Posted by There’s a lot of focus on Test cricket that’s going to happen, but elsewhere in the world Test cricket is actually already underway (or has recently finished).
India v South Africa
Over in Kolkata, a pretty big match: the reigning world Test champions versus the sport’s biggest nation at one of the greatest grounds: Eden Gardens.
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma won the toss, surveyed an India team containing no fewer than four spinners and quite understandably chose to bat. His openers duly put on a half century partnership, at which point Jasprit Bumrah took 5-27.
Is there a clearer measure of the supreme brilliance of Lord Megachief of Gold than taking five for spit on a four-spinner pitch? Such a silly cricketer. Sillier than Camelot.
Bangladesh v Ireland
It’s always newsworthy when Ireland get to play a Test match. Unfortunately, they found both wickets and runs hard to come by in Sylhet. They lost by an innings.
“Bangladesh were just better than us in every aspect of the game,” was the assessment of captain Andrew Balbirnie.
He reckons they need to play as much as possible in these sorts of unfamiliar conditions – which is good news because the second Test starts on Wednesday.
Papal seal
Ollie Pope was probably England’s number three anyway. Despite Marcus Trescothick’s bizarre evasion, this was then all but confirmed by his selection in the ‘England’ team for this weird warm-up match. Jacob Bethell making 2 for the Lions pretty much sealed it.
So why did Pope – a man who already has a track record of pissing away his run-scoring early in a series – then go and needlessly fritter away a hundred runs he could have deployed at some other time? You damn fool, Ollie! You’re no longer due!
Ashes filtration
We were very kindly invited onto the Cricket Unfiltered podcast earlier this week to talk about our book. We talked about plenty of other stuff too, obviously. Not wildly different stuff, admittedly. Pretty much all we talked about was the Ashes, and our book is, after all, about the Ashes. It was different Ashes stuff though. Future Ashes.
If you want to have a listen, you can find the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and doubtless a bunch of other places.
Where is The 50 Most Ridiculous Ashes Moments for sale again?
Here’s your daily stock update.
- Bookshop.org – available, says it usually dispatches within three weeks, seems to be quicker
- Amazon – 15 copies in stock with more supposedly on the way
- TGJones/WHSmith – out of stock
- Awesome Books – out of stock
- Blackwell’s – in stock, “usually dispatched within 2-3 weeks”
- Hive – out of stock
Hazlewood as well as Cummins out.
Aussie-supporting autocorrect simply will not accept this, as it keeps trying to autocorrect me into saying that hazel wood is out. (Which presumably means that oak is the new black, in wood terms).
Have the wheels come off the Aussie campaign before it has even begun? Is this a Glenn McGrath turning his ankle at Edgbaston moment? Or am I simply taking misplaced cricket balls, as usual?
We have to hope. Without hope, what’s the point?
Jump cut to the end of day one. England 165 all out. Boland 5-35. Doggett 5-60. Ged looks to camera, a dead-eyed expression on his face.
And then jump cut to Brisbane when Hazelwood and Cummins are back!
Does ‘out of stock’ mean ‘sold out’?
I’m not a marketing expert but it seems like 100% of stock from certain suppliers is now in Good Areas (ie in the hands of readers rather than in a pile at wherever the TG Jones distribution centre is, next to a pile of copies of ‘The Michael Vaughan Guide to Community Relations’ and a special edition of ‘The West Australian Presents: Top Tips for Keeping Things in Perspective’). Seems like there’s some variation in the pace of the deliveries, though – I guess on brand for Blackwell(‘s) not to be sending down/out the fastest deliveries
Honestly no idea what’s going on. We presume where places had stock and now don’t that those copies made their way to humans and the book’s life cycle is complete. But the stock numbers make no sense. Awesome went from 20+ to zero in an instant. We presume Amazon bought them all. It seems to come and go from most places but Blackwell’s have had “10+” listed since it came out so it doesn’t feel like they’ve sold a single one. Other than readers of this website, how would anyone find it anyway? Has anyone actually seen it in a shop yet?
The book has, apparently, been very well received by Amazon reader(s) so far.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/50-Most-Ridiculous-Ashes-Moments/dp/1923135694
More impartial five star reviews please!
Indeed. Unfortunately, I cannot join the ranks of those who provide such reviews on Amazon, as, seven years ago, I foreswore publishing reviews on that site, for reasons explained in the following article:
https://ianlouisharris.com/2019/01/01/my-good-friend-by-david-wellbrook-starting-my-new-year-with-a-rejection-an-appeal-and-kurt-denial-1-january-2019/
Daisy is more forgiving, it seems.
Meanwhile, despite Bumrah’s efforts, great result for another touring side, South Africa in India – incredible match https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/south-africa-in-india-2025-26-1479563/india-vs-south-africa-1st-test-1479571/live-cricket-score
Yeah, that one unfolded… rapidly.
Yeah, was expecting the loss of just a wicket or two. Was strangely gratifying to hear a silent crowd at the end of it all. I do like a good turnaround.
Damnit. I’m back to the weird toilet seat thingy again.
Do what I do and use an actual photo of yourself (obvs from a few years ago when I had more hair)
Yeh, me too, Tim.
Obvs.
I could put up photo, but I’m too famous.
Anyway, I’ve changed emails so this one should be different.