With the series in the books, and the Basil D’Oliveira trophy in the bag, it’s time for a gentle fireside chat about each individual player ahead of the winter. Think of me as Franklin Roosevelt (not Donald Trump), and TFT as an old fashioned homely wireless. I can almost hear the wood crackling away … and it’s getting far too difficult to resist a ‘you’re fired’ pun. Alastair Cook – 268 runs at 33.5 – Back Not quite at his best I’m afraid. We’d hoped that...
Mo’s Perfect Finish
One man went to Mo. And then another. And then another. What a fantastic way to end a test match: the first hat-trick at The Oval in 100 tests. And, more importantly, a resounding England win. In fact, ‘resounding’ probably doesn’t cut it. I’m going to go with ‘absolute whopping’ instead. If the truth be told, we knew what the result of this game would be on Friday evening. Once TRJ had decimated South Africa’s first innings, a Proteas comeback was...
Rock ‘n’ Roland-Jones
English cricket has a new hero. He doesn’t have cool hair, he doesn’t have designer stubble, and he’s more Angus Fraser than Brendan Fraser, but who cares when you take 4-20 in 7 overs in your first spell in test cricket? Apparently playing for England is a piece of piss after all. Toby Roland-Jones might be what Australians snidely refer to as a traditional English pie chucker – his average speed of 82mph won’t exactly terrify anyone – but he did exactly...
Will The Oval Go Pear Shaped For England’s Debutants?
Greetings everyone. Sorry about my lack of output over the last week or so. I’ve been sunning myself in The Loire – not that there was actually much sun! Thankfully a spot of degustation in Sancerre made up for the crap weather. Thanks to Garry, Daniel and Dave for holding the fort. The big news I missed was our women’s fantastic victory in the World Cup Final at Lord’s. Who’d have thought that good old cricket could produce such an electric atmosphere and...
Batsmen Blow It Again
I watched most of day 2 on TV. But I popped on TMS for a few mins in the afternoon when I got the car cleaned. I was lucky enough to hear Geoffrey Boycott off his long run. “The England batsmen were awful. Dreadful. They basically lost the game in 4 hours”. Was he right? Unless something miraculous happens on days 3 and 4 then he probably is. Although the contrarian Ed Smith did his best to excuse their performance by arguing that batting conditions were tricky, three things make me...
Trent Bridge
What a fantastic day. It was test cricket as it should be: movement early on, changes in overhead conditions, quality bowling, brilliant batting, an even contest, and real tension. It made a really refreshing change after a summer of white ball mayhem. The afternoon session was possibly the most engrossing cricket of the summer. Anderson and Broad, two experienced and skilful bowlers who were pretty much on the money throughout, ran in hard and threw everything at Amla and de Kock. The two...
