< 1 minute read It’s not a complicated thing. When you win a Test match, you’ve conquered not just the opposition but also time. This makes Test wins a bigger deal. It’s not enough to be better than the other team to win a Test match. You have to be better than them to
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< 1 minute read A lot of things happen over the course of a Test match – even one that barely scrapes into a fourth day. But you look at an innings where Mark Wood top scored and that feels like the main thing. That’s the thing that sums the match up, isn’t it?
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4 minute read We’re pretty sure we know how this Test will be remembered. The England team for the first Test averaged less than 273, so it didn’t seem unreasonable that they gave up trying to chase that on the final day against a really very good and balanced bowling attack. Others disagree,
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2 minute read People often say that having Ben Stokes in the team gives England a fourth seamer. That’s not right. Having Ben Stokes in the team gives England a spinner, because apparently they still pick four seamers even when he’s not playing. This was the first Test cricket at Lord’s for a
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2 minute read “With all due respect…” people say, or “No offence but…” What follows these phrases is somehow never respectful or inoffensive. England coach and selector Chris Silverwood (we warned you he’d try and become a ‘supremo’) didn’t actually plump for either of those options when speaking about the summer ahead earlier
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3 minute read The England men’s team are about to play the fourth Test against India, with Dom Bess apparently set to get another game. Meanwhile the England women’s team have started beating New Zealand in a new format, while Afghanistan and Zimbabwe are trying to get in on the current trend for
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4 minute read Test rankings are tricksy. Sometimes the top-ranked side isn’t much better than average. Sometimes it isn’t even the best at that specific moment. This doesn’t mean the rankings are wrong. It just means that people’s understanding of rankings is wrong. We play Test series between two sides so that we
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3 minute read At this time of year, we normally bestow the greatest honour in cricket by naming Lord Megachief of Gold. It’s a title that is earned through freakish cricket performance across the previous calendar year, but after much rumination we have concluded that 2020 wasn’t actually a proper year. There were
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< 1 minute read In Tim Southee and Trent Boult, New Zealand have textbook new ball bowlers who disagree on which arm to use. This is a useful starting point when trying to bowl out the opposition. After that, they have the finest old ball bowler around, The Great Neil Wagner. Wagner is a
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< 1 minute read It’s a Lord Megachief of Gold-fest down at Seddon Park this week. Neil Wagner (2019) is doing his usual thing, while Jason Holder (2018) has had a slightly less wonderful time. But it’s Kane Williamson (2015) who has been most influential. We’ve been thinking about double hundreds a bit recently
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