2 minute readThere’s been no announcement that Nick Compton has been dropped from England’s Test squad, but he isn’t in the squad to play a warm-up match against Essex and Geoff Miller, the national selector, said that Joe Root is “currently the best opening partner” for Alastair Cook. It rather smacks of
Continue reading< 1 minute readAnd thus they have sacked him. Darren Lehmann will replace Mickey Arthur as Australia’s head coach. Lehmann is a decent replacement, but we feel the side would have been better off with an alternative candidate: Alf Stewart from Home and Away. Stewart is from the no-nonsense school of professional Australianism.
Continue reading< 1 minute readIndia’s Champions Trophy victory presents a good opportunity to bring this post about Twenty20 wicketkeeping to prominence once again. In a 20-over match, two of England’s top three were stumped by MS Dhoni and he could conceivably have had a third dismissal of that nature towards the end of the
Continue reading2 minute readAnd are thus honoured with the Champions Trophy white jackets. What an honour. The final was an odd one, not least because it featured only 40 per cent of the scheduled overs. As soon as they announced it would be 20 overs a side, everyone started talking about six-hitting, but
Continue reading< 1 minute readIt’s a final. We’re happy to do a preview for a final. Bowling Other than Jimmy Anderson, England’s other seamers have been at best mediocre. India’s haven’t been as good as Jimbo, but they have at least had their moments. Spin-wise, James Tredwell has been a faintly-pudgy, slapped back superhero,
Continue reading< 1 minute readChampions Trophy, Ashes build-up… Must. Try. And keep on top of. County Championship. 1st – Yorkshire Middlesex and Yorkshire were equal on points last time we did a County Championship update. They’ve played each other since then and Yorkshire won by 10 wickets. Hundreds were scored by Andrew Gale and
Continue reading< 1 minute readAnd by some margin. Even India’s bowling’s doing the job at the minute. They usually win one-dayers despite holding some sort of festival of pie-chucking when they’re in the field, so now they’re all but unbeatable. As for the batting, Rohit Sharma’s become unexpectedly efficient, while Shikhar Dhawan and his
Continue reading< 1 minute readRemember Ajantha Mendis? That’s kind of died down a bit, hasn’t it? He isn’t even in the Sri Lanka squad. There seems to be an assumption that India will win the second semi-final. They’ve been playing very well and they look the stronger team with a greater number of high
Continue reading< 1 minute readYou know what? We knew this. We intimated as much this morning. This South African team hasn’t choked, it just isn’t really all that good. This particular XI had a couple of good batsmen and no bowlers. You don’t win much with a line-up like that. You may point out
Continue reading< 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
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