This XI might have been England’s best cricket team in generations. It’s a compilation of the best players we’ve seen since we started watching in the 1980s. It’s the side that would have beaten Steve Waugh’s Australians (maybe). If only they’d been born at a similar time so they were at the peak of their powers together. Of course, if Keith Fletcher was the coach, and they were still playing for their counties the day before a test, it wouldn’t have made much difference...
Anderson swings it towards England – day two from Nagpur
England 330. India 87-4. Stumps. Yesterday’s talking point was whether England’s score of 199-5 was any good. Even the experts on Sky and TMS were divided. Nasser Hussain thought it was ok, but gave India the advantage because he expected their batsmen to bat better on the slow surface; Sir Ian, on the other hand, lived up to his cockeyed optimist tag by declaring anything in the region of 250 a great score. You could see where both men were coming from. Naz is a naturally cautious chap and was...
Now we’re Cookin’ – day two from Kolkata
India 316. England 216-1. Stumps. If the fairy godmother (Geoff Boycott in a pink leotard and sparkly skirt?) had visited Alastair Cook in the middle of yesterday night, and asked him how he wanted day two to unfold, he might have said something like this: ‘I’d like to polish India off without conceding more than about forty runs, then put on a huge opening stand with Compton and get close to India’s score without losing more than one wicket’. Then, just as sparkly Geoff was about to disappear...
Good day or missed opportunity? day one at Lord’s
South Africa 262-7 I really must stop sitting on the fence. It’s not me. Having failed miserably to take sides in the Kevin Pietersen debacle, I now can’t decide whether England have had a good day or a bad one. Does that make me indecisive? I can’t decide. On the one hand, we should be pleased because England are still very much in this game. Bowling South Africa out for around 300 (as seems likely tomorrow) is a good effort for a four man attack that hasn’t been firing on all cylinders all...
Unnecessary sledging is a slippery slope
Much has been made of Jimmy Anderson’s verbal confrontations with the Aussies during the first three tests. Stuart Clark, who I admit is not my favourite person, even suggested that Anderson had become Australia’s ‘twelfth man’; his logic was that Jimmy’s sledging irked the Australians and motivated them to play so well at Perth. Clark was of course talking balderdash – the Aussies were clearly fired up before the series even started – but his sentiments raised an important issue. Does sledging...
James Anderson: A tribute (and a bit of an apology)
Twenty five erratic overs, three miserable maidens, 108 runs conceded and just the one wicket. Those were Jimmy Anderson’s match figures the last time England played a test at Adelaide. The one wicket was about as worthless as it gets too: it was Glenn McGrath.
This time, however, it’s all very different. Indeed, James Anderson the cricketer is very different – both the bowler and the man. He’s now the undisputed leader of England’s attack and the Aussie pundits are raving about him.
