There are two ways to write a cricket blog. The first is to sleep on things, compose oneself, then write in a dispassionate objective manner; the other is to sod all that and write when you’re still caught up in the emotion; to write what you’re really feeling at the time. Because you’ll read plenty of level headed stuff in the newspapers, and you probably don’t read cricket blogs for their impartiality and their caution, I’m going to go for the latter option. Why hold back when I’m...
Edgbaston here we come! South Africa crushed
South Africa 175 all out (38.4 overs). England 179-3 (37.3 overs) We always suspected that picking a winner in our semi final against South Africa would be a toss up, and so it proved – literally. Winning the toss was absolutely crucial at the Oval on Wednesday. It was humid; it was overcast; both sides had good pace attacks – and of course, winning the toss and bowling first ensured that England wouldn’t have to set a target. Our Achilles heal – pacing an innings – was therefore never...
Job done – day five at Headingley
Andy Flower’s deadpan persona is great at making the media look stupid – even its most cerebral members. When Mike Atherton interviewed our team director after we wrapped up the win yesterday, he asked him whether his team had squandered an advantage by not enforcing the follow on. Flower looked quizzically at Atherton – a bemused look which certainly contained more than a smidgeon of distain – and scowled “well, I don’t know what advantage you’re talking about … we won the game”. It’s...
Nice weather for ducks, bad news for Swann
We’d really like to talk about the cricket. But there’s not much to say. England lost the toss and New Zealand chose to bowl. Then in rained … a lot. No play was possible on day one. If it’s blue skies and good batting conditions tomorrow, the Kiwis will be cursing their decision to field. The big news yesterday was the make-up of England’s team. Where was Graeme Swann? Had England decided to pick four seamers (they’ve done it before, remember)? Had Swann overslept? Had the selectors...
England look to New Zealand for redemption
Seldom have the England cricket team endured such a turbulent year of cricket. Frightening frailty against spin derailed our attempts to stay world No1 in the UAE, then South Africa piled on the misery in the second instalment of the English summer. And remember, had it not been for Kevin Pietersen’s mesmeric performances in Sri Lanka, we might have slipped to five consecutive test defeats. Then there was KP-gate, that unsavoury affair which tarnished the reputation of a team who, under Andy...
From wheelie good to wheelie bad
India 285-6 (50 overs) England 158 (36 overs) Don’t worry. I’ll give the wheelie headlines a rest after this. But let’s face it. England’s performance in the second ODI was really, really bad. But let’s not get too downhearted. Nobody wheelie (sorry) expected us to win this series, so the odd bad day at the office isn’t unexpected. With Trott, Swann and Anderson missing, our unproven players struggled under fire. The bowling was always a concern, and our batsmen fell flat on their faces when...
