< 1 minute readEngland and Australia fans who enjoy answering the question “so why isn’t this the Ashes then?” will be delighted to hear that the two sides are going to do that thing where they follow the Test series with five don’t-give-a-toss one-day matches six months later in the other country. The
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2017 Twenty20 Finals Day – most of the story in scorecards
< 1 minute readWe rather love Twenty20 finals day, which has always seemed to strike a good balance between elite sport and village fete. A lot of short format competitions seem to be striving for the po-faced tribalism of football, but the annual climax of the original has always erred on the side
Continue readingArrow stopped play at The Oval
< 1 minute readAs a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t fire arrows at people – or indeed anywhere near them. It is what is known as “very dangerous”. Someone fired an arrow into the middle of the Surrey v Middlesex match today. Here’s the arrow. @surreycricket Incredibly some **** has fired an arrow
Continue readingWhen should a captain declare?
2 minute readThe timing of a declaration will often elicit heated discussion among commentators. However, it seems safe to assume that the actual importance of the decision rarely justifies the level of debate, which is almost certainly artificially exaggerated by the fact that such questions generally only arise when not much is
Continue readingThe West Indies make use of some quality imports
< 1 minute readThe great thing about alternative dimensions is that every now and again you can pluck a similar-looking cricket team from one of them and deploy it in your own world. The incarnation of the West Indies seen in this Test was an unusually gritty one. Like a team-mate’s belt within
Continue readingThe real story of the West Indies’ dropped chances is just how many England’s batsmen offered
< 1 minute readIt’s like we always say, to take 12,841 wickets, you need to create 15,516 chances. (We should stick that on a T-shirt). At the time of writing, the second Test between England and the West Indies had seen 12 drops, which is rather more than you’d expect. The Windies were
Continue readingWest Indies improve their attack, England don’t
< 1 minute readShannon Gabriel’s fun, isn’t he? An old school fast bowler who doesn’t half-arse it and who has plenty of arse to deploy. He is a good selection. Gabriel’s efforts have contrasted with those of Chris Woakes in this match. At the start of day one, Woakes was the only one
Continue readingThe one thing England need to do to resolve their batting frailty
< 1 minute readIf England could find three really mediocre batsmen, they’d be a hell of a side. They’re after a two, a three and a five. Fill those spots with players like Chris Tavaré, Ravi Bopara and – hell, why not – Jos Buttler and together with the runs from their all-rounder
Continue readingStuart Law lowers the bar for niceness
< 1 minute readStuart Law hasn’t been enjoying himself. We can’t find the footage of the West Indies coach as he watched Jason Holder refuse the new pink ball before limping off three balls later, so we’ll have to do the hard yards and describe it. Imagine a man who couldn’t look more
Continue readingShahid Afridi made a T20 hundred yesterday
< 1 minute readAnd everyone is, as usual, missing the point. Shahid Afridi is the least T20 cricketer to have ever graced the format. Here’s why.
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