England have just won a One-Day International series, which by all accounts is becoming a bit of a habit. With the exclusion of the 3-2 loss in India, England have been victorious in four of their last five ODI series’, with a 2-2 draw at home to South Africa spoiling a full house. Yet, despite our success, it’s time for a shake-up according to some sections of the media. Whilst it may sound slightly unusual given our form over the last 12 months or so, there’s certainly an argument to...
England Trott home
New Zealand 269 (48.5 overs) England 270-2 (47.4 overs) It’s rarely easy to chase a total of 269 away from home – especially if your team is as inconsistent as Arsenal. However, England managed it at a canter in Napier today. In doing so, we erased our painful loss in the opening ODI, in which Brendon McCullum turned our bowlers into horse meat. Although McCullum still had a field day, scoring 74 off just 36 balls – he loves Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes’ bowling more than Jesse Ryder loves...
Why England will retain the Ashes – Part II
Here’s the second part of Shaun Edward’s epic Ashes preview … Two: Batting Long. Or, if you’re being less kind, batting dull. In the last victorious Ashes series, the main plan was to bat once, and bat long. It worked, England winning all three of their matches by an innings, having racked up scores of 620, 513 and 644. Even in the drawn opener at the Gabba they saved the game with a truly monstrous 517-1 declared. I’ll be honest: when Andrew Strauss hung up the boots and...
The countdown and the conundrum – day four at Nagpur
England 330. India 326-9 dec. England 161-3 Well you didn’t think we were going to breeze it, did you? Much as we’d have loved Kevin Pietersen to score a run a ball hundred and take the game away from India completely, it was never going to happen on this abysmal pitch. All things considered 161-3 was a pretty good effort – even if the cricket was duller than a dinner party involving Duncan Fletcher, Gordon Brown and Prince Charles. The fact of the matter is that we’re still edging – quite...
The Miracle in Mumbai – day four
England 413 and 58 for 0 beat India 327 and 142 by a country mile Ok, so ‘miracle’ might be too strong a word, but be honest. How many England supporters really thought we’d have a rat’s posterior’s chance of winning this match – especially when we lost the toss on Friday morning? Test matches in India, Pakistan (or the UAE) and Sri Lanka usually end in catastrophe and embarrassment – and joy for all the millions of Asians who love the English about as much as we love Ricky Ponting. But this...
Banana skin avoided
Go get ’em Wrighty England 196-5 (20 overs) Afghanistan 80 (17.2 overs) England were always going to beat Afghanistan. Never once did it cross our minds that we might actually lose. Not even when the third best batsman wicket-keeper in the side, Craig Kieswetter, played out a maiden and then got bowled – leaving us 0-1 after the first over. It’s not like we have a history of losing these types of games. We all just imagined the defeat to Holland at Lord’s and the loss to Ireland when...
