On the face of it, a nine run loss to the World T20 champions doesn’t sound too bad. England made a game of it, at least. I should stress, therefore, that my headline refers to the performance of the England head coach yesterday, rather than the players’ efforts. Let’s not beat around the bush here. England lost this game because of poor selection, a poor batting strategy, and a catastrophic dropped catch by a player that should not have been playing (so again, a mistake arising from poor...
Peter Moores’ second stint in charge of the England team begins in earnest on Tuesday night with a T20 match at The Oval. The Full Toss will be in attendance, of course, to sample the atmosphere and gauge enthusiasm for the new regime. Although we won’t be able to read too much into the crowd’s response to Moores’ England, as T20’s at The Oval tend to attract a lot of casual fans who are more familiar with Paul Dowton’s career in The City than his past life as a wicket-keeper, it will be...
So there we have it: the brave new world. Looks rather like the crap old world to me, but beggars can’t be choosers I’m afraid. I suppose the decision to remove Graham Gooch from his position of batting coach is enough change for the next ten years. Or am I just being a cynical? (Yes I am) I feel a little sorry for Gooch to be honest. He was a brilliant batsman and is obviously a very good batting guru. However, all good things must come to an end. With the exception of Ian Bell, all...
If every match in the 2015 Ashes is played in Manchester, the Aussies might stand a chance. They love Old Trafford – especially Michael Clarke. After dominating England in the third test match a few weeks ago, they clobbered us again yesterday. It’s hard to know what to say really, other than “where was the bloody rain this time?” One of the problems cricket bloggers face is finding new things to say – especially when the team keeps making the same mistakes. I could talk about Josh Buttler’s...
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...
While the relentless South Africans have been bowling out Pakistan for 49, there isn’t much for us England fans to do except twiddle our thumbs and look forward to the Ashes; we won’t get another crack at the flukey (ahem) Cricketboks until January 2016. Of course, there’s the NZ tour to look forward to, but we all know this is just a warm-up for the main event this coming summer. So why not begin the build up now? Guest writer Shaun Edwards, from www.eatsleepcricket.co.uk...
