2 minute read People forget about the one-day series that preceded the 2005 Ashes, but they were a key part of it. They were ingeniously scheduled before the Test series, so that tension mounted. In 2009, they’re afterwards, like vegetable soup after a six-course meal. Twenty20 match England won the Ashes because they
Continue readingCategory: England
Andrew Flintoff’s strengths as a bowler
< 1 minute read Bit of pace, bit of bounce, good control and then there’s what the lazy among us refer to as ‘presence’; or worse, an ‘X-factor’. The concept of an X-factor always pisses us off. It’s not that there’s some mystical, unknowable attribute. It’s just that you haven’t bothered to find out
Continue readingWhy is Michael Vaughan not in England’s Ashes squad?
< 1 minute read Because he’s busy scoring tens of runs for Yorkshire and pensively rubbing his knee when in the field. Seven first-class innings, 147 runs at 21 with a top score of 43. County cricket can consider itself safe from combustion. It’s common for people to say that Michael Vaughan has ‘class’,
Continue readingOur World Twenty20 XI
< 1 minute read Tell you what’s boring: people picking fantasy teams and then publishing them on their websites. Who cares? The arrogance of these people to think anyone would be remotely interested. Here’s ours. Chris Gayle – plays forward defensives and sixes with the same facial expression Tillekeratne Dilshan – reliable, effective and
Continue readingTwo Test batsmen in Twenty20
< 1 minute read When you’ve already taken five wickets in a nine over match, as England did, you’d hope to have worse batsmen at the crease than Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. England’s six and seven were James Foster and Graeme Swann, for example. Needing 10 an over is no cause for panic
Continue readingBouncers in Twenty20 cricket
< 1 minute read England got their tactics right against India – brilliantly so. Admittedly, they stole these tactics off the West Indies who bounced India to defeat earlier in the week, but to be honest England probably carried out the plan even better. Indian batsmen are used to low, slow pitches and one-day
Continue readingTwenty20 bowling tactics and Twenty20 batting tactics
< 1 minute read We don’t have a great deal to say about England getting beaten. We’ve been writing this website for a few years now and it would do us no good at all to dwell on every underwhelming England loss. So we’re not going to. Not on a Friday. What we did
Continue readingWhat is going on in terms of cricket this summer?
2 minute read You played cricket last weekend and you liked it. You’re suddenly interested in the sport. You want to know what the professionals are doing. Here’s our cut-out-and-throw-away guide to the clean, simple, straightforward cricketing fixture list this summer. First of all the County Championship started. This is in two divisions,
Continue readingMeet Darren Gough
< 1 minute read This is the second competition to meet a cricketer. It is appearing here largely because we want to publish a picture of Darren Gough with a pork pie in his hand. The competition is over at The Mirror. The prize is actually pretty damn good: tickets to the first two
Continue readingTaking risks when batting in Twenty20 matches
< 1 minute read England should have learnt a major lesson from their first two matches in the World Twenty20. Against the Netherlands, they thought they were the better team and thought that if they didn’t make any mistakes when batting, they’d win. You don’t win Twenty20 matches by not making any mistakes. You’re
Continue reading