Rejoice. We’ve beaten the number one test team in the world. It was a superb series and test cricket was probably the winner overall. Who says you need high totals and bat dominating ball to create exciting cricket? The authorities can put that in their pipe and smoke it. It might blend well with the wacky baccy they’ve obviously been consuming in large quantities. However, although this series has produced some very tense and compelling cricket, the quality of that cricket has...
Headingley And Humble Pie
So England are back on track. At least until the next game. This win at Headlingley was ridiculously easy. We were as good here as we were lamentable at Lord’s. And the same could be said of Pakistan, but the other way around of course. Lot’s of people will be very happy with the win, and justifiably so, but I’m quite bemused by it all to be honest. I haven’t the foggiest what to make of this England team. I suspect we’re still pretty flawed in most areas, but it seems ridiculous to say that...
The Headingley Test
Back in the late 1980s and 1990s, England would often travel to Leeds trailing in test series. We’d draft in someone like Neil Mallender, who would swing the ball around corners, and we’d win inside three days – thus keeping Ted Dexter or Mickey Stewart in charge for another few months. Headingley’s cloud cover was like a huge comfort blanket in the sky. Our opponents simply couldn’t cope with the prodigious swing. And so it came to pass, thirty years or so later...
Ignominy at Lord’s
It was another awful performance and yet another dispiriting defeat. I might as well have just cut and pasted a report from the Ashes. Is this English cricket’s lowest ebb? Obviously we’ve had worse defeats in the past, and this particular test probably isn’t a watershed, but it’s hard to think of a time when the future has looked so bleak. This team can’t win away and now we can’t win in conditions that are supposed to suit us. So when exactly are we going to be competitive? Nine wickets is an...
The Lord’s Test – Day 2
Bizarre captaincy, shambolic catching, and good traditional test batting. Suddenly Pakistan look like huge favourites for this test match. And they deserve to be in this position too. They bowled really well on Thursday and they batted just as well, if not better, on Friday. Well played guys. As for England, I’m struggling to find anything original to say. Basically we were crap. Again. And only Ben Stokes did himself justice with the ball. The others weren’t exactly terrible but...
