Something really significant took place at Trent Bridge yesterday – a sequence of play which demands analysis and reflection. It was this: our batsmen achieved their finest team performance in recent memory, perhaps for years. And Ian Bell provided the greatest innings of his test career. The fact that we only lost four wickets in the entire day – after the tumult of the first two days – illustrates perfectly the tenacity and professionalism of our batsmen’s approach...
Teen drama rescues Aussies as Erasmus plays pantomime villain – day two at Trent Bridge
England 215 & 80-2 Australia 280. I hate teen dramas. From Dawson’s Creek to bloody Twilight they make me shudder like Sideshow Bob stepping on a rake. Every time I hear a baby faced actor or actress stressing about their relationship, or moaning about their parents, I want to slap their hormonal face. Therefore, you can imagine my incandescence when Ashton Agar, a teenager who was picked for his bowling principally because England had no footage of him, scored an incredible 98 yesterday...
Insults and injuries
Now that the dust has settled after the Champions Trophy (and that totally unnecessary T20 series against the Kiwis), we can look back on the last few weeks with extreme satisfaction. We didn’t win any trophies but the primary objective was met: avoiding catastrophic injuries immediately before the Ashes. India deserved to win the Champions Trophy anyway, while the Canary Yellows’ struggles were funnier than any comedian Australia has ever produced (expect maybe Steve Hughes, whose...
The Gatorade Guzzlers have landed – a view from down under
The irrelevance that was the England versus New Zealand test series has mercifully finished. Now the ICC Champions Trophy is upon us – another sideshow that sits uneasily in the interregnum before the Ashes: the 10 act drama that shall fashion greatness or infamy, where every reputation is wagered and nothing held back. England’s victory over the hapless Kiwis at Headingley told us nothing we do not already know. The two R’s, Root ‘the local County luminary who walks on...
Are the Aussies running scared? A view from down under
To spice up our coverage of the Ashes this year, we’re going to bring you an Aussie perspective every now and again. When we were growing up, and England were captained by the likes of Chris Cowdrey, we used to see Aussie fans as extremely confident (cocky, one might say) with a penchant for extracting the Michael. These days, as you’ll see below, the confidence is long gone and they mostly take the mickey out of themselves. With thanks to Jeremy Pooley, a Sydney-based writer and co-author of...
Are New Zealand better than Australia now?
Before I start, I’d like to make it clear that this is not a joke. It isn’t my intention to poke our rivals in the ribs like Glenn McGrath used to do with his 5-0 series predictions. It’s meant to be a serious discussion (as if you’d expect anything else from that blog that brought you the ten best Ashes jokes from 2011). Over the last twenty five years (or is it one hundred and twenty five?) Australia have been far better than New Zealand at cricket. To claim that the Black Caps are superior...
