Shane Warne said he always used to try and really rip a leg break when he first came on to bowl. This wasn’t to try and dismiss the batsman – although sometimes it did – it was really just to sow a seed of doubt. Warne wanted to maximise the
Continue reading
Busy day. Lots of wickets and even one or two deliveries that didn’t result in wickets. Somewhere in amongst it all, Joe Root took 5-8. For many people, the best part of Root’s spell was the moment when he had 3-0. For other people, the best part was the perfect-o-ball
Continue reading
It’s always exciting to try and guess what day one talking points will be. When India picked three spinners and England picked one, it seemed like maybe that would be a thing. But you don’t always get to a point where the composition and quality of your bowling attack will
Continue reading
Welcome to Tuesday. Here are some things people may or may not want to talk about this Tuesday. England beat New Zealand fairly easily Heather Knight’s world champions hadn’t actually played a one-day international since December 2019, but they beat New Zealand in the first of three matches without too
Continue reading
There have been 28 occasions in the last 25 years when a bowler has taken eight wickets or more in a Test innings. Some of these were weirder than others. At what point does a bowling performance become really, truly, freakishly remarkable? We’d say at the seventh wicket. Five-fors are
Continue reading
India just made 600 runs on what was in some quarters portrayed as being an UNPLAYABLE AND DISGRACEFUL DUST PIT OF SHAME. “It makes batting a lottery,” they said. If that were the case, India must have bought a hell of a lot of tickets. There was a lot of
Continue reading
Virat Kohli is a man who struggles to come to terms with being bowled. We assumed we’d already seen Kohli’s finest “I’ve just been bowled” face. And maybe, for a pure, single facial expression conveying sheer bafflement that such a thing could possibly have happened, the face he produced after
Continue reading
We both utterly detest squad rotation and completely agree with it. We’d like to live in a world where it isn’t necessary. But it is. We predicted squad rotation years ago, but it’s still only really seeping into the sport even now. Most teams do little more than flirt with
Continue reading
“I didn’t really do anything out of the ordinary,” said Jimmy Anderson about an over that featured one of the finest clean-bowleds you’re ever likely to see, then another one that may or may not have been better, plus an LBW shout that could legitimately have been given sandwiched in
Continue reading
This is maybe not people’s top concern at the minute, but cricketers are getting really half-arsed with their decision review system (DRS) hand signals these days. When a batsman or captain disagrees with an on-field umpire’s decision, they are now permitted to question their authoritah. To signal that they wish
Continue reading