< 1 minute readThis is a slightly weird feeling, but we really want Ricky Ponting to play at the MCG. Much as we want England to win easily, beating a side captained by Michael Clarke just wouldn’t be right. Ricky Ponting is the most significant player on either side and it brings the
Continue reading2 minute readBradders writes: One year on from my wedding, I was again confronted with the prospect of missing more cricket. This year, however, we had decided to have our anniversary in London rather than Ireland, therefore enabling us to go to the Oval for day two of the third Test. Technically,
Continue reading< 1 minute readSometimes we feel utterly disconnected from this great nation. The attitude towards beating Australia at cricket being a case in point. A week or so ago, it seemed like a number of England fans were feeling sorry for Australia. This is mental. Never feel sorry for Australia. Now there are
Continue reading< 1 minute readBradders writes: My wife Pauline and I were married on the 20th August 2009 in Adare, southern Ireland. Due to it being the first day of the final Test of the Ashes series, it was obviously a momentous day. Having booked the wedding a year before (and prior to the
Continue reading< 1 minute readDon’t come to this website if you don’t prefer inconclusive grey to black or white certainty. Australia’s batting could certainly get better. At the minute, England will feel like dismissing Mike Hussey for under 50 would win them the series, so there’s room for improvement there from Australia’s perspective. Their
Continue reading< 1 minute readNever write off the Aussies. They’re never down for long. When England lose this Test match, the score will be 1-1, but you can lose a match in different ways. You can affect opposition players to the extent that they’ll have a different outlook in the next Test and a
Continue reading< 1 minute readWhy DOESN’T Shane Watson always get out in the 90s? Would it be unfair to suggest that for some players personal milestones bring more pressure because the player in question is – how shall we put this – massively self-involved with an overinflated sense of their own importance? It is
Continue reading< 1 minute readThere are some English people who have had sympathy for Australia during the first half of this Ashes series. We won’t hesitate to call these people idiots. Imagine being hunted by a carcharodontosaurus and then when you’ve somehow managed to trap it after spending 20 years digging an absolutely enormous
Continue reading< 1 minute readOne, befriend Troy Cooley. Two, hang out with him for a week. Last week, we said that Cooley didn’t seem to have done a lot for Australia’s bowlers. We partly retract that. Overall, they’ve had a pretty woeful series, but to teach Mitchell Johnson how to swing a cricket ball
Continue reading< 1 minute readA balls. They have made a balls of their first Test innings in South Africa. 136-9 is a rubbish score for a side that relies so heavily on its batting, whatever the conditions. Is ‘Steyn and Morkel’ a thing yet, like ‘Wasim and Waqar’ or ‘Lillee and Thomson’? It’s probably
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