4 minute readThere’s basically nothing left as an England fan other than to become a connoisseur of missed catches. Keaton Jennings failing to make meaningful use of his own hands when Virat Kohli edged the ball to him on 93 was one of the greatest misses we’ve ever seen. There are three
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Four reasons why you should never challenge England to a collapse-off
2 minute readIndia were foolish to challenge England to a collapse-off. No matter who you are, you aren’t going to out-collapse England. Don’t get us wrong, India do have some real collapsing pedigree. Their performance at Lord’s was borderline exceptional, but the spectacular nature of that particular showing shouldn’t distract from the
Continue readingThe India batsmen who aren’t making any runs are pretty much the same India batsmen who didn’t make any runs last time around
< 1 minute readIndia have had very much the worse of conditions in this match and they have also been facing some masterful swing bowling. All the same, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that they haven’t really made any runs. Out of interest, we checked which batsmen had played in the Test
Continue readingWas that really a good Test match?
3 minute readThere’s this odd belief in cricket that people want to see fours and sixes. They don’t. They want to see jeopardy. What is jeopardy? It’s when wickets matter. It’s when everything you see has an impact on the outcome of the game. When one team makes 400 and the other
Continue readingVirat Kohli’s elite levels of obliviousness and delusion
3 minute readThere were three phases to Virat Kohli’s hundred. There was the bit where he kept being beaten by the bowlers; there was the bit where the ball wasn’t doing quite so much but he was still shaken up; and there was the bit where everything went back to normal and
Continue readingVirat Kohli ran out Joe Root and then he did a good thing and then he did a bad thing
2 minute readWe don’t know if the following is fair or not. You could probably prove it one way or the other using ‘statistics’ or ‘facts’. It certainly feels true though and if modern politics tells us anything, it’s that what feels true is of far greater significance that what actually is
Continue readingWhich is more likely: a Virat Kohli hundred, an Adil Rashid five-for or a Kuldeep Yadav five-for?
2 minute readMany things will happen when England play India from tomorrow. It’s tempting to imagine that the first Test match is some sort of newspaper headline final which will only feature those who were prominent during the quarters and semis in recent weeks. Viewed from that perspective, which is more likely:
Continue readingWe made up a word and Wisden published it
< 1 minute readThe word is ‘schedusfaction’ and it means ‘satisfaction with the scheduling of a cricket tour’. We didn’t realise the world had use for such a word until this summer. England are about to play a Test series against India. You may be aware of this and that might be because
Continue readingVirat Kohli’s ‘I’ve just been bowled by Adil Rashid’ face
< 1 minute readWhen we wrote about what it’s like to be Virat Kohli, we didn’t for one minute think that there would be any overlap with what it’s like to be Mike Gatting. Turns out there is. Virat Kohli and Mike Gatting both do a thing where they make an astonished face
Continue readingPlease can we very quickly talk about that very fine MS Dhoni innings in the last one-dayer?
2 minute readImagine a tiger hunting a deer. He’s squatting down in the undergrowth, taut and primed to strike. The deer is ambling around just in front of him, oblivious. When the deer gets close enough, the tiger will leap out and bite him in the neck. The deer mills around. He
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