2 minute readTerry Jenner said that Steve O’Keefe bowled blancmanges. If you for some reason think that was intended as a compliment, O’Keefe himself recalls: “He’d just look at me in disgust about how putrid these things were that were coming out of my hand.” Jenner’s greatest protégé Shane Warne feels similarly.
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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 readingVideo: Mitchell Johnson playing tennis right-handed
< 1 minute readWell, looks like we’ve got to the bottom of that whole ‘bowl to the left, bowl to the right’ thing. Turns out Mitchell Johnson is right-handed. Here’s some expert coaching advice, Mitch: bowl with your other hand. Better late than never with these kinds of tips. You may already have
Continue readingWhat does Australia’s Test series win over Pakistan actually mean?
2 minute readDoes it amount to a hill of beans? A fell of discarded iPhone covers? A mountain of offcuts of plasterboard? Just before Christmas, we said that Pakistan are, essentially, a swing bowling side, and therefore pretty much always do terribly Down Under. There has been more to the series than
Continue readingDid Australia win or did Pakistan lose? YOU HAVE TO CHOOSE
< 1 minute readOne of the rules of cricket coverage is that Australia, England and India have results and the other teams are merely inactive participants. In 2016, India beat New Zealand, Australia lost to Sri Lanka, and England drew with Bangladesh. Technically, this also means that New Zealand lost to India, Sri
Continue readingDavid Warner’s “lean” 2016 in Test cricket
< 1 minute readSome of you may have both noticed and cared that David Warner was apparently having a relatively mediocre year before this Test. His 2016 one-day record is exceptional, but his long format returns had been little more than ‘all right’. Against Pakistan Warner edged a load and also became what
Continue readingMop-up of the last couple of days – Angelo Mathews still has work to do
< 1 minute readFor a good long while you could accurately gauge Sri Lanka’s score by whether or not Angelo Mathews was walking out to bat or not. If he was, they were 22-3. If he wasn’t, it was some other score. A couple of recent batting finds had encouraged the notion that
Continue readingMop-up of the day – Steve Smith is the best player in the world
< 1 minute readOkay, first up, our Twitter round-up. Yep, still doing it, so have a read. Nasser Hussain’s in it and there are two absolutely blinding selfies from opposite ends of the selfie-taking spectrum. We still can’t decide which of the two is our favourite. Second on the order of business, Cricket
Continue readingHow to dismiss Faf du Plessis – make friends with him
< 1 minute readFaf du Plessis is a competitor. That’s the kind of thing people say. It’s a shorthand way of saying that he only seems capable of playing to his full potential when there’s a stronger taste of conflict to proceedings. Performing in what is never called the crucible of county cricket,
Continue readingAustralia should probably stop doctoring their own pitches
< 1 minute readPlaying Australia is like playing Jenga with a house of cards when each of the cards is drunk. Before they played Sri Lanka, David Warner spoke of batting “well into the next day” but the team repeatedly folded as if prepared by Miura. Against South Africa at the Waca, they
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