< 1 minute readWe’ve put the bad news first in the forlorn hope that you might at least finish reading today’s piece with your spirits on an upward trajectory. The BCCI are asking the ICC to appeal the Jimmy Anderson decision No, seriously. They are. Does no-one in the BCCI ever feel embarrassed
Continue reading< 1 minute readAs in ‘returned’. He hasn’t got ankylosing spondylitis or anything. He’s also only back in the squad, not necessarily the team. Plus he hasn’t been away that long. If we’re honest, we’re only doing this joke because we know we’ll get complaints if we don’t. But it does feel like
Continue reading< 1 minute readJames Anderson has his hearing about maybe having pushed someone today. There’s much talk about how he’s been singled out as result of being a persistent sledger, but his rage isn’t a patch on that of the retiring (from cricket) Steve Kirby, who was one of the subjects of last
Continue reading< 1 minute readMight as well call for at least one of the captains to be sacked. His batsmen have crumbled against bowling they should be comfortable against, his senior players aren’t ‘standing up’, he’s insisting on fielding a part-time spinner instead of a specialist and he hasn’t made a hundred in his
Continue reading2 minute readThere are two types of spin bowlers: The first kind is the attacking kind. They bat at number 11, but with the ball in their hand, they can take wickets. Early in their career, they can be a bit hit and miss, going for a few boundaries, but you try
Continue reading< 1 minute readThe day in summary: James Anderson earned two wickets through being James Anderson, Moeen Ali earned two wickets through not being James Anderson and Chris Jordan earned nothing. Oh, and Stuart Broad got three. Word of the day – “displacement” Play was reminiscent of the later days of Curtly Ambrose
Continue reading< 1 minute readWhatever his keeping’s like and no matter whether or not he’s ‘ready’ for Test cricket, we’re very pleased that Jos Buttler is now in England’s Test team. We like skittishness in a number seven batsman. It is always worth watching Buttler at the crease and when he bats with Ian
Continue reading< 1 minute readThat is… stellar. Particularly when you consider that he made three off 58 balls in the first innings. He wasn’t alone either. You can see the full deadbattery in scorecard format here. South Africa were playing for a draw to secure the series and succeeded in fine complete-absence-of-style. Rangana Herath
Continue reading2 minute readAfter winning the previous Test with four-and-a-bit bowlers, India could have gone either way for this one. Unsurprisingly, they went with four bowlers, not five. Sometimes you can determine a lot from these fifty-fifty calls and MS Dhoni does seem to be a bit of a ‘pick the extra batsman’
Continue reading< 1 minute readThis year they moved the Twenty20 Cup to Friday nights to create an ‘appointment to view’. The premise is if people know when matches are being played, there’s a better chance they’ll watch. This year also sees a five-Test series taking place between England and India which boasts four different
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