< 1 minute readA good first day of Test cricket for England, in the sense that it put them straight. Playing Sri Lanka demands perseverance. It demands perseverance so earnest it comes with a pipe and a scowl. If Sri Lanka’s feisty wins in their warm-up matches hadn’t got the message through to
Continue reading< 1 minute readHe took seven, in fact. For 28 runs. That is acceptable. That is very, very acceptable. He’s not quite up there with his grandfather yet, but he made Lancashire’s 328 look as whopping as a medium-sized block of flats, as Hampshire were bowled out for 133. England hold the Ashes,
Continue reading< 1 minute readThose who suggest we might have lost track of the IPL during the league phase may have a point. We were at a friend’s house yesterday and he switched on the IPL, asking: “Is this important?” to which we answered, with some confidence: “No.” Turns out it was important and
Continue reading< 1 minute readWe’re not a fan of this idea. You might say that we’re too easily pleased; that we’d support any batsman who scored thousands of runs for England with unparalleled panache. But you’d be wrong. There’s another thing. We once made Kevin Pietersen say ‘pie’. You can’t buy an experience like
Continue reading2 minute readIf you’ve only been half paying attention to Sri Lanka’s two warm-up matches, you might have got the wrong impression. In the first, against Middlesex, the first day ended with them having conceded 321-5. Andrew Strauss scored a hundred, but so did Dan Housego. “They can’t bowl,” said Robert Baby-Bunting
Continue reading< 1 minute readWe didn’t cover Lancashire’s Roses victory over Yorkshire at the weekend because – you know – sometimes you just can’t be bothered. That win took Lancashire to the top of the table and one of the big contributors has been The Roof, Farveez Maharoof, who is rapidly turning into a
Continue reading< 1 minute readNot sure if this opinion is even a slightly different shade of grey to the one the other day. Morgan or Bopara? Sounds like it was close. The national selector, Geoff Miller, said: “The controlled innings that Eoin played just gave him the nod.” When a batsman is being picked
Continue reading< 1 minute readWe’ve a lot of time for both Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan. Far from feeling it necessary to identify one as being a better bet for the Test team, we’re simply happy that one of them misses out. The true strength of the great Australian Test teams of yesteryear was
Continue reading< 1 minute readThere’s a good chance this doesn’t bother anyone else but us, but when has that ever stopped us? “Surrey – so what?” is the theme of this post. Surrey get a lot of media coverage. We don’t really know why, because they don’t deserve it. Their matches get first division
Continue reading< 1 minute readBeing as you were all unmoved by yesterday’s references to ludicrous Eighties fantasy film, Legend, we’ve decided to put three more references into today’s post as punishment. The title is one reference. See if you can spot the other two. They are both subtle and clever. In yesterday’s Roses match,
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