< 1 minute readThis seems to be a common assessment at the minute, but it’s a bit unfair. They’re more polarised, polarised England – steady upper order batting and then the three dementos at five, six and seven. Admittedly, two of the dementos – Morgan and Buttler – have mostly failed in this
Continue readingCategory: South Africa
Generic ‘someone is better than someone else’ post
< 1 minute readSouth Africa are supposed to be playing the Windies today, then India play Pakistan before England play New Zealand. However, we’re away for the weekend with no plans to use the internet, so you’re going to have to fill in the gaps yourselves in the comments section. We’re not really
Continue readingSouth Africa are better than Pakistan
< 1 minute readLargely because Pakistan never actually got round to chasing the target. Instead, the batsmen just sort of stood there and hoped that it would go away on its own. It didn’t.
Continue readingIndia are better than South Africa
< 1 minute readIf we’d have bothered writing a Champions Trophy preview, we might have had India down as fair weather favourites. It’s as much the lack of alternatives as anything else. India have their weaknesses, but despite the absence of some extraordinarily familiar faces they’re experienced and they play to their strengths.
Continue readingSouth African fire v Pakistani ice
< 1 minute readThat is a deeply unsatisfactory title and we’ll tell you why – fire and ice are not equal. No matter how dangerous ice can be, fire is just fundamentally scarier. Talk about fire and it conjures images of blazing infernos. Talk about ice and you think of slipping over and
Continue readingBad news for Jack Russell
< 1 minute readIndividual statistical achievements in cricket don’t always tally with ability, so it’s pleasing when a good player is rewarded. However, for every 11-60 recorded by a Dale Steyn, there’s a world record number of dismissals for an AB de Villiers. Now AB de Villiers is great at many things. He
Continue readingWhat did Dale Steyn do?
< 1 minute readWe’ve just got back and we’re trying to catch up. It strikes us that Dale Steyn taking six wickets for eight runs was probably the most significant event. When you need to clarify which are runs and which are wickets in someone’s bowling figures, you know they’ve done something special.
Continue readingNew Zealand beat a South Africa team
< 1 minute readWell played Kane Williamson for scoring 145 not out and well played the rest of you for fielding competently. We’re sure he’ll be delighted about it, but we’re not too sure that Captain Brendon McCullum can take enormous pride in beating a South Africa side featuring the following luminaries: Quinton
Continue readingNew Zealand welcome opportunity to pretend they would have liked the opportunity to salvage some pride
< 1 minute readThis website is against two-Test series, but some people like them. Secretly, New Zealand will be delighted that they don’t have to adopt stern facial expressions in order to state that they are desperate to make amends for previous performances in the third Test. Instead, the players can claim to
Continue readingAustralia’s fresh bowlers deliver fresh pies
< 1 minute readAustralia were probably down to their third-string attack in the third Test. We’re not sure how deep ‘bench strength’ needs to be these days, but they might want to stay shallower next time they play. This bowling attack was Australia’s choice, but Mitchell Johnson is basically a bowling machine set
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