< 1 minute readWhat a headline. Okay, let’s hustle through this unsatisfactorily before another Test match starts. In fact it occurs to us that the daily email comprising this particular post will go out at almost exactly the time the match starts. We really should plan ahead. Never mind. The headline’s written. County
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James Vince’s batting average in the second division, first division and Test cricket
< 1 minute readWe had a first look at James Vince in Test cricket and weren’t much impressed – but we did add the proviso that we don’t ascribe much value to debut performances anyway. We’ve had a few more looks now and we’re still not particularly impressed. We generally find people’s decisiveness
Continue readingOnly half of this week’s Division One County Championship matches were draws!
2 minute readDoes this make it the most resultsive week yet? Is this as much winnery and lossery as we’ve had? Has the staggering impact on the County Championship table bespoilt our internal dictionary? Middlesex beat Yorkshire This was the big result. Middlesex’s wise decision to finally play a match outside the
Continue readingLancashire are a bit more top in the County Championship
2 minute readWe’ve missed a couple of rounds of the County Championship because (a) the matches took place after a big slab of shorter format stuff, (b) pretty much all the matches were draws so there wasn’t much to say, and (c) we’re feckless and unreliable. Last time around, Lancashire had gone
Continue readingMop-up of the day – in, out and not out
< 1 minute readAn inadvertently topical but quite possibly inaccurate-by-the-morning headline for UK readers. In Anil Kumble’s… well, he’s not exactly back. He’s back in the public eye, we suppose. He’s India’s new coach. Kumble is a hard, smart and determined man. Coaching India demands more than those qualities, but it’s a fair
Continue readingIs Rory Kleinveldt the archetypal South African pro?
< 1 minute readAs you may well have seen, Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels shared a 342-run partnership in a one-day game last night. Even more dispiritingly for the opposition, they did it as openers while batting first. You could easily have been forgiven for thinking that the game was essentially over even
Continue readingHampshire’s innovative approach to losing ground on rivals
2 minute readUninformative lead-in paragraph. Brace yourselves. Uninspiring but undeniably informative subheading to come. Middlesex v Hampshire This was our favourite match this week, largely because Hampshire scored -1 points. They did actually score a point for taking three wickets in Middlesex’s first innings of 467 but were deducted two for bowling
Continue readingBrummie Kryptonite and unbeaten failures – this week’s County Championship round-up
2 minute readLet’s write a pointless opening sentence so that the formatting doesn’t look quite so weird when we give the Warwickshire v Durham game its own subheading. Warwickshire v Durham Warwickshire were very much on top after two days, but somehow, after making 313 and bowling Durham out for 190, they
Continue readingSamit Patel is a big fat loser – a majestic, admirable, envied, big fat loser (plus a round-up of this week’s other first division matches)
2 minute readIf respect were something tangible and delicious rather than an abstract concept, Samit Patel earned more of it than even he could eat this week. He also won the battle of the Patels. What he did not win was ‘the match for Nottinghamshire against Warwickshire’. The man Kevin Pietersen calls
Continue readingWhere next for Chris Woakes?
2 minute readChris Woakes played in England’s last Test. He dismissed Stephen Cook for 115. Now he’s out of the team and out of the squad. England like the idea of Woakes, but they don’t like that idea enough to commit to giving him a long run in the side. It’s understandable.
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