we point out that this runs counter to Temba Bavuma’s matter-of-fact observation that, “you can’t be playing well and not scoring
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Steve Smith’s shonky technique keeps him hiding in plain sight
2 minute readThe notion of a ‘best batsman in the world’ is stupid. You rate them based on what’s already happened and it counts for nothing the next time they’re pitched into competitive cricket. Cricket is not a prolonged personal odyssey, it’s a series of matches between teams. A high ranking gives
Continue readingMop-up of the day – the batsmen in and out of form
< 1 minute readAustralia drew with India, but let’s not focus on how admirably they’re performing. Who the hell wants to read about that? Let’s instead concentrate on tangentia. David Warner has said that “it will turn around” for him with regards to his recent poor form. We agree. If he keeps being
Continue readingSteve Smith’s brain fades still further, Bangladesh do the reverse
< 1 minute readBangladesh have won nine Tests and we make this their second win. The convention is to remove matches in which Bangladesh feature from all Test statistics. This seems unduly harsh at the best of times, but it seems even more so when it’s them who you’re measuring. Nevertheless, in the
Continue readingRemember what Test cricket in India used to be like?
< 1 minute readEmbed from Getty Images Big innings, bigger innings, small innings, smaller innings. That used to the be the sequence for a Test match taking place in India. Declarations happened a lot. Australia just made 451 and it seems a good score, but it wasn’t so long ago you’d be thinking
Continue readingVideo: Steve Smith tries to counter Wriddiham Saha’s ball-delving
< 1 minute readDay one of the third Test between India and Australia. Glenn Maxwell played cricket and made runs, Steve Smith uglied yet another hundred and Wriddiham Saha went snuffling around in the Australian captain’s crotch in an attempt to pluck out a ball. Here’s a video. Wriddhiman Saha & Steve Smith
Continue readingThe India players have started faking injuries
< 1 minute readPat Farhart news! About time. It’s been almost a decade. Farhart is of course the physio who not-all-that-famously helped Australia spinner Beau Casson’s groin “respond”. He hasn’t got down to any of that sort of business with India yet, but he’s working towards it. Mark our words. He’s giving neck
Continue readingVirat Kohli accuses Steve Smith of line-crossing
< 1 minute readEmbed from Getty Images “There’s a line that you don’t cross on the cricket field,” said Virat Kohli, shortly after suggesting that the Australians had been looking to their dressing room for help when deciding whether to review decisions or not. You realise what this is, don’t you? It’s an
Continue readingDid India give Australia a 1.4 Test head start?
< 1 minute readEmbed from Getty Images It would seem a bit much to give the opposition a 1.4 Test head start in a three Test series. The finish line could be crossed with little more than a trip and a fall. Apparently this is a four Test series though, so perhaps India
Continue readingNathan Lyon transforms into Australia’s Steve O’Keefe
< 1 minute readEmbed from Getty Images Or at least it could be seen that way if Australia didn’t already have a Steve O’Keefe. Nathan Lyon still bowled like one though. You know that classic Steve O’Keefe thing; the one where you go to India and spin them out for under 200? Lyon
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