< 1 minute read Here’s a comparison. The Rugby World Cup finished last Saturday. England played in the final. Their next international fixture will be on the second of February. England’s final match in the Cricket World Cup was on the 21st of April, against the West Indies. Their next international fixture, a Test
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Inzy falls four runs short
< 1 minute read Inzamam-ul-Haq managed to get himself stumped four runs short of becoming Pakistan’s highest-ever run-scorer. Patrick will be pleased. We’re of a similar mind. Four runs (or rather their absence) here really doesn’t make a blind bit of difference in terms of great a player he was, although we wouldn’t have
Continue readingSouth Africa select bowlers on the basis of bowling ability
2 minute read How are South Africa managing to beat Pakistan? They won the first Test and now they’re on the verge of taking a 150-run first innings lead in a despicably constricted two match back-to-back series. Well, rather ingeniously and for just about the first time since their readmittance to Test cricket
Continue readingInzamam-ul-Haq retires
3 minute read No. Don’t do it. We know you’re 37, but since when has lack of fitness affected your game? Besides, you’re as svelte now as you’ve ever been. Inzamam’s appearance has always been deceptive though. Maybe his slimmer look is deceiving us too. He’s got one more match to go –
Continue readingJacques Kallis fills the void
< 1 minute read Shaun Pollock may have been dropped, but South Africa have got more than one crushingly dispiriting all-rounder at their disposal. In fact, South African cricket can boast a whole battalion of line-and-length-bowling competent-batting dullards. Jacques Kallis is a little better than competent, of course, although he’s a dullard in more
Continue readingIndia win Twenty20 World Cup
< 1 minute read How can a mere 40 overs of cricket contain so many twists and turns? The last three or four overs in particular were dramatic dynamite. Commentators would say ‘Pakistan are almost certain to win now,’ one ball, yet find themsleves saying it was ‘India’s game to lose,’ the next. It
Continue readingTwenty20 World Cup final, India v Pakistan
< 1 minute read If the proper World Cup was pretty rubbish with lots of things going wrong, the Twenty20 World Cup has pretty much addressed each of these issues. There’ve been crowds, excitement, few dead matches and they’ve even managed to get the final that all cricket tournaments want – India v Pakistan.
Continue readingMisbah-ul-Haq: a Twenty20 specialist
2 minute read There’s a difference between being a Twenty20 specialist from county cricket and being an international-standard Twenty20 specialist. If you’re the former, you don’t really qualify for consideration in the latter category. There’s a kind of minimum skill level that’s essential. Ask England. We mention Misbah-ul-Haq and his handiness for the
Continue readingShahid Afridi the bowler
< 1 minute read Shahid Afridi seems to be quite the Twenty20 bowler. As skchai said in the comments: “Perhaps that is another aspect of his “Afridiness” – he is only effective bowling to other Afridis (not the members of his Pashtun clan, but rather players who play like him).” Perhaps the ‘what would
Continue readingIndia beat Pakistan after a bowl out
< 1 minute read Why must they play these matches at pub o’clock on a Friday? It was probably gripping, but we wouldn’t know because the only gripping we were experiencing was from our own hand around various overpriced European wheat beers. The last word in that sentence rather explains the ham-fisted punnery that
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