< 1 minute readYesterday Alastair Cook played far and away the most entertaining reverse sweeps and ramp shots we’ve ever seen. Proof, if it were needed, that context is everything. With 10,000 runs of back story, this was a proper plot twist. In contrast, Alex Hales’ daddy fifties are a new story. This
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It’s the Lord’s Test – you know what that means, right?
< 1 minute readIt means it’s time for great swathes of flowery sentimental guff about what is, at the end of the day, a load of grass surrounded by plastic seats, overlooked by blocks of flats. The only way we can get through the misty-eyed paeans to Lord’s these days is to turn
Continue readingIs Rory Kleinveldt the archetypal South African pro?
< 1 minute readAs you may well have seen, Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels shared a 342-run partnership in a one-day game last night. Even more dispiritingly for the opposition, they did it as openers while batting first. You could easily have been forgiven for thinking that the game was essentially over even
Continue readingWeather to play cricket – talking points from Colin Graves’ recent interviews
2 minute readMeant to do this the other day. Midway through the first Test, England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Colin Graves smooshed around all of the various media present, saying the same things to different people. The two main things that he said were that the T20 Blast is “mediocre” and
Continue readingHampshire’s innovative approach to losing ground on rivals
2 minute readUninformative lead-in paragraph. Brace yourselves. Uninspiring but undeniably informative subheading to come. Middlesex v Hampshire This was our favourite match this week, largely because Hampshire scored -1 points. They did actually score a point for taking three wickets in Middlesex’s first innings of 467 but were deducted two for bowling
Continue readingJames Anderson and the very definition of greatness
2 minute readLast week we sort of maybe vaguely agreed to possibly think about putting down a few words about James Anderson and whether or not he was a ‘great’. As with most things we agree to do, we put it to the back of our mind and just sort of hoped
Continue readingSwing, seam and no place to go – the joys of touring England as a modern overseas batsman
< 1 minute readTouring England’s never been easy. The conditions, for most overseas batsmen, are as weird and difficult as one of those early-Nineties computer games made by one slightly unhinged bloke in his bedroom. Nothing works how they expect it to and they search for a solution with no real certainty that
Continue readingTurns out we’re really rather delighted that Moeen Ali made a daddy hundred
< 1 minute readA daddy hundred’s anything over 150, right? Sounds about right. Graham Gooch should get in touch to correct us if we’re wrong. Sometimes it’s not entirely obvious how you feel about a player until you’ve seen what they’ve done without actually watching it happen. We were out all day and
Continue readingFringe players and pressure – the Nick Compton story
< 1 minute readYou often get the impression with Nick Compton that if it weren’t for media scrutiny, the doubters and his own desire to succeed, he’d be just fine. That would be some luxury though. Test cricket doesn’t work that way. You don’t really earn a Test place. You earn the right
Continue readingYet another reason why Test matches should always start on a Thursday
< 1 minute readWe write Cricket Badger and Cricinfo’s Twitter round-up on a Thursday so we sometimes don’t find time to do a proper match preview if a Test starts on a Friday. Granted, this is perhaps not one of the greater considerations when the powers that be are scheduling cricket matches, but
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