4 minute readEngland and Australia have arrived in Manchester for the last northern Ashes Test until 2031. The tourists lead 2-1, but fatigue is starting to tell for both teams. What can we expect in the week ahead? Pat Cummins has bowled 140 overs in the last six weeks, and may conceivably
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2 minute readFirst published in 2016 and now republished without changing a word – although we did update the lead image and add a link at the bottom. If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find him, maybe you can ask Moeen Ali to do
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3 minute readBilled as “a deep dive into one of the fiercest rivalries in sport,” How to Win the Ashes is available now on the BBC iPlayer. Regular King Cricket contributor Sam Blackledge has had a watch. This is his take on it. Documentaries like this are not really aimed at people
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3 minute readBad shots are bad shots, but in an age when the dumbest moments are endlessly replayed and dissected, it’s important to at least try and take in the bigger picture. A batter who sometimes plays the wrong shot is nowhere near as bad as a batter who’s always worrying about
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2 minute readWhen Joe Root drops catches, Joe Root blames the ball. Remember when English commentators were talking up Josh Tongue’s “extra pace” because he was bowling 85mph? That seems even more nonsensical now after Mark Wood made the Headingley crowd gasp at not just the obvious threat of his bowling but
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3 minute readBazball is a completely annoying word because any time it’s used – which is basically every other sentence these days – everybody is talking at cross purposes. The foundations for this ongoing noisy surround sound argument lie in the fact that almost no-one knows or acknowledges the definition that Cricinfo
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2 minute readBen Stokes’ incredible attempt to play a twice-in-a-lifetime innings has tragically overshadowed the Lord’s Test’s most extraordinary passage of play: England spending two-thirds of a day bowling nothing but 80mph bouncers and it somehow working out for them. Forget day five. We’ve all seen a Stokes special before and everyone
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2 minute readThe attitude of England’s top order batters appears to be that if you aren’t Pat Cummins, you’re going to the fence. It’ll be interesting to see the impact of this as the series wears on. Australia’s most accurate bowler, Scott Boland, conceded 147 runs in 26 overs in the first
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2 minute readIt’s not just that England have fielded five right-arm seamers in this Test, it’s that the one bowling 85mph is being lauded as the quick one. Where’s all the pace gone? It’s there a leak somewhere? Let’s pull back the carpet and see if there’s 5mph pooling somewhere under the
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4 minute readWe still don’t feel like we know Ollie Robinson all that well, but one thing we’ve concluded is that he is now pretty well established as England’s talker-of-bollocks in chief. Robinson somehow made the headlines last week for a tetchy and sweary outburst at Usman Khawaja after dismissing him for
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