Do you know how far it is from Australia to England? Miles. Absolutely bloody miles. Do you know how long it takes to complete the trip? Ages. Absolutely bloody ages. Cameron Boyce flew from Australia to England for this match. He bowled one over. It went for 19. He didn’t
Continue readingTag: Moeen Ali
Moeen Ali likes to feel bat on ball
Or, in English, he likes to hit the ball. It always strikes us that ‘feel bat on ball’ sounds altogether too sensual for something that’s actually quite percussive and violent. After all, you wouldn’t say about a drunken brawler: ‘He loves the feel of fist on face and the sensation
Continue readingWhy Alex Hales and Moeen Ali would make a great one-day opening partnership
This is going to come across as a gossamer-thinly-veiled plea for Alastair Cook to be given the old heave-ho, but it’s not. It’s literally just about Hales and Ali – Cook’s merely collateral damage. In fact let’s say he can bat at three. There’s still a large part of us
Continue readingMoeen Ali foolishly expects other England players to score some of the runs
That’s okay. That’s what these tours are for. Moeen will have learnt from this. From now on, he’ll know that 119 off 87 balls simply isn’t enough and he’ll instead score 180 off 110 balls or whatever. Other than that, one of the great joys of the first one-day international
Continue readingMoeen Ali won’t tie up an end
There 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 readingFatigue is cumulative – so bowl Moeen Ali
Sorry that we keep harping on about that period of play when England got caught in fast-medium purgatory, but it really was when the game got away from England. A number of factors conspired to create the horror. As well as poor bowling and limp captaincy, tiredness played a part.
Continue readingMoeen Ali and Jimmy Anderson – kings in defeat
The final pole was taken with just a cherry to spare. But just as a snatched draw wouldn’t have erased England’s shoddy cricket from the previous day, so falling short shouldn’t negate the efforts of Moeen Ali and Jimmy Anderson. Jimmy was basically in tears when Mike Atherton tried to
Continue readingEngland will play a fairly fast bowler
We all knew that Sam Robson was going to get picked. He’ll play sensibly and probably quite well. If so, we’ll be quite happy about that while simultaneously wishing that we didn’t have to endure hilarious Australian ‘banter’ about his place of birth every time he gets a half-decent score.
Continue readingMoeen Ali and “planning for the future”
The concept of ‘planning for the future’ is often used to explain the inclusion of younger players in favour of perhaps superior older players. This preference is often presented as being ‘an investment’. That, on the face of it, is a perfectly valid modus operandi. It gives the sense that
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