Did we all imagine that? What Ben Stokes did today was insane. It was both destructive and majestic. Innings like that are endangering T20 cricket. What impressed me most is that it wasn’t just adrenaline fuelled slogging; it was calculated brutality. Stokes picked the right balls to hit, and hit them he did … right into next week. Here’s a summary of the landmarks Stokes reached today: Most sixes in a test innings for England Highest test score by an England batsman against South Africa...
Big Things From the Big Man – Day 4 at Durban
It’s hard not to like Steve Finn. He’s got the body of a giant but the soul of a puppy dog. He’s probably too nice to be a mean, hard-as-nails, fast bowling nasty. But who needs verbal aggression, and a vicious snarl, when you can bowl with decent pace and good accuracy from 6ft 7 inches? Finn has always let his bowling do the talking. And talk it does. Every time South Africa’s batsmen started to look a little more comfortable today, Finn duly delivered a devastating breakthrough. First he...
South Africa v England: Battle of the Middleweights
So England have arrived in South Africa – a nation of biltong, wildlife, beautiful scenery, guns, macho men, and foreigners spouting generalised clichés. South Africa is also home to the world’s best test team – or so we’re repeatedly told. Most of us realise this is a bit of a fib though. The Proteas might be ranked number one (by a whisker) but there’s no dominant team in test cricket right now. The world is awash with teams in transition – teams with some strengths but also glaring...
Anatomy of a failure part 3 – the coaches
Just before I went to bed last night, Ian Bell groped at a ball outside off stuff, got a faint edge and was caught behind. His team were left staring into the abyss at 23-5. Amongst the numerous disasters that have unfolded this tour, the dismissal was innocuous enough. However, for me it was typical, and symptomatic of a broader problem that has cost us the Ashes more than any other single factor. Bell played at the ball with a slightly open face. He’s been doing it all tour. It brought him...
Victory in Sydney. Meanwhile in Mumbai …
It was all doom and gloom earlier in the week. The storm clouds over Hobart, plus a decidedly dicey forecast for Sydney, put England in a bind: there was a real danger we’d turn up at Brisbane without any meaningful match practice whatsoever. Undercooked? If Alastair Cook’s team were a steak, it would’ve been blue; a very rare occurrence for a team that’s normally well prepared. Food puns aside, it’s a bloody good thing the rain in Sydney wasn’t as bad as first feared. England’s match against...
England Under a Cloud
When was the last time England beat meaningful opposition away from home in the first test of an important series? I can’t remember exactly, but Geoff Boycott was probably in his twenties and Kim Barnett probably had hair. We always, always seem to start series slowly – and I’m afraid I can’t see it being any different in Brisbane this month. Even our triumph in 2010 started badly. Peter Siddle got a hat-trick and we conceded a huge first innings deficit. I can still remember that inane...
