Let’s play ‘What Happened Next?’. England are a promising 119-2 off 13 overs chasing a competitive but not insurmountable 202 on a fast scoring ground. Two experienced batsmen are at the crease. Both are well set. Surely a close finish is on the cards? Nope. Instead of setting up a grandstand finale, we somehow contrived to lose 8 (that’s right, EIGHT) wickets for the dismal sum of 8 (that’s right EIGHT) runs. It was fifteen minutes of pure, unadulterated...
England Foiled By Billy The Kid: 2nd T20
There’s no point crying over a T20 international – especially one everyone will have forgotten by this time next week – but England were a little hard done by in Nagpur yesterday. We were pretty much cruising to victory, with just eight runs needed off the last over, when an umpire with a trigger finger as itchy as Billy The Kid’s intervened on the host’s behalf. Joe Root wasn’t playing particularly well at the time – he’d mistimed a few slogs...
Bowlers And Skipper Do The Job
Well, well, well. It looks like England victories in India are like buses. And I don’t mean that they’re big, red, overcrowded, and driven by people who get angry if you don’t give them the right change. I wrote an article the other day on why I think T20 is probably England’s strongest suit these days. The bowling just looks better in this form of the game: Mills provides a bit of X-factor, we’ve got options coming out of our ears – Rashid didn’t even...
Are England Better At T20s Than ODIs?
I’m going to eschew fancy headlines today. This article will do what it says on the tin. With the T20 games in India about to begin, it’s time I asked whether Eoin Morgan’s T20 side is better than its 50 over equivalent. Why do I ask? Because it has been playing on my mind for a while. England’s ODI batsmen don’t seem to make many centuries, but they sure as hell make a lot blistering cameos. I’ve even heard suggestions that Trevor Bayliss cares more about strike rates than averages: as long as...
Woakes Goes From Villain To Hero
I have some momentous news to bring you. I’m delighted to report that the England cricket team has finally won a game against India. It only took eight attempts. Yesterday’s win was brilliant. I don’t care that it was a dead rubber. India were desperate to notch a seventh straight victory against us in all forms – and complete an ODI series whitewash – but our batsmen were just too good for them (and our bowlers were just about good enough not to screw it all up)...
Captain Morgan Excels But Ship Still Sinks
Wash, rinse, repeat. Today’s ODI was pretty much the same story as the last one but with two interesting but ultimately inconsequential differences: this time England batted second, and this time the captain made some runs. Unfortunately we still lost the game because, well, our bowling attack is still the same ineffective collection of barely adequate popguns that is was 72 hours ago. And unfortunately this isn’t going to change anytime soon. Unsurprisingly the surprise omission of...
