< 1 minute readWhen they manufacture a girl band or a boy band, they often work on a simple principle: put enough reasonably attractive people in one place and it’s hard to assess the visual merits of any one individual. When it comes to girl bands, we subconsciously take the best features of
Continue readingCategory: South Africa
Australia’s lowest Test total of all time
< 1 minute readAs we write, Australia are 22-9 in 12.5 overs. Their lowest total ever is 36 and the lowest Test total of all time is New Zealand’s 26 (both those scores were against England, incidentally). Bizarrely, Australia are actually 210 ahead, thanks to Michael Clarke’s increasingly spectacular 151 in the first
Continue readingDale Steyn has genuine ambition
< 1 minute readDale Steyn doesn’t want to be the guy who gets a standing ovation for three wickets in a Twenty20 match. He’s prepared to put in the hard yards. This is what he said before this Test series: ”There’s a lot of guys who can bowl 150km/h when you give them
Continue readingMohammad Amir – don’t mourn the loss of a future great
2 minute read“Please don’t let it be the kid,” said Nasser Hussain at the start of all of this. He spoke for most of us. We wanted Mohammad Amir to be innocent, but it turns out that he wasn’t and believing that he might have become a future great makes no sense
Continue readingNew Zealand were the ones who beat South Africa
< 1 minute readExceptional cricket. That is how you exploit a weakness. At 108-2 chasing 222, South Africa seemed untroubled, but there was a spot on their face. It was very small, but it was there. With the dismissal of Jacques Kallis, they gave it a little bit of a scratch and took
Continue readingCricket World Cup storylines
< 1 minute readThe great thing about actual, proper tournaments is the way that narratives develop. Every remaining team already has a good story in place if they eventually go on to become World Champions. Pakistan – Would defy what was a catastrophic build-up to the tournament even by their standards. Being as
Continue readingWhat’s a good World Cup score?
< 1 minute readEngland’s 327 wasn’t enough against Ireland, but 171 was enough against South Africa. It’s not a matter of different opponents, it’s different conditions. This is why between-innings analysis is so often virtually worthless. What constitutes a good score varies because a run doesn’t have a set value – it changes
Continue readingSouth Africa ‘choke’ against England
< 1 minute readEngland could have beaten India and Ireland, but beat neither. They’ve a far better claim to being chokers than South Africa at present. In the last 12 months, Australia have lost a Twenty20 international off the last ball to England; lost a one-dayer by one wicket to Sri Lanka; lost
Continue readingWhen did the South Africa cricket team become exciting?
< 1 minute readSeriously, South Africa have got a worryingly strong claim to being the most exciting team in this World Cup. They pick three spinners, including a devilish leggie and they ask one of them to open the bowling. They have the best player in the world. They have no consistent gameplan.
Continue readingJacques Kallis would genuinely score more runs than you with his eyes closed
< 1 minute readYesterday, we wrote about Steyn and Tendulkar, but there’s another modern great on display in that match. Like Tendulkar, Jacques Kallis seems to have reached an even loftier plane in middle age. You’ll need to go to another website to see the statistics about his recent form, but take it
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