< 1 minute readIt doesn’t really matter which format gave rise to it, no-one wants to see a headline reading ‘Australia’s mastery entrenched’, which is what we just saw over at Cricinfo. Nothing good is ever entrenched. Tuesday night pub night isn’t entrenched, despite having persisted for over a decade. Nor is our
Continue readingCategory: Australia
Specialism or dilution? Questions for this latest month of Australia v England matches
< 1 minute readOn the face of it, there should be plenty to say about the fifth one-day international, but shortly after watching it we didn’t feel moved to write anything. A day later, we’re left with one abiding truth: we should feel a little more strongly than ‘peeved’ when England throw away
Continue readingEngland beat some Australian players
2 minute readAlthough, admittedly, you could just as easily say that some England players beat some Australian players. England were down a Pietersen and an Anderson, but Australia were down a Clarke, a Warner, a Watson, a Haddin and we can’t actually be bothered working out who else would be in the
Continue readingAn Australian casualty of England’s mighty performances
< 1 minute readAustralia have dropped George Bailey from their Test squad. It was always likely that the side would be eviscerated by the selectors after only just about managing to saunter to five massive wins over England. They’re basically in turmoil. The replacement is none other than perennial Test yo-yo, Shaun Marsh,
Continue readingThe finishers are dropping lower (and so are England)
2 minute readTime was, your ‘finisher’ batted at six in one-dayers. Then it was seven. Today, Australia had a man who now averages 53 in 50-over internationals batting at nine. It worked out okay for them. The last wicket partnership At 244-9, Australia were some way from victory, but James Faulkner engineered
Continue readingCut by the thunder
< 1 minute readThat’s a quote from Chris Rogers which appeared in this week’s Cricket Badger. We’re hereby forewarning you that this phrase is to become an official part of the King Cricket vernacular. It comes about from Rogers being deemed surplus to requirements by The Sydney Thunder, a Big Bash team. He
Continue readingFaith in your batting tactics
2 minute readEngland ended this Ashes series much as they’d begun – bowled out for sod all. There’s been no progress. If anything, they’ve looked worse and worse as time has gone on. It actually feels like they’ve refined bad batting, settling on an approach which guarantees a low score every time.
Continue readingGiving up on the old boys
2 minute readThere’s a lot of talk of it being the end of an era for England; how many of the familiar faces won’t be around for the next Ashes in 2015. It’s not surprising many of us want to throw all our old toys away and buy new ones, but you
Continue readingDay of the gnarl-dog
< 1 minute readThere is a chance that James Anderson isn’t the nightwatchman, you realise. He might be the new number three. But while the batting may have changed considerably, life’s the same for England in the field. Today’s backdrop for the Brad Haddin counterattack was 97-5. We all know the drill by
Continue readingShuffling bread
2 minute readHave we all made realistic New Year’s resolutions? No more drinking on Wednesdays? One takeaway a week, but you won’t deliberately order enough for breakfast the next morning as well? Or maybe you’ve resolved to stop playing Australia quite so frequently. Vivisection’s tempting, but let’s not reach for the scalpel
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